By: Elizabeth Sullivan
On Wednesday, January 29, 2020, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres joined a panel of six youth leaders and an audience of young people to officially kick off UN75. This Inaugural Launch event was the first UN75 Dialogue of 2020 at the UN Headquarters in New York City. This event was hosted by youth with youth, emphasizing the Secretary General’s commitment to keeping young people “in the driving seat” as we work towards a better global future. The event featured a discussion between the Secretary General and six panelists, questions from audience members and social media viewers. Additionally, the event closed with a livestream with youth activists in Juba, South Sudan—the youngest country, population-wise, in the world.
This year, the United Nations celebrates 75 years since its founding. The world has changed a lot since 1945; on many accounts, we have made great progress, but there is still a lot of conflict, violence, hatred, and other evils tarnishing our world. This anniversary is not only a time to reflect on how far the world has come, but also a crucial moment in reflecting on where we can, should, and need to go from here. It is a time to address both new forms of violence as well as long-standing conflicts, to tackle inequalities and distrust in institutions, and to reinstate the founding spirit of the UN. Most importantly, the Secretary General emphasized that UN75, and all of the events and dialogues that will occur under its name, is a space for leaders to listen and to learn.
Before commencing his conversation with the six young panelists, the Secretary General took an informal survey of the audience: In 25 years, the UN will be 100 years old. Do you think the world will be better, worse, or the same? The results varied, with a slight majority of the audience voting in favor of “better”— H.E. Mr. Guterres commended this wave of optimism and invited the panelists to comment.
There were a variety of comments and opinions across the panel on this idea of the world’s status in 2045. As activists for positive social impact, some panelists found it essential to their everyday work to believe that the world will be better in the future. That being said, the world will not be better unless we work hard to get to that better place—we are not where we should be yet. We must all act collectively to demand stakeholders adapt their practices in order to actually achieve our optimistic agendas. Additionally, we have to learn from the success and the challenges that we have experienced in the last 75 years; choosing to include women, girls, youth, etc. We cannot take the progress made for granted. Literacy rates are on the rise, there is more access to healthcare and education than ever before; however, “better off” is not good enough. To truly be successful, 2045 has to be good in and of itself not just better than our current state.
A major theme that panelists continued to return to and raise in different ways throughout this discussion was the double-edged sword nature of technology in our world today. Progress in artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity, for example, will better society in so many ways such as developing the capacity to anticipate major emergencies. Nevertheless, these same technologies can be used to conduct great evils. It is essential that we foster the rise of safe, new technologies that can work for humans, ensuring their right to privacy and being made available to more than the world’s richest populations.
The Secretary General invited panelists to raise the issues of today’s world that they most hoped to be resolved and/or changed by the UN’s 100th anniversary. Panelists raised their concern for the resolution of both today and yesterday’s conflicts, for reducing all inequalities, and for building governments that work towards more human relations of dialogue and cooperation. They discussed the dream for the more than 71 million forcibly displaced persons throughout the world to have the ability to return home, echoing the desire to eradicate fear and hatred everywhere. Furthermore, the panelists raised the importance of having youth leaders in government, civil society, and the private sector, and to overall increase the accountability of these industries. Moreover, all of these issues need to be looked at with intersectionality and through a multilateral lens, as they are all interconnected.
The conversation turned to the point that, regardless of what strides we make in the next twenty five years, we must honor the Sustainable Development Goal principle of leaving no one behind. We must tackle the issues that bring about inequality, and ensure that the progress we make includes disenfranchised groups. For example, as technology progresses, it needs to be able to serve the world’s most vulnerable populations. In order to achieve the goals we set, it will not be enough to continue business as usual—we will have to break existing hierarchies and give the less-represented groups a seat at the decision-making table.
To conclude his conversation with the panel, H.E. Mr. Guterres posed the question of what role the United Nations and other global organizations have in the type of progress being discussed. The panelists shared that the UN holds the convening power that is essential to shift the current business model, and it has the capacity to bridge the interests of different nations. The UN can encourage both nations and the private sector to use more foresight to try to understand how to prepare society for the challenges of tomorrow. The UN has deep knowledge of how technology is being used and misused in contexts of violence. The underlying theme was that we need global cooperation to tackle global challenges, and the United Nations can be a platform for and a driving force behind this cooperation.
Altogether, H.E. Secretary Guterres opened the UN75 dialogue with the strong message that youth will be kept at the driving seat during this critical point in the UN’s history. Leaders like the Secretary General are here to listen to the other stakeholders as we work together for a brighter future. For more information UN75 and to take the UN75 survey, click here. You can watch the full event here.
Fordham University Impact Initiative 