Global South Thwarts SG's Plans for a Summit on the Future : Colum Lynch / DEVEX

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. Photo by: Mark Garten / U.N.

Global South Thwarts UN Future Summit Plans

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At the UN, the future may have to wait.

A group of developing countries has blocked plans for a UN summit on the future, arguing that the UN should instead focus on implement its current agenda. They also argue that the event would be too expensive and would not be effective. This represents a major set back for the Secretary-Genearl who had proposed the summit as a forum to to discuss the challenges facing the world in the 21st century, such as climate change, inequality and poverty.

However, the group of developing countries, which includes China, India and Brazil, said the summit would be a waste of money and would not achieve anything. They argued that the UN should focus on its existing work instead of holding new summits.

The UN has not yet given up on the summit, but it is unclear when or if it will be held.

In addition to the cost and effectiveness concerns, the developing countries also expressed concerns about the summit's focus. They argued that the summit should focus on the needs of the developing world, rather than the priorities of the developed world.

The UN has said that it is committed to addressing the concerns of the developing countries, but it is unclear how these concerns will be addressed.

“G77 members see that Western governments are worrying about the size of their aid budgets. They fear that the rich world is going to tiptoe away from the SDGs, and the Summit of the Future is a sort of diplomatic smokescreen for that,” said Richard Gowan, a U.N. expert with the International Crisis Group. “I think that is actually unfair — the SDGs and the Our Common Agenda report are actually pretty complementary.”

“The irony is that the G77 is arguably winning the intellectual battle about what the U.N. should be focusing on right now.”