GNV News 2025 year 11 month 10 day

2025 year 11 month 4 day to 6 day, 「the 2nd World Summit for Social Development」 was held in Doha, Qatar. This summit takes as its starting point the “Copenhagen Declaration,” adopted at the “World Summit for Social Development” held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1995. Participants included more than 40 heads of state and government, over 230 ministers and senior officials, and approximately 14,000 people from international organizations, non-governmental organizations, civil society, the private sector, and academia.

With less than 5 years until 2030, progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is behind schedule, and the summit featured international dialogue, including more than 250 「Solution Sessions」 that shared concrete solutions to social development challenges. The 「Doha Political Declaration 」, accompanied by specific guidance for action, was adopted by the UN General Assembly, reaffirming acceleration toward achieving the 2030 targets. The declaration reaffirms the commitments and action plans that formed the pillars of the Copenhagen Declaration—poverty eradication, promotion of work under decent labor conditions, and social inclusion—and states that social development should be pursued on the preconditions of peace and security and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

It also sets out guidance for action toward realizing an inclusive, fair, and just society; however, lower- and middle-income countries, which still have high poverty rates, bear substantial debt for development, and climate finance needed for adaptation and mitigation to climate change is significantly insufficient. To resolve these financing needs essential for building a society that leaves no one behind, there are high expectations for next week’s the 2nd round of negotiations on the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation. This, coordinated with the 「Seville Declaration」 (※)—which sets out fair debt restructuring, reduced borrowing costs, and transparent tax rules—has been underway since 2025 year 8 month, and is seen as offering the possibility for countries to raise revenue from corporations and high-income individuals.

※　2025 year 7 month, agreed at the the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development.

Learn more about the current state of sustainable development that leaves no one behind → 「Leave no one behind?」

The 2nd World Summit for Social Development, Doha, Qatar (Photo: Paul Kagame / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0])