2024 Building Bridges Week

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ADDRESS: Varembé Conference Centre (CCV) | 9-11, rue de Varembé, Geneva
VENUE: Room NYON
DATE: 10 December 2024
TIME: 11:30 – 1:00

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Context

Achieving sustainable development requires an urgent paradigm shift in how we approach financing and economic progress that prioritizes human and planetary well-being. With only 17 per cent of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on track for achievement by 2030, traditional development models are proving inadequate. A transformative systemic shift is necessary to ensure that sustainable development is inclusive and regenerative, striking a balance between both the well-being of people and the planet — today and for future generations.

The principle of intergenerational equity is at the heart of sustainable development¹. It requires meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. However, traditional approaches to decision- and policy planning and making, including financial, tend to prioritize short-term gains over long-term needs. Importantly, they neglect spillover effects over time. Such temporal spillover effects look at the intergenerational and long-term impact and consequences of today’s decisions and actions on future generations and long-term sustainability.

The recent adoption of the Pact for the Future at the Summit of the Future in September 2024 at the United Nations in New York reflects a shared recognition among countries and world leaders for the need to consider an intergenerational and long-term impact perspective when making decisions today. Concretely, the Pact is meant to boost progress towards the SDGs, including through the following actions:    

• Reforming the international financial architecture to turbocharge implementation of the SDGs and achieve a more inclusive, just, peaceful, resilient and sustainable world for people and planet, for present and future generations (Action 47, chapter 5).

• Urgently developing measures of progress on sustainable development that complement or go beyond gross domestic product (GDP), towards recognizing what matters for the interlinked well-being of people (both current and future generations), biodiversity and the planet (Action 53, chapter 5).  

The universally endorsed Pact reinforces the Beyond Lab’s on-going “What’s Next” series with a focus on Rethinking Economic Systems as it emphasizes the urgent need to reimagine economic and financial systems, aligning them with human and planetary priorities to ensure long-term sustainability and intergenerational equity. These themes are also central to the upcoming Fourth International Financing for Development Conference (FfD4) that will take place in Sevilla, Spain, at the end of June 2025. The conference will address new and emerging issues as well as the urgent need to fully implement the SDGs and support the reform of the international financial architecture.

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Workshop objectives

In the wake of the Summit of the Future, and in preparation for the FfD4 conference in 2025, the Beyond Lab will join the Building Bridges Action Days and host an engaging workshop on 10 December 2024.

The Beyond Lab’s engagement aims to spark an honest dialogue and explore innovative perspectives on reimagining economic systems and financing for long-term sustainability anchored in inter-generational equity. Moving beyond mere measurement, it seeks to align societal, economic and planetary values and priorities with sustainable development goals in the long-term. The exchange will be framed by the following g guiding questions:  

1. Rethinking Economic Systems: How can we redesign economic systems to prioritize long-term sustainability and intergenerational equity, aligned with human wellbeing and planetary boundaries?

2. Shaping Sustainable Finance: How can finance be structured around regenerative and equitable principles to deliver real value for people, nature and the planet?

3. Creating greater awareness on the long-term impact of decisions and actions today: How can we track and address negative temporal spillover effects or “footprint” on long-term sustainability, including by rethinking of our collective “debt to future generations”?

Background

The workshop is anchored in the Beyond Lab’s “What's Next” series, a dynamic platform for intergenerational and multi-disciplinary dialogue, challenging existing paradigms, and exploring innovative ideas for long-term sustainability through multi-stakeholder exchanges. This stream builds on an on-going dialogue curated in partnership with the Governments of Kenya and Canada. Initiated at the margins of last year’s Building Bridges Conference, the dialogue is focusing on the topic of “Financing What We Value” for the well-being of people and the planet. It shines a spotlight on the importance of value-based financing as a key principle, and the need to redesign and reorient financial systems to be aligned with human and planetary well-being.  

The workshop at margins of the 2024 Building Bridges seeks to leverage previous insights and findings, while surfacing and framing new ideas on redesigning the economic and financial systems respectively for the 2030 Agenda and beyond, by building a bridge between the Summit of the Future and the Financing for Development Conference next year. The diverse ecosystem of international Geneva, with its high density of development and finance stakeholders, makes it a unique place to discuss the question of redesigning our economic and financial systems for long-term sustainability.  

The dialogues encourage creative thinking, and a mindset shifts by spotlighting issues often overlooked in traditional sustainable development discourses. A key focus is amplifying inter-generational perspectives including that of youth and future generations.  

Furthermore, the workshop will follow up and feed into related workstreams by the Beyond Lab, such as:  

• The “Youth Moving Beyond GDP” initiative (in partnership with Rethinking Economics and UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)).  

• The Lab’s Futures Balance. Currently under development, the Futures Balance is an innovative, AI facilitated policy planning tool to facilitate future-fit decision making by showcasing the long-term impacts (spillovers) of policies across policy domains and time, as well as by suggesting alternative policy pathways that help create assets for the future towards regenerative sustainability.
  

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Workshop Format

• This invitation-only interactive workshop will be conducted in a circle format under the Chatham House Rule to foster an open and inclusive environment. Speakers and other participants are encouraged to share freely, with the understanding that while the information discussed can be used, the identity and affiliations of speakers or any other attendees must remain confidential.

• Welcoming remarks will be delivered by the Director-General of UN Geneva, Ms. Tatiana Valovaya and the exchange will be facilitated by Ms. Özge Ayodğan, Director of the Beyond Lab.  

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Workshop Expected Outcomes

• Generate actionable insights on aligning economic systems with long-term sustainability anchored in intergenerational equity.

• Inform and shape upcoming key intergovernmental and multilateral processes with new concepts, connecting the Summit of the Futures to next year’s FfD4 conference.

• Contribute to the development of initiatives and tools to support innovative and transformative policy planning and policymaking, considering the intergenerational/temporal spillover effects and and impacts of today’s actions and decisions on long-term sustainability.  

• Strengthen intergenerational, multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary collaboration to drive economic and financial systemic change towards long-term sustainability.

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