By Javier Surasky-
On
September 12, ten days before the start of the Summit of the Future, the heads
of state and government of Germany and Namibia, co-facilitators of the Pact of the
Future development, convened a virtual meeting of world leaders "to
discuss the hopes and aspirations for the Pact and the Summit," as
announced on the Summit's website.
The result
was an absurd event lasting nearly three hours. An utterly ineffective format
was applied to a meeting that failed to contribute any moderately concrete
elements that could lead to a successful Summit of the Future.
The virtual
meeting was attended by heads of state and government from 47 countries and
three United Nations officials: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres; the
President of the 79th session of the General Assembly, Philémon Yang; and the
Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, Melissa Fleming, who acted
as moderator.
The
"meeting" (which was not really a meeting) was organized into two
segments. The first part, which lasted about 20 minutes, featured presentations
by the Secretary-General, the President of Namibia, and the Chancellor of
Germany. Fleming moderated this segment, which included the only
"real-time" event participation, as the second part consisted
of more than two hours of successive pre-recorded videos played one after
another.
Let's focus
on the first part for now. The first speaker was the UN Secretary-General, who
once again repeated
his speech on multilateralism urgencies, opportunities, and challenges.
Nothing "novel," stimulating, or refreshing. If this is the best
speech Guterres can deliver to call on governments to make an effort in the
final stretch towards the Summit, we can expect very little from it.
The
presentations by the leaders of the governments of Namibia and Germany sought
to demonstrate the importance of the Summit and the progress made in
negotiations for its final document, the Pact of the Future
while acknowledging that significant elements still need to be defined. In the
words of Olaf Scholz, German Chancellor (watch it here,
37:32):
“The Pact
offers us the chance to change the narrative of division, polarization, and
uncertainty. It offers us the chance to show the world that cooperation still
yields results, that multilateralism is alive, that global solidarity exists. I
know that even now when we can see the finishing line ahead of us, there are
still some differences to bridge in the ongoing negotiations. Speaking for
Germany, I can assure you that we are deeply committed to doing just that. And
I encourage all of us to help us.”
After their
presentations, the moderator indicated that a succession of pre-recorded videos
would begin, starting with the one from the President of the 79th session of
the United Nations General Assembly, within which the Summit of the Future will
take place, followed by 45 heads of state and government (46 to be exact, as
two people made the presentation for San Marino).
There is no
point in reviewing the speeches (they can be watched here, segmented by country), as they all
made the usual calls for ambition, listening to all voices, strengthening
multilateralism, and various other familiar refrains. It was a succession of
countries "saying their piece" that made no sense. What was seen
resembled a rehearsal for the General Debate, which will begin immediately
after the Summit of the Future.
If we take
a moment to analyze the group of 47 countries present and their
representatives, the feeling that this meeting was a parody intensifies:
More than half of the heads of state and government who participated in the meeting represented European and North American governments. This geographic imbalance is complemented by a look at the income levels of the 47 countries participating in the call.
Only one low-income country was present, with a vast majority (almost 75%) being high-income or upper-middle-income countries.
The voices
heard are partial and do not represent the variety, democracy, and inclusion
that the Summit of the Future is proclaimed to have. Indeed, of the leaders we
heard, 43 are men, and 5 are women. Among the UN officials, 2 men and 1 woman,
who served as moderator. No non-governmental guests were invited.
The global
call preceding the Summit of the Future can only have some utility if we
consider it as an example of what we should avoid happening during the Summit.
