A future that is ours for the making!

Author: Steven Hartman

A year ago today, 22 September 2023, I took this picture on my way to the UNESCO offices in New York to meet Assistant Director-General Gabriela Ramos and Wales Future Generations Commissioner Derek Walker to discuss how we could build closer cooperations together focused on futures literacy, foresight and planning (championed by both of my meeting partners) and the humanities-led sustainability science work of the UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES Coalition, which I head up as Executive Director. BRIDGES is anchored in UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations (MOST) programme.

Since our meeting a year ago today the synergistic partnership and collaborations across all these organisations and programmes has truly blossomed.

One noteworthy sign of that fact was the high-level side event on moving “From Idea to Action and Impact: mobilising the outcomes of the Summit Of the Future” that Gabriela Ramos, Derek Walker and I all participated in yesterday as speakers at the United Nations. You can see our high-level session here: From Idea to Action and Impact: mobilizing the outcomes of the Summit of the Future (Side Event, Action Day 2, Summit of the Future) | UN Web TV

Another excellent sign of the vibrant pathway we have begun to forge together is the meeting I just came out of with the South African delegation to UNESCO, the lead Member State sponsors of our high-level event yesterday and the current President of the MOST Intergovernmental Council (the Kingdom of Thailand was also a Member State sponsor). We have agreed to undertake steps in the coming months to ensure action and impact on the ground in South Africa early in 2025, drawing on the wisdom, knowledge and technical expertise of our fuller consortium of partners here at the Summit.

Interestingly, this post comes only an hour or so after The Pact for the Future, the major outcome of the Summit of the Future was adopted by the UN General Assembly here in New York!

So many intersecting lines! I think these are all wonderful signs of a future that is ours for the making!