Every September when UN Headquarters in New York is swamped - massive motorcades, intense security, snipers on rooftops and world leaders descending along with throngs of diplomats, media and celebrities - it's not easy to grasp what exactly is going on or what was achieved.
Let's try to unscramble those 10 days for you. This year, some 235 events and hundreds of speakers later, the spotlight was shone on what the world was facing - how to move towards a revamp of an outdated global economic order, forging new pathways to peace, and finding solutions to the growing threat of nuclear war, global public health challenges, climate disruption and dangerous levels of impunity, inequality and uncertainty.
Kicking off the Summit of the Future ahead of the General Assembly's annual high-level week, Secretary-General Antonió Guterres' clarion call for change made the stakes plain: "We cannot build a future fit for our grandchildren with systems built for our grandparents."
More than 140 leaders spoke in the action-packed gathering while the UN was taken over by youth and civil society. The end-goal? Torchbearers of change trying to chart a course to rejig a UN that is fit for purpose and ready to meet 21st century challenges with modernized, upgraded institutions that do not reflect the world of 1945.
The good news is they agreed on a rescue plan to steer the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back on track, a groundbreaking Pact for the Future that now needs to be implemented. Despite a last-minute challenge from a group of countries opposed to the pact, UN Member States actually inked a deal - and agreed on the need for justice and reform.
