Representatives of United Nations Member-States and UN officials will join today a new discussion series, based on UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s report Our Common Agenda and hosted by the Baha’i International Community (BIC) in New York as well as other civil society actors, on the future of the multilateral system.

Today’s first discussion will feature observations from three high-level speakers, Ms. Maria Fernanda Espinosa, President of the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly and co-chair of the BIC’s civil society partner organization, the Coalition for the UN We Need; H.E. Mr. Agustin Santo Maraver, Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Spain to the UN and an advocate of progressive UN reform; and Dr. Azza Karam, a Member of Mr. Guterres’s High Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism and Secretary-General of Religions for Peace.

Daniel Perell, a BIC Representative to the United Nations, will moderate the discussion. High-level attendees from across Member-States, the UN system and civil society are expected to play active roles throughout the series.

“We are pleased to launch this new, off-the-record dialogue, opening a space for a diverse array of actors to discuss the multilateral order and how this system is foundational to the future of humanity,” said Mr. Perell. “The present moment finds us, once again, confronting a cascade of crises. We hear alarming talk about the limits of the rules-based international order. Our new discussion series, inspired by the Secretary-General’s seminal report, Our Common Agenda, aims to infuse new ideas and arrangements into the global governance system so that it can meet the needs of future generations.”

The monthly discussion series is planned to continue until the UN’s 2023 Summit of the Future. A report on the discussions, based on monthly unattributed summaries, will be published ahead of the Summit.

“Humanity’s welfare—and indeed, humanity’s very future—depend on solidarity and working together as a global family to achieve common goals,” wrote UN Secretary-General Guterres in Our Common Agenda.

The new series will build off successful dialogues hosted by the President of the General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives, in February and March. Attendees at those dialogues expressed a desire to see them continue in some form.

Our Common Agenda called for a new social contract, anchored in human rights, renewed solidarity between peoples and future generations, a new global deal to deliver public goods and address major risks, as well as proposals for a United Nations more suited to the needs of the 21st century.

Members of the media are welcome to attend the series as observers and to report on the findings of the discussions when the final report is prepared.