To commemorate its 75th anniversary, the United Nations launched its first ever, worldwide dialogues. The Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, on behalf of the UN, invited global citizens to discuss the kind of future we want and the global cooperation needed to deliver on our shared aspirations for a just, peaceful and sustainable future. The conversations encouraged future oriented public dialogues to inspire change and concrete actions to achieve the world we want around in an envisioned world in 2045.
More than half of the respondents were young people and the main concern of most was Climate Change. Watch the short video about the report here. Read the latest Report here.
Our NGO Office organized regional virtual dialogues in Europe, Asia, the Pacific, North America, Latin America and East Africa through Zoom meetings in collaboration with the IBVM/CJ UN Province Representatives. Participants were asked to respond to three questions.
1. Do we think we will be better or worse off? What kind of future do we hope / want to be?
2. Are we on track to achieve these? If not, what are the obstacles / challenges?
3. What would you like to advise the UN Secretary General to do to address these challenges?
The conversations included IBVM and CJ Sisters, teachers, co-workers, students, past students, parents and friends of diverse ages, backgrounds and interests. Most of our participants were hopeful that we will be better off, however this will require the world changing its ways. We wanted a world more equal in all aspects of our lives and more sustainable.
Our advice to the UN Secretary General was to learn from our experiences of solidarity during the pandemic and that quality education, trust and global collaboration are important to build a better world.
Read the reflection of some of our participants from various countries in English and Spanish.
Students from the Loreto Convent Schools in India participated in their UN @75 dialogue, that also included their teachers and parents, sent videos sharing their experience of the dialogue. You can watch these articulate and enthusiastic young people here.
