Geneva Futures Talks

Context
The heightened conditions of polycrisis triggered by wars, climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and waste underscore the necessity for creative solutions that draw on the knowledge, expertise, and resources of various sectors and organizations. These solutions should extend beyond addressing immediate needs to fostering resilient, transformative development pathways, which decouple growth from resource consumption while driving economic and social progress.
Globally, 2024 will be a pivotal year for contemplating the future, particularly at the Summit of the Future and in the run-up to it. This period will focus on evaluating how the multilateral system can respond to the polycrisis and support transformative change.
International Geneva holds a crucial role in this context, with several entities in the ecosystem already playing a key role in shaping the future of multilateral action for 2030 and beyond.

Rationale
In March 2024, on the margins of the UN Regional Forum for Sustainable Development, the University of Geneva (UNIGE), the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the UN Futures Lab, the Beyond Lab (formerly SDG Lab) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) joined forces to discuss the role of Cross-Sector Intelligence and Foresight to accelerate the SGDs.
As a follow-up, the Geneva Future Talks were initiated. These informal, closed-door conversations aim to help International Geneva contribute to the global debate on future- aware and future-ready governance for sustainable development in a multi-sectoral manner.

The Talks will pursue two main objectives:
Creating a network of practitioners and stakeholders with diverse perspectives and capabilities, but a common commitment to strengthen foresight and future-readiness across the International Geneva ecosystem.
Identifying actions that are conductive to desired scenarios or increase readiness to cope with unwanted scenarios.
At its start, in the context of the Summit of the Future, the Talks will examine the pillars of the draft Pact of the Future, exploring how strategic foresight and collective intelligence can help the international community implement the ambitions of the Pact once adopted by Member States.
The Talks are not intended to contribute to the text of the Pact but to generate policy insights and practical follow-up actions for International Geneva.
The first iteration of the Talks between May and September 2024 will cover the following topics through the lens of foresight (sub-headers of the draft Pact of the Future):

• Sustainable development and financing for development - UNECE 27th May 2024
  
• International peace and security Science, technology and innovation and digital cooperation- World Economic Forum 10th July 2024
  
• Youth and future generations
• Transforming global governance