- Invitation to Global Engagement & Empowerment Forum on Sustainable Development (GEEF) 2021 January 22, 2021
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Event to be live streamed on February 4-5, 2021
2021 Global Engagement & Empowerment Forum on Sustainable Development (GEEF)
3Ps (Peace, Prosperity and Partnership) Beyond Security
1. Background and Rationale
Global Engagement & Empowerment Forum (GEEF) will be held from February 4th to 5th, 2021, under the theme of “3Ps(Peace, Prosperity and Partnership) Beyond Security.” These three key concepts are chosen, for they address the most urgent issues our world faces today.
In March 2020, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a global ceasefire “to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives,” the coronavirus pandemic. The disease threatens our peace as it exacerbates conflict and insecurity, such as cross-border tensions, climate emergencies, social unrest and eroding trust in institutions. Moreover, it has also reversed years of effort devoted to promote shared prosperity, especially among the bottom 40% of the population. According to the latest Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020, it is estimated that the pandemic will push 71 million people back into extreme poverty. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented major challenges to both the public and private sector, with the global society witnessing further fragmentation of the social fabric at local, national and regional scales. Some countries have had difficulties in promoting voluntary quarantine measures and medical treatment of COVID-19.
Under these circumstances, this Forum plans to shed light on the importance and necessity of the multilateral partnership and multisectoral responses to COVID-19. As the international community coordinated responses to COVID-19, we have at first hand realized the vulnerabilities of existing partnerships centered on a few developed countries. Consequently, the need for global solidarity and support among governments, businesses, and civil society organizations has become more important than ever.
Therefore, GEEF 2021 will discuss and explore ways of effective partnerships that go beyond the existing limitations. In particular, the round table session will specifically focus on global partnership through multilateral cooperation and multisectoral partnerships to combat COVID-19.
The Programme for GEEF 2021 will prioritize four key areas in six featured sessions:
Monitoring and Evaluating UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the blueprint for Sustainable Development.
1) Redesign our Future: The UN SDGs, 5 years and the next 10 years Science, Technology and Innovation
for SDGs
2) AI for SDGs, Society for SDGs
3) Creative Solutions for a Sustainable Society
4) Health Partnerships for Healthy Lives and Well-being
5) Global Partnership and Higher Education
6) Future of Higher Education, Higher Education of the Future
Previously, GEEF has invited global leaders and experts from various fields to discuss the direction we should take to achieve the SDGs. Held in 2018, the inaugural GEEF invited 65 speakers under the theme of "Putting People and Planet at the Center." These in-depth dialogues focused on partnerships, climate change and health for common prosperity, and other topics, such as water, education, sustainable production and consumption, were also addressed in parallel sessions. Following the successful hosting of the first GEEF, the 2019 session invited 106 speakers and panelists from 27 countries, offering SDG 3, 5, and 11 on the main sessions. More than 2,000 participants from over 80 countries attended the second iteration of the Forum. GEEF has served as a platform to foster free flow of ideas among stakeholders on the SDGs to make a better world and lay the groundwork for a global cooperative society.
It is our hope that discussions offered through featured sessions at GEEF 2021 on how to improve partnerships would lead to shared prosperity and promote peaceful societies. The concept of ‘Security’ can be extended to cover not only diplomacy and national defense but also various dimensions that can lead to transnational insecurity, e.g., climate change, mass migration, widening inequalities, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, and deforestation. GEEF 2021 hopes that this year’s forum will serve as a venue for the global community to discuss how to build 3Ps beyond security to rebuild our society’s resilience for the post-COVID-19 era.
2. Session Objectives
- Share emerging issues and pressing challenges to tackle as a global community
- Discuss future directions and actions speakers will take in 2021
- Offer suggestions on what the audience should think and act upon in 2021
Learn more about this year's program here.
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