What is Social Justice? It is about fairness, equality and having a voice and the agency to shape your own life. It is about having access to opportunities for employment and an adequate standard of living to live a productive and dignified life. At the end of 2022, 685 million people were thought to live in extreme poverty, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and fragile & conflict-affected areas. 160 million children were engaged in child labour in 2020, while close to 50 million people were in modern slavery in 2021. These injustices, insecurities and inequalities are exacerbated by multiple and overlapping crises – a pandemic, a dramatic fall in aggregate demand, rising prices, geopolitical instability and conflicts and not least, a result of a corrupt governance. Moreover, the pursuit of justice goes hand-in-hand with how governance is carried out. Unfortunately, however, the pursuit of social justice often becomes a mockery when those who govern abuse their power and indulge in corruption. According to the UN, it is estimated that 5 percent of global GDP is lost to corruption yearly where this amount could have lifted 1.4 billion people from poverty. Abuse of power, discrimination, and overlapping crises, continue to hinder the delivery of social justice to the people around the world.

The session titled "Social Justice and Governance for a Better World" aims to examine how governing structures can better implement justice at their core. It will explore how we can address injustice, insecurity, and inequality in the midst of global crises. Furthermore, it will review how the Global North, South, East, and West perceive and respond to these challenges—and also how to achieve global solidarity to tackle these challenges in concert.