UN Future Summit could use a Kamala bump

U.N. summits can struggle to draw the public’s attention. The spectacle of 193 world leaders, foreign ministers, and ambassadors delivering pre-written speeches on the state of global affairs at the U.N. General Assembly debate is enough to drive even the most avid U.N. watcher into a slumber. However, some observers believe an appearance by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris could inject a badly needed dose of excitement. Richard Gowan, the U.N. representative of the International Crisis Group, told Devex in a recent Devex Pro Live event that there are “rumors pinging around” Turtle Bay that Harris may speak at the U.N. Summit of the Future — a two-day event preceding the high-level meetings of the U.N. General Assembly later this month. “There does seem to be a suggestion that she might appear at some time during the General Assembly, maybe at the summit,” Gowan said at the Devex event titled: Everything you need to know about UNGA79 and the Summit of the Future. “And obviously that would probably raise the media profile of the summit for the future by about 5,000%.” But others cautioned that there is currently no plan for Harris to attend the high-level meetings in New York. “There are no current plans for the VP to travel to New York to participate in the UN General Assembly,” one source familiar with the vice president's planning told Devex. “As she has done in past years, it is possible she meets with foreign leaders in DC during this week.” Her absence would leave U.S. President Joe Biden center stage to deliver his farewell speech to world leaders, while Harris and Donald Trump focus their efforts on winning votes in battleground states. A U.N. list of speakers viewed by Devex confirmed that Biden would deliver the U.S. address at the U.N. General Assembly debate. Gowan said he doesn’t expect an appearance from Donald Trump, who seemed to enjoy his visits to the U.N. summits during his presidency. But he said the former U.S. president, and current Republican nominee, will cast a long shadow over the proceedings in New York. “The U.S. election is a big elephant in the room,” he said, recalling Trump’s withdrawal from several U.N. institutions, from the U.N. Human Rights Council to UNESCO, and international agreements, including the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement. “There are real concerns that will happen again” if he wins the election, he added. The convening of the Summit of the Future — which will take place from Sept. 22 to 23 will result in the adoption of three documents, including a Pact For the Future, a blueprint for the future of international cooperation. World leaders are also expected to adopt a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations. The high-level annual debate of world leaders will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 24, and continue into the beginning of the following week. Devex discussed the upcoming summit this week at an event last Thursday, Sept. 5, with a panel of U.N. and development experts, including Gowan, Rachel Glennerster, the new president of the Center For Global Development, and Jodie Garfieldt Kofoed, the senior director for sustainable development initiatives with the UN Foundation. The Future Summit is often described as U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ swan song, his last best effort at creating an enduring personal legacy. It represents an ambitious effort to remake an institution forged after World War II to meet the challenges of the day — climate change, pandemics, conflict, migration, and the still unclear threats and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence and digital technologies. The negotiations coincide with a period of severe geopolitical turmoil, including unstoppable wars in Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine. The U.N.’s veto-wielding big powers — China, Russia, and the United States — are at each other’s throats, making it all the more difficult to reach agreements at the U.N., particularly in places such as the U.N. Security Council. There is also a widening gulf between the world’s donor community and the global south, which has struggled in the face of worsening climate disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic, and soaring indebtedness. For months, diplomats have been negotiating a sprawling 29-page future pact that focuses on five areas: financing the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals; peace and security; science, technology, and innovation; reform of global governance; and youth and future generations. There is a lot to chew on, with 60 action plans dealing with everything from poverty eradication to the reform of the international financial system, nuclear disarmament, and governance of the internet and outer space. The talks hit a bump earlier this month: Germany and Namibia tabled a draft pact, only to have a number of countries object. “We’re in a process where everyone is piling in with last-minute objections,” Gowan said. “Lo and behold, lots of countries came forward with objections. These processes always go to the wire, but we just don't know how much is going to be shredded or how much is going to be deliberately made vague to get agreement.” Contentious issues include a decadeslong effort to expand the 15-member Security Council, reproductive health rights, constraints on nuclear weapons production, the growing pushback on the unilateral impositions of sanctions, mostly by the U.S. and European powers, and money. The U.S. and its Western allies sought to water down a proposal by the U.N. chief to create a $500 billion SDG stimulus package. The latest draft of the future pact simply pledges to “continue to advance with urgency” the stimulus proposal but does not include a dollar figure. Glennerster, a former chief economist at the U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, said it is important to focus on concrete solutions to a range of development challenges, like providing incentives to vaccine makers to produce large batches, rather than on differences among governments. She cited an initiative by her organization to promote a “grand bargain” between high-income countries and lower- and middle-income countries that expands access to antibiotics that can fight antimicrobial-resistant infections. “This is kind of a win-win proposal,” she said. “High-income countries have a huge incentive to make sure that the antimicrobial resistance is dealt with everywhere in the world because it can spread and can really affect high-income countries too.” Kofoed, who served as Denmark’s senior human rights adviser at the U.N., said the Future Summit offers an opportunity for Europe and other wealthy countries to reset their relations with the global south. Trust, she said, has been undermined by a weak international response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in most vaccines being hoarded by rich countries, and climate change, with pledges to ramp up mitigation and adaptation funds unmet. “That’s the opportunity, I think, for the north to walk the talk,” she said. “And if you’re not able to walk the talk on any of the financing, you will again, I believe, see it blow back on the trust and all of the foundational issues that carry us forward at the U.N. “It’s really time to shift the paradigm and give up some power and privilege for everyone to have a sense of equity, not being left behind and feeling that no one is condemned to remain at the bottom of the pyramid,” Kofoed said.