LONDON: Arab leaders have joined the head of the UN in calling for global action on security, poverty, development and climate change.

Their appeals came ahead of the UN’s Summit of the Future, which will take place on Sept. 22 and 23, during the organization’s 79th General Assembly in New York.

Billed as an attempt to revive trust in multilateralism and bolster support for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the event will result in a “Pact for the Future,” negotiated and agreed upon by member states. It will also produce a “Global Digital Compact” and a “Declaration on Future Generations.”

The UN said: “The world is not on track to meet the goals we have already set for ourselves. Nor are we effectively rising to new challenges or opportunities.

“Multilateral governance, designed in simpler, slower times, is not adequate to today’s complex, interconnected, rapidly changing world. The summit is an opportunity to put ourselves on a better path.”

The pact agreed during the summit will cover key aspects of the UN’s remit, including sustainable development, international security, science and innovation, and youth issues.

The organization hosted a “Global Call” on Thursday to promote the summit and outline its aims for the summit, at which Antonio Guterres, the UN’s secretary-general, was backed by Arab leaders including Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and newly reelected Algerian leader Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who delivered their messages of support in video statements.

Other leaders from Muslim-majority countries who took part in the appeal included Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Global Call was hosted by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Namibian President Nangolo Mbumba.

Guterres said: “Member states are now in the final stages of negotiating the three agreements to be adopted at the Summit of the Future: the Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations.

“My appeal is for you to push hard for the deepest reforms and most meaningful actions possible. We need maximum ambition during these final days of negotiation.”

He listed major global challenges he said are “moving much faster than our ability to solve them” and added: “Ferocious conflicts are inflicting terrible suffering. Deep geopolitical divides are creating dangerous tensions, multiplied by nuclear threats.

“Inequality and injustice corrode trust and fuel populism and extremism. Discrimination, misogyny and racism are taking on new forms.

“Poverty and hunger are at crisis levels as the Sustainable Development Goals are slipping out of reach. And we have no effective global response to new, and even existential, threats.”

Addressing recurring criticism of his organization’s relevance and influence in the modern world, the UN chief described the Security Council as being “stuck in a time warp.”

Highlighting the challenges facing the international financial system, he said: “Our institutions cannot keep up because they were designed for another era and another world.”

However, the UN is still in a unique position to address global issues by offering a platform for change through the summit, Guterres added.

He listed a series of requirements for the revival of multilateralism, including conflict prevention and mediation, financial reforms, increased lending capacity among development banks, and management of the risks posed by new technologies.

“As we reach the end of negotiations on the three texts, I appeal to all governments to make sure they are as ambitious as possible, to restore the hope and trust we need in order to address the dramatic challenges of our time,” he said.

“The Summit of the Future is an opportunity for far-reaching agreements on international collaboration for a safer, more sustainable and more equitable world. Let’s seize it.”

The appeal by Guterres was echoed by Tebboune, the Algerian president, who warned that the world is “going though a very sensitive, critical juncture.”

Egyptian leader El-Sisi highlighted the current tensions in the Middle East as he called for the summit to address three main priorities.

Member states must establish a system “based on the principles and rules of international law,” “reform the structure of the global financial system” and “enhance efforts toward the eradication of poverty and hunger,” he said.

Sharif, the Pakistani prime minister, drew attention to the “plight of the people in Gaza.”

He said: “Today, in times of unprecedented global challenges and escalating conflicts, we are at risk of permanently damaging the notion of ‘we.’ A collective ‘we’ requires a degree of equality and justice.

“The plight of the people of Gaza is a mockery of this ‘we.’ This ‘we’ becomes marred amid rising debt burdens for the poor, increasing poverty, growing inequality, intolerance, terrorist violence, illegal foreign occupation and a skewed approach to climate adaptation.”

Erdogan, who recently called on the leaders of Muslim-majority countries to gather for a summit on Gaza, described the UN event as a “rare window of opportunity.”

He added: “It is only a matter of days until the Summit of the Future, which aims to fortify international solidarity in the face of threats to the future of humanity, and facilitate the establishment of a peaceful, secure and equitable system.

“In the midst of the conflicts, oppression, hunger and poverty that are ravaging our world, I perceive the summit as a rare window of opportunity.”

GENEVA: The Palestinian economy is “in free fall,” the United Nations reported Thursday, with production in Gaza plunging to one-sixth of its level before Israeli forces began a blistering military response to the Oct. 7 attacks in the territory.
The report from UN Trade and Development, or UNCTAD, also warned of “rapid and alarming economic decline” in the West Bank, citing expanded Israeli settlements, land confiscations, demolition of Palestinian buildings and violence by settlers.
The report made no mention of corruption in Palestinian institutions.
“The Palestinian economy is in free fall,” Pedro Manuel Moreno, the agency’s deputy secretary-general, told reporters in Geneva. “The report calls for the international community to halt this economic free fall, address the humanitarian crisis, and lay the groundwork for lasting peace and development.”
That would include a “comprehensive recovery plan” for Palestinian areas, more international aid, the lifting of Israel’s blockade on Gaza, and the release of revenues and withheld funds for Palestinians retained by Israel, he said.
Gaza’s economy was weak even before the war, when unemployment was close to 50 percent, but the war has brought it to a near-standstill, with the UN estimating that roughly 90 percent of the territory’s population has been displaced, many living in squalid tent camps and dependent on international aid.
The war has also hurt the West Bank. After the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel immediately revoked work permits that allowed some 150,000 Palestinians to work inside Israel, depriving them of a key source of income.
A military crackdown that Israel says is aimed at militants has also rippled through the economy, with frequent army raids and military checkpoints making it difficult for people to work or move around.
With violence continuing, there’s little sign of any recovery plan being launched anytime soon.
Mutasim Elagraa, who coordinates UNCTAD’s assistance to Palestinians, said: “If we want to return Gaza to pre-October 2023, we need tens of billions of dollars, or even more, and decades.”
The ultimate goal is “to put Gaza on a path of sustainable development,” which will take more time and money, he said.
Economic output in Gaza plunged to just over $221 million in the half-year including the last quarter of 2023 and first quarter of 2024 — the last quarter for which figures are available — or about 16 percent of the total figure for the same half-year period in 2022 and 2023, when the total was just over $1.34 billion, the agency said.
Meanwhile, more than 300,000 jobs in the West Bank — home to some 3 million Palestinians — have been lost, driving unemployment rates up to 32 percent, up from under 13 percent before the conflict, the agency reported.
By early this year, as much as 96 percent of Gaza’s farming assets, including livestock farms, orchards, machinery and storage facilities, had been “decimated,” UNCTAD said.
Over 80 percent of businesses were damaged or destroyed, and the damage has continued to worsen, it said.
Since the 1990s, Israel has collected import duties for Palestinians — leaving about two-thirds of all Palestinian tax revenue under the control of the Israeli government. Israel has repeatedly withheld or suspended the payments, accusing the Palestinian Authority of encouraging violence or taking hostile steps against Israel in the UN and other international bodies.
From 2019 through April this year, Israel had withheld or deducted a total of more than $1.4 billion, crimping the ability of Palestinian officials to provide public services and pay salaries, pensions and debts, it said. The European Union last month said it paid some $43 million to help the Palestinian Authority pay salaries and pensions in the West Bank.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,084 Palestinians and wounded another 95,029, the territory’s Health Ministry said. The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilians and militants.
Israel launched its campaign vowing to destroy the Palestinian group Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 250 others.