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Rising to the Challenge

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Together First is a global campaign to give civil society a seat at the table when the world’s future is being discussed. We believe that humanity faces challenges that threaten our very survival – such as climate change and other environmental risks, weapons of mass destruction and cyber warfare. If we are to address those challenges, we need to work together across borders, sectors and generations. But global coordination to mitigate major threats remains entirely inadequate and dominated by states.

To be successful, a host of other actors need to be part of the dialogue and decision-making. That is why Together First is focusing on building coalitions of NGOs, human rights activists and campaigners around the most promising ideas to improve global governance systems so humanity is better equipped to tackle the challenges we face, and to turn these ideas into reality.

We are a network of realists. We understand that convincing decision-makers to pursue transformative reforms in the current environment will not be easy, but that the chances of success will be maximised by having clear and bold visions and demonstrating where existing support and resources for proposed ideas can be found along with realistic roadmaps for implementation.To date, 50 organisations have signed up to our campaign, covering all five of the UN’s regional groups. 

This report highlights the important work being carried out by members of our coalition. In five essays, each of the featured individuals and organisations outline their proposals for strengthening, reforming or transforming our global system. At the end of the report, we list a selection of other projects coalition members are working on.