Partner Perspectives

Foundation

What happened at UNGA81? Meet the partners that drove action.

The dust has settled after this year's United Nations General Assembly. Here are the partners who joined us on the ground at the 81st session and the momentum they helped drive.

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is the main representative body of the United Nations, bringing global leaders and experts, businesses, philanthropy and civil society together to debate priorities and advance collective action on some of the world’s biggest challenges.

Alongside our partners, Minderoo was on the ground at UNGA81, using this major global advocacy moment to advance work already underway across humanitarian action, climate challenges, emerging technologies, the health harms associated with plastics and the future of global cooperation.

We backed our partners to lead and bring their expertise and local knowledge into the rooms where global decisions are made. We did this because meaningful progress on key global issues cannot be achieved by any one organisation alone.

From community-led humanitarian programs to practical safeguards for artificial intelligence, our partners are tackling some of the world’s biggest challenges – and we’re proud to back them.

Here are just some of the partners that showed up at UNGA81 this year and how they pushed forward progress.

System reform

Article 109

Article 109 Coalition is an international coalition mobilising to renew the UN Charter. The coalition brings together campaigners, former diplomats, experts and organisations from around the world to engage governments on the need to invoke Article 109 of the UN Charter that triggers a formal process to review and update the foundational UN Charter.

The UN charter was established in 1945 and reflects a post-World War II global power structure that no longer aligns with modern geopolitics or existential realities like AI and climate change.

Article 109 Coalition is building grassroots support, making the case for UN Charter review across media, academia and policy circles and bringing leaders together to create a positive vision of the future of international relations.

From The Article 109 Coalition:

The Article 109 Coalition was in New York for UNGA, bringing together governments, civil society and UN experts to build momentum for meaningful UN reform.

Calls for change gained traction throughout the week, with Japan’s Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, calling for a review of the UN Charter and Brazil’s Foreign Minister, Mauro Vieira, highlighting Article 109 as a pathway to deliver on the objectives of the new Partnership for Multilateralism initiative, which was launched by his country alongside Australia, Canada, Barbados, India and the European Union.

At the Coalition’s annual reception, Gambia’s Minister for Communications and the Digital Economy, Lamin Jabbi, spoke of the need for a UN that is:

fit for purpose, fit for the people and fit for peace.

The Coalition also welcomed its first High-Level Champions, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and South African activist and former head of Greenpeace and Amnesty, Kumi Naidoo.

At a breakfast co-hosted alongside Minderoo Foundation, Barbados’ Foreign Minister, Christopher Sinckler, acknowledged that reform would take time but urged countries to “keep pushing”.

It is up to countries to find the courage to help rewrite and deliver meaningful UN reform. Article 109 is a legitimate, inclusive and transparent path forward.

If we don't have radical change, we are going to lose the institution altogether.

– Coalition Director, Heba Aly, speaking at a Ford Foundation x Project Syndicate event at the start of the week.

Humanitarian action

Alliance of Ukrainian Civil Society Organizations (UA CSO)

Alliance of Ukrainian Civil Society Organizations ensures local leadership in responding to humanitarian crises and setting the foundation for recovery processes in Ukraine.

The alliance brings together 26 Ukrainian civil society organisations united around this goal, representing diverse areas of work of Ukrainian civil society, from humanitarian action to capacity building and development.

From Alliance of Ukrainian Civil Society Organizations:
Representing the Alliance of Ukrainian CSOs during UNGA week, at a moment when Ukraine was enduring severe escalation back home, underscored why keeping our country at the very top of the global agenda remains vital. Across an extraordinarily productive week of high-level interventions and strategic closed-door dialogues, it became strikingly clear that philanthropy plays a uniquely courageous and catalytic role in Ukraine’s path forward, bridging urgent humanitarian response with long-term investments in recovery and resilience.
Philanthropic partners possess the speed and bold vision required to trust and back ambitious, locally-driven initiatives first, creating proven models that institutional donors can subsequently step in to scale. It was crucial that Minderoo Foundation placed Ukrainian civil society at the centre of this dialogue, not only supporting our participation, but ensuring local leaders have a direct voice in shaping decisions that ground international support in Ukrainian-led priorities.

– Mila Leonova, Director of Alliance of Ukrainian Civil Society Organizations

Humanitarian action

Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs)

Emergency Response Rooms in Sudan are community-led volunteer networks that provide essential life-saving aid to people impacted by the civil war that began in 2023.

The ERRs have delivered humanitarian assistance to more than 11.5 million people, supporting communities with evacuations, water and medical aid even when traditional humanitarian organisation had no access to the country. Despite facing attacks, they have become a powerful example of locally-led humanitarian response and were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their impact.

From Sudanese mutual aid groups, including ERRs:

At UNGA81, Sudanese mutual aid groups, including the Emergency Response Rooms, brought the voices of frontline local responders into spaces where decisions about Sudan are made. The week created real momentum: new conversations with funders and policymakers, growing recognition that locally led groups are the backbone of Sudan’s humanitarian response and stronger commitments to direct, flexible funding that reaches communities where needs are greatest.

For more than three years, Sudan’s mutual aid groups have kept communities alive when the world looked away. At UNGA, we saw that the world is finally starting to listen. Now that recognition must turn into direct funding, protection for our volunteers and a real seat at the table for Sudanese local actors.

– Hanin Ahmed, Sudanese local responder, Founder of Old Omdurman ERRs

Humanitarian action

Taawon

Taawon is an independent Palestinian non-profit organisation working to protect Palestinian life and dignity, promote Palestinian capability and preserve Palestinian identity and heritage.

Made up of a collective of Palestinian entrepreneurs, business practitioners, scholars and thinkers, the organisation is committed to:

  • securing humanitarian relief and emergency response
  • investing in people through access to education, youth development, livelihood and social welfare
  • building resilient communities by supporting Palestinian institutions, socio-cultural fabric and civil society
From Taawon:
With the support of our partner Minderoo Foundation, I was grateful for the opportunity to participate in several engagements in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly.
These gatherings gave me an important platform to bring forward the voices of the people we serve and to share the accounts of Taawon’s colleagues in Gaza who continue to work on the frontlines of an unimaginable and ongoing humanitarian crisis. This is a man-made crisis, not a natural disaster.
Like many fellow Palestinians, I carry a deep sense of disappointment in the international community for its failure to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against Palestinians and for the continuing violations of international humanitarian law, including through daily killing of children and blockade on Gaza.
At the same time, I was moved and encouraged by the candid conversations I had with fellow civil society leaders working in other difficult contexts around the world. Despite the differences in our experiences, there was a powerful sense of shared responsibility: to persist in defending the centrality of international law and humanitarian principles to our collective future.
Our struggle is not only at home; it is also in the international arena. And there, civil society has an essential role to play. There is power in the collective. As civil society organizations and as citizens, our voices may sometimes seem small against the weight of powerful states and institutions. But when we speak together, persistently and with principle, we can defend the idea that international law must apply equally to all, and that no people should be placed beyond its protection.

– Dr Tareq Emtairah, Taawon

Climate, oceans and conservation

Blue Forest

Blue Forest is a non-profit conservation finance organisation bringing people, finance and science together to restore and protect forests, water catchments, ecosystems and communities focusing on bushfire management and recovery.

Blue Forest build partnerships with investors, land managers, non-profits, First Nations communities, private companies and the public sector, catalysing the funds and partnerships needed to make restoration projects happen.

From Blue Forest:

On the sidelines of UNGA81, Blue Forest connected with Australian colleagues and partners to build bridges, share stories and make plans. The US-based conservation finance nonprofit co-developed the Forest Resilience Bond, a conservation finance model designed to add new revenue streams and finance upfront ecosystem restoration costs, as a response to the worsening wildfire crisis.

During Climate Week, Blue Forest celebrated the 10th anniversary of its partnership with World Resources Institute and the co-development of their first blended-finance wildfire risk-reduction project. The panel, which included David Blood of Generation Investment Management, highlighted Blue Forest’s budding work in Australia and the shared focus that land managers in both Australia and the US are increasingly placing on integrating traditional-owner/Indigenous-led land management into government agency priorities.
Plastics and human health

New Earth Ventures

New Earth Ventures is an innovation fund that exists to scale sustainable solutions for packaging and the supply chain, with an investment focus spanning packaging intelligence, supply chain optimisation and next-generation materials.

From New Earth Ventures:

New Earth Ventures’ Climate Week event, co-hosted by Minderoo at Australia House, was a resounding success. It brought together leaders from across the packaging industry, top investors in packaging and supply chain, start-up founders and a wide range of ecosystem partners.

Wes Carter, Atlantic Packaging; Anne Bedarf, Colgate-Palmolive; Myra Hughes Foster, Sealed Air; and Dave Ford, Circle, explored how industry can collaborate to end packaging waste, covering Colgate’s decision to openly share its recyclable toothpaste tube technology, the tension between regulation and food-safety needs, what actually happens when unlikely stakeholders share a room, how extended producer responsibility is shaping global packaging decisions and what it would take to close the timing gap between startups and large brands.

It’s rare that the largest stakeholders in the packaging value chain – the producers, the distributors and the customers – get into one room to exclaim that radical collaboration will enable humankind to solve the plastic waste crisis and that doing so will be good for business. We’re energised to turn the momentum from the room into action.

– Matt Saunders, Managing Partner of New Earth Ventures

Artificial intelligence and emerging technologies

At UNGA81, more than 20 world leaders, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, signed an international call for stronger oversight of advanced AI, including transparent safety protocols, common standards and international coordination.

Artificial intelligence and emerging technologies

The Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP)

CAIDP aims to ensure that artificial intelligence and digital policies promote a better society – one that is fairer, more just and more accountable.

Through this work, CAIDP seeks to support a world where technology promotes broad social inclusion based on fundamental rights, democratic institutions and the rule of law.

CAIDP assesses national AI policies and practices, trains future AI policy leaders, publishes reference books and articles on AI policy and engages with AI policymakers.

From CAIDP:
The CAIDP-Minderoo Red Lines event demonstrated the growing international consensus that certain uses of AI should simply be prohibited. AI systems should not violate fundamental rights, control advanced weapons systems, or place children at risk. The challenge now is to turn these principles into enforceable rules. By bringing together AI experts, civil society advocates and policymakers, the event helped identify practical strategies for advancing AI red lines around the world.

– Marc Rotenberg, Founder, Center for AI and Digital Policy

Artificial intelligence and emerging technologies

AI Safety Connect (AISC)

AISC is a high-level event series that brings together policymakers, entrepreneurs, cutting-edge laboratories and investors to explore practical safety pathways toward safe and beneficial AI that enables human flourishing.

Operating as a companion series, AI Safety Connect strategically follows major international events such as UNGA, AI Summits and key academic conferences to enable high-quality dialogue and collaboration on effective AI safety governance.

From AISC:
This UN high level week and our event Governing at the Speed of AI confirmed what our preparatory work had pointed to, recursive self-improvement is now the thing that needs international governance, and that’s a challenge. Two years ago, scientists drew a red line at AI improving itself without human approval. Today it is a stated goal of leading labs, pursued with systems that are neither safe nor controllable by design, amid race dynamics and with no near-term path to international regulation.
If we are serious about pacing the frontier, it has to be measured and verified, with evaluations, verification technologies and protocols that states can trust. That is the core of the expert statement that grew out of our preparatory work, now signed by 24 organisations.

– Nicolas Miailhe, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, AI Safety Connect

UNGA81 demonstrated the power of bringing governments, civil society, philanthropy, researchers and communities together.

From humanitarian response and climate action to plastics, technology and the institutions that underpin international cooperation, we worked alongside our partners throughout the week to share expertise and advance conversations that will help shape what comes next.

Addressing the world’s biggest challenges starts with backing the people and organisations closest to them. By helping bring their voices and expertise into the rooms where decisions are made, we can build the momentum needed to turn global conversations into lasting impact.