Building Our Common Future

From election cycles to budgeting to policy impact analysis – accounting for future generations in a way that ensures their rights and options is often missing from governance landscapes and policy processes around the world. The UN Secretary General and UN Foundation are playing a part in addressing this challenge, with recent initiatives such as the Next Generation Fellows. The UN has the potential to be a key actor in encouraging future-just policymaking and supporting countries to bridge the gap between current and next generations.

Numerous other initiatives and institutions are also advancing intergenerational justice and long-term thinking into the political agenda. This report aims to shed light on these developments, of which the Network of Institutions for Future Generations (NIFG) is a crucial component. The NIFG is a worldwide, independent, non-formal network of different national institutions working together to protect the interest of future generations. The NIFG promotes the sharing of knowledge and advances best practices in respect of long-term governance through different measures and across various disciplines.

This report provides a comprehensive, yet not exhaustive, overview of both the NIFG as well as the broader context for future generations governance. It goes on to map out existing institutions with this special mandate, and discuss the NIFG’s impacts, structure, and pathways for the future.