CIVICUS discusses the recently agreed Pact for the Future with Enyseh Teimory, Head of Policy at United Nations Association-UK (UNA-UK), a civil society organisation that promotes human rights, peace and global cooperation.

On 22 and 23 September, UN member states gathered in New York for the Summit of the Future, where they adopted the Pact for the Future and two related annexes: the Global Digital Compact, aimed at closing digital and data gaps, and a Declaration on Future Generations. The Pact aims to strengthen cooperation to advance the goals of various international agreements through a multilateral and rights-based approach. Despite its engagement throughout the process, civil society remains sceptical about whether these commitments will lead to real change.

How ambitious is the Pact for the Future?

The Pact for the Future, along with the broader Summit of the Future, demonstrates that multilateralism and the UN are not dead, but they are very much in survival mode. The process started amid a sense of hope, driven by Secretary-General António Guterres and a network of civil society organisations committed to an agenda of UN reform.

When the path to the Summit began in 2021 with the Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda report, there was hope the Pact could reinvigorate multilateralism on the scale and with the ambition we urgently need. The challenges facing multilateralism and the UN meant that from the outset it was unlikely to emulate previous milestones of global cooperation, such as the 2005 World Summit, which introduced key frameworks and mechanisms in peacebuilding and human rights, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2016.

However, even with this cautious optimism, no one could have predicted negotiations for the Pact would take place against the backdrop of an even more fractured and fragile world. We’ve seen escalating global conflicts, Security Council members flouting the UN Charter and growing threats to international law, humanitarian principles and human rights.

As a result, expectations had to adjust. The vision of a transformative moment gave way to a more pragmatic goal: to safeguard multilateralism and the standards and norms it upholds. While the Pact has fallen short of its original ambitions, it’s still a vital safeguard against regression. It also provides a valuable platform for collective action as we continue to work with the UN.

Do you see anything in the Pact as a victory for civil society?

Yes, absolutely. At UNA-UK, we’re part of the steering committee, along with CIVICUS, of the 1 for 8 billion campaign, which advocates for a more transparent and inclusive process to select the next UN secretary-general. The UN was founded to serve ‘we the peoples’ of the world. We the peoples therefore have a right to have a say over who is chosen, particularly those who have traditionally been least heard on the international stage: civil society, including grassroots groups, women and girls, and young people, especially from the global majority. We were pleased to see language in the Pact supporting the kind of process we propose and encouraging the nomination of women candidates.

This is important: for the first time, the issue of male dominance of the UN’s top job has been raised at the highest level. Although some states were more vocal in their support than the final text reflects, this is a crucial step forward. It creates a platform for the continued advocacy we will carry out over the next two years and indicates undeniable momentum building for the long-overdue end to 80 years of successive male secretary-generals.

There was also positive language on the issue of wider senior UN appointments, with text in the Pact that strengthens General Assembly resolutions aimed at combating harmful monopolies some states have on key UN roles. Another initiative we are involved in, the Blue Smoke campaign, has worked to address the ongoing issue of the ringfencing of top UN jobs for powerful states. This practice is harmful to the credibility – and therefore effectiveness – of the mandate-holder and the UN, but also means the UN misses out on a wide pool of world’s most qualified leaders.

How can civil society engage with the implementation of the Pact?

A key challenge will be to address the global trend of restricted civic space. CIVICUS and other organisations have highlighted this issue throughout the process. Civil society participation was a bright spot of the summit, with over 10,000 organisations engaging through events such as the Action Days and the Civil Society Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. However, significant barriers to access and meaningful representation remain.

The focus must now shift to building on the modest gains of the Pact and continuing to hold states and the UN accountable for the commitments made – not just in the Pact, but in other frameworks such as the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on climate change. This will require sustained advocacy to continue to build political will and ambition.

The Nairobi model, which prioritised thematic discussions and tangible actions over the production of a single outcome document, offers a promising approach to rethink how civil society engages with the UN system. Looking back to the UN’s 75th anniversary declaration, where this process began, the success of advocacy campaigns such as Together First, which played an important role in ensuring civil society’s involvement, demonstrated the importance of targeted and well-timed advocacy and the value of amplifying existing solutions.

There are also lessons we must learn about how we can more effectively strategise for collective action and how to better manage resources for advocacy. Huge energy has been expended by the UN, states and civil society over the last four years. The goal of achieving a truly networked multilateralism must not be abandoned despite the challenges we face.

Civil society has shown time and again it can be an asset for states and the UN secretariat. There’s no doubt we will be crucial in driving change and the movement for UN reform is a reminder of the need to secure a seat at the table for civil society so we can present our solutions, demand ambition and fight regression.