UN Summit of the Future: Charting the Path for the Future Girls Want
24 September 2024Reflections on the UN Summit of the Future and how the Pact for the Future measures up for girls and young people.
The UN Summit of the Future has been presented as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvigorate global action, recommit to fundamental principles, and further develop the frameworks of multilateralism so they are fit for the future.” As such, it provides a critical window of opportunity to increase commitment to and investment in adolescent girls’ rights.
But to what extent has the Summit, which wrapped up yesterday in New York, delivered on that promise?
What were the outcomes of the Summit?
In our advocacy leading up to the Summit, Plan International worked with young people to identify 8 Transformative Actions for Adolescent Girls and Young People. These are the Actions from the Pact for the Future – the outcome document of the Summit – that they believe would be most impactful in propelling us towards the future they envision, as laid out in the Girls’ Pact for the Future. The Transformative Actions range from ending poverty to achieving gender equality, protecting civilians in armed conflict, ensuring meaningful youth participation, and more.
The Pact for the Future covers topics from sustainable development, international peace and security, science, technology and innovation, youth and future generations and transforming global governance. The Pact also includes a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations as annexes.
The negotiations for all three documents were challenging, revealing the deep polarisations that exist in our world. Issues thatyouth had identified in the 8 Transformative Actions as most important, such as the mainstreaming of human rights and gender quality, how to address climate change, the role of the family, and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), took center stage in the debates.
How does the Pact measure up for girls?
So, in this context of rollback on rights, is this the document that will bring about the change that adolescent girls and young people are calling for?
Here are some of the areas where the Pact for the Future and its two annexes were strong:
- Girls’ rights: Gender equality is at the heart of the Pact of the Future which highlights the importance of the empowerment of all women and girls for the achievement of sustainable development. Adolescent girls are also explicitly mentioned in the text. In addition, all three texts emphasise the need to address sexual and gender-based violence, a critical barrier for the fulfilment of girls’ rights.
- Youth participation: Youth features prominently in the Pact, the Declaration on Future Generations and the Global Digital Compact. Two of the Actions in the Pact are dedicated to the full, meaningful, and effective participation of youth in decision-making at both the national and international levels.
- Inclusion and non-discrimination: The Pact recognises the specific discrimination and vulnerabilities faced by certain groups, including persons with disabilities and those facing racism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination.
Where does it fall short?
But there were also numerous challenges and areas where the text could have been much stronger:
- Education: The Pact falls short of setting out concrete actions to increase global investment in inclusive quality education as the foundation for advancing gender equality and a more sustainable and peaceful future.
- SRHR: We welcome reference to the Programme of Action of the International Conference of Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action which remain critical frameworks for advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for girls. However, we regret that the Declaration on Future Generations missed an opportunity to include an express reference to SRHR.
Action, investment and accountability
What comes next is all the more critical: implementation. The UN and its Member States are at no loss for commitments. But what is missing is concrete action, investment, and accountability.
We call on governments to work together with adolescent girls and young people to find creative and radical ways of implementing the Pact and particularly the 8 Transformative Actions. We urge all stakeholders to build on these Actions in the run-up to COP29, the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Conference, and numerous other global policy forums taking place in the next year.
We will hold governments accountable, as will adolescent girls and youth all around the world.
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