In an era of emergency and uncertainty, the world is going through compounded and multifold crises, from worsening climate change, successive Covid-19 waves, deepening inequalities to new and lasting geopolitical conflicts of global consequences.
The stakes could not be higher.
The fight against global warming, race to reach the SDGs, efforts to strenghten health systems, economic cooperation as well as the common custody of global public goods or global commons had already taken a serious hit during the pandemic. Since Russia’s attack of Ukraine, much of the world has also been affected by the fallout of the conflict and the overall instability it brought about, from a new dramatic humanitarian crisis to surging inflation, grave food and energy insecurity worldwide, as well as economic and political disruptions.
Set to take place at the end of a particularly tumultuous year, the fifth edition of the Paris Peace Forum will focus on Riding out the multicrisis and preventing a destructive world polarization that would jeopardize the collective efforts on many critical challenges for humanity. It will also explore how to mitigate the multiple shocks and socio-economic aftermath of the crises by fostering a renewed cooperative world order and multilateralism. Finally, by putting forward transnational solutions, initiatives and debates, the Forum will show examples of resolve, resilience, solidarity and innovation from stakeholders of the North and South to address today’s most pressing issues in the midst of a volatile and fast-changing context.
The 2022 Paris Peace Forum will be as multi-actor as ever, convening representatives from states, international organizations, businesses, development banks to foundations and NGOs from around the world, meeting to turn solutions into concrete actions.
We need to transform this dramatic crisis into an opportunity. [...] We need to seriously think about the reform of international coordination mechanisms. We must give them effective capacity of governance, at least in those areas that are critical, namely when we deal with climate or pandemics, cyberspace, or outer space.
António Guterres • Secretary-General of the United Nations, during the Paris Peace Forum Spring Meeting, 24 May 2022
This change will bring new exciting opportunities for participants:
· To be in the center of Paris, and thus in a place easily accessible from most institutions like UNESCO, OECD or Elysée for meetings, and ideal to discover and explore Paris.
· To have a large choice of accommodation of all categories nearby.
· To experience different types of exchange. In addition to classic panel sessions, the fifth edition will feature interactive alternative formats, such as roundtables.
· To be able to work with nearby partners like the Agence France-Presse (AFP), located across the street.
This edition will precede the G20 summit in Bali (15-16 November) and coincide with the climate COP27 in Egypt (6-18 November) and will echo and complement the work done in these other fora.
Taking into account the far-reaching and combined effects of crises across the world on people and global cooperation, the program will focus on Riding out the multicrisis, with special emphasis on the following priorities:
This year, the Space for Solutions will showcase 60 projects tackling issues at the core of the fifth edition. We expect all project leaders to attend the fifth edition of the Forum in person, pandemic permitting.
For leaders of the selected projects, the Forum will be a unique opportunity to obtain international visibility and exposure thanks to the physical presence of their project during the event; take the floor during the event to speak about their work and/or share their views on the issue in global governance that they are addressing; and meet and discuss with experts and decisionmakers in their domain.
The SCUP (Scale-Up Program) projects chosen during last edition to benefit from a dedicated and customized support for a full year will also be featured in the event this year.
After four successful editions gathering 40 000 participants, 130 heads of state and government, and over 400 projects, the Paris Peace Forum is entering a new phase. In addition to being an annual event and accelerator of the projects presented during the November event, it has now transformed into an incubator and platform of new global policy initiatives.
This fifth edition will offer the opportunity to explore the Forum’s main areas of policy focus: global health, climate risks, digital and outer space issues. Each program pioneers new forms of cooperation between governments, international organizations, civil society and businesses – inclusive of the global South – to deliver concrete results.
On outer space, the Forum gathers all interested actors, both across the value chain and around the world, to design common principles to tackle the most pressing issues for safe and sustainable space operations. The Net Zero Space coalition, launched in 2021, calls for achieving sustainable use of outer space for the benefit of all humankind by 2030, taking concrete actions to tackle the pressing challenge of debris orbiting Earth.
On climate, the Paris Peace Forum works to accelerate emission reductions in critical domains to complement broader global efforts. In May 2022, we also launched the Global Commission on Governing Risks from Climate Overshoot – an independent commission of global leaders that aims to recommend an effective, robust, and integrated strategy to reduce risks from possible climate overshoot of 1.5 °C through the end of the 21st century.
On digital, the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, the reference multi-actor framework to promote core principles for the safety of cyberspace launched at the 2018 Paris Peace Forum, will take new directions. Initiate: Digital Rights in Society brings together experts, advocates, and policymakers including largely from across the Global South to pave the way for a better understanding of the societal challenges of AI and shared principles on what rights frameworks should shape the future of algorithmic governance. Other nascent workstreams on tackling harmful content and protecting children online will also be presented.
On global health, the Forum works to inform the post-Covid governance of pandemics, ensuring that the right lessons are learned from Covid through inclusive global dialogue on pandemic preparedness to support reforms towards a more effective, predictable and equitable global health architecture.
Stay tuned for more information on the 5th edition of the Paris Peace Forum!
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