UN Secretary General speaking at a podium with an image of member states flags behind him

Policy Briefs

In recent years, major global shocks and setbacks to progress on the Sustainable Development Goals have increasingly underscored our shared vulnerabilities. International cooperation is needed more than ever, yet our collective problem-solving mechanisms do not match the pace or scale of the challenges we face. Today’s complex, interconnected, and rapidly changing world requires a more effective multilateral system – with the United Nations at its core.

Cover of Our Common Agenda

Our Common Agenda is aimed at turbocharging the 2030 Agenda and making the Sustainable Development Goals real in the lives of people everywhere.

Because halfway to 2030, we are far off track."

Secretary-General António Guterres

At the invitation of Member States with the adoption of the UN75 Declaration, the Secretary-General issued Our Common Agenda in 2021, his vision for the future of international cooperation. One of the key objectives of this report is to tackle the obstacles and impediments to the 2030 Agenda, turbocharging action on the Sustainable Development Goals. It provides practical recommendations to fill gaps in global governance in order to take on emerging challenges.

graphic of arrows converging into a center

Summit of the Future - 2024

Member States have rallied to take action across a number of areas. The Summit of the Future in 2024 is a critical opportunity to reaffirm and bolster shared principles, taking forward solutions to more effectively deliver for the people and planet. At the Summit, Member States have committed to adopting a Pact for the Future to cement collective agreements and to showcase global solidarity for current and future generations.

Background information on the Summit
Summit of the Future website

What would the Summit deliver? [PDF]

Our Common Agenda Policy Briefs by theme

At the invitation of Member States, the Secretary-General is now issuing a series of Policy Briefs to provide more detail on certain proposals contained in Our Common Agenda and to support them in their deliberations as they prepare for the Summit of the Future. These briefs will include an analysis of the proposals’ impact on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, and will be informed by the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, with gender equality as a cross-cutting theme.

* Available Policy Briefs are in PDF format.

Future Generations

clock face with an arrow going clockwise

Emergency Platform

illustration showing top view of a group of people standing in a circle holdin hands surrounding an alert sign

Youth Engagement

a young woman and a young man hold a board

Beyond Gross Domestic Product

magnifying glass examining a graph

Global Digital Compact

globe with binary connections around it

Information Integrity

transmission tower

International Financial Architecture

globe with international currency symbols arounde it linked by arrows

Outer Space

the sun with planets rotating around it

A New Agenda for Peace

hands cradling a dove with an olive branch it its beak

Transforming Education

monitor, glasses, book and a notebook

United Nations 2.0

UN emblem

Common Agenda
Policy Briefs

A quick summary