Doha Forum – Global Governance Innovation and Renewal

To reimagine and better prepare our system of governance to keep pace with fast changing trends, we must comprehend its many facets in today’s multipolar world.

Summary

On 14-15 December 2019, the Stimson Center was honored to partner with the Doha Forum to produce the Forum’s inaugural report which speaks to the theme of this year’s edition, Reimagining Governance in a Multipolar World, and organize a plenary session and a working group discussion. This opportunity allowed scholars, experts, policymakers and leading personalities from both within and outside the United Nations to critically think through some of the major global governance reform innovations that should be considered for the world body’s 75th anniversary in 2020.

Watch full interview with Richard Ponzio at the Doha Forum

Plenary Session: The United Nations at 75: A Time for Renewal and Innovation

At a time of growing mass violence in fragile states, the threat of runaway climate change, fears of backsliding on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and declining confidence in multilateral institutions, the world – and especially the United Nations – cannot afford to stand still.

Regrettably, the violent conflicts and environmental crises have only grown more acute with each passing year. The global economy remains vulnerable to another financial crisis. The international institutions built since 1945 to help nations manage and resolve their problems peacefully – and together – are being weakened to a degree not seen since their founding. On the 15th of December, the Stimson Center partnered with the Doha Forum to organize the Plenary Session “The United Nations at 75: A Time for Renewal and Innovation”.

This special, high-level plenary session discussion explored novel approaches to improve the architecture of global governance – to halt runaway climate change, promote international peace and security, improve conditions for Sustainable Development Goals implementation, better manage migration and protect refugees, and safeguard basic human rights – in the one-year-to-go run-up to the UN@75 Summit.

Keynote Speakers

  • H.E. TIJJANI MUHAMMAD-BANDE, PRESIDENT OF THE 74TH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
  • H.E. BAN KI-MOON, MEMBER OF THE ELDERS AND FORMER UN SECRETARY-GENERAL AND SOUTH KOREAN FOREIGN MINISTER

High-level Panelists

  • FABRIZIO HOCHSCHILD DRUMMOND, UN SECRETARY-GENERAL SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE COMMEMORATION OF THE SEVENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNITED NATIONS
  •  ROSEMARY DICARLO, UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR POLITICAL AND PEACEBUILDING AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL AND PEACEBUILDING AFFAIRS (DPPA), UNITED NATION
  •  VLADIMIR VORONKOV, UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL, UNITED NATIONS OFFICE OF COUNTER-TERRORISM (UNOCT)
  • ACHIM STEINER, ADMINISTRATOR, UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (UNDP)
  • H.E. IBRAHIM GAMBARI, FORMER FOREIGN MINISTER OF NIGERIA, UN UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS, AND CO-CHAIR OF THE ALBRIGHT-GAMBARI COMMISSION
  • MODERATOR: MR. STEVEN CLEMONS, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, THE HILL

Working Group on Global Governance Innovation and Renewal

On the 15th of December, the Stimson Center convened a Working Group on Global Governance Innovation and Renewal at the Doha Forum. Bringing together leading intellectuals and former statesmen with mid-career scholars and policy entrepreneurs, the Working Group aspired to think through some of today’s thorniest global governance problem-sets, how they intersect and speak to the need for systemic change.

It served as a platform for mid-career scholars to present – in the form, of succinct, widely consulted, and visually attractive global governance innovation briefs – targeted proposals for strengthening and renewing governance across borders. The discussion was particularly focused on questions such as: “What are the most pressing gaps in global governance that merit urgent political attention?” and “Building on the new Doha Forum Report’s call for a UN Conference on Multipolar Governance and Global Institutions in 2023, how could a “post-2020” intergovernmental process be designed to address unfinished business from the September 2020 UN 75 Leaders Summit in New York?”

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