Global South Summits

WHY GSFN GLOBAL SOUTH SUMMITS

Implementing two global agendas—the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—to prevent planetary collapse is not just lagging, it’s dangerously behind. The global 2030 Agenda, which is crucial for our survival, is far from being on track. The urgency of this situation cannot be overstated, and it is imperative that we act now.

More significant action is urgently needed to meet these goals by 2030.

“To increase both ambition and the effectiveness of efforts to avoid catastrophic climate change and to ensure sustainable development for all, there is a need to accelerate the implementation of these global agendas, and localisation can be one way to achieve this.”

Policy Brief ’Localising NDCs with Inspiration from the 2030 Agenda.’

The Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) offer an exceptionally structured approach: politically backed commitments by the countries tackling the world’s current crisis, including targets for mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change and adapting to climate impacts.

Local communities are the key to achieving our global goals. By identifying, using, and enabling their potential, we can translate these global and national agendas and plan collaboratively to local contexts and needs, a process known as ‘localisation’. Lessons learned from localising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where the concept has been used for longer and broader than with NDCs and the Paris Agreement, include the need for a clear national localisation strategy and greater multi-level cooperation. This approach holds the promise of significant progress.

A lack of vertical coordination, incoherent policies, and weak climate data at the local level are among the most significant challenges to localisation processes. Combining bottom-up and top-down aspects (multi-level collaboration) can help raise ambition in new NDCs.

The Global South Summit, a pivotal event in the localisation of NDCs, is poised to overcome the challenges and expedite the localisation of NDCs. It serves as a dynamic platform for knowledge sharing, capacity building, and collaboration among stakeholders from the Global South, with a strong emphasis on local community engagement and the adaptation of global agreements to local contexts. This Summit, with its focus on you, our esteemed stakeholders, holds the promise of significant progress.

One of the GSFN Global South Summit’s distinctive features is that communities are ’at its heart’. No previous Global South initiative has placed such a strong emphasis on local community engagement for NDCs. At GSFN, Summits are focused on achieving four distinct objectives, with the active participation of communities being a key driver of success:

• To translate and adapt the global agreements negotiated by national governments to local contexts and needs.
• Speeding up the transformation towards a sustainable and climate-neutral world in line with both the global agendas
• Foster faster, more ambitious and coordinated action at all levels of government.
• Localisation should be applied more widely to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the primary tool for implementing the Paris Agreement and SDGs.

The Global South Summit will contribute to:

• Localisation of NDCs can lead to more responsive public services. By engaging communities in governing and running public services, we can ensure that they are more responsive and sensitive to the needs of those they are meant to serve. For instance, in a localised NDC, a community might prioritize the development of renewable energy sources to address local energy needs, leading to more reliable and affordable energy services for its residents. This is just one of the many positive outcomes that localisation can bring, contributing to neighbourhood renewal and improving the outcomes of public services.Deepening representation and participative democracy by engaging more people directly in decisions that affect their lives.
• Developing social capital and cohesion: Engaging communities in governing and running public services can foster trust, generate networks, teach skills, and empower those engaged.

The Summit, which brings together a range of quantitative and qualitative data, is principally designed to identify and explore the impact community engagement on NDC activities and outcomes, and the implementation of SDGs and is inviting communities:

• beyond area boundaries and natural communities
• inclusive of diversity and population change
• enhancing community engagement for capacity
• addressing imposed constraints and requirements
• Redefining and focusing on NDC funds to address poverty, high levels of worklessness, poor health standards and educational attainment.
• engaging local communities with various ethnic and cultural diversity, the stability of local populations, the extent of existing community organisation, and the local history of regeneration.

Participating in the Global South Summit is an opportunity for peer-to-peer exchange, contextualising Global South emphasising ‘the need to de-mystify the NDC’ and to make it ‘less political and more technically accessible.’ The Summit brings together various communities’ representatives of Global South countries, networks and the Women and Youth Support Programme highlighting the desire of local decision-makers and knowing how they could contribute to achieving NDC targets.

Global Sustainable Futures Network (GSFN) is embarking on an exciting new journey of capacity development at community levels in the Global South.

We are pioneering the pilot project with the interdependent collaborative leadership structure in Pakistan, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, etc.

GSFN ZAMBIA Global South Summit

27-28-29 Jun 2024

GSFN NIGERIA Global South Summit

24-25-26 Apr 2024

GSFN KENYA Global South Summit

18-19-20 Mar 2024

GSFN EGYPT Global South Summit

18-19-20 Feb 2024

GSFN PAKISTAN Global South Summit

25-26-27-28-29-30-31 Jan 2024

Capacity building of Global South in addressing the severe challenges of climate change and achieving sustainable development goals is essential and urgent. Equipping countries, communities and individuals with knowledge, skills and resources can empower stakeholders to navigate the complexities of climate policies, foster sustainable development and achieve national, regional, and global targets. The series of regional dialogues can build and enhance countries’ capacities to increase the impact and sustainability of national adaptation plans.

Strategies for fostering increased engagement within communities of the global south, building mutually reinforced platforms for the exchange of dialogue, and implementing a fair, unsupervised, multidisciplinary network are, therefore, crucial. The Global Sustainable Futures Network provides an integrated approach targeted to the scientific and non-scientific to foster increased engagement directed to ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’ to solve the climate crisis, including finance and technology needed for low carbon growth, and coordinate inter-sectoral coherence towards macroeconomic, financial, trade and industrial policies, required for regional growth and development and building regional resilience to climate change.

The Global Sustainable Future Network Summits are unprecedented opportunities for the Global South communities to overcome the vulnerabilities in the existing institutional, technological, and financial gaps and provide complementary pathways for South-South cooperation and economic integration. Learning takes place in areas such as clean technology, energy transitions, mobilizing limited financial resources, and the management of the comprehensive green transition tailored to local circumstances, co-creating a future together that addresses true well-being in the context of humankind and our planet within the greater whole.

Global South communities’ leadership is paramount in climate change and sustainable development because it can co-develop impact at the local level, engaging local stakeholders and promoting inter-community engagement.  At the national level, it can engage with political actions protecting communities and their resources, increase participation in improving biodiversity, and at the international level,  Global South communities will engage in international collaborations and ensure equitable resources and possessions, procuring equal benefits among national and international collaborators. Finally, the Global South leadership in climate change has the most potential for worldwide improvements, supporting positive, long-lasting changes in our scientific and non-scientific communities.