“The Summit of the Future is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enhance cooperation on critical challenges and address gaps in global governance, reaffirm existing commitments including to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Charter, and move towards a reinvigorated multilateral system that is better positioned to positively impact people’s lives. Building on the SDG Summit in 2023, Member States will consider ways to lay the foundations for more effective global cooperation that can deal with today’s challenges as well as new threats in the future.” (https://www.un.org/en/common-agenda/summit-of-the-future#:~:text=Having%20welcomed%20the%20submission%20of,will%20take%20place%20this%20year.)

 UN agencies, IFIs, INGOs, NGOs, private sector, impact investors, social entrepreneurs, corporate CSRs, Members states are pursuing SDGs and Agenda 2030. Their efforts are creating the balance sheet of the Agenda 2030. The impact of their present work on future generations is the subject of the SOTF. It is an unrecognizable fact that every effort made today will count for future generations. Therefore, it is important to calibrate, prioritize, and FOCUS activities so that results for future generations can be optimized.

The stakeholders working towards SDGs are producing plethora of activities. Tracking and monitoring relevant ones which are directly contributing to the SOFT is necessary so that global leaders have an idea of the hits and misses on this journey towards a sustainable prosperous planet for future generations.

My life goal has been serving the vulnerable. I have had the opportunity as former Social Protection Minister Pakistan to directly impact the lives of the most vulnerable households through a Social Safety Net fund of $1.25 bn. And on the global front I am member of the World Bank Advisory for Partnership for Economic Inclusion and have been member of the WB Gender Advisory as well. Our objective has been to create a knowledge platform for exiting millions globally from poverty through financial and economic inclusion. The past 3 decades of my career have been spent at: Citibank, setting up a tech entrepreneurship, being Media advisor to the President, Investment Advisor to the government, Parliamentarian for two terms, Chairperson of a parliamentary committee on Information, Minister Social Protection, Advisory Council Member for WB, Academic guest speaker. This journey has impressed upon me the need to look at the world though a multilateral lens. Globalization and functioning in a polycrisis whilst charging towards Agenda 2030 will require FOCUS on the Agenda of the SOFT.

1. Account for the future: practical steps to take account of the long-term impact of our decisions, fulfilling a long-standing commitment Member States have made to future generations;
2. Better respond to global shocks: put in place a stronger international response playbook for complex global shocks, maximizing the use of the Secretary-General’s convening power in the form of an Emergency Platform;
3. Meaningfully include young people: systematically include young people in global decision-making;
4. Measure human progress more effectively: agree on metrics beyond GDP so that decisions on debt relief, concessional funding, and international cooperation take account of vulnerability, well-being, sustainability, and other vital measures of progress.
5. Agree on a vision of digital technology as a motor for human progress that can deliver full benefits while minimizing potential harm;
6. Commit to integrity in public information: achieve an information ecosystem (notably online) that is inclusive and safe for all, perhaps via a code of conduct;
7. Reform the international financial architecture: to ensure it delivers more effectively and fairly for everyone and particularly the Global South, including through objectives that are aligned with the SDGs, debt sustainability, a global financial safety net, and more;
8. Advance the peaceful and sustainable use of outer space: update norms governing the use of and behaviour in space so that it is peaceful, secure and sustainable for the benefit of all;
9. Agree a new agenda for peace: update our understanding of all forms and domains of threats and adapt our toolbox to prevent and manage hostilities on land, at sea, in space, and in cyberspace;
10. Transform education: achieve a fundamental shift in how education is seen and treated including in relation to the purpose of education; the learning environment; the teaching profession; harnessing digital transformation; investing in education; and multilateral support for quality education for all.
11. UN 2.0: adapt basic UN practices on data, communications, innovation, strategic foresight, performance and results, and more, so it is better positioned to support all the above and face the challenges of tomorrow.

“Many aspects of how we live today will have consequences well into the future. Some will negatively affect future generations, whose welfare or very survival may be permanently compromised by climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, inadequate stewardship of emerging technologies, backsliding on human rights, persistent inequalities and exclusion, unsustainable consumption and production patterns, insufficient attention to sustainable development needs in countries where most future generations will be born, poor management of extinction-level threats and catastrophic risks to humanity, and many other developments, including those laid out in the “Elements paper for the declaration for future generations”.” https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/our-common-agenda-policy-brief-future-generations-en.pdf