Global problems without cooperative solutions lead to conflicts.
The challenges the world faces—climate change, terrorism, migration, cyber insecurity and the like—ignore borders. Addressing them requires international cooperation and collective action. However, collaboration is increasingly difficult as countries are turning inward. Today, the international community fails at producing the needed solutions.

Our world is not going in the right direction.
States are competing hard for advantage and populism is undermining the institutions and mechanisms for collective action. Democratic spaces are shrinking and inequalities are widening. Military expenditures are growing fast while the United Nations budget is cut. International norms, in particular, human rights, are disregarded. The Internet is becoming a jungle where data is hacked and fake news spread. International justice if being questioned. And we are losing the race against global warming.

This situation is not conducive to peace.
It leads to new conflicts on all continents. Peace is not just the suspension of war. Peace is made up of all the solutions that help reduce international tensions: cooperation to fight climate change and mitigate resource scarcity, institutions to channel power rivalries and better administer global public goods, regulation to address abuses of power and inequalities, intergenerational bridges and gender equality to create more peaceful societies. In other words, peace will only be sustainable if effective global governance underpins it.

 

Our mission

Our mission is to contribute to bridging this governance gap.

We maintain a specific focus on governance solutions in six major themes:

1. Peace & Security
2. Development
3. Environment
4. New technologies
5. Inclusive economy
6. Culture & Education

We support, improve, and complement multilateral institutions.
Multilateral organizations with universal membership have legitimate mandates for the creation of rules and mechanisms to solve transnational problems. We pick up the slack when these institutions cannot act or when the solutions proposed are insufficient.

We are multi-stakeholder.
We foster hybrid coalitions by gathering old and new actors of global governance: states and international organizations, but also NGOs, companies, foundations, philanthropic organizations, development agencies, religious groups, trade unions, think tanks, universities, and civil society at large.

We are project-oriented.
We showcase and support concrete projects that are either normative (instruments of law, standards, and good practices) or capacity-building (new institutions, mechanisms, and innovations).

Our work

We are both an actor and a platform to advance governance solutions when there are none.

We are an event to mobilize all stakeholders for collective action.
Our Forum is held every year on 11-13 November in Paris with the aim to place global governance at the top of the international agenda. Stakeholders discuss global governance issues and cooperate on solutions through three spaces:

1. Space for Solutions: Presenting solutions for incremental change. All organizations can showcase and advance their global governance project to other stakeholders to jointly advance them.
2. Space for Debates: Discussing solutions rather than problems. Stakeholders discuss projects, initiatives, and ideas to address the challenges of our world.
3. Space for Innovations: Developing digital prototypes. Experts help create technological solutions for the world of tomorrow.

We are also a resource to help implement and scale-up the most promising governance projects.
We identify global governance projects by launching a Call for Projects to organizations from all over the world.
We push forward innovative solutions by inviting public and private organizations around the world to showcase 120 projects.
We put emphasize on sustainability by helping support ten projects selected among those showcased at the Forum.