Incubation and Impact Phase: 2020 to February 2022 (online)

The Global Diplomacy Lab (GDL) aims to address some of the most important challenges we face today by creating spaces for innovation, increased awareness and new ways of action. On these matters, the GDL Summit, organised by the GDL Summit group – GDL members Edna Martinez, Rocío Cañas, Satyarupa Shekhar Swain, Ankit Khanal and Stefan Cibian – was an occasion for members, partners and other participants to pool their knowledge, skills and visions, in order to increase our level of understanding and pave the way for ground-breaking approaches to tackling existing and emerging global challenges.

After the worst pandemic we have faced in recent memory and the worldwide support for social justice that aims to redress problems of systemic racism at all levels of society, we are aware that no country can confront these challenges alone. As collaboration and awareness-raising are deeply needed, the GDL Summit focused on Partnerships for Sustainable Development (SDG 17) and a Renewed Multilateralism as an overarching topic, allowing us to build on the lessons and experiences of the last six years. A post-COVID-19 world in which we face increased inequality and climate pressures, authoritarian tendencies and populism as well as growing tensions among global powers, called for collective determination and new, constructive approaches to multilateral action.

The GDL Summit was dedicated to the GDL community and to its future. To enable reflection on how our community works, the Summit provided participants with the occasion to meaningfully connect with one another and offer their insight with regard to the GDL’s future activities.

Therefore, the GDL Summit group set three overarching objectives:

• to engage the GDL community in substantive discussions on Partnerships for Sustainable Development, Systemic Racism and a Renewed Multilateralism, using innovative methods;
• to re-connect, strengthen and celebrate the GDL community and our objectives and our agenda for the future, including ways that consolidate the community of GDL members and explore options for implementing our new strategy;
• to present the working groups to the GDL community and to discuss these as a basis for the GDL’s activities going forward.