Our Common Agenda

OUR
COMMON
AGENDA
Report of
the Secretary-General
Offentligt
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OUR
COMMON
AGENDA
Report of
the Secretary-General
COPYRIGHT:
Our Common Agenda – Report of the Secretary-General
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OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 3
Summary
We are at an inflection point in history.
In our biggest shared test since the Second World War, humanity faces a stark and urgent choice: a breakdown
or a breakthrough.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is upending our world, threatening our health, destroying economies
and livelihoods and deepening poverty and inequalities.
Conflicts continue to rage and worsen.
The disastrous effects of a changing climate – famine, floods, fires and extreme heat – threaten our very
existence.
For millions of people around the world, poverty, discrimination, violence and exclusion are denying them
their rights to the basic necessities of life: health, safety, a vaccination against disease, clean water to drink,
a plate of food or a seat in a classroom.
Increasingly, people are turning their backs on the values of trust and solidarity in one another – the very
values we need to rebuild our world and secure a better, more sustainable future for our people and our planet.
Humanity’s welfare – and indeed, humanity’s very future – depend on solidarity and working together as
a global family to achieve common goals.
For people, for the planet, for prosperity and for peace.
Last year, on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations, Member States agreed
that our challenges are interconnected, across borders and all other divides. These challenges can only
be addressed by an equally interconnected response, through reinvigorated multilateralism and the United
Nations at the centre of our efforts.
Member States asked me to report back with recommendations to advance our common agenda. This
report is my response.
In preparing the report, we have engaged with a broad array of stakeholders, including Member States,
thought leaders, young people, civil society and the United Nations system and its many partners.
One message rang through loud and clear: the choices we make, or fail to make, today could result in further
breakdown, or a breakthrough to a greener, better, safer future.
The choice is ours to make; but we will not have this chance again.
That is why Our Common Agenda is, above all, an agenda of action designed to accelerate the implementation
of existing agreements, including the Sustainable Development Goals.
First, now is the time to re-embrace global solidarity and find new ways to work together for the common
good. This must include a global vaccination plan to deliver vaccines against COVID-19 into the arms of
the millions of people who are still denied this basic lifesaving measure. Moreover, it must include urgent
and bold steps to address the triple crisis of climate disruption, biodiversity loss and pollution destroying
our planet.
SUMMARY
4 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
Second, now is the time to renew the social contract between Governments and their people and within
societies, so as to rebuild trust and embrace a comprehensive vision of human rights. People need to see
results reflected in their daily lives. This must include the active and equal participation of women and
girls, without whom no meaningful social contract is possible. It should also include updated governance
arrangements to deliver better public goods and usher in a new era of universal social protection, health
coverage, education, skills, decent work and housing, as well as universal access to the Internet by 2030 as a
basic human right. I invite all countries to conduct inclusive and meaningful national listening consultations
so all citizens have a say in envisioning their countries’ futures.
Third, now is the time to end the “infodemic” plaguing our world by defending a common, empirically backed
consensus around facts, science and knowledge. The “war on science” must end. All policy and budget
decisions should be backed by science and expertise, and I am calling for a global code of conduct that
promotes integrity in public information.
Fourth, now is the time to correct a glaring blind spot in how we measure economic prosperity and progress.
When profits come at the expense of people and our planet, we are left with an incomplete picture of the
true cost of economic growth. As currently measured, gross domestic product (GDP) fails to capture the
human and environmental destruction of some business activities. I call for new measures to complement
GDP, so that people can gain a full understanding of the impacts of business activities and how we can and
must do better to support people and our planet.
Fifth, now is the time to think for the long term, to deliver more for young people and succeeding generations
and to be better prepared for the challenges ahead. Our Common Agenda includes recommendations for
meaningful, diverse and effective youth engagement both within and outside the United Nations, including
through better political representation and by transforming education, skills training and lifelong learning.
I am also making proposals, such as a repurposed Trusteeship Council, a Futures Lab, a Declaration on
Future Generations and a United Nations Special Envoy to ensure that policy and budget decisions take
into account their impact on future generations. We also need to be better prepared to prevent and respond
to major global risks. It will be important for the United Nations to issue a Strategic Foresight and Global
Risk Report on a regular basis, and I also propose an Emergency Platform, to be convened in response to
complex global crises.
Sixth, now is the time for a stronger, more networked and inclusive multilateral system, anchored within
the United Nations. Effective multilateralism depends on an effective United Nations, one able to adapt to
global challenges while living up to the purposes and principles of its Charter. For example, I am proposing
a new agenda for peace, multi-stakeholder dialogues on outer space and a Global Digital Compact, as well
as a Biennial Summit between the members of the Group of 20 and of the Economic and Social Council, the
Secretary-General and the heads of the international financial institutions. Throughout, we need stronger
involvement of all relevant stakeholders, and we will seek to have an Advisory Group on Local and Regional
Governments.
For 75 years, the United Nations has gathered the world around addressing global challenges: from conflicts
and hunger, to ending disease, to outer space and the digital world, to human rights and disarmament. In
this time of division, fracture and mistrust, this space is needed more than ever if we are to secure a better,
greener, more peaceful future for all people. Based on this report, I will ask a High-level Advisory Board, led by
former Heads of State and Government, to identify global public goods and other areas of common interest
where governance improvements are most needed, and to propose options for how this could be achieved.
SUMMARY
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 5
In this spirit, I propose a Summit of the Future to forge a new global consensus on what our future should
look like, and what we can do today to secure it.
Humanity has shown time and time again that it is capable of great achievements when we work together.
This common agenda is our road map to recapture this positive spirit and begin rebuilding our world and
mending the trust in one another we need so desperately at this moment in history.
Now is the time to take the next steps in our journey together, in solidarity with and for all people.
© UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 7
6 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
KEY PROPOSALS ACROSS THE 12 COMMITMENTS
From the declaration on the commemoration
of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations
All proposed actions are in line with and designed to accelerate
the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
1. Leave no
one behind
2. Protect
our planet
• Leaders meeting ahead of the global
stocktaking in 2023
• Commit to the 1.5-degree Celsius goal
and net zero emissions by 2050 or
sooner
• Declarations of climate emergency
and right to a healthy environment
• Package of support to developing
countries
• Measures for adaptation and resilience
• No new coal after 2021 and phasing
out fossil fuel subsidies
• Account for the environment
in economic models, carbon
pricing mechanisms and credible
commitments by financial actors
• Post-2020 biodiversity framework
• Transforming food systems for
sustainability, nutrition and fairness
• Action by the General Assembly
on territorial threats of climate
change and to prevent, protect and
resolve situations of environmental
displacement
• Renewed social contract anchored in
human rights
• New era for universal social protection,
including health care and basic
income security, reaching the 4 billion
unprotected
• Reinforce adequate housing, education
and lifelong learning and decent work
• Digital inclusivity
• World Social Summit in 2025
• Identify complementary measures to GDP
4. Abide by
international law
and ensure justice
3. Promote peace and
prevent conflicts
5. Place women
and girls at
the centre
6. Build trust
• Human rights as a problem-solving
measure, including by comprehensive
anti-discrimination laws and
promoting participation
• Application of human rights online
and to frontier issues and new
technologies
• Universal access to the Internet as a
human right
• Human rights mechanisms on a more
sustainable financial footing
• Legal identity for all, end to
statelessness and protection of
internally displaced persons, refugees
and migrants
• New vision for the rule of law
• Global road map for the development
and effective implementation of
international law
• New agenda for peace to:
• Reduce strategic risks (nuclear
weapons, cyberwarfare,
autonomous weapons)
• Strengthen international foresight
• Reshape responses to all forms
of violence
• Invest in prevention and
peacebuilding, including
Peacebuilding Fund and
Peacebuilding Commission
• Support regional prevention
• Put women and girls at the
centre of security policy
• Peaceful, secure and sustainable use of
outer space, including through a multi-
stakeholder dialogue on outer space
• Repeal of gender-discriminatory laws
• Promote gender parity, including
through quotas and special measures
• Facilitate women’s economic
inclusion, including investment in the
care economy and support for women
entrepreneurs
• Include voices of younger women
• Eradication of violence against
women and girls, including through an
emergency response plan
• Global code of conduct that promotes
integrity in public information
• Improve people’s experiences with
public institutions and basic services
• Inclusive national listening and
“envisioning the future” exercises
• Action to tackle corruption in line
with the United Nations Convention
against Corruption
• Reformed international tax system
• Joint structure on financial integrity
and tackling illicit financial flows
7. Improve digital
cooperation
10. Boost
partnerships
9. Ensure sustainable
financing
11. Listen to and
work with youth
12. Be prepared
8. Upgrade the
United Nations
• Global Digital Compact to:
• Connect all people to the Internet,
including all schools
• Avoid Internet fragmentation
• Protect data
• Apply human rights online
• Introduce accountability criteria
for discrimination and misleading
content
• Promote regulation of artificial
intelligence
• Digital commons as a global
public good
• Annual meetings between the United
Nations and all heads of regional
organizations
• Stronger engagement between the
United Nations system, international
financial institutions and regional
development banks
• More systematic engagement with
parliaments, subnational authorities
and the private sector
• Civil society focal points in all United
Nations entities
• United Nations Office for Partnerships
to consolidate access and inclusion,
including accessibility online
• Biennial Summit between the Group of
20, the Economic and Social Council,
the Secretary-General and the heads of
international financial institutions for
a sustainable, inclusive and resilient
global economy including to:
• Support a Sustainable Development
Goal investment boost, including
through a last-mile alliance to reach
those furthest behind
• Provide more flexible research and
development incentives
• Resolve weaknesses in the debt
architecture
• Fairer and more resilient multilateral
trading system, including a
reinvigorated WTO
• New business models
• Improve the United Nations budget
process
Youth
• Remove barriers to political participation
and measure progress through a “youth
in politics” index
• United Nations Youth Office
• Transforming Education Summit in 2022
• Recovery barometer to track career paths
and labour market outcomes for youth
• High-ambition coalition to promote green
and digital-economy job creation
Future generations
• Summit of the Future in 2023
• Ensure long-term thinking, including
through a United Nations Futures Lab
• Represent succeeding generations,
including through a repurposed
Trusteeship Council, a Declaration on
Future Generations, and a United Nations
Special Envoy for Future Generations
• Emergency Platform to be convened in
response to complex global crises
• Strategic Foresight and Global Risk Report
by the United Nations every five years
• On global public health:
• Global vaccination plan
• Empowered WHO
• Stronger global health security and
preparedness
• Accelerate product development
and access to health technologies in
low- and middle-income countries
• Universal health coverage and
addressing determinants of health
• High-level Advisory Board led
by former Heads of State and
Government on improved governance
of global public goods
• System-wide policy that puts people
at the centre, taking into account age,
gender and diversity
• More listening, participation and
consultation (including digitally),
building on the seventy-fifth
anniversary declaration and Our
Common Agenda
• Gender parity within the United
Nations system by 2028
• Re-establish the Secretary-General’s
Scientific Advisory Board
• “Quintet of change” for United Nations
2.0, including innovation, data,
strategic foresight, results orientation
and behavioural science
TRANSFORMING EDUCATION SUMMIT
HIGH-LEVEL
ADVISORY BOARD
DECLARATION
ON FUTURE
GENERATIONS
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
PLATFORM FOR COMPLEX CRISES
CLIMATE
ACTION
OUTER SPACE
DIALOGUE
NEW AGENDA
FOR PEACE
GLOBAL DIGITAL
COMPACT
WORLD SOCIAL SUMMIT
SUMMIT OF THE FUTURE
HIGH-LEVEL TRACKS
PROPOSED KEY MOMENTS
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 9
Contents
I. A wake-up call........................................................................................................ 12
A. The choice before us.............................................................................................................................. 14
B. Renewing solidarity................................................................................................................................ 14
C. Our Common Agenda.............................................................................................................................. 18
II. We the peoples: a renewed social contract anchored in human rights......................22
A. Foundations of a renewed social contract.............................................................................................. 22
B. Trust....................................................................................................................................................... 24
C. Inclusion, protection and participation................................................................................................... 27
D. Measuring and valuing what matters to people and the planet............................................................... 33
III. Succeeding generations: shaping the future...........................................................38
A. Solidarity with younger generations....................................................................................................... 39
B. Solidarity with future generations.......................................................................................................... 43
IV. Nations large and small: a new global deal to deliver global public goods
and address major risks..........................................................................................48
A. Protecting the global commons and delivering global public goods....................................................... 48
B. Addressing major risks........................................................................................................................... 64
C. Next steps.............................................................................................................................................. 65
V. Purposes and principles: adapting the United Nations to a new era.........................72
A. For the Secretariat and the United Nations system................................................................................. 72
B. For Member States’ consideration.......................................................................................................... 76
VI. Moving forward...................................................................................................... 82
Annex: Process for consultations on Our Common Agenda............................................ 84
© UN Photo/Fahad Kaizer
A wake-up call
I
A wake-up call
CHAPTER I
12 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
I. A wake-up call
1. Seventy-five years ago, the world emerged from
a series of cataclysmic events: two successive
world wars, genocide, a devastating influenza
pandemic and a worldwide economic depression.
Our founders gathered in San Francisco promising
to save succeeding generations from the scourge of
war; to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights,
in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the
equal rights of men and women and of nations large
and small; to establish conditions under which
justice and respect for international law can be
maintained; and to promote social progress and
better standards of life in larger freedom. They
believed in the value of collective efforts to achieve
a better world and founded the United Nations to
that end.
2. TheCharteroftheUnitedNationsisanexceptional
achievement. Since 1945, international norms and
institutions have delivered independence, peace,
prosperity, justice, human rights, hope and support
for billions of people. For many others, however,
these aspirations were never fully realized and
are now receding. Too many people are also being
excluded from the opportunities and benefits of
technology and transitioning economies, facing a
bleak future if we do not act fast.
3. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic
has been a challenge like no other since the Second
World War, revealing our shared vulnerability
and interconnectedness. It has exposed human
rights concerns and exacerbated deep fragilities
and inequalities in our societies. It has amplified
disenchantment with institutions and political
leadership as the virus has lingered. We have
also seen many examples of vaccine nationalism.
Moreover, with less than a decade to go, the
Sustainable Development Goals have been thrown
even further off track.
4. At the same time, the pandemic has led to a surge
of collective action, with people working together to
respond to a truly global threat. The world needs to
unite to produce and distribute sufficient vaccines
for everyone. We have been reminded of the vital
role of the State in solving problems, but also the
need for networks of actors stretching well beyond
States to cities, corporations, scientists, health
professionals, researchers, civil society, the media,
faith-based groups and individuals. When we all
face the same threat, cooperation and solidarity
are the only solutions, within societies and between
nations.
THE COSTS OF COVID-19
y Global GDP decreased by an estimated
3.5 per cent in 2020.
y The pandemic has pushed a further
124 million people into extreme poverty.
The pandemic-induced poverty surge
will also widen the gender poverty gap,
meaning more women will be pushed into
extreme poverty than men.
y Nearly one in three people in the world
(2.37 billion) did not have access to
adequate food in 2020 – an increase of
almost 320 million people in just one year.
y Early estimates suggest a potential
increase of up to 45 per cent in child
mortality because of health-service
shortfalls and reductions in access to
food.
y Total working hours fell by 8.8 per cent in
2020, the equivalent of 255 million full-
time jobs.
y Restricted movement, social isolation
and economic insecurity are increasing
women’s vulnerability to violence in the
home around the world.
A wake-up call CHAPTER I
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 13
SELECTED ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE MULTILATERAL SYSTEM
PEACE
POVERTY ERADICATION
HEALTH
GENDER EQUALITY
ENVIRONMENT
HUMAN RIGHTS
HUMANITARIAN ACTION
Despite ongoing international tensions, conflict
and violence, the multilateral system with the
United Nations at its centre has helped to avert a
third world war or a nuclear holocaust.
Conflicts between States, 1946–2020
Source: Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2020.
4
6
2
0
1960 1980 2000 2020
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(1948) has helped to ensure that billions of
people live safer, longer and more dignified lives.
80% of Member States have ratified at least four core
international human rights treaties, and all Member
States have ratified at least one.
Source: OHCHR, 2021.
80%
Ozone depleting emissions since
the Montreal Protocol, Index 1986 = 100%
-99%
SINCE 1986
Source: UNEP, 2021.
150%
90%
30%
120%
60%
0
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019
In 2020, the United Nations and partner
organizations 
provided humanitarian assistance to
more than 98 million people in 25 countries.
Source: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2021.
After a 10-year global effort led by WHO
involving over 500 million vaccinations,
smallpox was officially eradicated in 1980.
Today, 85% of the world’s
children are vaccinated
and protected from
debilitating diseases.
Source: WHO, 2020.
85%
Total population (in billions)
living 
in extreme poverty
Source: World Bank, 2018.
2,0
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2018
1,5
0,5
0
1,0
East Asia and Pacific
Rest of the World
South Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
90% of United Nations Member States have
ratified or acceded to the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women.
Proportion of seats held by women in national
parliaments (percentage)
Source: Statistics Division, 2021.
25
15
5
20
10
0
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
A wake-up call
CHAPTER I
14 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
A. The choice before us
5. Let there be no illusion: COVID-19 may pale in
comparison to future challenges if we do not learn
from failures that have cost lives and livelihoods.
Our best projections show that a stark choice
confronts us: to continue with business as usual
and risk significant breakdown and perpetual crisis,
or to make concerted efforts to break through and
achieve an international system that delivers for
people and the planet. These omens must not be
ignored, nor these opportunities squandered.
B. Renewing solidarity
6. As the United Nations marked its seventy-fifth
anniversary in 2020, people around the world
expressed their belief in international cooperation
while also conveying their concern at the mismatch
between its promises and the realities in their
daily lives. Member States echoed this in their
declaration on the commemoration of the seventy-
fifth anniversary of the United Nations (see General
Assembly resolution 75/1), resolving to keep the
promises that they have already made and asking for
recommendations to advance our common agenda
and respond to current and future challenges.
7. This report seeks to answer these calls, taking
stock of challenges and recommending actions
that build on what is working and improve what
is not. Multilateralism has evolved considerably
since the United Nations was founded, and we
have shown that we can come together to forge
collective solutions. However, this does not happen
often, effectively or inclusively enough.
8. Everything proposed in this report depends on a
deepening of solidarity. Solidarity is not charity; in
an interconnected world, it is common sense. It is
the principle of working together, recognizing that
we are bound to each other and that no community
or country can solve its challenges alone. It is about
our shared responsibilities to and for each other,
taking account of our common humanity and each
person’s dignity, our diversity and our varying levels
of capacity and need. The importance of solidarity
has been thrown into sharp relief by COVID-19 and
the race against variants, even for countries that
are well advanced with vaccination campaigns.
No one is safe until everyone is safe. The same is
true of our biodiversity, without which none of us
can survive, and for actions to address the climate
crisis. In the absence of solidarity, we have arrived
at a critical paradox: international cooperation is
more needed than ever but also harder to achieve.
9. Through a deeper commitment to solidarity, at
the national level, between generations and in the
multilateral system, we can avoid the breakdown
scenario and, instead, break through towards a
more positive future. This report proposes a path
forward, centred around a renewal of our social
contract, adapted to the challenges of this century,
taking into account young people and future
generations and complemented by a new global
deal.
10. A strong social contract anchored in human
rights at the national level is the necessary
foundation for us to work together. It may not
be written down in any single document, but the
social contract has profound consequences for
people, underpinning their rights and obligations
and shaping their life chances. It is also vital for
international cooperation, since bonds across
countries do not work when bonds within them
are broken. The inequality, mistrust and intolerance
that we are seeing in many countries and regions,
Solidarity is a fundamental value “by
virtue of which global challenges must be
managed in a way that distributes costs
and burdens fairly, in accordance with basic
principles of equity and social justice, and
ensures that those who suffer or benefit the
least receive help from those who benefit the
most” (General Assembly, resolution 57/213).
WHAT WE MEAN BY SOLIDARITY
A wake-up call CHAPTER I
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 15
THE CHOICE BEFORE US:
A SCENARIO OF BREAKDOWN AND PERPETUAL CRISIS
• COVID-19 is endemic,
constantly mutating
• Richer countries hoard vaccines, no
plan for equitable distribution
• Health systems are overwhelmed
• No preparedness for future
pandemics
• A number of countries are poorer in
2030 than before the pandemic hit
$9.2 trillion – estimated
cost to the global economy
in 2021 alone if developing
countries do not
have equitable access to
COVID-19 vaccines
Social contract is
eroded and geopolitical
tensions rise
Preference for
unilateralism over
solidarity
International institutions are trapped
in a cycle of underinvestment and
underperformance
No consensus on facts,
science or knowledge
Increases in concentrations
of greenhouse gases
since around 1750 are
unequivocally caused by
human activities and have
led to ~1.1°C of warming
between 1850 and 1900
The extinction rate
is now 10–100 times higher
than at any other time in the
past 10 million years
By 2050 there could be more
plastic than fish in the sea
3,000
2,000
1,000
1990 2000 2010 2020
0
Rapid increase in non-State conflicts
since 2010
Up to 827,000 viruses that
could infect humans exist
in mammals and birds
36 low-income countries are
in sovereign debt distress or
at a high risk of falling into
debt distress (February 2021)
Source: International Chamber
of Commerce, 2021.
Source: International Institute for
Sustainable Development, 2021. Source: United Nations, 2019.
Source: UNEP, 2020.
Source: Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, 2021.
Source: Department of Economic
and Social Affairs, 2020.
DEADLY
PANDEMICS
DESTABILIZING
INEQUALITIES
UNINHABITABLE
PLANET
WARNING SIGNS
THE CONSEQUENCES FOR MULTILATERALISM
Source: Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2020.
• Owing to unchanged emission levels
from human activity, global warming
of 2°C will be exceeded during the
twenty-first century
• Heatwaves, floods, droughts, tropical
cyclones and other extremes are
unprecedented in magnitude, frequency
and timing and occur in regions that
have never been affected before
• The Arctic is ice free in the summer;
most permafrost is lost and extreme
sea levels occur every year
• One million species are on the verge of
extinction, with irreversible biodiversity
loss
• More than 1 billion people live with
heat that is so extreme that it threatens
their lives
• Continuous erosion of human rights
• Growing poverty, and massive loss
of jobs and income
• Public goods like education and
social protection systems are
underfunded
• Protests spread across borders,
often met with violent repression
• Technology fuels division
• New types of warfare invented faster
than new ways of making peace
CO2
A wake-up call
CHAPTER I
16 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
THE CHOICE BEFORE US:
A SCENARIO OF BREAKTHROUGH AND THE PROSPECT
OF A GREENER, SAFER, BETTER FUTURE
SUSTAINABLE
RECOVERY
TRUST AND SOCIAL
PROTECTION
HEALTHY PEOPLE
AND PLANET
SIGNS OF HOPE
THE CONSEQUENCES FOR MULTILATERALISM
• Vaccines shared widely and
equitably
• Capacity to produce vaccines for
future pandemics within 100 days
and to distribute them globally
within a year
• People in crisis and conflict settings
have a bridge to better lives
• Revised international debt
architecture
• Business incentives are reshaped to
support global public goods
• Progress to address illicit financial
flows, tax avoidance and climate
finance
• Financial and economic systems
support more sustainable, resilient
and inclusive patterns of growth
Transitioning to low-
carbon, sustainable growth
approaches could deliver
direct economic gains of
$26 trillion through to 2030
compared with business-
as-usual approaches
• Strong commitment to the
universality and indivisibility of
human rights
• Universal social protection floors,
including universal health coverage
• Universal digital connectivity
• Quality education, skills
enhancement and lifelong learning
• Progress on addressing gender,
racial, economic and other
inequalities
• Equal partnership between
institutions and the people they
serve and among and within
communities to strengthen social
cohesion
• Global temperature rise is limited
to 1.5°C
• All countries and sectors
decarbonize by 2050
• Support provided to countries
heavily affected by climate
emergencies
• Just transitions to a new labour
ecosystem are ensured
• A functioning ecosystem is
preserved for succeeding
generations
• Communities are equipped to adapt
and be resilient to climate change
impacts
146 million people lifted out
of extreme poverty
by 2030 through
investments in governance,
social protection, the green
economy and digitalization
(including 74 million women
and girls)
75% of methane emissions
could be mitigated
with existing technology
today, up to 40% at
no net cost
Source: UNEP, 2021.
Source: UNDP, 2020.
Source: United Nations, 2021.
New era for multilateralism,
as countries and other actors
work to solve the problems
that matter most
All actors accountable
for keeping
commitments made
The international system
acts fast for everyone in an
emergency
The United Nations is
a trusted platform for
collaboration between
a growing number and
diversity of actors
A wake-up call CHAPTER I
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 17
heightened by the devastating impact of the
COVID‑19 pandemic, suggest that the time has
come to renew the social contract for a new era in
which individuals, States and other actors work in
partnership to build trust, increase participation
and inclusion and redefine human progress.
11. The deepening of solidarity at the national
level must be matched by a new commitment to
young people and future generations, to whom the
opening words of the Charter of the United Nations
make a solemn promise. Strengthened solidarity
is long overdue with the existing generation of
young people, who feel that our political, social
and economic systems ignore their present and
sacrifice their future. We must take steps to deliver
© UN Photo/Manuel Elias
better education and jobs for them and to give them
a greater voice in designing their own futures. We
must also find ways to systematically consider the
interests of the 10.9 billion people who are expected
to be born this century, predominantly in Africa and
Asia: we will achieve a breakthrough only if we think
and act together on their behalf for the long term.
12. To support solidarity within societies and
between generations, we also need a new deal
at the global level. The purpose of international
cooperation in the twenty-first century is to achieve
a set of vital common goals on which our welfare,
and indeed survival, as a human race depend.
Notably, we need to improve the protection of the
global commons and the provision of a broader
A wake-up call
CHAPTER I
18 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
set of global public goods, those issues that
benefit humanity as a whole and that cannot be
managed by any one State or actor alone. Many
of these objectives (the “what”) are set out in the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the
declaration on the commemoration of the seventy-
fifth anniversary of the United Nations. I believe
that it is high time for Member States, together with
other relevant stakeholders, to devise strategies
for achieving them (the “how”), through enhanced
multilateral governance of global commons and
global public goods. Furthermore, we must address
major risks more robustly, learning lessons from
our response to COVID-19.
13. Finally, States have at their disposal an
organization whose very purpose is to solve
international problems through cooperation. The
United Nations presence is global, its membership
is universal and its activities span the breadth of
human need. Its fundamental values are not the
preserve of any region. Indeed, they are found in
every culture and religion around the world: peace,
justice, human dignity, equity, tolerance and, of
course, solidarity. However, while the fundamental
purposes and principles of the United Nations
endure, the Organization must evolve in response
to a changing world to become more networked,
inclusive and effective.
C. Our Common Agenda
14. We already have the blueprints for a better
world, including the Charter of the United Nations,
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
other international human rights instruments, the
2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development
Goals, the Paris Agreement on climate change and
other key instruments. These are just some of the
many resolutions and international instruments
that have been painstakingly developed over
75 years and that constitute a crucial heritage.
We can and must build on them and redouble our
efforts to implement them.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development and the Sustainable
Development Goals are at the core of Our
Common Agenda. The 2030 Agenda is a
plan of action for people, planet, prosperity
and peace, that seeks to realize the
human rights of all and to achieve gender
equality. The Sustainable Development
Goals are integrated and indivisible
and balance the three dimensions of
sustainable development: the economic,
social and environmental. Many of the
actions proposed in this report thus seek
to accelerate achievement of the Goals, not
least in the light of gaps and delays caused
by the COVID-19 pandemic. Actions already
under way to achieve the Goals will, in
turn, be key for the implementation of Our
Common Agenda.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OUR
COMMON AGENDA AND THE
SUSTAINABLE 
DEVELOPMENT GOALS
15. The world has also changed, however, creating
new needs that call for new understandings and
arrangements to meet them. We must combine the
bestofourpastachievementswiththemostcreative
look to the future if we are to deepen solidarity and
achieve a breakthrough for people and the planet.
The actions suggested in this report are urgent
and transformative and fill critical gaps. Just as
the founders of the United Nations came together
determined to save succeeding generations from
the scourge of war, we must now come together
to save succeeding generations from war, climate
change, pandemics, hunger, poverty, injustice and
a host of risks that we may not yet foresee entirely.
This is Our Common Agenda.
© UN Photo
We the peoples:
a renewed social
contract anchored
in human rights
II
We the peoples: a renewed social contract anchored in human rights
CHAPTER II
22 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
II. We the peoples: a renewed social contract
anchored in human rights
18. A social contract needs to evolve to respond
to changing circumstances. A revolution, war,
economic collapse or other cataclysm puts the
social contract under immediate pressure, leaving
a society vulnerable to disruption if it is unable to
adapt fast enough. For the first time in decades,
all countries have experienced a dramatic change
in their circumstances because of COVID-19. This
shock has happened at a time when we were
already failing in many ways in our duty of care to
each other and the planet we share. We urgently
need a renewed social contract, anchored in a
comprehensive approach to human rights, in the
light of the pandemic and beyond, one that allows
many more actors to tackle increasingly complex
and interconnected problems.
A. Foundations of a renewed
social contract
19. The social contract originates at the subnational
and national levels, and its exact architecture is
unquestionably up to each society to determine.
However, any social contract also has a global
dimension. All societies face and are affected by
global pressures, while solidarity within countries
provides the foundation for our cooperation
internationally. I will therefore mobilize the whole
United Nations system to assist countries in support
of a renewed social contract, anchored in human
rights.DrawingontheconsultationsforOurCommon
Agenda, I see three foundations for a renewed social
contract fit for the twenty-first century: (a) trust;
(b) inclusion, protection and participation; and
(c) measuring and valuing what matters to people
and the planet. These ideas are articulated in
different ways across societies, regions and cultures,
but the international community has generated
consensus on them through the United Nations by
16. COVID-19 has brought new urgency to the choice
before us. Even before the pandemic, solidarity
had dwindled in many societies. Governance has
become more difficult against the backdrop of
a heightened sense of unfairness and a rise in
populism and inward-looking nationalist agendas
that peddle simplistic fixes, pseudo-solutions and
conspiracy theories. There is a growing disconnect
between people and the institutions that serve
them, with many feeling left behind and no longer
confident that the system is working for them, an
increase in social movements and protests and an
ever deeper crisis of trust fomented by a loss of
shared truth and understanding. There has been
questioning of how we share our societies and this
fragile planet, of the fundamental ties that connect
us, and of how we engage with those who disagree,
who feel unjustly treated or who feel excluded.
17. At the heart of this is a frayed social contract:
the understanding within a society of how people
solve shared problems, manage risks and pool
resources to deliver public goods, as well as how
their collective institutions and norms operate. The
exact nature of these reciprocal norms varies, but
their existence is universal.
The term “social contract” is often
understood to have its origins in Western
or European philosophy. However,
related concepts reflecting the reciprocal
obligations between people, households,
communities and their leaders exist across
regions and religious traditions, including
in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Middle
East.
WHAT WE MEAN BY SOCIAL CONTRACT
We the peoples: a renewed social contract anchored in human rights CHAPTER II
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 23
THE RENEWED SOCIAL CONTRACT
FOUNDATIONS OF THE RENEWED
SOCIAL CONTRACT
FOUNDATIONS OF THE RENEWED
SOCIAL CONTRACT
W
H
O
L
E
-
OF-SOCIETY
W
H
O
L
E
-
O
F
-SOCIETY WHOLE-O
F
-
S
O
C
I
E
T
Y
INCLUSION, PROTECTION AND PARTICIPATION
M
EASURING AND VALUING WHAT MATTERS TO PEOPLE AND THE PLANE
T
TRUST
WHOLE-OF-S
O
C
I
E
T
Y
THE RENEWED
SOCIAL CONTRACT
CIVIL
SOCIETY
PRIVATE
SECTOR
INDIVIDUAL STATE/
INSTITUTIONS
SOCIAL PROTECTION
SYSTEMS INCLUDING UNIVERSAL
HEALTH COVERAGE
EDUCATION AND LIFELONG LEARNING
DECENT WORK
WOMEN AND GIRLS AT THE CENTRE,
PEACE AT HOME
ADEQUATE HOUSING
DIGITAL INCLUSIVITY
INSTITUTIONS THAT LISTEN
SERVICES
JUSTICE AND RULE OF LAW
TAXATION
NO CORRUPTION
INFORMATION
DIGITAL SPACE
COMPLEMENTS TO GDP
CARE AND INFORMAL ECONOMY
TRUST
TRUST MEASURING AND VALUING
WHAT MATTERS TO PEOPLE
AND THE PLANET
MEASURING AND VALUING
WHAT MATTERS TO PEOPLE
AND THE PLANET
INCLUSION, PROTECTION
AND PARTICIPATION
INCLUSION, PROTECTION
AND PARTICIPATION
ANCHORED IN
HUMAN RIGHTS
We the peoples: a renewed social contract anchored in human rights
CHAPTER II
24 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
enshrining core principles, such as solidarity, respect
for human rights, accountability and equality. The
2030 Agenda gives practical expression to these
principles through its commitment to leave no one
behind.
B. Trust
20. Building trust and countering mistrust, between
people and institutions, but also between different
people and groups within societies, is our defining
challenge. Both interpersonal and institutional trust
are important and mutually reinforcing, but the
recommendations below focus largely on the latter.
There has been an overall breakdown in trust in
major institutions worldwide due to both their real
and perceived failures to deliver, be fair, transparent
and inclusive, provide reliable information and make
a difference in people’s lives. For example, public
distrust of governments and government distrust
of publics made it harder to maintain consensus
behind public health restrictions on COVID-19.
Conversely, countries with higher levels of trust
in public institutions (along with higher levels of
interpersonal trust) did better at managing the
pandemic. The types of challenges that we will
face in the future will require similar, if not greater,
levels of trust in each other and in our institutions.
21. People wish to be heard and to participate in
the decisions that affect them. Institutions could
establish better ways of listening to people whom
they are meant to serve and taking their views
into account, especially groups that are frequently
overlooked, such as women, young people, minority
groups or persons with disabilities. As an initial step,
I invite Governments to conduct national listening
and “envisioning the future” exercises. These can
be done digitally to ensure breadth and inclusivity,
albeit with commensurate measures to reach those
3.8 billion people who are still offline. I also commit
to ensure that the United Nations builds on recent
innovations in listening to, consulting and engaging
with people around the world.
22. Failing to deliver what people need most,
including basic services, drives mistrust, regardless
of how open institutions are to public participation.
Societies vary in terms of which public goods are
delivered publicly and which are delivered privately,
including health, education, the Internet, security
and childcare. However, regulatory frameworks that
ensure effectiveness and accountability can be
provided and kept up to date by States. Moreover,
a key lesson from COVID-19 is the importance of
the State as a provider of trustworthy information,
goods and services, especially in times of crisis.
Institutions can analyse and reduce administrative
burdens that make it hard for people to gain access
to their services. Making government services
digital can enhance transparency and accessibility,
if provision is made for communities that currently
do not have access to the digital world. At a time of
rapid change, I encourage societies to discuss what
are the most essential and valued public goods
and the best means of ensuring their delivery,
bearing in mind the roles of both the public and
private sectors and building on the Sustainable
Development Goals. I would also urge investment
in public systems and ensuring quality public
servants, as the main point of contact between the
State and people. The international system needs
to better support countries that lack the capacity
and funding to make such investments.
23. Justice is an essential dimension of the
social contract. In all parts of the world, distrust
is fuelled by people’s experience of inequality and
corruption, and by their perception that the State
and its institutions treat them unfairly. The 2030
Agenda promises to promote the rule of law and
provide access to justice for all (target 16.3 of the
Sustainable Development Goals), but many justice
systems deliver only for the few. It is estimated
that 1.5 billion people have unmet criminal, civil
or administrative justice needs. They are unable
to use the law to defend themselves from violence
and crime, protect their rights or resolve disputes
peacefully. In a number of countries, the law still
actively discriminates against women, who in effect
enjoy only three quarters of the legal rights of men.
We the peoples: a renewed social contract anchored in human rights CHAPTER II
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 25
When security and justice actors are abusive and
act with impunity, they exacerbate grievances and
weaken the social contract. Distrust is also fuelled
by people’s experience of corruption, which has a
disproportionate impact on women, exacerbates
inequality and costs the world trillions of dollars
annually. During our consultations, I heard from
Member States about the potential for transforming
justice systems in ways that strengthen the
bonds that hold our societies together. In support
of efforts to put people at the centre of justice
systems, I will promote a new vision for the rule
of law, building on Sustainable Development
Goal 16 and the 2012 Declaration of the High-level
Meeting of the General Assembly on the Rule of
Law at the National and International Levels (see
resolution 67/1). We will examine how our rule of
law assistance can support States, communities
and people in rebuilding their social contract as
a foundation for sustaining peace. In this vein,
it will also be important to accelerate action to
tackle corruption, in line with the United Nations
Convention against Corruption.
24. Taxation is one of the most powerful tools of
government, critical to investing in public goods
and incentivizing sustainability. Governments
should consider using taxation to reduce extreme
© UNDP
We the peoples: a renewed social contract anchored in human rights
CHAPTER II
26 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
inequalities in wealth. This would be an important
signal in the wake of a pandemic in which millions
of people lost their jobs and governments around
the world faced declining fiscal space while the
wealth of billionaires saw a massive jump. Taxation
can also drive a sustainable and just transition, as
governments shift subsidies from activities that
damage the environment to those that sustain and
enrich it; tax carbon emissions and other polluting
activities rather than people or income; introduce
fair royalty regimes in extractive activities; and
channel resources to sustainable investments.
These reforms can have different impacts on
different countries, sectors and people, however,
and it is especially important to ensure that they do
not create new inequalities and to compensate and
support any perceived to lose out. Countries across
different income categories also face challenges
in terms of domestic resource mobilization.
Addressing this is an integral part of financing for
development and crucial in supporting the efforts
towards achieving the Sustainable Development
Goals. Any new approach to taxation will need to
embed the principles of sustainability while also
considering the views and capacities of developing
countries.
25. More broadly, a reformed international tax
system is needed to respond to the realities of
growing cross-border trade and investment and
an increasingly digitalized economy while also
addressing existing shortcomings in fair and
effective taxation of businesses and reducing
harmful tax competition. The G20 has agreed on
© UN Photo/Evan Schneider
We the peoples: a renewed social contract anchored in human rights CHAPTER II
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 27
a new international tax architecture that addresses
the tax challenges arising from globalization and
digitalization and introduces a global minimum
tax for corporations, with a blueprint in place for
broader implementation under the auspices of
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD). As discussions continue,
the perspectives of all countries must be heeded,
including the potential for asymmetrical impacts
on countries at different stages of development.
Consideration could also be given to measures
to tax the value of the digital economy, taxation
of financial technology innovations, including
cryptocurrencies, and a digital development tax,
whereby the companies that have benefited for
decades from a free and open Internet contribute to
the connectivity of the 3.8 billion people who are still
offline and to a safer digital world. I also propose
stronger international cooperation to tackle tax
evasion and aggressive tax avoidance, money-
laundering and illicit financial flows, including
through a new joint structure on financial integrity
and tackling illicit financial flows, with membership
centred around the United Nations, international
financial institutions, OECD, major financial
centres and expert civil society organizations. Its
role could include promotion of transparency and
accountability through the provision of data and
other information, as well as fostering agreements
to address illicit financial flows.
26. The Internet has altered our societies as
profoundly as the printing press did, requiring a
deep reimagining of the ethics and mindsets with
which we approach knowledge, communication
and cohesion. Along with the potential for more
accessible information and rapid communication
and consultation, the digital age, particularly social
media, has also heightened fragmentation and
“echo chambers”. Objectivity, or even the idea that
people can aspire to ascertain the best available
truth, has come increasingly into question. The
goal of giving equal balance to competing points
of view can come at the expense of impartiality and
evidence, distorting the public debate. The ability
to cause large-scale disinformation and undermine
scientifically established facts is an existential risk
to humanity. While vigorously defending the right
to freedom of expression everywhere, we must
equally encourage societies to develop a common,
empirically backed consensus on the public good of
facts, science and knowledge. We must make lying
wrong again. Institutions can be a “reality check”
for societies, curbing disinformation and countering
hate speech and online harassment, including of
women and girls. I urge acceleration of our efforts
to produce and disseminate reliable and verified
information. The United Nations plays a key role
in this regard, which it can continue to strengthen,
building on models such as the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, the World Meteorological
Organization Scientific Advisory Panel or the
Verified initiative for COVID-19. Other steps include
support for public interest and independent media,
regulation of social media, strengthening freedom
of information or right to information laws and
ensuring a prominent voice for science and
expertise, for example through representation of
science commissions in decision-making. A global
code of conduct that promotes integrity in public
information could be explored together with States,
media outlets and regulatory bodies, facilitated by
the United Nations. With recent concerns about
trust and mistrust linked to technology and the
digital space, it is also time to understand, better
regulate and manage our digital commons as a
global public good (chap. IV).
C. Inclusion, protection and
participation
27. A vibrant social contract guarantees the
conditions for people to live a decent life, leaving
no one behind and enabling all to participate in
society, as promised in the 2030 Agenda. This
means measures to address discrimination and
to ensure that human rights are protected and
people can meet their basic needs. Food, health
care, water and sanitation, education and decent
work are basic human rights. We must ensure a
broad sharing of opportunity and human security
We the peoples: a renewed social contract anchored in human rights
CHAPTER II
28 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
across society as we work towards a greener, more
sustainable future. When people are left behind,
this can be a profound driver of division, both
within and between communities, ethnicities and
religions, and of instability nationally, as well as in
the international order.
28. Social protection systems have demonstrated
their value during the COVID-19 pandemic, saving
lives and backstopping economies at large. Without
the surge in State-provided social protection,
economic damage could have been far worse.
This is also the case for previous crises. We must
not lose this momentum. A new era for social
protection systems would be a foundation for
peaceful societies and other measures to leave
no one behind and eradicate extreme poverty. I urge
States to accelerate steps to achieve universal
social protection coverage, including for the
remaining 4 billion people currently unprotected, in
line with target 1.3 of the Sustainable Development
Goals. While the types and modalities of coverage
may vary, at a minimum this means access to
health care for all and basic income security for
children, those unable to work and older persons.
The gradual integration of the informal sector into
social protection frameworks is also essential if
we are to move towards universal coverage. To
support this new era for social protection, I will ask
the United Nations system to work with Member
States to identify resources to invest in their
systems where needed, including by ring-fencing
and setting spending targets as a percentage of
GDP, reallocating public expenditure, using proven
techniques to combat corruption and illicit financial
flows, deploying progressive fiscal policies and
increasing budget transparency, participation
and accountability. The establishment of a Global
Fund for Social Protection, being explored by the
International Labour Organization (ILO), could
support countries in increasing levels of funding
devoted to social protection over time. Efforts
by international financial institutions and States
to achieve a fairer and more sustainable global
economy and to provide liquidity to high-debt
vulnerable countries would also increase fiscal
space and ensure that money can be spent on
vital social programmes (chap. IV). Similarly, if all
donors met the official development assistance
target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income, the
ability of many countries to finance their human
development, including social protection, would
be radically transformed.
29. I encourage States to forge a post-pandemic
consensus on other measures that speak directly
to the social contract. Education (chap. III) and
skills development must better support people’s
capacity to navigate technological, demographic,
climate and other transitions throughout their
lives. I would urge formal recognition of a universal
entitlement to lifelong learning and reskilling,
translated into practice through legislation, policy
and effective lifelong learning systems. Decent
work opportunities for all are also needed for
shared prosperity. With the nature and types of
work transforming rapidly, this requires a floor of
rights and protections for all workers, irrespective of
their employment arrangements, as laid out in the
ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work.
Workers should not shoulder all the risks when it
comes to their income, their hours of work and how
they cope if they are ill or unemployed. Investment
INVESTMENT IN SOCIAL PROTECTION
y The wealth of billionaires increased by
over $3.9 trillion between March and
December 2020, while 4 billion people
are still without any form of basic social
protection.
y 92 per cent of African women are in the
informal economy. This keeps them
outside of social security systems.
y A total of $78 billion would be needed for
low-income countries to establish social
protection floors, including health care,
covering their combined population of
711 million people.
We the peoples: a renewed social contract anchored in human rights CHAPTER II
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 29
in sectors with the greatest potential for creating
more and better jobs, such as the green, care
and digital economies, is key and can be brought
about through major public investment, along
with incentive structures for long-term business
investments consistent with human development
and well-being. In particular, we need road maps to
integrate informal workers into formal economies
and to benefit from women’s full participation in the
workforce. The advancement of the human right
to adequate housing, in line with target 11.1 of the
Sustainable Development Goals, proved its value
in the public health measures taken in response to
the pandemic. Impressive actions taken to house
people have demonstrated what is possible with
sufficient political will.
30. To take stock of these commitments and
progress made as the world seeks to recover from
COVID-19, consideration should be given to holding
a World Social Summit in 2025. This would be
an opportunity to hold a different form of global
deliberation and to live up to the values, including
SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS
SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS ARE CRITICAL TO ACHIEVING THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS
SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS ARE CRITICAL TO ACHIEVING THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS ARE CRITICAL TO ACHIEVING THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
and economic
growth
2. ZERO
HUNGER
10. REDUCED
INEQUALITIES
3. GOOD HEALTH
AND WELL-BEING
8. DECENT WORK
AND ECONOMIC
GROWTH
4. QUALITY
EDUCATION
5. GENDER
EQUALITY
1. NO
POVERTY
12. RESPONSIBLE
CONSUMPTION AND
PRODUCTION
16. PEACE, JUSTICE
AND STRONG
INSTITUTIONS
13. CLIMATE
ACTION
SOCIAL PROTECTION
SYSTEMS
We the peoples: a renewed social contract anchored in human rights
CHAPTER II
30 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
trust and listening, that underpin the social
contract. The Summit outcome could be an update
of the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration on Social
Development, covering issues such as universal
social protection floors, including universal health
coverage, adequate housing, education for all
and decent work, and give momentum towards
achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
31. Perhaps humanity’s greatest resource is
our own collective capacity, half of which has
historically been constrained as a result of gender
discrimination. No meaningful social contract is
possible without the active and equal participation
of women and girls. Women’s equal leadership,
economic inclusion and gender-balanced decision-
making are simply better for everyone, men and
women alike. The Beijing Declaration and Platform
for Action and the Global Acceleration Plan for
Gender Equality point the way. I urge Member
States and other stakeholders to consider five
related and transformative measures: (a) the full
realization of equal rights, including through repeal
of all gender-discriminatory laws (target 5.1 of the
Sustainable Development Goals); (b) measures
to promote gender parity in all spheres and at
all levels of decision-making, including quotas
and special measures; (c) facilitating women’s
economic inclusion, including through large-scale
investment in the care economy and equal pay,
and more support for women entrepreneurs; (d)
greater inclusion of the voices of younger women;
and (e) an emergency response plan to accelerate
© UN-Women/Johis Alarcón
We the peoples: a renewed social contract anchored in human rights CHAPTER II
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 31
GENDER INEQUALITY
>1.4 billionwomen lack legal protection
from domestic sexual or economic violence.
In 88 countries, laws restrict the jobs
and hours that women can work, affecting
1.6 billion women.
ECONOMIC LOSS
Gender inequality causes major losses in global GDP.
Sources: World Bank, 2018; OECD, 2016; World Bank, 2019.
Source: World Bank, 2021. Source: World Bank, 2018.
50% 16% 3.7%
GENDER INEQUALITY IN EARNINGS
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
GENDER DISCRIMINATION
GLOBAL
GDP
1 in 3 women are subject to sexual or
physical violence by an intimate partner or
sexual violence from a non-partner in their
lifetime.
On average, women have only 75%
of the rights of men.
DISCRIMINATION VIOLENCE
Source: World Bank, 2021. Source: WHO, 2021.
GENDER INEQUALITY
We the peoples: a renewed social contract anchored in human rights
CHAPTER II
32 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
the eradication of violence against women and
girls, as a priority, which the United Nations will
support, backed by a global campaign to eliminate
any social norm that tolerates, excuses or overlooks
violence against women and girls, in line with target
5.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals. This will
also be central to the multi-stakeholder effort to
significantly reduce all forms of violence worldwide
(chap. IV).
32. I encourage Member States to strengthen
efforts towards gender equality in all United Nations
intergovernmental processes. The review of the
working methods of the Commission on the Status
of Women in 2021 could include a reassessment
of the role of the Commission in relation to other
intergovernmental mandates, and consideration of
how to build on the multi-stakeholder momentum of
the Generation Equality Forum. The United Nations
itself will ensure gender parity at all levels within
the Organization by 2028. We will also undertake
a review of United Nations system capacity –
staffing, resources and architecture – to deliver on
gender equality as a core priority across all entities.
33. Underpinning the social contract is an
unequivocal commitment to human rights. In
my Call to Action for Human Rights, I set out
seven domains in need of particular attention,
which are reflected across Our Common Agenda.
Implementation of the full spectrum of human
rights is at the heart of our capacity to recover
from the pandemic, renew the social contract and
more. Civil, political, economic, social and cultural
rights are mutually reinforcing, indivisible and
universal, not ordinary services with a market-set
price tag but essential factors in building more
inclusive societies. Promoting and protecting
civic space makes societies stronger and more
resilient, building on the right to participate and
freedom of expression, association and assembly.
While upholding human rights is an obligation
for all States, beyond that it is also time to treat
rights as problem-solving measures and ways to
address grievances, not just for individuals but
for communities at large. We have a growing body
of evidence that shows how institutions can be
THE CENTRALITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS
ECONOMIC
CULTURAL
S
O
C
I
A
L
P
O
L
I
T
I
C
A
L
“Human rights are universal and indivisible.
We must see human rights with a vision
that speaks to each and every human being
and encompasses all rights: economic;
social; cultural; civil and political.”
- Secretary-General’s Call to Action for Human Rights
Human rights are vital problem-solving tools
that safeguard lives and livelihoods and can
prevent grievances from arising.
Human rights serve the whole of society
– not only the individual – and are central to the
social contract.
of all the
Sustainable Development Goals
are linked to human rights
and labour standards.
C
I
V
I
L
92%
THE CENTRALITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS
We the peoples: a renewed social contract anchored in human rights CHAPTER II
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 33
designed to prevent human rights abuses. We also
know that rights-respecting institutions strengthen
the social contract, protecting societies as well as
individuals.
34. Racism, intolerance and discrimination
continue to exist in all societies, as seen during the
pandemic with scapegoating of groups blamed for
the virus. As a start, the adoption of comprehensive
laws against discrimination, including based on
race or ethnicity, age, gender, religion, disability,
and sexual orientation or gender identity, is long
overdue. New approaches to proactively support
the participation in public affairs of those who have
traditionally been marginalized, including minority
and indigenous groups, are also necessary. Fuller
use could be made of human rights mechanisms,
including the universal periodic review, in this
regard, and I support the update of the modalities of
the universal periodic review by the Human Rights
Council as part of the new guidelines.
35. In 2023, we will commemorate the seventy-
fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and 30 years since the adoption of
the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
on human rights. As this milestone nears, the time
has come to take stock, rejuvenate our shared
values and update our thinking on human rights.
Consideration should, for instance, be given to
updating or clarifying our application of human
rights frameworks and standards to address
frontier issues and prevent harms in the digital or
technology spaces, including in relation to freedom
of speech, hate speech and harassment, privacy,
the “right to be forgotten” and neuro-technology.
The right to a healthy environment also warrants
deeper discussion. It may be time to reinforce
universal access to the Internet as a human right,
with accelerated steps to connect the remaining
3.8 billion people offline to the Internet by 2030,
notably those most often left behind, including
women, along with indigenous and older people.
The United Nations stands ready to work with
Governments, businesses and civil society to
find alternatives to disruptive blanket Internet
shutdowns and generic blocking and filtering of
services to address the spread of disinformation
and harmful life-threatening content, in line with
international human rights law.
36. Finally, to ensure that everyone is seen and
recognized, measures to prove legal identity
(target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development
Goals) and end statelessness, including by closing
legal loopholes, and disaggregating data by age,
gender and diversity are urged. People on the move
require special attention, support and protection.
While COVID-19 pandemic restrictions had severe
consequences for human mobility and left many
refugees and migrants stranded, displacement
continued to grow. Measures to protect, assist
and find solutions for the internally displaced,
benefiting from the High-level Panel on Internal
Displacement, are essential to leaving no one
behind. I urge Governments and other stakeholders
to make progress in putting the Global Compact on
Refugees and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly
and Regular Migration into practice, including
through respect for the fundamental principle of
non-refoulement and measures to provide access
to asylum for refugees, by protecting and upholding
the rights of all persons on the move, regardless of
status, by supporting host countries and through
the inclusion of refugees and migrants in essential
public services.
D. Measuring and valuing what
matters to people and the
planet
37. Even with our planet undergoing rapid and
dangerous change, economic models continue
to assume endless expansion and growth and
overlook the broader systems that sustain life
and well-being. We need a pathway that protects
people and the planet, allowing for sustainable
development. This means broad shifts in what
prosperity and progress mean, how to incentivize
and measure them, and how to evaluate policies.
38. We must urgently find measures of progress
that complement GDP, as we were tasked to do by
We the peoples: a renewed social contract anchored in human rights
CHAPTER II
34 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
2030 in target 17.19 of the Sustainable Development
Goals. We know that GDP fails to account for human
well-being, planetary sustainability and non-market
services and care, or to consider the distributional
dimensions of economic activity. Absurdly, GDP
rises when there is overfishing, cutting of forests
or burning of fossil fuels. We are destroying nature,
but we count it as an increase in wealth. Such
discussions have been ongoing for decades. It
is time to collectively commit to complementary
measurements. Without that fundamental shift, the
targets that we have fixed in relation to biodiversity,
pollution and climate change will not be achievable.
I will consult the Presidents of the General Assembly
and the Economic and Social Council to determine
how to advance this issue. Any process would
need to bring together Member States, international
financial institutions and statistical, science
and policy experts to identify a complement or
complements to GDP that will measure inclusive
and sustainable growth and prosperity, building
on the work of the Statistical Commission. In
addition to identifying complementary measures,
the process would also need to agree on pathways
for national and global accounting systems to
include additional measurements, and to establish
systems for regular reporting as part of official
statistics. In the interim, I urge Member States
and others to already begin implementation of
the recent System of Environmental-Economic
Accounting (SEEA) Ecosystem Accounting and the
system for population and social conditions, and
to consider existing complements or alternatives
to GDP, such as the human development index,
the inclusive wealth index, the Genuine Progress
Indicator, the multidimensional poverty index and
the inequality-adjusted human development index.
39. In rethinking GDP, we must also find ways to
validate the care and informal economy. Specifically,
most of the care work around the world is unpaid and
done by women and girls, perpetuating economic
inequality between genders. COVID-19 also had
deeply gendered economic and job impacts that
highlighted and exacerbated the trillions of dollars
that are lost owing to billions of hours of unpaid
care work performed every year. Rethinking the
care economy means valuing unpaid care work in
economic models but also investing in quality paid
care as part of essential public services and social
protection arrangements, including by improved
pay and working conditions (target 5.4 of the
Sustainable Development Goals). More broadly,
we also need to find new ways to account for and
value the vast informal economy.
© UN Photo/Cia Pak
Succeeding
generations:
shaping the future
III
Succeeding generations: shaping the future
CHAPTER III
38 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
III. Succeeding generations: shaping the future
40. In 1945, the promise was to save “succeeding
generations” from the scourge of war. A similar
promise today would necessarily encompass a
much broader range of threats, including the very
viability of human life on earth. Yet we are far from
keeping that promise. This current generation of
young people sees a world in which their future
is compromised in multiple ways. We are already
feeling the impacts of the triple planetary crisis
of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution,
which will only become more devastating and
irreversible in the future. Many young people have a
lack of trust in the ability of existing institutions and
leadership to meet their concerns. COVID-19 threw
these questions into even sharper relief. Any renewal
of the social contract must include a profound
deepening of solidarity between generations. Young
people need to believe that they have a stake in
society and a viable future. They also need to see
society believe and invest in them.
41. This renewal of solidarity between generations
should extend not only to those currently alive
but also to their children and grandchildren.
Humanity faces a series of long-term challenges
that evolve over the course of multiple human life
spans: warming and degradation of the planet,
as well as managing new technologies such as
artificial intelligence and gene editing, demographic
shifts towards an older population, urbanization
and the evolution of social welfare provision. With
the fourth industrial revolution, we are in one of
the most important transformational moments
in recent history. The way in which people live,
work, eat and interact with each other is likely to
look very different in the future. Yet our dominant
political and economic incentives remain weighted
heavily in favour of the short term and status
quo, prioritizing immediate gains at the expense
of longer-term human and planetary well-being.
Decisions made today will shape the course of the
planet for centuries. Our understanding of “we the
peoples” in the Charter of the United Nations needs
SOLIDARITY BETWEEN GENERATIONS
Decisions made today will define the future
for younger and future generations.
SOLIDARITY WITH YOUNGER GENERATIONS
Voice and participation
Quality education
Sustainable jobs
SOLIDARITY WITH FUTURE GENERATIONS
Long-term thinking
Represent future generations
SAFEGUARDING THE FUTURE
HEALTHY PLANET
STRONG INSTITUTIONS
HEALTH, SOCIAL PROTECTION
EDUCATION, WORK
PREPAREDNESS
SOLIDARITY BETWEEN GENERATIONS
Succeeding generations: shaping the future CHAPTER III
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 39
to be expanded to protect the interests of all the
people of the twenty-first century and to bequeath
a liveable world to those who will follow.
42. Young people today, along with future
generations, will have to live with the consequences
of our action and inaction. Today’s generation of
young people is distinct from future generations.
However, it is time to find ways to give more weight
to their collective interests and to make our systems
work to safeguard their futures. This renewal of
solidarity between generations is an integral part of
the other actions identified in this report, otherwise
the social contract that shapes the future will be
designed exclusively by those who will not live to
see it realized.
A. Solidarity with younger
generations
43. Theworldtodayishometothelargestgeneration
of young people in history at 1.8 billion people,
close to 90 per cent of whom live in developing
countries. Young people have never been more
educated or more connected, yet they continue to
face significant obstacles to achieving their full
potential. Some 267 million young people (15–24
years old) are not in education, employment or
training, two thirds of whom are young women as
a result of gendered expectations of unpaid family
work and informal employment. The pandemic
has only made this worse. The pandemic also
exposed large disparities between developed and
least developed countries in the numbers of young
people online, notably affecting their capacity
to continue education remotely during school
closures. Young people tell us that our systems
do not listen to them meaningfully and that our
systems are short-sighted and do not take their
concerns seriously.
44. Delivering on the priorities of young people and
meaningfully including them in decision-making
are investments that will deliver immediate returns,
as well as build human capital and social cohesion
for the longer term. The actions below respond to
the priorities identified by young people during the
consultations for Our Common Agenda and the
seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations.
Having a voice
45. Some countries have created opportunities for
youngergenerationstohaveavoiceindecisionsthat
affect them, through youth councils, parliaments
and ministries. However, these solutions have
not always avoided tokenism, often remaining
peripheral to core political processes. Youth-led
protest movements are frequently driven by deep
distrust of today’s political classes and desire for
proper engagement in decision-making. Yet some
authorities have clamped down on peaceful protest,
dismissed young people as too inexperienced and
treated them as beneficiaries or, worse, as threats
rather than equal partners. At the global level,
young people have been formally recognized as
critical actors within intergovernmental frameworks
on peace and security, sustainable development,
climate change, human rights and humanitarian
action. Yet here, too, engagement is not always
meaningful, nor does it guarantee geographical,
gender, income and other forms of diversity.
46. In line with the commitments made by Member
States in the declaration on the commemoration of
the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations
to listen to and work with youth, governments are
urged to promote political representation for youth,
including young women and girls. This could entail
lowering the voting age and the eligibility age for
standing as a candidate for elected office, as
well as strengthening youth participatory bodies.
Supporting the political participation of a diverse
range of young people may mean challenging social
norms and stereotypes, especially in relation to
gender, as well as in relation to other forms of
marginalization. Young people are also urged to
seize the opportunities available to them, including
by exercising their right to vote. Together with
leading researchers and academic institutions,
I will explore a “youth in politics” index to track
the opening of political space in countries around
the world that younger generations are so clearly
Succeeding generations: shaping the future
CHAPTER III
40 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
demanding, as well as the participation of young
people in these processes.
47. Within the United Nations system, the bond
with young people can be further strengthened, for
instance through regular check-ins, recognizing
their diversity and reaching those who are
marginalized. Efforts will be stepped up to increase
youth participation in our support to electoral
processes and in peacebuilding efforts, including
by building the capacity of local youth networks
and youth-led organizations. While our envoys on
youth have increased the profile of youth issues in
the Organization, if the United Nations is to live up
to its commitments this work must be put on a more
sustainable footing. I propose the establishment
of a dedicated United Nations Youth Office in the
Secretariat, which will integrate the current activities
of the Office of the Envoy on Youth, continue to
lead high-level advocacy and serve as the anchor
for United Nations system coordination and
accountability on youth matters across our work
on peace, sustainable development, humanitarian
issues and human rights. In the meantime, my
Envoy on Youth will prepare recommendations
for more meaningful, diverse and effective youth
engagement in United Nations deliberative and
decision-making processes, for the consideration
of the General Assembly, the Security Council
and the Economic and Social Council and their
respective subsidiary bodies. This will be done in
consultation with the world’s young people and in
coordination with United Nations system agencies
and other stakeholders.
Learning
48. Quality education (including early childhood
education) is a fundamental human right – one
of society’s great equalizers, a prerequisite for
young people to be equipped to exercise their
voice and contribute to the social contract, and
a foundation for tolerance, peace, human rights
and sustainability. Yet the provision of education
today is in turmoil. Over 90 per cent of children
in the world have had their education interrupted
by COVID-19, the largest disruption of education
systems in history. For many students, especially
girls and young women, this break may become
permanent, with potential consequences for
their rights, equality and development for future
generations. Even prior to COVID-19, traditional
education systems were still not reaching some
258 million children and young people in the world
and were failing to provide many students with
even basic foundational skills such as reading and
mathematics.Studentsindevelopinganddeveloped
countries alike tell us that they leave the education
system without the tools that they need to adapt
and thrive in a rapidly changing world, including
digital literacy, global citizenship and sustainable
development. This situation is exacerbated by the
fact that both early childhood education and lifelong
learning, so crucial for individuals and society at
large, remain an aspiration in most countries.
49. Our priority should be to help children and
young people to catch up on learning lost during the
pandemic while transforming education systems
so that students reach their full potential. I will
champion lifelong learning for all and convene
a Summit on Transforming Education in 2022 to
accelerate progress towards the achievement of
Sustainable Development Goal 4. The Summit
will forge a common vision for education, building
on the forthcoming work of the International
Commission on the Futures of Education and
other recent progress including the replenishment
of the Global Partnership for Education fund
and the establishment of the Global Education
Cooperation Mechanism. We need a road map for
teaching all children to read, write and perform
basic mathematics and for giving them other core
skills. Education systems need to be modernized
and connected, making learning more student-
centred, dynamic, inclusive and collaborative. We
can succeed only if we value the world’s teachers
and work with them as partners in transforming
schools, colleges and universities. The Summit will
tackle crucial issues, including equity, the education
obstacles faced by girls and young women, the
transition from education to employment, and the
promotion of lifelong learning and reskilling. It will
Succeeding generations: shaping the future CHAPTER III
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 41
THE LEARNING CRISIS
Source: UNESCO, 2020.
FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS
More than half - 56% - of all children
will not be able to read or be
proficient in mathematics by the time
they complete primary education.
FUNDING GAP
Low- and middle-income countries
face a $148 billion annual education
funding gap when compared with
what is needed to achieve
Sustainable Development Goal 4,
quality education.
56%
Source: UNESCO, 2017.
TOTAL ANNUAL EDUCATION FINANCING NEEDS: $504 BILLION
29% FINANCING GAP
$148 billion
$10,000,000,000,000
COVID-19
School closures from COVID-19 have
left over a billion students out of
school and could cause students to
lose $10 trillion in earnings
over their working lives.
DIGITAL INCLUSION
Reimagining education means
investing in digital literacy and digital
infrastructure to close the digital
divide.
PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH ONLINE, 2020
87%
HIGH INCOME
56%
UPPER-MIDDLE INCOME
15%
LOWER-MIDDLE INCOME
6%
LOW INCOME
33%
GLOBAL
Source: World Bank, 2020.
Source: ITU, 2020.
THE LEARNING CRISIS
Succeeding generations: shaping the future
CHAPTER III
42 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
© UN Photo/Rick Bajornas
also address the lack of adequate financing for
national education transformation efforts, including
the operationalization of the International Finance
Facility for Education and other domestic and
international resources. Digital inclusivity will be a
vital part of the Summit, building on existing efforts
such as the Giga initiative, which aims to ensure that
all schools are connected to the Internet by 2030.
Broader investments in the education sector could
also be explored, including the next generation of
teachers and open-source digital education tools.
Summit preparations will involve governments,
students, teachers and leading United Nations
entities, including the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and
the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
They will also draw on the private sector and major
technology companies, which can contribute to
the digital transformation of education systems.
Prospering
50. Another priority identified by youth is the
availability and sustainability of decent jobs and
economic opportunities. The COVID-19 pandemic
has had a serious impact on young workers and
those transitioning to employment, particularly
young women. Too many are settling for work
in the informal sector or jobs for which they are
COVID-19 IMPACT ON EDUCATION
y Half of the world’s students were still
affected by school closures a year after
the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,
which contributed in part to an increase in
child marriage and child labour.
Succeeding generations: shaping the future CHAPTER III
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 43
overqualified and underpaid, neither meeting their
aspirations nor allowing them to unleash their full
potential, and perpetuating underdevelopment and
lack of tax revenue in low- and lower-middle-income
countries. A focus is needed on (re)skilling and
upskilling youth and connecting them from learning
to employment and entrepreneurial opportunities.
The availability of decent jobs for youth is also
tied to the sustainability of their futures, including
efforts to transition to low-emission and climate-
resilient labour markets.
51. As they emerge from the pandemic, Member
States are urged to consider youth labour
guarantees, alongside macroeconomic and
industrial policies to boost labour demand, drawing
on the “not in education, employment or training”
(NEET) indicator. Other measures could include
extending social protection systems to young
workers; reducing barriers to advanced education
and labour market participation, including due to
gender or other forms of discrimination; expanding
apprenticeship schemes and technical and
vocational training; and integrating young voices
in social dialogue and decision-making. Youth
have, in particular, asked that entrepreneurship
be promoted, including through start-up capital
and training in business, digital and essential
soft entrepreneurship skills. In support of State
efforts and the existing Global Initiative on Decent
Jobs for Youth, the United Nations, together with
international financial institutions, will launch a
recovery barometer that will track career paths
and labour market outcomes for youth between
now and 2025 and beyond as part of the decade
of action to deliver the Sustainable Development
Goals. In addition, concerted efforts to adopt new
technologies and invest in green economies could
result in 24 million new “jobs of the future” by 2030.
One way to proceed could be the formation of a
high-ambition coalition to promote green and digital
economy job creation, involving relevant ministers
(finance, planning, labour and education), youth and
other key stakeholders from the 20 countries whose
labour markets and workforce will expand most
rapidly over the next decade, emphasizing equal
access for women and girls to these jobs and the
transition from the informal to the formal sectors.
B. Solidarity with future
generations
52. Investing in younger generations will deliver
crucial returns for those alive today, but the
complex problems that we face will unfold over
multiple lifespans. Today’s decisions on issues
such as climate, technology and development will
profoundly alter the livelihoods of the 10.9 billion
people who are expected to be born later this
century, predominantly in Africa and Asia.
53. The principle of intergenerational equity –
recognizing responsibilities towards future
generations – has deep roots in diverse cultural and
religious traditions and is reflected in the Charter of
COVID-19 IMPACT ON YOUTH EMPLOYMENT
y Globally, youth employment fell by 8.7 per
cent in 2020 compared with 3.7 per cent for
older adults.
© UN Photo/Mark Garten
Succeeding generations: shaping the future
CHAPTER III
44 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
the United Nations. In 1987, the World Commission
on Environment and Development found that the
“profligacy” of living generations was “rapidly
closing the options for future generations”, calling
for drastic action to protect them. The well-being of
future generations has since been acknowledged
in international documents on sustainable
development and the environment, as well as the
UNESCO Declaration on the Responsibility of the
Present Generations Towards Future Generations.
However, this recognition has not necessarily
resulted in meaningful steps to account for the
interests of future generations, either nationally
or within the multilateral system. Short-term
calculations continue to dominate policymaking.
54. The proposals in this report would lead to
approaches being put in place that will benefit
future generations over the long term. Beyond this,
I invite States and other stakeholders to consider
specific steps to account for the interests of
future generations in national and global decision-
making. While the modalities at the national level
are matters for States to decide, some options
are set out below. Accounting for the interests of
future generations would require two adaptations:
strengthening our capacities to understand and
assess the future, building long-term thinking
into important policies and decision-making; and
creating specific forums and instruments to protect
the interests of future generations at all levels of
governance.
Long-term intergenerational thinking
55. The gravitational pull of short-term thinking is
strong and growing. Ours is an age of acceleration
and volatility, where boom-bust markets, shifting
political dynamics and technologically driven
innovations demand rapid responses and quick
results. At the same time, we have the capacity to
think for the longer term more than ever before.
Technological, climate and demographic modelling
offer us empirically backed scenarios reaching until
the end of the twenty-first century and beyond. We
know, for example, that our current rates of carbon
emissions are leading to global temperature changes
POPULATION GROWTH
POPULATION GROWTH PEAKED IN THE LATE 1960s
World population growth, 1950–2100
World population growth, 1950–2100
2090
2070
2050
1950 1970 1990 2010 2030
2.5 bn
10.8%
5.6%
7.7 bn
10.9 bn
PROJECTION
World population 5-year population growth rate
POPULATION GROWTH PROJECTIONS TO 2100:
LARGEST INCREASE IN AFRICA; DECLINE IN EUROPE
The world population in 2020 and 2100 (in billions)
The world population in 2020 and 2100 (in billions)
0
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
Latin
America
North
America
Oceania
Europe
Asia
Africa
+219%
2020
2020 2100
-16%
Source: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2019.
Source: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2019.
POPULATION GROWTH
Succeeding generations: shaping the future CHAPTER III
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 45
that will irreversibly affect every person on the planet.
This knowledge needs to become a source of action.
It is time to place long-term analysis, planning and
thinking at the heart of national governance and the
multilateral system. We must expand our thinking
and institutions across time.
56. The United Nations will review its work
to strengthen this capacity. This will include
conducting future impact assessments of major
policies and programmes, convening foresight and
planning experts across the United Nations system
and its multilateral partners, regularly reporting on
megatrends and catastrophic risks (chap. IV) and
working with a wider community of governmental,
academic, civil society, private sector, philanthropic
and other actors to strengthen strategic foresight,
preparedness for catastrophic risks, and anticipatory
decision-making that values instead of discounts
the future. Collectively, this body of work would come
together in a Futures Laboratory (“Futures Lab")
and could support States, subnational authorities
and others to build capacity and exchange good
practices to enhance long-termism, forward action
and adaptability.
Representing future generations
57. Future generations are, by definition,
unrepresented in today’s decision-making and
unable to articulate their needs. To translate the
principle of intergenerational equity into practice,
consideration could be given to forums to act on
their behalf, as their trustees, as well as instruments
to further protect their interests.
58. At the national level, some countries have
established committees for the future or
future generations commissioners who advise
governments and public bodies on the effects of
present decisions on people in the future. Other
States could establish similar mechanisms,
building on these good practices. At the multilateral
level, a growing number of Member States and
advocates have proposed options to represent
succeeding generations in the United Nations
system, including through a Commissioner
or Ombudsperson for Future Generations, a
Commission of Global Guardians for the Future,
or a repurposed Trusteeship Council. To help
explore the viability of these and other options,
I propose the appointment of a Special Envoy for
Future Generations, building on a proposal by my
predecessor in 2013. The Special Envoy could be
tasked with representing the interests of those who
are expected to be born over the coming century.
The Special Envoy could also support the work
of the multilateral system on long-term thinking
and foresight, including through the Futures Lab
mentioned above. One of the first tasks of the
Special Envoy could be to explore, together with
Member States, the use of the Trusteeship Council
to give a voice to succeeding generations (chap. V).
59. Member States might also consider reflecting
duties to future generations in their Constitutions
and national legislative frameworks, a step already
taken by many countries. The interests of younger
and future generations are increasingly being
considered by national courts, particularly in the
context of climate change and the environment.
Internationally, these efforts could be consolidated
in a Declaration on Future Generations. This could
build on the above-mentioned UNESCO Declaration
to specify duties to succeeding generations and
develop a mechanism to share good practices and
monitor how governance systems address long-
term challenges.
UN Photo/Violaine Martin
Nations large and
small: a new
global deal to
deliver global
public goods and
address major
risks
IV
Nations large and small: a new global deal to deliver global public goods and address major risks
CHAPTER IV
48 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
IV. Nations large and small: a new global deal
to deliver global public goods and address
major risks
60. A renewed social contract at the national
level and stronger intergenerational solidarity
must find expression in a new deal at the global
level. The COVID-19 pandemic reminded us that
we are more interconnected and interdependent
than ever before in human history. International
cooperation mitigated some of the harms caused
by the COVID‑19 pandemic, but the response to
the pandemic also exposed serious gaps in the
effectiveness of multilateral action when it was
needed most. We cannot afford to ignore those gaps
if we are to be ready for the potentially more extreme,
or even existential, threats that may lie ahead of us.
To achieve the breakthrough scenario, a serious
renewal of the principles and practices of collective
action at the global level is needed, building on what
is working and what has been achieved.
A. Protecting the global commons
and delivering global public
goods
61. The twin concepts of the global commons and
global public goods are used in various contexts
and fields, including law and economics. While
they lack agreed definitions, for our purposes
they represent a useful starting point for a serious
review of where we stand. The global commons
usually refer to natural or cultural resources that
are shared by and benefit us all. They include the
four conventionally understood commons that
are beyond national jurisdiction – the high seas,
the atmosphere, Antarctica and outer space –
all of which are now in crisis. Public goods are
understood as those goods and services provided
to and benefiting all of society, which at the national
level may include street lighting, fire departments,
traffic control or clean water. Certain public goods
have long been acknowledged as being global in
nature, in that they cannot be adequately provided
by any one State acting alone and they concern
the welfare of humanity as a whole. These have
traditionally ranged from global aspirations for
peace, to practicalities, such as international civil
aviation regulation. Ultimately, what distinguishes
these precious domains is that their protection
is an increasingly urgent task that we can only
undertake together. Despite this, the multilateral
system is not yet geared for the strategies,
investments or solidarity needed, leaving all of us
vulnerable to crises, such as in global public health,
demonstrated by COVID-19, in the global economy
and financial system, as in the 2008 financial crisis
and current COVID-19 shock, and in the health of
our planet, resulting in the triple planetary crisis
of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution
we now face.
62. One of the strongest calls emanating from the
consultations on the seventy-fifth anniversary
and Our Common Agenda was to strengthen the
governance of our global commons and global
public goods. This does not require new institutions.
Rather, we need new resolve and ways of working
together that are suited to the challenges we face
and the diverse landscape of actors (public, civic
and private) that have the capacity to contribute
to solutions. The balance between a global
breakthrough and a breakdown scenario hinges
on the choices we make now. These choices are
ultimately in the hands of Member States, with the
support of other relevant stakeholders.
63. Drawing on our extensive consultations and
the guidance of the seventy-fifth anniversary
declaration, I set out below some areas of
international concern that could be considered
Nations large and small: a new global deal to deliver global public goods and address major risks CHAPTER IV
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 49
PROJECTED DEGRADATION OF THE GLOBAL COMMONS
Trends in atmospheric carbon dioxide
concentration over 800,000 years
Outer space debris
Antarctic ice
sheet mass loss
Projected pollution of the sea
Projections for global GHG 
emissions
under different scenarios
as sea level equivalent, change relative to 1986–2005
+1.5°C scenario
metres
+4.3°C scenario
Carbon dioxide concentrations are now
at the highest level in at least 2 million
years, 148% above pre-industrial levels.
Lower orbit (2,000 km)
ppm
450
1,200
0.3
4.0 Mt
2.0 Mt
3.0 Mt
1.0 Mt
3.5 Mt
1.5 Mt
2.5 Mt
0.5 Mt
0 Mt
0.1
0.2
0
2025 2125
2075 2175
2050 2150
2100 2200 2225
1,000
600
200
800
400
0
GtCO2e
Cumulative
number
of
catastrophic
collisions
-600,000 -400,000 -200,000 0 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
2020
1910
350 50
250 30
150 10
400 60
70
300 40
200 20
100 0
Note: Projections do not take into account
commitments announced in early 2021.
Mean carbon dioxide concentrations globally
Even with an extremely ambitious scenario (no further emissions in the ocean
by 2020), the level of microplastics in the ocean could double by mid-century
as already accumulated plastic waste slowly degrades into smaller pieces.
As the density of objects in orbit increases,
so does the likelihood of collisions, where each
collision will create further debris in a chain
reaction potentially rendering space unusable
for generations.
2010 policies scenario
Current policy scenario
2°C Range
1.8°C Range
1.5°C Range
Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2020.
Source: European Space Agency, 2021.
Source: UNEP, 2020.
OUTER SPACE
ANTARCTICA HIGH SEAS
Extrapolation
No further launches
Emissions growth to 2050
Emissions level to 2050
Emissions stop to 2050
Emissions growth to 2050
Emissions level to 2050
Emissions stop to 2050
Buoyant
microplastics
Degraded
material
ATMOSPHERE
1950 2000 2050 2100 1950 1970 1990 2010 2030 2050
Source: Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, 2019.
Source: Lebreton and others, 2019.
Nations large and small: a new global deal to deliver global public goods and address major risks
CHAPTER IV
50 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
GLOBAL PUBLIC GOODS AND THE GLOBAL COMMONS
DELIVER AND PROTECT
GLOBAL PUBLIC GOODS AND THE GLOBAL COMMONS
DELIVER AND PROTECT
GOVERNANCE ARRANGEMENTS
Protect the global commons
Identify and deliver global
public goods
I
D
E
N
T
I
F
Y
GLOBAL PUBLIC
GOODS
GLOBAL
COMMONS
PROTECT
HIGH SEAS ATMOSPHERE
ANTARCTICA OUTER SPACE
GLOBAL
HEALTH
INFORMATION GLOBAL
ECONOMY
HEALTHY
PLANET
SCIENCE PEACE AND MORE?
I
D
E
N
T
I
F
Y
DELIVER
DIGITAL
as global public goods where action is needed.
I also consider how these global concerns could be
better served or protected. In some areas, robust
agreements and momentum exist but they are
failing to keep pace with the gravity of the challenge
or are suffering from lack of implementation, while
in other areas agreements or road maps are dated,
fragmented or nascent.
Global public health
64. The costs of our failure to heed the warnings
of a possible pandemic and work together more
effectively once the virus took hold will reverberate
for generations to come. We must ensure this never
happens again. Mechanisms to manage health as
a global public good effectively and proactively are
essential for the very sustainability and safety of
human life. To achieve many of the proposals set
out in this report, we must first work to end and
recover from the pandemic. We must also address
the gaps and inequities that made us so vulnerable
in the first place, building on what has worked and
drawing lessons from what has not.
65. Governance of global public health is
underfunded, siloed and distorted by a lack of
incentives for equity. Improvements in recent
decades in response to specific crises have not
always been sustained or implemented in full.
Global leadership has been impeded by limitations
in the mandate of the World Health Organization
Nations large and small: a new global deal to deliver global public goods and address major risks CHAPTER IV
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 51
(WHO) and its chronic underfunding, with 80 per
cent of its $2 billion annual budget dependent
on earmarked contributions, which undermines
its independence and capacity to deliver on its
mandate. However, even in the face of necessary
but hard questions, it is important not to lose
sight of what has gone right, thanks in part to
a robust ecosystem of partnerships, as well as
recent steps to strengthen WHO, the International
Health Regulations (2005) and regional capacities,
such as the Africa Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention. Had the virus broken out a decade or
more earlier, the consequences would have been
more dire. Improved health surveillance, scientific
advances and public-private partnerships have
been vital to the unprecedented development of
effective COVID-19 rapid tests, treatments and
vaccines.
66. The recommendations of the Independent Panel
for Pandemic Preparedness and Response provide
an important starting point. I lend my support
to many of its findings and offer the following
additional proposals.
67. The greatest near-term test of multilateralism
is the effort to end the COVID-19 pandemic, notably
by winning the race between vaccines and variants.
As of mid-July 2021, over 3.4 billion vaccine doses
had been administered globally, but in an uneven
manner leaving us all vulnerable. We need over
11 billion doses for the global population to cross
the 70 per cent vaccination threshold that might end
the acute phase of this pandemic. This will involve
the largest public health effort in history. In short,
the world needs a global vaccination plan to: (a) at
least double the production of vaccines and ensure
equitable distribution, using the COVID-19 Vaccine
Global Access (COVAX) Facility as the platform;
(b) coordinate implementation and financing; and
(c) support countries’ readiness and capacity to
roll out immunization programmes while tackling
the serious problem of vaccine hesitancy. To
realize this plan, I have called for an emergency
task force which brings together all the countries
with vaccine production capacities, WHO, the Gavi
Alliance and international financial institutions
able to deal with the relevant pharmaceutical
companies and manufacturers, as well as other
key stakeholders. Greater sharing of technology
and know-how will need to underpin such an
effort, including strengthening and building local
production capacities around the world. It is critical
that efforts are sustainable, so that we are better
prepared to respond to the next health emergency.
68. Longer-term governance of global health must
focus more on prevention, preparedness and equity.
There are several areas where collective action is
urgently needed. First, the independence, authority
and financing of WHO must be strengthened. This
includes greater financial stability and autonomy,
based on fully unearmarked resources, increased
funding and an organized replenishment process
for the remainder of the budget. As recommended
by the Independent Panel, it also requires
empowerment of WHO with respect to normative,
policy and technical guidance and evaluation, as
well as full access to information and information-
sharing. WHO needs to play a leading and
coordinating role in the emergency response to a
pandemic, and WHO country offices must have the
resources and be equipped to respond to technical
© World Bank/Vincent Tremeau
Nations large and small: a new global deal to deliver global public goods and address major risks
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52 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
THE CASE FOR COOPERATION: POTENTIAL ALTERNATIVE TRAJECTORIES
FOR COVID-19
Scenario: Less cooperation The reality Scenario: We can do better
Projections for the first year: Projections for the first year:
In the first year of
the pandemic:
• Health emergencies not on
the political agenda
• International Health Regulations
cover only cholera, plague and
yellow fever
• Weak systems for outbreak
detection and reporting
• Non-pharmaceutical
interventions could have been
slower to ramp up, leading
to more intense disease
transmission
• Data to inform vaccine
production could have been
slower to disseminate
• Lessons learned from
SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV
and Ebola virus epidemics
• Strengthened international
health regulations
• New platforms and
partnerships (WHO Health
Emergencies Programme, Gavi
Alliance, CEPI, etc.)
• New models for designing,
testing and manufacturing
multiple vaccines
• Faster detection and reporting
of a novel pathogen
• Faster ramp-up of non-
pharmaceutical interventions
to slow or contain disease
transmission
• Faster vaccine development
and greater manufacturing
capacity
• More equitable vaccine
distribution
Assuming no vaccine could have
been available in the first
12 MONTHS
Vaccine development
and approval took about
10 MONTHS
Assuming vaccine development
and approval could have taken
7–9 MONTHS
The global loss in GDP
could have been
$6.6–7.9 TRILLION
The global loss in GDP was around
$5 TRILLION
The global loss in GDP
could have been
$2.7–4.2 TRILLION
The total death toll
could have been
10–19 MILLION
The estimated total death toll
was around
5 MILLIONa
The total death toll 
could have been
1.0–2.6 MILLION
0 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
MONTHS MONTHS MONTHS
TRILLION TRILLION TRILLION
MILLION MILLION MILLION
4 4 4
2 2 2
5 5 5
8 8 8
4 4 4
10 10 10
12 12 12
6 6 6
15 15 15
16 16 16
8 8 8
20 20 20
COVID-19 IN 2000 COVID-19 IN 2020 COVID-19 IN THE FUTURE
Sources: United Nations Foundation and Metabiota, 2021.
Note: These estimates are based on simulations of the potential trajectory and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic under different levels of multilateral
cooperation. The simulations used contemporary demographic and population mobility data and ran from the start of the pandemic through
28 February 2021, covering approximately the first year of the crisis.
Abbreviations: CEPI, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations; MERS, Middle East respiratory syndrome; SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome.
a This is an estimate of total deaths; reported COVID-19 cases and deaths over the same time period are lower due to underreporting.
Nations large and small: a new global deal to deliver global public goods and address major risks CHAPTER IV
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 53
requests from Governments to support pandemic
preparedness and response.
69. Secondly, global health security and
preparedness (particularly investment in pandemic
preparedness, but also for a broader set of potential
health challenges) need to be strengthened through
sustained political commitment and leadership at
the highest level. I encourage States to consider
the recommendations made by the Independent
Panel, including the updating of national
preparedness plans for future health crises and
a universal periodic peer review process to foster
accountability and learning between countries. The
international system for pandemic preparedness
and response, including systems to ensure early
detection, an independent verification capacity for
WHO and the containment of emerging pathogens,
must be adequately and predictably financed,
possibly through a facility that builds on existing
global health financing mechanisms to reduce
fragmentation. I encourage States collectively
to commit to increasing international financing
for pandemic prevention and preparedness, as
recommended by the G20 High Level Independent
Panel on Financing the Global Commons for
Pandemic Preparedness and Response. We also
need a more robust toolbox for compliance with
the International Health Regulations (2005). Efforts
by WHO member States to achieve a pandemic
preparedness and response instrument are
welcome in this regard. The platform for complex
emergencies, proposed below, would also be
available in the event of a future pandemic as a
complement to any measures taken by WHO to
strengthen its global surveillance system and
declare public health emergencies of international
concern.
70. Thirdly, building on the ACT-Accelerator
model, product development and access to health
technologies should be accelerated in low- and
middle-income countries, especially for neglected
or emerging infectious diseases, but also for a
wider range of health threats such as antimicrobial
resistance. This will require more resilient
manufacturing and supply chains, including at
the regional level, along with incentives that link
research and development investments with health
results rather than profits, such as reward systems
or health-impact funds to foster future innovations.
Further consideration could be given to technology
transfers and commitments to voluntary licensing
in agreements where public funding has been
invested in research and development.
71. Finally, COVID-19 has shown the deep social
impacts of global health crises. Some Governments
have taken steps to put in place universal health
coverage, including for mental health, and all
countries are urged to do so without delay.
Measures to address the social determinants of
health are also vital. This means recognizing the
interconnection between people, animals and plants
and their shared environment through concepts
such as One Health, reducing pollution, de-risking
our food systems, reducing poverty and gender
inequality, and promoting global biosecurity.
A global economy that works for all
72. The COVID-19 pandemic is only the latest
reminder of our vulnerability to economic shocks.
Rapid improvements were made to global systems
to avoid a worldwide recession in response to the
2008 crisis, but blind spots in national economic
policies continue to be mirrored at the global level,
including the tendency to judge success by narrow,
short-term measures of profit and growth and the
perverse incentives of business practices that put
shareholders’ interests above those of all other
stakeholders. The pandemic also exposed other
problems, not least the limits of GDP as a threshold
for determining international support despite other
risks and vulnerabilities, the lack of resilience in
international trade and supply chains and the short-
sightedness of a system that cannot agree to invest
adequately in a global vaccine drive that could save
half a million lives in 2021 and add $9 trillion to
the global economy through 2025, a return that far
exceeds the estimated costs of $50 billion.
73. A global economy that is sustainable and
equitable has characteristics of a global public
good, requiring robust international cooperation
Nations large and small: a new global deal to deliver global public goods and address major risks
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54 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
together with a rethinking of the interdependence
between the economy, people and the planet.
Economic governance is driven disproportionately
by a small number of States and financial actors,
and is siloed from other areas of international
agenda-setting and decision-making, despite
welcome efforts being made by the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank,
among others, to better account for sustainable
development, human rights and preparedness
and resilience. Building on the spirit of previous
proposals for an Economic Security Council, as well
as the collaboration observed during the pandemic,
I propose a Biennial Summit at the level of heads of
State and Government between the members of the
G20 and the members of the Economic and Social
Council, the Secretary-General and the heads of the
international financial institutions to work towards
a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient global
economy. This would allow us to combine more
systematically the respective strengths of relevant
bodies and to make fuller use of the follow-up to
the intergovernmental process on financing for
sustainable development. Immediate matters this
biennial gathering could promote include ultra-
long-term and innovative financing for sustainable
development and a Sustainable Development Goals
“investment boost” for a green and just transition
for all countries in need, more flexible research and
development incentives to foster innovation and a
process to resolve longstanding weaknesses in the
international debt architecture. Agreement could
also be pursued on a “last mile alliance” to catalyse
and elevate policy action to reach those furthest
behind as part of efforts to achieve the Goals.
74. A fairer and more resilient multilateral trading
system would be open, rules-based, transparent and
non-discriminatory. The World Trade Organization
(WTO) is being reinvigorated and updated to take
account of twenty-first century realities, such as
electronic commerce and the digital economy,
which offer opportunities for the inclusion of
micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises and
women in international trade. Efforts are also
needed, however, to align international trade
with the green and circular economies, including
by broadening negotiations on environmental
goods and services. We must move away from
protectionist approaches, maximizing trade at all
costs, with massive spillover effects, towards a
system that incentivizes the adoption of welfare-
improving practices and effective multilateral
trade agreements. This also means promoting
and valuing technological capacity, innovation
and resilience in developing countries, including
through more flexibility in intellectual property
rights, technology transfer, trade facilitation
support and limits on the use of trade restrictions,
especially in a global pandemic. Reinstating an
effective dispute settlement mechanism to be able
to address trade tensions is key.
75. A resilient global economy would also see more
countries able to support their own inhabitants,
through financing for sustainable development
linked to the Sustainable Development Goals.
This, in turn, requires adequately resourced
public sectors and private actors who understand
themselves to be contributing to and benefiting
from the delivery of global public goods. Stronger
global cooperation to promote financial integrity by
addressing endemic tax evasion and aggressive tax
avoidance, as well as illicit financial flows, is long
© UN Photo/Manuel Elias
Nations large and small: a new global deal to deliver global public goods and address major risks CHAPTER IV
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 55
overdue (as discussed in chap. II above). Measures
to increase fairness, such as a minimum global
corporate tax and solidarity taxes, would be clear
signals that private enterprises and the very wealthy
who benefit most from current economic models
must contribute to the national and global public
good. Efforts to find consensus on complementary
measures to GDP could be reinforced by a global
shift away from relying on GDP to determine
access to concessional finance and support, led
by international financial institutions along with
the United Nations. Indices of vulnerability to
external shocks and systemic risk criteria could
be given greater weight. Multilateral development
banks could also revise their operations and asset
management rules to increase their capacity to
support investment in developing countries.
76. Achieving this new dynamic for the global
economy means changing business models to
better connect businesses, markets and society.
Strong and sustainable businesses are built
on global values, including human and labour
rights, environmental sustainability and fighting
corruption, all of which are embodied in the
United Nations Global Compact. Coordinated
action by the business community to align their
business practices with global goals, including the
Sustainable Development Goals, is crucial.
77. Finally, we still lack pre-negotiated ways to
convene relevant actors in the event of a global
economic crisis. As with future pandemics, the
proposed emergency crisis response platform (see
chap. IV.B below) could be available in the event
of future economic crises and shocks of sufficient
scale and magnitude. In addition to being prepared
for a crisis, we should be doing everything we can to
invest in resilience and prevention; thus economic
models and policies to secure sustainability, well-
being and the future, as recommended throughout
this report, are the most vital steps of all.
A healthy planet for its people
78. We are waging a suicidal war against nature.
We risk crossing irreversible thresholds and
accelerating crises that could take centuries
or even millenniums to reverse. Our climate,
our environment and our planet are critical
global commons that must be protected for all
people, now and in the future. We are already at
1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels
and rising rapidly. The Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change warned us in August 2021 that
we are at imminent risk of hitting the dangerous
threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius in the near term.
Every fraction of a degree represents lost lives,
livelihoods, assets, species and ecosystems. We
should be dramatically reducing emissions each
year, towards a 45 per cent reduction by 2030 and
net zero emissions by 2050, as made clear by the
Panel, yet temperatures continue to rise. We should
be shoring up our populations, infrastructure,
economies and societies to be resilient to climate
change, yet adaptation and resilience continue to
be seriously underfunded.
79. We largely agree on what needs to be done.
The Paris Agreement is a singular achievement,
bringing all nations into common cause to combat
climate change and adapt to its effects. To meet
the demands of science and the goals of the Paris
Agreement, we need the parties and all stakeholders
to present more ambitious 2030 national climate
plans and deliver on concrete policies and actions
aligned with a net zero future, including no new
coal after 2021, shifting fossil fuel subsidies to
renewable energy and setting a carbon price. We
TRANSITION TO A GREEN ECONOMY
y Air pollution caused by the burning
of fossil fuels, chemicals and other
pollutants is responsible for the death
of 7 million people every year, costing
around $5 trillion annually.
y Shifting to a green economy could yield
a direct economic gain of $26 trillion
through 2030 compared with business-
as-usual and create over 65 million new
low-carbon jobs.
Nations large and small: a new global deal to deliver global public goods and address major risks
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56 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
CLIMATE BREAKDOWN OR BREAKTHROUGH
A scenario without climate
action and no effective
multilateralism to tackle
climate change
Loss of 49%-89% of
permafrost globally
Much higher risk of
extreme sea levels, e.g.
New York City (United
States of America) is
predicted to experience
sea levels of around
2.75 m above normal once
a decade versus once
a century in the +1.5°C
scenario. For a Pacific
island like Tahiti, extreme
sea levels of 1 m above
normal would happen
multiple times each year
versus between 1 in 50 and
1 in 100 years in the +1.5°C
scenario
Up to 1.26 billion
person-days per year of

exposure to deadly extreme
heat across 
Bangladesh,
India 
and Pakistan
The Arctic is “very likely” to
be ice free in summer
Loss of most coral reefs
is “very likely”
High confidence of a
“drastic reduction” in
global and African maize
crops, with the possibility
of tipping points that lead
to the collapse of crops in
some regions
Arctic summer sea ice is
“likely” to be maintained
under 1.5°C
Loss of 17%–44% of
permafrost compared with
49%–89% in the +4.3°C
scenario
Limiting warming to 1.5°C
rather than 2°C could
reduce by 62–457 million
the number of people
exposed to climate risks
and vulnerable to poverty
The world faces a 
reduction of more than
30% in global GDP 
per capita
The world faces a 
reduction of
15%–25% in global GDP 
per capita
The world faces a 
reduction of
8% in global GDP 
per capita
Sea level rises by up to
1.01 METRES
relative to 1995–2014
Sea level rises by up to
0.76 METRES
relative to 1995–2014
Sea level rises by up to
0.55 METRES
relative to 1995–2014
The trajectory with the latest
commitments to reduce
emissions
A scenario where the world
acts immediately to deliver a
45% reduction in emissions
between 2010 and 2030
+4.4°C by 2100
+2.7°C by 2100
+1.5°C by 2100
Breakdown Our current trajectory Breakthrough
Sources: United Nations Foundation, Climate Analytics and E3G, 2021.
Nations large and small: a new global deal to deliver global public goods and address major risks CHAPTER IV
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 57
need a credible solidarity package of support to
developing countries, one that includes meeting the
goal of providing $100 billion every year, allocating
50 per cent of climate finance for adaptation and
resilience, as well as the provision of technological
support and capacity-building, which will all
increase as needs expand. We need multilateral
development banks and other financial institutions
to align their portfolios to the Paris Agreement.
The process to negotiate a new post-2025 climate
finance goal that will begin in 2021 must also be
based on, and respond to, the needs of developing
countries.
80. It is equally important to jump-start a global
effort to organize a just transition to create
decent work and quality jobs as a key enabler
for climate action and ambition. ILO and many
other studies estimate that the transition from the
grey to the green economy will result in the net
creation of millions of jobs by 2030. I call on all
countries to embrace the ILO Guidelines for a Just
Transition towards Environmentally Sustainable
Economies and Societies for All and adopt them
as the minimum standard to ensure progress on
decent work for all. The United Nations will fully
support this just transition and efforts to ensure
that thriving and prosperous communities emerge
from this transition to a net zero future.
81. There are some signs that the world is waking
up to the danger we face. A growing global coalition
of Member States, including all Group of Seven
nations, cities and businesses, has committed to
reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and is setting
the tough and credible interim targets needed to
get there. The social movement to halt climate
change and accelerate international cooperation,
led by young people, has spread to every continent
and every country. The price of renewable energy
is falling rapidly, the end of coal is in sight and
technologies are being deployed at a scale to
achieve rapid reductions in emissions over the
course of this decade. We can still limit warming
to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels,
increase investments to promote resilience to
impacts and combat ecosystem and biodiversity
loss. To do so, however, we need faster, nimbler
and more effective climate and environmental
governance to enable socially just transitions.
82. At the twenty-sixth session of the Conference
of the Parties to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, in 2021, all countries
should commit to the goal of limiting warming
to 1.5 degrees Celsius as the global benchmark
for mitigation ambition. I would also urge the
Conference, in line with my call for all States to
declare a climate emergency, to accelerate action
on an emergency footing, including by addressing
new issues quickly and evolving with the science.
In the Paris Agreement, Member States committed
to regularly present updated and more ambitious
nationally determined contributions. They also
agreed to assess collective progress towards the
Agreement’s long-term goals every five years
at a global stocktaking of the Paris Agreement.
I intend to convene leaders ahead of the first
global stocktaking in 2023 to reach a political
understanding on the urgent steps needed to limit
global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, protect
people and communities from climate impacts
and align public and private finance with the goals
of the Paris Agreement.
© UN Photo/Igor Rugwiza
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58 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
83. The Conference of the Parties has the potential
to act as a platform that captures the growing
insistence of people all over the world on climate
action, magnifying the voices of those most
affected and who will hold us all to account.
Fulfilling the objectives of the Paris Agreement is a
responsibility of all stakeholders. Some companies
have larger emissions profiles than entire countries
and cities are responsible for over 70 per cent of
emissions worldwide. I urge Governments formally
to recognize the engagement and contributions
of all stakeholders who significantly contribute
to the delivery of countries’ commitments at the
Conference. I also intend to invite leaders from
civil society, the private sector and young people
to the leaders meeting ahead of the first global
stocktaking in 2023 and to ensure that they can
meaningfully participate in that process.
84. Addressing risks to our planet needs to be part
of every decision, every policy, every investment and
every budget. The countries that are members of
the G20 provided over $3.3 trillion in direct support
for coal, oil, gas and fossil fuel power between
2015 and 2019. In 2019, 60 per cent of fossil-fuel
subsidies went to producers and utilities despite
Governments’ climate commitments. Fossil-
fuel subsidies distort prices and risk increasing
investment in emission-intensive assets that place
the goals of the Paris Agreement out of reach. With
too much of the international financial architecture
still incentivizing economic growth with little or no
consideration for sustainability and climate impacts,
I urge States, international financial institutions and
multilateral and national development banks to
work with us to find complementary measures to
GDP that account for the environment and to use
this new measure to change fundamentally their
mandates and investments.
85. More broadly, all finance flows must be
consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse
gas emissions and climate resilient development.
Public finance is critical, particularly for those
investments that yield no financial returns, such as
some adaptation action. We also need large-scale
private finance to support countries in shifting from
economies that are dependent on fossil fuels to
ones that are low emission and climate resilient.
I urge all countries to implement carbon pricing
mechanisms and ultimately to set a carbon price,
and I encourage Group of 20 nations to consider the
proposal from IMF to create an international carbon
price floor. Financial actors within the G20 are taking
decisive steps by pledging net zero commitments,
but now comes the credibility test: all financial
actors must set verifiable targets that cover their
entire portfolios to shift them away from high-
emission sectors to the climate resilient and net
zero economy, along with timelines to implement
their pledges. The United Nations-convened Net-
Zero Asset Owner Alliance provides an important
model with transparent and accountable targets. As
initiatives around carbon markets multiply, the use
of offsets must be the last resort. I urge all private
actors to prioritize reducing absolute emissions and
negative biodiversity impacts across their entire
value chain and to hold to the highest standards
of environmental integrity.
86. Even as we work tirelessly to prevent climate
change, we need to be prepared for a drastically
different climate and environment in the future.
Most countries need to adapt their economies, their
infrastructure and their services to account for the
impact of climate change, with increased adaptation
support for developing countries as stated above.
Only one in three people globally are covered by
early warning systems and it is essential to fully
capitalize the World Meteorological Organization
Systematic Observations Financing Facility to
ensure that every person is covered. As the impacts
of climate change worsen and displacement grows,
the General Assembly could consider measures
to address territorial threats of climate change,
especially for small-island developing States and
other States facing a severe risk. Building on the
work of the Platform on Disaster Displacement,
along with the Global Compact on Refugees, the
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular
Migration and the Task Force on Displacement of
the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and
Damage Associated with Climate Change Impacts,
Nations large and small: a new global deal to deliver global public goods and address major risks CHAPTER IV
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 59
further consideration could be given to finding
ways to prevent, protect and resolve situations of
environmental displacement.
87. Climate action is a central part of a fundamental
reset in our relationship with nature. More broadly,
a strong post-2020 biodiversity framework is
needed to provide sufficient financing to reverse
the catastrophic biodiversity loss the planet is
currently experiencing. Food systems must also
be transformed, aligning with health, climate, equity
and the Sustainable Development Goals. Building
on the outcomes of the Food Systems Summit,
which will be held in New York in September 2021,
we must anticipate and respond to risks of large-
scale food insecurity and famine driven by our
changing environment. Revisiting our patterns
of unsustainable consumption and production
should enable more efficient and greater equity
in resource use, less food loss and waste, and
sound management of chemicals and waste to
minimize adverse impacts on human health and the
environment. Food systems need to ensure that all
people have access to healthy diets that contribute
to the restoration of nature, address climate
change and are adapted to local circumstances.
This transition can help to deliver across all the
Goals and is best supported through inclusive
participation of various stakeholders, in particular
producers, women, indigenous people and youth.
The international meeting “Stockholm+50: a healthy
planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility,
our opportunity” offers an opportunity to redefine
humankind’s relationship with nature and to achieve
a healthy planet for the prosperity of all. I would urge
recognition of the right to a healthy environment.
A new agenda for peace
88. Peace is the central promise of the Charter of
the United Nations and one of the principal global
public goods the United Nations was established
to deliver. In crucial respects, our multilateral
architecture has succeeded: there have been no
world wars and nuclear weapons have not been
used in war for the past 75 years, while some of the
greatest risks of escalation have been prevented.
Nevertheless, our collective peace and security is
increasingly under threat as a result of emerging
risks and dangerous trends for which traditional
forms of prevention, management and resolution
are ill suited. This includes protracted conflicts
involving transnational networks and new actors,
frequently associated with terrorism, rapidly
evolving weapons technologies and a growing
willingness of regional actors to participate directly
in wars. Climate change is contributing to instability
and is affecting livelihoods, access to resources and
human mobility trends. With significant numbers
of people displaced and overall levels of violence
outside armed conflict reaching new highs, it
would be hard to argue that we are delivering on
the promise of the Charter. Risks to peace and
security are growing: new technologies are placing
the capacity to disrupt global stability in the hands
of far more actors; longstanding agreements on
nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass
destruction are increasingly fragile as trust among
major powers continues to erode; and emerging
domains of potential conflict or lawlessness,
such as cyberspace, have highlighted gaps in our
governance architecture. The world is moving
closer to the brink of instability, where the risks
we face are no longer managed effectively through
the systems we have.
89. To protect and manage the global public good
of peace, we need a peace continuum based on a
better understanding of the underlying drivers and
systems of influence that are sustaining conflict, a
renewed effort to agree on more effective collective
TRANSFORMING FOOD SYSTEMS
y Sustainable food systems and strong forest
protection could generate over $2 trillion
per year of economic benefits, create
millions of jobs and improve food security,
while supporting solutions to climate
change.
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60 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
security responses and a meaningful set of steps
to manage emerging risks. To achieve this, we need
a new agenda for peace, potentially focusing on
six core areas:
a) Reducing strategic risks. I have already
proposed to work with Member States to
update our vision for disarmament so as to
guarantee human, national and collective
security, including through broader support
for non-proliferation, a world free of nuclear
weapons and other weapons of mass
destruction, effective control of conventional
weapons and regulation of new weapons of
technology. The new agenda for peace could be
an opportunity to take this forward, in particular
through establishing stronger commitments
for the non-use of nuclear weapons and a time
frame for their elimination, ensuring continued
cooperation to prevent and counter-terrorism,
strengthening digital transformation and
promoting innovation by United Nations peace
and security entities, banning cyberattacks
on civilian infrastructure, putting in place
measures to de-escalate cyber-related risks
and tensions, and establishing internationally
agreed limits on lethal autonomous weapons
systems. The entry into force of the Treaty on
the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in January
2021 was an extraordinary achievement and
a step towards the eventual elimination of
nuclear weapons;
b) Strengthening international foresight and
capacities to identify and adapt to new peace
and security risks. The proposals laid out
in chapter III above to ensure the future of
succeeding generations and chapter IV.B below
on addressing major risks could allow us to
identify and adapt to new risks to peace and
security;
c) Reshaping our responses to all forms of
violence. Large-scale conflict kills fewer people
than other forms of violence, including violence
from criminal groups and interpersonal violence
in the home. At the same time, increases in
some forms of violence, particularly against
women, tend to be an early warning sign of
diminishing law and order and rising insecurity
that may catalyse into broader conflict.
The new agenda for peace could consider
how to more effectively address violence
holistically. For instance, this could be through
a multi-stakeholder effort to reduce violence
significantly worldwide and in all its forms,
including against women and girls, in line with
target 16.1 of the Sustainable Development
Goals, and building on the movement to halve
global violence by 2030;
d) Investing in prevention and peacebuilding.
Investments in prevention and preparedness
pay for themselves many times over in the
human and financial costs that are spared,
yet we continue to make the case in vain. The
new agenda for peace could involve a set
of commitments to provide the necessary
resources for prevention, including at the
nationallevel;reduceexcessivemilitarybudgets
and ensure adequate social spending; tailor
development assistance to address root causes
of conflict and uphold human rights; and link
disarmament to development opportunities.
There has also been too little progress on
adequate, predictable and sustained financing
for peacebuilding, with demand for support
from the Peacebuilding Fund significantly
outpacing available resources. The new agenda
for peace could renew calls for Member States
urgently to consider allocating a dedicated
amount to the Peacebuilding Fund from
assessed contributions, initially through
the peacekeeping budget and later through
the regular budget, as a complementary
investment that would increase the
sustainability of peacekeeping outcomes and
support the development agenda. Relatedly,
the Peacebuilding Commission has reshaped
the responses by the United Nations to
multidimensional threats to development,
peace and security through an inclusive
approach. Member States are called on to
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OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 61
dedicate more resources to the Peacebuilding
Commission and the Peacebuilding Fund, with
commensurate support from the United Nations
system, to enable these important instruments
to meet the increasing demand. Consideration
could also be given to expanding the role of
the Commission to more geographical and
substantive settings, as well as to addressing
the cross-cutting issues of security, climate
change, health, gender equality, development
andhumanrightsfromapreventionperspective;
e) Supporting regional prevention. Regional
actors are central to sustaining peace and
preventing and responding to insecurity, but
these critical frontline responses require
further consolidation. It is becoming urgent to
secure predictable financing for peace support
operations delivered under Chapter VIII of the
Charter covering regional arrangements: these
operations fill a critical gap in our global peace
and security architecture and should not rely
on ad hoc arrangements. More broadly, the
new agenda for peace could consider how to
deepen United Nations support for regional
capacities, including with regard to security
arrangements, military cooperation and joint
peacebuilding work, cooperation to address
complex transnational peace and security
challenges, and by expanding into new areas
such as the effects of climate change on
security. My previous proposals for regional
coordination platforms could provide a useful
framework on which to build;
f) Putting women and girls at the centre of
security policy. Building on the existing
women and peace and security agenda and
its principles of prevention, demilitarization
and equality, the new agenda for peace would
place women and gender equality at the heart
of peace and security. Not least, the linkages
between interpersonal violence and insecurity
and between women’s equal participation in
peacemaking and its effectiveness call for
women’s equal participation in all peace and
security decision-making and a reassessment
of core assumptions, including how peace and
security are defined, negotiated and sustained.
Peaceful, secure and sustainable use of
outer space
90. Outer space has traditionally been
acknowledged as a global common, beyond the
jurisdiction of any one State. The potential for its
peaceful, secure and sustainable use would benefit
all humanity today and into the future. Governance
arrangements for outer space, including the
Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space,
were established in an era of exclusively State-
based activity and provide only general guidance
on managing traffic in outer space, the permanent
settlement of celestial bodies and responsibilities
for resource management. We are in an era of
renewed exploration and use of outer space, with
active programmes to return humans to the Moon
and beyond and the planned launch of mega-
constellations of thousands of new satellites. Space
assets have transformed the way we live and outer
space systems are vital for understanding and
solving global problems, such as implementation
of the Sustainable Development Goals and climate
action. Many of these developments are driven
by actors in the private sector. They also pose
new risks to security, safety and sustainability.
Increasing congestion and competition in outer
space could imperil access and use by succeeding
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62 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
generations. Our governance and regulatory
regimes require updating in line with this new era
to preserve outer space as a global common.
91. Recently agreed Guidelines for the Long-term
Sustainability of Outer Space Activities have
shown that progress in governance is possible,
but many gaps remain. A combination of binding
and non-binding norms is needed, building
on existing frameworks and drawing in the full
range of actors now involved in space exploration
and use. Immediate actions could include the
development of a global regime to coordinate space
traffic and the elaboration of new instruments to
prevent weaponization of outer space. To that end,
consideration could be given to a multi-stakeholder
dialogue on outer space as part of a Summit of
the Future (see para. 103 below) bringing together
Governments and other leading space actors. The
dialogue could seek high-level political agreement
on the peaceful, secure and sustainable use of outer
space, move towards a global regime to coordinate
space traffic and agree on principles for the future
governance of outer space activities.
Reclaiming the digital commons
92. The fourth industrial revolution has changed
the world. The Internet has provided access
to information for billions, thereby fostering
collaboration, connection and sustainable
development. It is a global public good that
should benefit everyone, everywhere. But currently
the potential harms of the digital domain risk
overshadowing its benefits. Governance at the
national and global levels has not kept pace with
the inherently informal and decentralized nature
of the Internet, which is dominated by commercial
interests. Serious and urgent ethical, social and
regulatory questions confront us, including with
respect to the lack of accountability in cyberspace;
the emergence of large technology companies
as geopolitical actors and arbiters of difficult
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OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 63
social questions without the responsibilities
commensurate with their outsized profits;
exacerbation of gender bias and male default
thinking when women do not have an equal role
in designing digital technologies, as well as digital
harassment that has particularly targeted women
and girls and pushed many women out of the public
conversation; and the use of digital surveillance and
manipulation to influence behaviour and control
populations.
International cooperation guided by
international law
94. As underlined in the seventy-fifth anniversary
declaration, the purposes and principles of the
Charter of the United Nations and international law
remain timeless, universal and an indispensable
foundation for a more peaceful, prosperous and
just world. International legal regimes underpin
and are essential to the protection of the global
commons and the delivery of many of the global
public goods identified above, and more broadly
to an international order based on respect for
human rights and the rule of law. The fact that
international law, in particular international human
rights law, underpins approximately 90 per cent
of the Sustainable Development Goals is a strong
example of this.
95. States play the primary role in the development
of international law, whether within the framework
of international organizations such as the United
Nations or outside it. The United Nations has also
played and continues to play a unique role in the
identification and development of customary
international law. The ongoing discussions within
the United Nations on the development of norms
and standards for a number of matters of global
concern, such as information and communications
technology (see A/75/816) and the conservation
and sustainable use of marine biological diversity
of areas beyond national jurisdiction, underscore
the importance of the United Nations as a vital
forum for the development of international law.
For those many instruments already in place, I
urge States to implement their obligations and
stand ready to provide support through the various
United Nations activities for capacity-building and
technical assistance.
96. In the seventy-fifth anniversary declaration,
States agreed to abide by the international
agreements they have entered into and the
commitments they have made, to promote
respect for democracy and human rights, and to
enhance democratic governance and the rule of
law by strengthening transparent and accountable
COVID-19 IMPACT ON THE INTERNET
y Total global Internet usage rose 40 per cent
during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
93. It is time to protect the online space and
strengthen its governance. I would urge the
Internet Governance Forum to adapt, innovate
and reform to support effective governance of the
digital commons and keep pace with rapid, real-
world developments. Furthermore, building on
the recommendations of the road map for digital
cooperation (see A/74/821), the United Nations,
Governments, the private sector and civil society
could come together as a multi-stakeholder
digital technology track in preparation for a
Summit of the Future to agree on a Global Digital
Compact. This would outline shared principles
for an open, free and secure digital future for all.
Complex digital issues that could be addressed
may include: reaffirming the fundamental
commitment to connecting the unconnected;
avoiding fragmentation of the Internet; providing
people with options as to how their data is used;
application of human rights online; and promoting
a trustworthy Internet by introducing accountability
criteria for discrimination and misleading content.
More broadly, the Compact could also promote
regulation of artificial intelligence to ensure that
this is aligned with shared global values.
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64 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
governance and independent judicial institutions.
Buildingonthesecommitments,considerationcould
be given to a global road map for the development
and effective implementation of international
law. This could encourage more States to ratify
or accede to treaties of universal interest, such as
on disarmament, human rights, the environment
and penal matters, including those for which I am
the depositary (of which there are over 600). It
could also urge States to accept the compulsory
jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice
and to withdraw reservations to treaty clauses
relating to the exercise of its jurisdiction. Assisting
States in identifying and addressing pressing
normative gaps could be another component, as
well as, drawing on my role related to compliance
mechanisms, understanding reasons for non-
compliance. As a further part of this road map,
States could consider holding regular inclusive
dialogues on legal matters of global concern at
the General Assembly. I continue to welcome the
role of the International Law Commission, which,
pursuant to article 1 (1) of its statute, is entrusted
with making recommendations for the purpose
of promoting the progressive development of
international law and its codification.
B. Addressing major risks
97. A central question remains prevention in all its
aspects. Our success in finding solutions to the
interlinked problems we face hinges on our ability
to anticipate, prevent and prepare for major risks
to come. This puts a revitalized, comprehensive
and overarching prevention agenda front and
centre in all that we do. We need more innovation,
more inclusion and more foresight, investing in
the global public goods that sustain us all. Where
global public goods are not provided, we have
their opposite: global public “bads” in the form of
serious risks and threats to human welfare. These
risks are now increasingly global and have greater
potential impact. Some are even existential: with
the dawn of the nuclear age, humanity acquired the
power to bring about its own extinction. Continued
technological advances, accelerating climate
change and the rise in zoonotic diseases mean the
likelihood of extreme, global catastrophic or even
existential risks is present on multiple, interrelated
fronts. Being prepared to prevent and respond to
these risks is an essential counterpoint to better
managing the global commons and global public
goods.
98. An effort is warranted to better define and
identify the extreme, catastrophic and existential
risks that we face. We cannot, however, wait for an
agreement on definitions before we act. Indeed,
there is an ethical imperative to act in a manner
compatible with the dignity of human life, which
our global governance systems must follow,
echoing the precautionary principle in international
environmental law and other areas. The cost of
being prepared for serious risks pales in comparison
with the human and financial costs if we fail.
99. Learning lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic,
we can seize this opportunity to better anticipate
and prepare to respond to large-scale global
crises. This requires stronger legal frameworks,
better tools for managing risks, better data, the
identification and anticipation of future risks, and
proper financing of prevention and preparedness.
© UN System Staff College
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OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 65
Many of these elements are set out in other parts
of this report. Importantly, however, any new
preparedness and response measures should be
agnostic as to the type of crisis for which they may
be needed. We do not know which extreme risk
event will come next; it might be another pandemic,
a new war, a high-consequence biological attack,
a cyberattack on critical infrastructure, a nuclear
event, a rapidly moving environmental disaster,
or something completely different such as
technological or scientific developments gone
awry and unconstrained by effective ethical and
regulatory frameworks.
100. First, to enable us to better anticipate and
respond to such risks, it will be important for the
United Nations to draw on a network of the best
thinkers and data, externally and within the United
Nations system, to present a Strategic Foresight
and Global Risk Report to Member States every
five years. This will be supported by the planned
Futures Lab, as well as by existing mechanisms
across the United Nations system and beyond,
such as the annual IMF early warning exercise, to
collect and analyse data and make sense of risk
across the short-, medium- and long-term. This
would also be linked to corresponding governance
arrangements for such risks, as appropriate, as well
as the action needed to address them.
101. Secondly, I propose to work with Member States
to establish an Emergency Platform to respond to
complex global crises. The platform would not be
a new permanent or standing body or institution.
It would be triggered automatically in crises of
sufficient scale and magnitude, regardless of the
type or nature of the crisis involved. Once activated,
it would bring together leaders from Member
States, the United Nations system, key country
groupings, international financial institutions,
regional bodies, civil society, the private sector,
subject-specific industries or research bodies and
other experts. The terms of reference would set out
the modalities and criteria for the activation of the
platform, including the scale and scope of the crisis;
funding and financing; the identification of relevant
actors who would form part of it; the support that it
would be expected to provide; and the criteria for its
deactivation. Other key components could include
mechanisms for surge capacity; focal points and
protocols to promote interoperability with existing
crisis-specific response arrangements; regular
exercises to test efficacy and identify and fill gaps;
and the identification of a set of tools to make the
international system crisis-ready. The platform
would allow the convening role of the Secretary-
General to be maximized in the face of crises with
global reach.
C. Next steps
102. It is ultimately for Member States, in close
consultation with other relevant stakeholders,
to identify and agree on those global commons
or public goods that may require renewed
commitments or governance improvements. To
support their deliberations, I will ask a High-level
Advisory Board led by former Heads of State and/
or Government to build on the ideas I have shared
here. Notably, I will ask the Advisory Board to
identify global public goods and potentially other
areas of common interest where governance
improvements are most needed and propose
options for how this could be achieved. This would
need to take into account existing institutional
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66 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
and legal arrangements, gaps and emerging
priorities or levels of urgency, and the need for
equity and fairness in global decision-making. The
Advisory Board could also take into account the
proposals made throughout this report, including
the repurposing of the Trusteeship Council and the
creation of an Emergency Platform.
103. Once the Advisory Board has reported
its findings, it will be important to hold a high-
level, multi-stakeholder “Summit of the Future”
to advance ideas for governance arrangements
in the areas of international concern mentioned
in this report, and potentially others, where
governance arrangements are nascent or require
updating. It would be preceded by preparatory
events and consultations. The Summit would most
appropriately be held in conjunction with the high-
level week of the seventy-eighth session of the
General Assembly and could include high-level
tracks on:
a) Advancing governance for global public goods
and other areas, as appropriate, in the light of
the findings of the Advisory Board;
b) Anticipating sustainable development and
climate action beyond 2030;
c) Peace and security, for the new agenda for
peace;
d) Digital technology, for the Global Digital
Compact;
e) Outer space, to seek agreement on the
sustainable and peaceful use of outer space,
move towards a global regime to coordinate
space traffic and agree on principles for the
future governance of outer space activities;
f) Major risks and agreement on an Emergency
Platform;
g) Succeedinggenerations,forpossibleagreement
on a Declaration on Future Generations.
104. As we work to update our systems of
governance for the future, I offer the following
overall observations and parameters. The
context for collective action has evolved over the
past 75 years. When the Charter of the United
Nations was developed, multilateralism meant
cooperation among a small number of States.
Today, a broader range of State and non-State
actors are participating in global affairs as part of
open, participatory, peer-driven and transparent
systems, geared at solving problems by drawing on
the capacities and hearing the voices of all relevant
actors rather than being driven by mandates or
institutions alone. This is a form of multilateralism
that is more networked, more inclusive and more
effective in addressing twenty-first century
challenges. Any effort to improve our governance
of the global commons and public goods and to
manage risks must navigate this complexity and
seek explicitly to incorporate these new approaches
where they are likely to deliver better outcomes.
105. Multilateralism that is more networked
draws together existing institutional capacities,
overcoming fragmentation to ensure all are working
together towards a common goal. It goes beyond
traditional silos, such as peace and security,
development,humanrightsandhumanitarianaction,
and enhances coordination between regional and
global actors and action. Networks can be flexible,
allowing for variable participation by a wide range
of actors and the possibility for open coalitions or
small “mini-lateral” or even “micro-lateral” groups,
growing over time to include more actors. To keep a
diverse set of actors aligned, the most successful
networks involve clear goals, such as the climate
target of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Expert bodies like the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change can ensure networks are evidence
driven. Networks do not, however, replace our core
international institutions, which have a unique role
in galvanizing diverse actors and making space
for marginalized voices. With clear goals and
targets, and international organizations to provide
legitimacy, we can make better use of the power of
networks to deliver global public goods. For my part,
I will seek to enhance cooperation with regional
organizations, development actors, international
financial institutions and other relevant multilateral
institutions (see chap. V).
Nations large and small: a new global deal to deliver global public goods and address major risks CHAPTER IV
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 67
PARAMETERS FOR NETWORKED – INCLUSIVE – EFFECTIVE MULTILATERALISM
NETWORKED – INCLUSIVE – EFFECTIVE MULTILATERALISM
Draws on
existing institutional
capacities
Cross-pillar, avoids
fragmentation
Coordination
between regional
and global levels
Flexible Parliaments
Variable
Clear goals
Evidence driven
Delivers
results
Prepared and
ready to act
Resource
priorities
Accountability for
commitments
Space for
all voices
Diverse set
of States
International
institutions,
including
international
financial
institutions
Civil society
Private
sector
Cities
NETWORKED
MULTILATERALISM
EFFECTIVE
MULTILATERALISM
INCLUSIVE
MULTILATERALISM
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68 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
106. More inclusive multilateralism is marked by a
genuine possibility for States from all regions and
of all sizes to engage in collective action, notably
including a stronger voice for developing countries
in global decision-making. It also means inclusion
of a diverse range of voices beyond States. In
addition to intergovernmental organizations, this
can include parliaments, subnational authorities
(cities and local and regional governments), civil
society, faith-based organizations, universities,
researchers and experts, trade unions, the private
sector and industry, and local and grass roots
movements, including those led by women and
young people. This vision recognizes that States
remain central to our collective ability to meet
global challenges and have unique responsibilities
in the multilateral system, while also acknowledging
that solutions increasingly depend on the private
sector and non-State actors, who should therefore
be part of the deliberations and accountable for
their commitments. The role of parliaments, cities
and other subnational authorities is particularly
being recognized in inclusive approaches, with,
for example, voluntary local reviews of Sustainable
Development Goal implementation providing a
model on which to build. Civil society needs to
remain part and parcel of our work across sectors
and in multilateral forums. In the light of its power
to shift the needle significantly on many of our most
critical challenges, inclusion and accountability
of the private sector are essential. Arrangements
where the private sector commits to responsible
innovation and to harnessing technology fairly
provide a good basis on which to build, as do
business models that support inclusion, human
rights and sustainable development, such
as investment funds that take into account
environmental, social and governance factors.
107. Ultimately what matters is results. We need
multilateralism that is more effective in delivering
on its promises and consequently is more trusted.
This means the multilateral system is prepared
and ready to act or adapt in the face of present
and new risks; prioritizes and resources the
tasks that matter; delivers results; and can hold
all actors, State and non-State, accountable for
commitments made. Any conversation about
improving governance of the global commons and
global public goods should assess how well our
current arrangements meet these criteria. Where
they do not, options for better preparedness,
prioritization, decision-making arrangements,
resourcing, accountability and compliance would
need to be considered. In particular, a balance is
needed between voluntary and binding actions
that is commensurate with the challenges we face.
While international law is essential in delivering
global public goods and I have called for a renewed
commitment to its development, we also have ways
to encourage mutual accountability through other
frameworks, including peer-review models (such
as the universal periodic review) and mechanisms
for sharing good practices and transparent data
gathering. Finally, key to ensuring effectiveness
is that funding and financing are brought to bear
in support of our collective commitments. The
Economic and Social Council forum on financing for
development follow-up, which seeks to review the
means to implement the Sustainable Development
Goals, provides a promising example.
© UN Photo/Juan Araujo Pinto
Purposes and
principles:
adapting the
United Nations to
a new era
V
Purposes and principles: adapting the United Nations to a new era
CHAPTER V
72 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
V. Purposes and principles: adapting the
United Nations to a new era
108. In this report, I have outlined a vision for Our
Common Agenda. To support this vision, the United
Nations also needs to adapt. The Organization has
evolved over time in response to changing needs,
most recently through an ambitious reform agenda
to improve its effectiveness, launched in 2017, which
has begun to deliver results. The COVID-19 pandemic
was an early test of these reforms, enabling the
United Nations system to respond to the needs
of people and Member States. Emerging from the
pandemic, with the world facing important choices
to support a breakthrough rather than a breakdown
scenario, the United Nations must provide a platform
actively to shape the future in ways that will make
it worth living in, and for.
109. Some Member States have suggested that the
United Nations is itself a global common; or at least,
that it is vital to support the delivery of many global
public goods, serving as a venue for collective
action, norm development and international
cooperation. While the United Nations alone cannot
address the numerous challenges confronting us,
especially in a complex and networked world, it is
one of the key institutions available for solving the
problems that matter most. The United Nations
has a universal convening power that gives all
193 Member States an equal voice, increasingly
joined by representatives from the private sector,
civil society and academia, along with a unique role
in safeguarding global values, ethics and norms and
a global presence and technical expertise. As some
spaces of decision-making become increasingly
exclusive, there is a need to safeguard a space for
all voices. Our Common Agenda must therefore
include upgrading the United Nations, so that it
is able to support global discussion, negotiation,
progress, solutions and action to address our most
urgent collective goals.
110. The previous chapters of this report set out a
series of actions that the United Nations intends
to work with Member States and others to pursue
in support of the renewed social contract, stronger
solidarity between generations and the delivery
of global public goods. While summarizing them,
I offer below additional reflections, commitments
and recommendations for how the United Nations
could continue to adapt and make a difference in
people’s lives. This recognizes that the Charter is
based on enduring values and principles, but is
also flexible and dynamic, allowing for adjustment
to address new challenges.
A. For the Secretariat and the
United Nations system
In support of the renewed social contract
111. Much of the operational and in-country work
of the United Nations is geared towards supporting
the social contract at national levels, as needed
and requested by States. In some contexts, it is
the United Nations itself that ensures delivery of
vital public goods, such as humanitarian action,
health, education, electricity and housing, along
with security and support for the police. My
proposals in chapter II for institutions that listen
better to people, participatory approaches and
reducing complexity thus equally apply to the
United Nations where relevant. Building on good
models from elsewhere in the system, the United
Nations Secretariat will develop a policy that puts
people at the centre of all its actions and takes
into account the impact of intersecting personal
characteristics, such as age, gender and diversity.
112. The United Nations development system
reforms have positioned the Organization to offer
more cohesive support to Governments. Building on
Purposes and principles: adapting the United Nations to a new era CHAPTER V
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 73
this, Member States could consider steps to bring
the governance bodies and funding of development
agencies closer in alignment to maximize impact,
while leaving each agency its separate brand and
operations. I will also encourage United Nations
country teams to actively support States in
renewing the social contract, particularly focusing
on trust, addressing discrimination and exclusion,
and measuring what matters. We will look to make
every United Nations presence a centre of context-
specific prevention expertise, including by better
linking peace and security, human rights, climate
and development work, and focusing on factors
that can give rise to or exacerbate grievances. The
consultations for the seventy-fifth anniversary
(reaching 1.5 million people) and for Our Common
Agenda (with some 500 submissions) have initiated
a new era in listening, consultation and engagement
with people, along with our guidance on civic space
under my Call to Action for Human Rights. I will
encourage all parts of the United Nations system
to make such consultations with people, including
women and young people, regular and systematic
going forward.
113. Other elements that the United Nations system
will take forward as part of its own support to and
reflection on the renewed social contract include
reviewingourruleoflawassistance,implementation
of my Call to Action for Human Rights, including
through a United Nations system-wide agenda for
protection, and making human rights commitments
a reference point in the design and delivery of United
Nations programmes, development assistance and
crisis prevention initiatives. I recommit to ensuring
gender parity at all levels within the United Nations
system by 2028. I will also support a review of
the United Nations system’s capacity – staffing,
resources and architecture – to deliver on gender
equality as a core priority across all entities.
In support of solidarity between
generations
114. In chapter III, I proposed some institutional
modifications at the United Nations to strengthen
our solidarity with both younger and succeeding
generations. Notably, I propose to ensure that the
voices of youth are more systematically integrated
across the United Nations system by exploring
with Member States the upgrading of the current
position of Envoy of the Secretary-General on Youth
to an office in the Secretariat. I will also continue
to listen to and support networks of young United
Nations staff members, including on the need to
improve our recruitment and retention of young
people from diverse backgrounds, as well as to put
in place a more modern and flexible environment
that supports junior staff members, including
young women, in advancing their careers.
115. Separately, I propose the appointment of a
Special Envoy for Future Generations who would, for
the first time, represent the interests of succeeding
generations across the United Nations system and
with Member States. The envoy would also steer
initial steps by the United Nations to bolster our
capacity to understand, plan and act for the long
term, exemplified by the proposed Futures Lab. I
hope this will allow the United Nations to become
a reliable guardian for our future, acting on behalf
of both current and succeeding generations as
anticipated in the Charter. The Futures Lab would
also significantly strengthen the capacity of the
United Nations in futures analysis and foresight.
In support of delivering global public
goods through more networked, inclusive
and effective multilateralism
116. In chapter IV, I outlined a vision for improved
multilateral governance focused on protecting
our global commons and delivering critical global
public goods, as well as being prepared to respond
to major risks. To support this, the United Nations
system must adapt to play a leading role in a more
networked and inclusive world, improving our
collaboration and strategic engagement with other
actors and forums at the global and regional levels,
while also maximizing our comparative advantage
in service of the people who need us most.
117. The value added of the United Nations in a
networked world includes a number of elements
which could be strengthened. First, one of the
Purposes and principles: adapting the United Nations to a new era
CHAPTER V
74 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
primary roles of the United Nations is as a source
of reliable data and evidence, providing public and
verified information to help the world understand
risks and opportunities. To strengthen this role,
I will seek to re-establish the Secretary-General’s
Scientific Advisory Board and explore better linking
of knowledge centres across the United Nations
system, including in its specialized agencies, to
reinforce impact. I will also encourage the United
Nations to become more strategic in knowledge
production, delivering fewer, but more coherent
and action-oriented reports each year. This will in
part be achieved through the United Nations digital
transformation strategy, which is directly aimed at
effective knowledge production and dissemination
across the system.
118. Another important role for the United Nations
in a networked world is as a convener: serving
as a place to build consensus around priorities
and strategies, where actors from all sectors can
make commitments and be accountable, and as
a platform for collective action and delivery. Our
universal nature means that in some instances
we are not the most nimble, and that formalities
and protocol must be observed. However, we also
offer a space to bring together decision-makers
with the accountability and authoritativeness
associated with intergovernmental processes
to support networked approaches. We must do
this better, and more often. The United Nations
will improve its work at different levels (country,
regional and global) and across different thematic
pillars (including peace and security, development,
climate, human rights and humanitarian response).
© UN Photo/Manuel Elias
Purposes and principles: adapting the United Nations to a new era CHAPTER V
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 75
We will also strengthen cooperation within the
United Nations system and between the system
and regional organizations, international financial
institutions and others. To enhance cooperation
between the United Nations and regional bodies,
I will convene an annual meeting with all heads
of regional organizations. I will also promote
continuous active dialogue between the United
Nations system, international financial institutions
and regional development banks, as a complement
to the Biennial Summit proposed in chapter IV.
119. The United Nations system, including the
Secretariat, will also take further steps to become
more inclusive. For certain constituencies, such
as parliamentarians, the private sector, and cities
and subnational authorities, which are crucial and
innovative drivers of global change today, we have
been asked to consider standing mechanisms for
engagement and consultation, consistent with the
sovereignty of Member States and provisions of
the Charter on membership of the United Nations.
Within the Secretariat, I will strengthen our
collaboration with subnational authorities through
the creation of an Advisory Group on Local and
Regional Governments. I will also explore options
to enhance parliamentary inputs at the United
Nations, working with our existing partners.
120. The increasing role and influence of the private
sector, and its centrality to achieving so many of
the actions outlined in this report, will also be taken
into account within the United Nations system. The
business and human rights agenda is important
in this regard. I also call for a broader range of
businesses, from multinational corporations
to small and medium-sized corporations, to
participate in the Sustainable Development Goals
and climate action, including through business
models that align with efforts to rethink measures
of progress and prosperity. The new strategy issued
by the Global Compact Office, promoting its 10
principles and the expansion of its network and
private sector investments, is a unique vehicle to
raise ambition and achieve stronger private sector
engagement, accountability and partnerships.
121. Civil society organizations were present in San
Francisco at the founding of the United Nations
and have been an integral part of the United
Nations ecosystem from the outset. As part of our
consultations, civil society has called for better
engagement with the United Nations system. I
believe that it is essential for the United Nations
to listen to, coordinate with and engage with civil
society. I have heard the calls for a single, high-level
entry point for civil society and will further explore
options in that regard. However, I also believe that
what is most needed at this time is to go beyond a
consultation and advocacy role, and rather for all
parts of the United Nations system directly to include
civil society in their work across all the pillars of our
activities. This is about a shift in mentality as well
as in practice. As such, all United Nations entities
will be asked to establish a dedicated focal point
for civil society, if they have not already done so.
These focal points will be expected proactively to
create the space necessary for civil society actors to
contribute at the country and global levels, and within
United Nations meetings, networks, processes and
arrangements. We will regularly map and monitor
our relationships with civil society across the system
to ensure that the better engagement we all seek is
being achieved and sustained.
122. WithintheSecretariat,theUnitedNationsOffice
for Partnerships will support these relationships,
ensuring that we have in place the necessary
administrative, legal and digital instruments to
allow our partners to access information and to
participate in the work of the United Nations. We
will in particular build on the possibilities for greater
inclusion that we have seen during COVID-19, with
digital solutions and hybrid meetings allowing more
diverse actors to participate without limitations
because of visas, funding and travel. Ensuring
inclusive virtual meetings means taking into
consideration and proactively seeking to address
issues such as access to the Internet, language
barriers, time zones and safety.
123. To make the United Nations more effective, we
will develop new capabilities that promote agility,
integration and cohesion across the system. This
Purposes and principles: adapting the United Nations to a new era
CHAPTER V
76 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
will be part of a wider transformation towards a
United Nations “2.0”, a new version that is able
to offer relevant and system-wide solutions to
the challenges of the twenty-first century. I will
accelerate this transformation through a “quintet
of change”, a set of cross-cutting agendas that
underpin many of the initiatives proposed in
this report. The quintet capabilities include
data, analytics and communications; innovation
and digital transformation; strategic foresight;
behavioural science; and performance and results
orientation. Driven by the Secretary-General’s Data
Strategy, better data, analysis and communications
capabilities will enable us to turn information more
easily into insight, transform our decision-making,
optimize our services and make the Organization
a better communicator. Further investing in
innovation and digital transformation will reshape
our way of working, helping us to reach more people
in need and better serve them. Strengthening
strategic foresight, through initiatives like the
Futures Lab, will enable anticipatory action and
the design of more forward-looking policies
and programmes. The systematic application of
behavioural science will increase our effectiveness
in policy, programme and mandate delivery. It will
also allow us to simplify bureaucratic processes.
Performance and results orientation will ensure
that the Organization is focused on impact, learning
and continuous improvement.
124. Finally, for the Organization to be effective, it is
crucial that Member States’ financial obligations be
met in full and on time. The underlying reasons for
the recent financial crisis of the United Nations are
not fully resolved. I have made several proposals
to Member States in this regard, ranging from
increasing our existing liquidity reserves to creating
a new reserve for our peacekeeping operations
and addressing the structural impediments in the
management of our budgets. As part of recent
reforms, the United Nations has also made
significant investments in improving transparency
in its financial reporting and budgeting. However,
efforts to focus more on results and improve
mandate delivery have been undermined by the
unpredictability and timing of our cash inflows. If
the vision that Member States articulated in the
seventy-fifth anniversary declaration, and on which
I have elaborated in this report on Our Common
Agenda, is to become a reality we must solve
the financial crisis and secure more sustainable
funding for the Organization. The United Nations
system can make better use of available resources,
including by repurposing existing funds and
adopting less rigid budgetary procedures. The
United Nations system will also explore ways to
better harmonize budgeting and funding requests,
ensuring that the different executive boards of
agencies, funds and programmes work together
and communicate. We will focus on improving
how we formulate and execute budgets to keep
the Organization nimble and dynamic and able to
respond to volatile situations and new emergencies.
Ongoing efforts to ensure transparency for Member
States in the budget process must not come at
the expense of the ability of the United Nations
to use resources efficiently and effectively; the
focus should be on programme delivery and results
rather than financing. We must allow managers
to manage, and hold them accountable for the
results. In addition to these steps, I invite Member
States to consider examining the mechanisms
for reviewing the budget, with support from the
Secretariat as necessary. Together, we can identify
ways to improve the budget process, especially in
how we formulate and communicate the results that
we hope to and do accomplish, looking holistically
at what makes sense, what works well and what
needs to be improved.
B. For Member States’
consideration
125. Any decisions regarding the principal
intergovernmental organs and other bodies of the
United Nations are for Member States. However,
there are various needs that have been identified
throughout this report, notably in conjunction with
the interests of succeeding generations, and the
governance of the global commons and the delivery
Purposes and principles: adapting the United Nations to a new era CHAPTER V
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 77
of global public goods through networked, inclusive
and effective multilateralism. The activities of the
Trusteeship Council have been suspended since
1994. Previous commissions and secretaries-
general, along with some Member States, have
proposed a repurposing of the Council to enhance
the governance of the global commons. Building
on these ideas, and as part of the follow-up to Our
Common Agenda, I invite States to consider making
the Council available as a multi-stakeholder body
to tackle emerging challenges and, especially, to
serve as a deliberative forum to act on behalf of
succeeding generations. Among other tasks, it
could issue advice and guidance with respect to
long-term governance of the global commons,
delivery of global public goods and managing
global public risks.
126. Beyond the Trusteeship Council, I took note
of calls from Member States for reforms of the
three principal organs of the United Nations in
the seventy-fifth anniversary declaration, in
particular their commitments to instil new life
into the discussions on the reform of the Security
Council and to continue the work to revitalize the
General Assembly and to strengthen the Economic
and Social Council. With regard to any decisions
by Member States to adapt the intergovernmental
organs to the needs and realities of today, I stand
ready to provide the necessary support. Below
are some of the ideas that have emerged from
our consultations on the seventy-fifth anniversary
and Our Common Agenda, grouped here for the
consideration of Member States.
127. After decades of debate, the majority of
Member States now acknowledge that the Security
Council could be made more representative
of the twenty-first century, such as through
enlargement, including better representation for
Africa, as well as more systematic arrangements
for more voices at the table. In addition to the
intergovernmental negotiations continuing with
renewed urgency, suggestions have been made
to strengthen the inclusiveness and legitimacy
of the Council by systematically consulting with
a broader range of actors, including regional
organizations; considering public commitments
to exercise restraint in the use of the veto; and
expanding the use of informal mechanisms, such
as Arria-formula meetings, to advance sensitive
issues. Reinforced action on prevention to ensure
that the threats we face today do not fester and
deteriorate would mean that the Council, charged
with managing and resolving potential and actual
threats to international peace and security, avoids
seeing its agenda expand exponentially. The United
Nations system needs to be able to address the
cross-cutting issues of security, climate change,
health, development, gender equality and human
rights from a prevention perspective with greater
effectiveness and accountability, for example
through expanding the role of the Peacebuilding
Commission to more settings. The proposed
emergency platform for convening the key actors
to respond to a complex global crisis could be
another element of this.
128. Member States’ efforts to revitalize the work of
theGeneralAssemblyandstreamlineitsresolutions,
reporting requirements and committees have
been welcomed. It has also been suggested that
States could strengthen the high-level week of
the Assembly, using it as an opportunity to take
decisions and make commitments at the level
of Heads of State and Government. Similarly, the
Economic and Social Council was established in
the Charter as the principal United Nations body
coordinating the economic and social work of the
Organization. While we are now in a different era,
various proposals have been made to reinforce
the role and profile of the Council, including
by bringing the G20 and its processes into a
closer relationship with the Council. In my view,
the Biennial Summit put forward in chapter IV
would be an important step forward in better
coordination of global economic governance. In
addition, the high-level political forum has emerged
as the primary global gathering for sustainable
development. It provides an inclusive platform for
monitoring implementation of the 2030 Agenda,
while promoting peer learning and expanding the
global movement for the Sustainable Development
Purposes and principles: adapting the United Nations to a new era
CHAPTER V
78 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
Goals. I invite all Governments, sectors, partners
and alliances to engage at the high-level political
forum each year to increase ambition, accelerate
implementation efforts and build connections
across issues that are essential for effective
multilateralism.
129. The consultations as part of Our Common
Agenda have called for fuller use of the human
rights treaty monitoring system, including the
universal periodic review, treaty bodies and special
procedures, to solve pressing social, economic
and political challenges. As indicated in my Call
to Action for Human Rights, I am ready to work
© UN Photo
with States to find ways to put the human rights
mechanisms on a more sustainable financial
footing, including through more flexibility for the
United Nations to allocate funding, and to better
link them with other processes to maximize their
impact and assist States parties with compliance.
More transparency has also been called for in
terms of human rights commitments undertaken
by prospective candidates for membership of the
Human Rights Council, in line with the criteria
adopted by Member States in General Assembly
resolution 60/251 by which the Council was created.
Purposes and principles: adapting the United Nations to a new era CHAPTER V
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 79
130. Finally, echoing calls made to the United
Nations system, we have received suggestions
on how to increase opportunities for engagement
by civil society and other stakeholders across all
the intergovernmental organs. These have included
an annual civil society caucus in conjunction with
the General Assembly’s high-level week, as well
as calls for an updated resolution defining how
organs like the Economic and Social Council, the
General Assembly and the Security Council relate
to civil society, local and regional governments
and business actors, and for the President of the
Economic and Social Council to convene a general
review of arrangements for observer status or
consultation in this regard. I encourage Member
States to give serious consideration to these ideas,
in keeping with our quest for a multilateralism that
is more networked, inclusive and effective.
© UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Moving forward
VI
Moving forward
CHAPTER VI
82 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
VI.Moving forward
131. The purpose of Our Common Agenda is to
keep delivering on the promise of the Charter of the
United Nations. This report has provided a vision of
solidarity and international cooperation that puts
us on a path towards a breakthrough for a greener,
safer and better future, and walks us back from
the cusp of breakdown. This vision builds on and
responds to the declaration on the commemoration
of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United
Nations, in which Member States made 12 critical
commitments: to leave no one behind; to protect
our planet; to promote peace and prevent conflict;
to abide by international law and ensure justice; to
place women and girls at the centre; to build trust; to
improve digital cooperation; to upgrade the United
Nations; to ensure sustainable financing; to boost
partnerships; to listen to and work with youth; and
to be prepared for future crises, including but not
limited to public health crises. They also underlined
that the United Nations should be at the centre
of the effort to deliver on these commitments,
noting that there is no other organization with its
legitimacy, convening power and normative impact.
Our Common Agenda is intended to advance the
12 themes of the declaration through actions that
are urgent, transformative and fill critical gaps. It
reinforces the need for robust action on the 2030
Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals,
along with other critical commitments on climate
and human rights. I look forward to working with
Member States and other stakeholders to act on
the ideas reflected in the report.
ANNEX
84 OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
Annex: Process for consultations on
Our Common Agenda
or more of the 12 themes from the declaration.
I issued a similar invitation to several high-level
groups of experts, practitioners and former leaders.
In response, we received many insightful papers,
videos and presentations and heard directly from
some thought leaders in the breakfast dialogues
and elsewhere.
4. In line with my determination that young people
should be the designers of their own futures,
I provided young thinkers and leaders with
dedicated opportunities to contribute. A group
of next generation fellows hosted by the United
Nations Foundation built on the consultations on
the seventy-fifth anniversary with young people,
with guidance from my Envoy on Youth, convening
a series of action groups on thematic priorities
through a “big brainstorm” and holding national
conversations with young people who had not
previously engaged with the United Nations. The
fellows worked intensively with youth-led networks
and organizations from across the world and held
intergenerational dialogues with policymakers.
Their work informed my recommendations on
young people and future generations. They have
also set out their own vision, ideas and proposals
in a report entitled “Our future agenda”.
5. In keeping with the vision of more networked
and inclusive multilateralism, and in keeping with
the Charter of the United Nations, I also consulted
widely with “we the peoples” of our world, including
civil society, parliamentarians, think tanks, the
private sector, subnational leaders and city
networks, underrepresented groups and other
non-government partners. This was supported
by the United Nations Foundation and the Igarapé
Institute, along with a network of global partners
from all regions, including the African Centre for
the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (South
1. In the declaration on the commemoration of the
seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations
(General Assembly resolution 75/1), Member
States tasked me to report before the end of the
seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly with
recommendations to advance Our Common Agenda
and to respond to current and future challenges.
In response, in addition to involving the United
Nations system as a whole, I embarked upon a
process of reflection, consisting of four tracks
engaging a broad array of stakeholders, including
Member States, prominent thought leaders, young
people and civil society. The process built on the
year-long anniversary global listening exercise,
when over 1.5 million people from all 193 Member
States took part in an online survey. Polling firms
also conducted surveys in 70 countries. These
consultations showed significant public support
for international cooperation and a desire for more
networked, inclusive and effective multilateralism
in the future.
2. Engagement with Member States began with
a letter to all permanent representatives and
observers on 8 October 2020 laying out the
process and inviting them to share their views.
On 15 December 2020, the President of the General
Assembly convened an informal encounter at which
I shared some initial reflections and listened to
views from the floor. In 2021, the United Nations
Foundation, a key partner in this exercise, convened
a series of breakfast dialogues with Member States
organized around the 12 themes of the seventy-
fifth anniversary declaration. On 8 July 2021,
I again participated in an informal dialogue with
the Assembly to share and hear more ideas.
3. To enrich the reflection process, I invited a
geographically diverse, gender-balanced group
of thought leaders to contribute their ideas on one
ANNEX
OUR COMMON AGENDA – REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL 85
Africa), Southern Voice (a network of 50 think tanks
from Africa, Asia and Latin America) and the Lee
Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National
University of Singapore. Every effort was made
to ensure that the reflection process included a
wide range of voices from all regions, including
through an experimental digital consultation
exercise overseen by the Igarapé Institute, which
generated more than 520 proposals from over
1,750 participants, including from organizations
with several million members, in 147 countries
and in six languages.
6. The rich array of perspectives and inputs
received greatly enhanced the ideas laid out
in the report of Our Common Agenda and I am
enormously grateful to all those who contributed.
21-10865