DOHA - Since early 2020, the number of people affected by hunger has risen by 150 million – a trend that has been exacerbated by the three Cs: conflict, climate change, and COVID-19. When it comes to global threats, rising food insecurity is just the tip of the iceberg. As the recent failure of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference also showed, the world urgently needs new, more innovative approaches to governance and institutions if it is to tackle humanity’s greatest challenges.

To improve the international community’s tools for managing enormous, complex global problems, the United Nations is planning to hold a Summit of the Future in September 2024, which will be preceded by a ministerial meeting in September 2023. Among other things, this intergovernmental process will highlight the need for more able responses to the rising risks of nuclear war, runaway climate change, resurgent poverty, and threats to human rights.

Though no significant global problems can possibly be solved overnight, the Summit offers a rare opportunity to achieve some high-profile wins in the short term, and to strengthen the conditions for even more ambitious improvements in global governance in the years to come. The hope is that the Summit will deliver three new global policy frameworks: a Declaration on Future Generations, a Global Digital Comp