Commented to DZ Summit 2024

The process of preparing the Summit of the Future 2024

Working paper, comment on Draft Zero (DZ) and draft solution, prepared in Prague, March 11, 2024

DZ is an output of the Coalition for the UN We Need (UN4WN) with links to the 2023, 2024, and 2025 Summits. It was presented on January 26, 2024. It has 9127 words in 144 sections. The paper builds on the author's previous work, his materials responding to UN4WN challenges, and his participation in virtual forums. For example, he listened to a three-hour virtual consultation, the last one on February 21, 2024.

The Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) remained at the marketing vision, wishes, and expectations level. The same ambiguity accompanies the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals, 2015-2030). These Goals and their indicators lack links to expected missions. The MDGs have eight goals, 18 targets, and 48 indicators. The SDGs have 17 goals, 169 targets, and 210 indicators. The MDGs were applied to developing countries; the SDGs apply to all UN member states. The working document starts from the set direction.

Defining goals is the right direction; however, if it remains open without feedback on the effects of the fulfillment/non-fulfillment of goals (over time, in all countries), the work cycle is not closed, and its results are not tangible. It is an accompanying phenomenon of big plans (in goals) that the processes (paths) to goals rather neglect to design just because they look at the "detail" as a "devil's" problem. However, even details have their hierarchy; some belong to strategies, and others belong to tactics and operations. Details (procedures) at the level of strategy belong to the goals of the MDGs and SDGs.

Draft Zero

DZ went through an honest preparation. The result is valuable work, and the DZ is submitted for further discussion. The working document follows this in the form of a table. It offers a quick overview of the contents of the DZ. In two levels, layers (examples of words that are in DZ and which are not). It sets up three views for these words and captures examples of the frequency of their use (how many times the word is used in the DZ) and examples of words that are missing from the DZ (according to the author's opinion). It distinguishes general and specific views on individual words, including words (phrases) used for action calls.

The table does not present an analysis but a look into the text, which has a vast scope and expresses the problems from the perspective of the UN. The table processing approach respects this. It just reminds us that everything that takes place in the world of people and happens is the work of organizations, projects, and communication (e.g., going through their processes). Organizations provide services, products, and employment opportunities. The task of the projects is for organizations to prepare and implement, above all, their development. Communication connects all these human endeavors (e.g., health, safety, and a happy life).

Processes

The processes have undergone five waves of change and development (industry, railways, automobiles, electronification, internet). Now, we are dealing with the effects of the internet and absorbing the entry into the artificial intelligence (AI) world. That is why even words have their genesis in the chain of these waves. They are evolving, and their global environmental interpretation is unclear. For example, the words "Development" or "Processes" are chosen, and the functions change in the time and place of their applications. Three examples offer an interpretation of this note on selected words:

The first captures the connection of the selected words to the missing ones, e.g., motivation and navigation (in the time and place of their development and degradation). These words seek (need) a common platform, a "philosophy" of their positions in the Great Triad, GT space. It presents the partnership model of Earth, Nature, and the Human, prioritizing humility, not selfishness. However, in the hierarchy of values that GT partners have and promote, Man dominantly devotes himself to one-way (e.g., economic) principles only for his benefit.

The second follows on from the first and concerns the interplay of the fifth and sixth waves. The task is to find ways to deal with the situation when "Everyone knows everything best, and if not, they find it on the computer," or they respond operatively, themselves, "using a mobile." It is how people open (close) their space, and natural interpersonal communication disappears. The danger of disputes and wars and the extent and effects of misunderstandings in the GT environment (e.g., the causes and effects of climate change and their non-systemic and emotional interpretation) are increasing.

The third (not the last) responds to the previous two. It concerns the 2030 Agenda. The current state of preparation and implementation of the tasks of the 2030 Agenda raises (opens) several tasks. The working document is devoted to reducing the intellectual debt caused by setting visions (goals) without sufficient depth of strategies. It offers solutions to guide visions to successful missions, e.g., by solving paths that lead to goals in global space.

Solution proposal

Therefore, the table provides an overview of the risks associated with the perception (reading) of DZ and offers their treatment, for example, by building holistic content (meaning, thinking) into the processes of the 2030 Agenda to set how to settle this debt. Figure 1 offers three steps: statement, story, and System, which are divided into four blocks. The presentation starts with a Statement block with two triads with (2x3) nodes. Next comes the Stories block, built on two prescriptions: on the SPC hexagon and its spatial version. The first is called Dialectical Diagram (DD), and the second is the SPC Diamond.

DD leads (monitors and manages) data flows in processes, and SPC Diamond's task is to ensure the functions of control tools in the System and provide tools. The third block offers a brief view of the System, which comprises hexagons (stories). It is described as a cluster of critical players who prepare statements, set narratives, and participate in building the System. The fourth block underlines the role of pilot projects in developing the Self-Powered Community concept.

Figure 1. Solution proposal

The blocks in the picture offer a methodology ready to capture, evaluate, and support the fate of the MDGs and SDGs through the Summits 2023, 2024, and 2025. Present the 2030 Agenda as a System (not as a document). This transformation needs the involvement of UN agencies, especially the World Bank (WB), its International Financial Institution (IFC), and other international and local financial institutions. The goal is to support the principles of holism in the work of banks (current and newly established), especially in low-income countries (LIC) and their provinces. It is about supporting the cooperation of interested stakeholders from the public and private sectors and civil society services in these provinces.

Holism is based on the knowledge that reality somehow cannot be understood in terms of its parts but only as a larger whole. This knowledge is especially true for the global world. Therefore, this call accepts the MDGs and SDGs. The set direction of the transformation of Agenda 2030 comes with an understandable and feasible solution. It demonstrates clarity through the Self-Powered Community (SPC) concept methodology. It offers a feasibility test by preparing and implementing the "Open Modular Units, OMU" project and entering into crisis solutions in LIC territorial units with the potential to formulate and implement sustainable investments for further development.

SPC Concept

The SPC Concept (proposal) offers (in provinces with around one million inhabitants) the establishment and operation of separate joint-stock units of SPC Utility. Their task is to start financing the preparation and implementation of small infrastructure projects prepared for integrating the necessary investments (fragments) of access to water, electricity, work, education, health, etc., into one service unit. It is a process modeled to meet digitization and draw interest in the administrative performance improvements of LGUs.

The feasibility of this proposal is supported by the SPC Drivers services, working in conjunction with the tasks of Local Government Units (LGU). It opens doors for GenAI apps and is a specific case of the broadest impact of global ICT inclusion. In the arrangement, one SPC Utility unit and one SPC Drivers unit in one province of one state (knowing that the state is both Mauritius and, for example, India). It is a bottom-up development path for governance and strengthening the role of governance services at the provincial level with the blessing of central (national) governments. Figure 2 describes the same processes in another form.

Figure 2. Holistic content of the Dialectic Diagram (DD)

In the nodes (a, d, b, e, c, and f), fragments of known processes (marketing, benchmarking, business management, transfer of know-how, etc.) are captured, fulfilling the stories' needs of the System. The task of the System is to ensure, build, and manage a unified data structure for the operations that Agenda 2030 will trigger or is already opening. It integrates parts (fragments) into a whole in digitizing process chains (their algorithms) directed by GenAI values. This path (its cycles) is illustrated by the Dialectical Diagram (DD). 

The figure presents an example of its use in developing and using indicators in three layers (local, national, and global). These six nodes and their cycles iterate to the desired SHIFT in the System (e.g., by performing, monitoring, and recording data from internal financial controls and audits at all layers). Simple for computers, only we, the people, must learn to master the scaling of processes and their digitalization (at all levels, and not only the UN).

Dialectic Diagram

The task of DD (according to Figure 2.) is to capture the development and use of new technologies (e.g., Blockchain, Smart Contract, Machine Learning) with the support and under the supervision of majority shareholders (e.g., WB, IFC, IFI, etc.). It is a bottom-up development path towards local governance and strengthening the role of the governance services and infrastructure projects with the blessing of central (national) governments. This inquiry uncovers other words from the Table: scaling and digitalization. These words are of fundamental importance for the transformation of the 2030 Agenda, its methodological content, and the proposal of the System.

The principle of the 2030 Agenda and its testing by pilot applications (projects) must be accepted as a priority (talk about them, please). The transformation of the 2030 Agenda then reaches two levels. Technical and procedural. The author of this working document addresses the technical feasibility. The second level is in a political-organizational position. It belongs to the authors of DZ and the authority of the UN. In the play of both levels, Agenda 2030 is the System and its document; it is a set of strategic procedures and tactical recommendations on how to fill the document's content of the 2030 Agenda in the expected space (where) and time (when).

System and Prospectus

In other words, the task is to draft the System and its Prospectus (a public document intended to provide information and full details about the financial need, expenses, and obligations related to the System's creation and operation). The document should support the interests of organizations, projects, and communications and all their stakeholders in preparing and implementing the 2030 Agenda. It opens the question of who will develop such a methodology—the Prospectus document and the proposal of the System.

Both link to the 2024 and 2025 Summits, which define the time and volume of work. The number of words used does not determine these limits. The critical is their composition, diction, and unity. The System and its Prospectus should sound like a prelude to the expected change, SHIFT, which will address its stakeholders. However, the question posed has its continuation. Who will pay for the work, and how will it be paid? Most of the costs remain tied to the already set budgets for preparing and implementing the Summits and the Agenda 2030. Therefore, the answer is linked to dealing with the team's tasks quickly and without conflict.

Undoubtedly, it is a job for an international and interdisciplinary team equipped with the client's competencies and the UN authority. It doesn't have to be extensive body (e.g., Seven Braves). The team can work virtually with ongoing coordination meetings and progress presentations, including the timing of summits. Finally, there is a time, approximately 12 to 18 months. The cost of the team's work will not be dizzyingly high. The needed cooperation of the team with other stakeholders of Agenda 2030 will be tied to the current secretariats and working groups, and so will the costs that already have their budgets. 

Blending finance

Impartiality, yet professional depth and natural control of the team's results, should be supported by collective, non-conflicting funding, e.g., blending finance with the participation of WB, IFI, and philanthropists. Institutions, banks, and those who work in this field are responsible for adapting the world of finance to the offers of new technologies. It is a "win-win" approach. It offers information on how to support the development of GenAI globally in this environment.

For example, for LIC, there is an opportunity for direct applications in machine learning to increase the scope and quality of education in secondary schools and universities. It demonstrates how to prepare their graduates to fulfill Agenda 2030 tasks and prepare them for cooperation with other states. (Somebody) can find any example of this in the statistics profession. How to strengthen the statistics, depth, and quality of data, which comprehensively, in the scope of macro and micro economic assessments, will affect the growth of the chances for detecting fraud and help reduce risks of their impacts.

The flagships of the 2030 Agenda are all global projects for social and economic development, disaster risk reduction, and humanitarian aid (SED, DRR, and HA), and their goals are indicators and indicated through the MDGs and SDGs spectrum. Navigation is helped by initiatives, e.g., INNFFs methodology (an Integrated National Financing Framework is a tool to implement the Addis Ababa Action Agenda), or stimulus for immediate action DSSI (Debt Services Suspension Initiative) and other initiatives, like SDRs (Special Drawing Rights). For LIC (and not only for them), state also-contingent clauses in MDBs (Multilateral Development Banks) can open the door for wider use of local currencies and allow the building and dissemination of PDBs (Public Development Banks) wherever they are missing. The SPC Concept demonstrates how to help and fully open space for the "philosophy" and "business" of blending financing.

Optimists

Optimists can expect (the pessimists will have to wait for the results of the optimists) that the 2030 Agenda's focus on LIC as a pilot environment will positively influence its overall success. Indeed, it is necessary to gain time and space to set the "roots" of digitization of the fundamental processes around us that people need for life at the level of governance and infrastructure. For these basics, LICs offer a less formal environment, less "legal smog," and more immediate approaches to self-motivation. 

It could be advantageous for MIC and HIC to observe the feedback of digitalization's "principles" on the "green fields" of large territories. Compared to that, LICc can learn to manage (utilize) their navigation in a more advanced environment. However, the initiative must come from the LIC and provincial governors. They should start it up and be ready to go ahead alone. They should patiently build their provincial motivation and promote the pragmatic navigation of stakeholders of their province's 2030 Agenda. They shouldn't be afraid of this new but demanding form of partnership.

Assurance

Allow me to offer my capacity and know-how for the work in international and multidisciplinary teams established to solve the tasks of Agenda 2030. The scope of my offer outlines this working document, and its timing is like the Agenda 2030 running process. The first timing limit links to the evaluation of Agenda 2030 at the 80th session of the General Assembly in September 2025. The second reacts to the critical deadline for the SHIFT from the done work (2 times 15 years) to the tasks that will be on the desk of the UN agenda for the next 15 years. These works should reflect actual needs and the real status of the Human in the GT environment and should start in 2026, at least.

Thanks 

Preparatory work, a series of virtual Leader's Dialogs, online support of working groups (Germany-Namibia, Holland-Jamaica, Sweden-Zambia), and access to the necessary documents preceded the work on the DZ. Everything went smoothly, and I believe that the preparation for the nearest event of the UN Office in Nairobi, Kenya, on 9 and 10 May 2024, will turn out well. 

Thank you for the opportunity to learn more about Agenda 2030. However, I am sorry, I cannot attend the conference; an appointment for a surgical operation at the hospital binds me. I will be free, I suppose, at the beginning of June.

Yours Sincerely,

Zdenek Chalus, Ph.D.

Prepared by Zdenek Chalus, Ph.D., CEO of 5PforRES s.r.o., and independent researcher.

Contact: www.5pforres.eu; and chalus@5pforres.eu, or zchalus@gmail.com