The 79th UN General Assembly convenes this month to consider how international cooperation and multilateral institutions need to adapt for the future. As they do so, global leaders are confronting a host of forces that are rapidly reshaping the world in which we live. Among them: disruptive technological advancements, the impacts of a warming planet, increased geopolitical tensions, and growing migration and displacement.

To meet these challenges at the speed with which action is required, a new level of collaboration—among governments, multilateral institutions, the social sector, and the private sector—is critical.

Three Areas Where Collaboration Can Deliver Impact

International collaboration is especially crucial in these areas:

• Technology. Collaboration is needed to expand equitable access to digital tools and advance development (including in the Global South) and also ensure that uptake of AI around the world is done responsibly.
• Climate Change. Stakeholders should align on the huge costs of insufficient climate action, work together to drive down GHG emissions, and strengthen adaptation and resilience efforts.
• Finance. Cooperative development and adoption of new financial structures that better leverage catalytic funding sources can increase the speed and scale of investments aimed at critical societal challenges.

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Read Other Articles in the Series

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Unlocking the Power of AI and Technology with Open Collaboration

To make AI and other transformative technologies broadly accessible and avoid missteps, the private sector must double down on collaboration.

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The Cost of Climate Inaction Can Spur Collective Action

BCG has quantified the staggering cost of inaction on climate. To avoid worst-case scenarios, the private sector and other stakeholders must ramp up their collaboration.

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Breaking Silos to Speed SDG Investment at Scale

Public, private, and social sector leaders can team up to adapt global financial structures and unlock the flow of capital to SDG-related projects.

We realize that today’s challenges are not only massive but need to be addressed in an increasingly complex environment. The number of governments and private- and social-sector and regional organizations operating to coordinate effective solutions continues to expand, raising the risk of slow and often fragmented responses. The good news is that the past offers successes to guide us.

Past—and Present—Successes Inspire

We know that when designed and executed well, international collaborations have changed the world.

Consider this: When the global campaign to eradicate smallpox began in the 1960s, annual smallpox cases topped 10 million. Coordinated by the World Health Organization, the effort successfully engaged countries across continents to drive a disciplined, well-executed strategy around “ring vaccination.” The approach involved vaccinating all people in the immediate vicinity of a reported infection, effectively containing the spread of the disease. By 1980, smallpox cases had dropped to zero.

Similarly, international cooperation was the key to the successful action taken in the 1980s to address degradation of the ozone layer. The UN Environment Programme-led negotiations that culminated in the Montreal Protocol, a global agreement to phase out ozone-depleting substances including CFCs. Global production and consumption of these substances, which hit roughly 1.6 million metric tons in 1989, was cut to nearly zero by 2010.

And less headline-grabbing, but still critical, collaborative efforts have created progress that impacts the daily lives of people around the world. Vital global positioning systems (GPS) rely on multicountry cooperation. International regulations and agreements on food safety enable robust global trade. Airport and postal codes and rules facilitate the international transport of people and goods. The list goes on and on.

Understanding the Implications for the Private Sector

The private sector has greatly benefited from—and contributed to—this strong international cooperation and global development. Moving forward, the private sector continues to have much at stake. Broad collective efforts will shape the environment in which companies compete. For example, governments and multilateral organizations will establish policies and regulations for artificial intelligence and climate. And as those public sector and multilateral organizations work to drive more capital toward critical humanitarian goals, new opportunities will emerge for the private sector to both build their businesses and have a positive impact on the world.

At the same time, the private sector has a significant role to play in driving effective global cooperation. When companies with leading expertise in areas such as AI and climate share their insights with institutions that establish the rules and guardrails, they can help drive solutions to scale.

In recent years, some high-profile efforts have shown how international collaboration can harness the power of the private sector.

For example, the First Movers Coalition, which brings together large companies to build market demand for critical climate technologies, is creating momentum for decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors. To date, 99 corporate members have made commitments that equate to $16 billion in annual demand for new green technologies by 2030—deals that would deliver estimated annual CO₂ equivalent emissions reductions of 31 million tonnes.

In 2016, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched the Connecting Business Initiative (CBi) at the World Humanitarian Summit. The mission was to engage companies in bringing their capabilities into disaster management and humanitarian action. Today, CBi has national and regional networks spanning 55 countries with more than 9,000 members that together represent over 1.3 million businesses. These companies have used their capabilities and resources—from logistics to telecommunications—to help in over 166 emergencies, reaching over 50 million people in need.

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The world is in the midst of a period of rapid change. What has not changed, however, is the value of global cooperation that leverages the power of the public-, social-, and private sectors to drive progress. If these stakeholders come together, we can address some of the most pressing challenges of our time and work toward a more stable and equitable world.

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