Summit of the Future No 11: Update on processes for CSO inputs for a Declaration on Future Generations

In their letter of 20 December 2023, Ambassadors Yoka M.G. Brandt and Brian Wallace, Permanent Representatives of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Jamaica respectively, again state their commitment to “ensuring open, transparent and inclusive consultations with Member States, as well as relevant stakeholders.”

Further, they set out the arrangements for the virtual informal consultations with stakeholders on 15 and 16 January to “share good practices and suggestions on how to safeguard the interests of future generations”: 

Date	Time (New York)	Stakeholder Group(s)
15 January	9.00 am – 12.00 pm	Youth and Indigenous Groups
15 January	12.30 – 2 pm	United Nations Agencies, Funds and Programmes
16 January	10.00 am – 12.00 pm	Civil Society Organizations and Research Institutions / Academia
16 January	12.00 pm – 1 pm	Private Sector

Stakeholders who wish to participate in the consultations must register using this link. A link for the virtual meeting room will then be shared with those who have registered before the event. The Secretariat “will indicate in the chat box how connected stakeholders can inscribe on the list of speakers.”

In order to ensure equitable and effective participation, the co-facilitators encourage stakeholders “to nominate a representative to speak on behalf of their organization, entity or network, and to keep their interventions brief with a focus on the following questions:

“What are the principles that should ground our commitments in the Declaration on Future Generations?

“What practical steps are needed at the global level to take future generations systemically into account?

“What should the Summit of the Future aim to achieve so that we live up to our obligations to future generations?”

In preparing their interventions, participants should reflect on two documents Our Common Agenda policy brief entitled, To Think and Act for Future Generations”, and the issues paper from the co-facilitators, dated 27 June 2023 as circulated by the President of the General Assembly. 

Participants registered for the consultations will receive the call for written inputs, for which the submission deadline is 22 January. The co-facilitators state that the inputs will be available to all Member States “for consideration in the development of national positions that will inform [their] preparation of the zero draft of the Declaration.