Against the backdrop of UNGA81, WPL is bringing political leaders and partners together to exchange perspectives on representation, reflect on the week’s conversations, and consider what they tell us about global leadership.
As the world’s political leaders gather for the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly, they do so at a time when the relevance and effectiveness of multilateralism are increasingly being tested. With geopolitical tensions challenging the very idea of a united international community, the conversations taking place at UNGA81 carry particular weight as does who is part of those conversations and whose voices help shape them.
Around UNGA81, WPL is creating two moments for its network of political leaders, partners and allies to come together. One as High-Level Week begins, and one as it draws to a close. Different in purpose, both are grounded in the same belief: representation matters not only in who is at the table, but in whose voices shape the decisions made there.
The first convening will bring two major frameworks already adopted by the UN membership into conversation: the Women, Peace and Security agenda and the Global Digital Compact, the UN framework for cooperation on digital technologies and AI.
Peace and security, technology and the future of global cooperation are not abstract questions. They affect how societies respond to conflict, how technology is governed, and how decisions are made that reach far beyond national borders. WPL looks at these agendas through the lens of Representation Matters.
After days of speeches, negotiations, announcements and high-level meetings, it is easy for the pace of UNGA to obscure the bigger picture. The second session framing the closing of High-Level Week, The Takeaways, creates space for WPL’s network to step back and reflect on what was actually said, what mattered, and what defined the week.
The conversation will look beyond the headlines to ask: Who was in the room? Whose voices were heard? And whose perspectives were missing? Today, around 90% of Heads of State and Government worldwide are men, a reminder of the significant representation gap that remains at the highest levels of political leadership.
These two convenings bookend WPL’s engagement around UNGA81. One looks at the conversations shaping the global agenda as the week begins; the other steps back to understand what emerged from them. Together, they put Representation Matters at the centre of one of the most important moments in the international political calendar.
Interested in joining us for these sessions? Find more information here.
