CONGO News
1st Civil Society Development Forum 2007
Invitation
Civil Society Development Forum 2007
"A Platform for Development: Countdown to 2015"
Dear colleagues and friends,
It is with great pleasure that we invite you - on behalf of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO) - to participate in the Civil Society Development Forum 2007 - "A Platform for Development: Countdown to 2015". The Forum is to highlight (i) the crucial role of the internationally agreed development goals (IADGs)/Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the pursuit of a results-oriented global development strategy and (ii) the need for an assessment of the development community's efforts and achievements, so far, in meeting these goals. The Forum will be held from 28 to 30 June 2007 at the International Conference Centre in Geneva (Centre International de Conférences Genève [CICG]).
In addition to the Forum's focus on the IADGs/MDGs, its participants will need to define their positions vis-à-vis the recently adopted guiding themes of ECOSOC's Substantive Session in 2007. We were recently informed that ECOSOC's thematic debate in 2007 is to focus on the topic "Strengthening efforts at all levels to promote pro-poor sustained economic growth, including through equitable macroeconomic policies". The theme for ECOSOC's annual ministerial review is to be: "Strengthening efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger, including through the global partnership for development".
CONGO - as a convenor of numerous civil society fora of strategic importance - was mandated to organize this major development-oriented civil society event, following consultations with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), key civil society stakeholders, the UN Millennium Project secretariat, the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), the NGO Section of the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS).
The Forum is to bring together actors of the global civil society to "think future" and to work on issues related to the wider development agenda. Its output and conclusions are to be instrumental for the work of the strengthened UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), especially for its Development Cooperation Forum and the Annual Ministerial Review. NGOs and their partners will have a special opportunity to contribute to the implementation of innovative policies to achieve the IADGs and the MDGs.
In light of the equal positioning between development, human rights, and peace and security - that the UN reform is expected to achieve, we need to emphasize that a cooperative and cross-cutting working approach between NGOs and the UN agencies is urgently required. So far, development goals have been "set but not met" by the United Nations. CONGO strongly believes that this working approach can be implemented best through interaction with ECOSOC's High-Level Segment process. We started that interaction some years ago but strengthened it in 2006 during the Civil Society Development Forum's dialogue at ECOSOC's High-Level Segment on Employment and Decent Work, ultimately with a view to enhancing it further and institutionalizing it. The Forum will thus have a bearing on ECOSOC's proceedings by contributing to a systematic review that should permit the scaling-up of best (and bad) practices.
Civil society will lead and manage the Forum. It will thus be able to articulate itself in many ways - through plenary sessions, clusters and workshops, side events and symposia, exhibitions and poster presentations, media events, cultural and community-oriented activities, virtual sessions and web-casts. These diverse opportunities should permit the harnessing of the participants' collective intelligence and creativity to find solutions for tackling extreme poverty.
The Civil Society Development Forum 2007 is expected to set an unprecedented record of inclusiveness. It is to help mainstream already existing development initiatives, few of which are genuinely "owned and driven" by civil society. A reversal of this pattern is possible through the pursuit of a flexible bottom-up approach, involving a large number of participants from all walks of life. CONGO therefore hopes to attract some 800 to 1,000 attendees: NGOs/CSOs, civil society representatives interacting with international organizations, NGO field actors engaged in the implementation of development objectives, rights holders and beneficiaries of the development system, international organizations, multi-stakeholders (governments, private sector entities, local and regional authorities), charismatic and world public figures (whose dedication and engagement could help the average citizen identify him/herself with the MDGs), as well as the media and the general public.
The Civil Society Development Forum 2007 is to provide also an opportunity, at a roundtable meeting, to assess the perspectives for NGO participation in the proceedings of ECOSOC's enhanced Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD). The Forum should also give a new impetus to the mobilization of civil society, under the umbrella of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID), in the use of information and communication technology in the pursuit of the MDGs.
Further information on the objectives of the Civil Society Development Forum 2007, as well as on the functioning of and interaction with ECOSOC, can be found in the attached background paper. Find also attached the call for discussion papers (deadline for submissions: 1 May 2007).
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Renate
Bloem