Act Now

This year the UNGA will host the Summit of the Future, a high-level event aiming to strengthen global cooperation and actions that will help to address current and future challenges in the areas of sustainable development, international peace and science and technology. It is expected the immediate outcome of the summit will be a Pact for the Future, to be adopted by the UN member states. The pact focuses on the core pillars of the UN that includes clear actions for member states to push for international peace and security, sustainable development, better governance, digital cooperation, and the voice of future generations.

With only 16% of the SDGs on track to be implemented by 2030, the UN also recognize that systemic change is needed across all parts of society. To encourage everyone to act now, the UN have issued a global call to action challenging all of us to contribute to 1 million actions in support of the SDGs.  The Act Now campaign is a coordinated effort to raise awareness, ambition and action in critical areas such as climate action, reducing inequalities and peace and security.

Time to turn the page: Guadalajara IPA Congress  

The Pact of the Future will be used by the UN and their member states to further accelerate efforts and set a vision of the future for the global cooperation needed to solve society’s challenges. Arguably, within the publishing industry, we too must look to the future as we navigate disruptions from new technologies and the challenges around sustainability such as climate change and diversity and inclusion.

The IPA Congress, set to take place in December, is seeking to create a platform to outline the future we want for our industry. The Congress’s theme, Turning Pages: Publishing and the Future Society, will feature dedicated programming looking at sustainable development. The highlight will be a keynote from Melissa Flemming, the United Nations’ under-secretary-general for global communications. This is a unique opportunity to get key insights into the implications for the publishing sector generated by the outcomes of the UNGA, SDGs progress and summit for the future.

The IPA congress program will also feature dynamic fireside chats to complement Melissa’s keynote and further discuss industry wide themes of:

  • Future: Gen Z’s impact on publishing, culture and innovation
  • Planet: Strategies and stories to fight climate change
  • People: opening new chapters on diversity and inclusion

What are Publishers doing?

In recent years, the IPA have intensified efforts around the SDGs in response to growing environmental and societal challenges. The foundation for this action has been the SDG Publishers Compact. Launched back in 2020, together with the UN Publications team, the compact outlined 10 concrete steps that all publishers and publishing organizations could take to integrate sustainability in their operations and through the content that is published. Since its launch, it has generated over 300 signatories, and has provided the foundation for many IPA members to establish sustainability focused working groups, activities and events that advocate the themes represented by the Global Goals.  Many of these activities are shared on the IPA SDG dashboard.

To demonstrate the wider impact of the publishing industry in support of the UN Act Now campaign, the IPA and the UN Publications team have launched a challenge to the publishing industry:  to generate 1000 actions in support of the SDGs by the end of 2024. The IPA are encouraging every IPA member and their respective members to submit their SDG related activities, projects and reports and help countdown towards our goal of 1000. Our hope is to share the concrete actions of our industry with Melissa during the IPA congress.

The SDGs have provided a valuable lens to understand how our everyday work can create a more sustainable and equitable future. We would love to hear about your SDG related activities and encourage you to submit your projects and make them count as part of the 1000 action campaign.