Representatives of the Baha’i International Community (BIC) joined over 2,500 registered participants from around the globe to explore matters related to future systems of international governance at the civil society Global Futures Forum (GFF). 

Taking place online and in New York from 20-22 March, the Forum offered an opportunity to explore what arrangements are needed to respond to increasingly complex global risks, as well as how to get there in creating a better future for people around the world.

“The multiple and compounded crises that we are experiencing are such that we cannot afford a band-aid approach,” said Maria Fernanda Espinosa in opening remarks, Co-Chair of one of the Forum’s organizers, the Coalition for the UN We Need (C4UN), and Executive Director of Global Women Leaders, Voices for Change and Inclusion. 

“We need to think about a more systemic overhaul, a co-creation with all our minds and hands together.”

The Forum built off seven thematic e-consultations held earlier in the year and took the form of panel discussions bringing together leaders and experts from diverse fields, thematic workshops, including one on Peace and Security, moderated by BIC representative Liliane Nkunzimana, as well as Regional Forums.

In reflecting on the Forum, BIC representative Daniel Perell, who was closely involved in its organization as the other Co-Chair of the C4UN, said: “What has been unique about this Forum has been its dynamism in bringing together diverse collaborators to embark on a process of learning, collectively exploring proposals and steps toward a hopeful future we all aspire to.”

“While constructive proposals within the current system were discussed and proposed, there is also a growing recognition that the underlying assumptions upon which the international order is built should be questioned, as well.”

A key outcome of the Forum, feeding into the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals Summit in September this year, will be a shared declaration, outlining principles and processes that could contribute to the General Assembly’s preparatory negotiations on a UN Pact for the Future, together with other outcome instruments related to the Summit of the Future in 2024.