The UN Mastermind Group: Collective intelligence for sustainable development leadership

During the conclusion of the High-Level Political Forum in July 2026, Member States adopted a declaration committing to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The recent Financing for Sustainable Development Report still shows that the world needs to close the four trillion-dollar annual gap in financing for the Sustainable Development Goals. The commitments now exist on paper. Whether they translate into concrete results depends on a small number of people: the leaders who have to deliver them, with less money than they had two years ago. Official development assistance fell by 23 per cent between 2024 and 2025. Fifty-six countries are in debt distress or at high risk of it. Four years remain until 2030.

Structural reform matters, but institutions are run by people. Whether a reformed institution delivers differently depends on whether the people within it decide differently. The constraint is not knowledge but, often, isolation. Senior leaders make consequential judgments with no one to test them against, because the people who could sit in other organizations, sectors or countries.

This is the premise on which the UN Mastermind Group was created in 2020: the leaders facing the hardest challenges already hold much of what each other needs, and almost never have a structured way to exchange it. The UN Mastermind provides the room where they can test their thinking before it becomes policy. Since its inception, more than 60 senior leaders from the United Nations, governments, academia, civil society and the private sector have taken part in it.

It is not a training course. There is no curriculum. The Group provides a safe space for leaders to bring a real challenge and benefit from the perspectives of six or seven peers who have navigated similar situations.