On 12 July, the President of the General Assembly submitted to Member States his summary of the General Assembly’s interactive hearings with civil society and the private sector in preparation for MDG summit (or High Level Plenary Meeting – HLPM) to be held on 20-22 September.
A few days later, on 15 July, the Office of the GA President requested members of his Task Force(composed of representatives of civil society and the private sector who assisted him in preparing the hearings) to provide him with some guidance for his selection of active civil society participants at the summit itself.
Due to high security concerns with the expected presence of a very large number of Heads of State and Government, there will be only very limited opportunities for civil society to speak in plenary sessions and in the six thematic roundtables during the three-day summit. This also means that civil society speakers should be high-level representatives of their respective organizations. Pursuant to the “modalities resolution” for the summit (A/RES/64/184), each roundtable will include the participation of four representatives of NGOs and civil society. The six roundtables will consist of the following themes:
- Round table 1 — Addressing the challenge of poverty, hunger and gender equality
- Round table 2 — Meeting the goals of health and education
- Round table 3 — Promoting sustainable development
- Round table 4 — Addressing emerging issues and evolving approaches
- Round table 5 — Addressing the special needs of the most vulnerable
- Round table 6 — Widening and strengthening partnerships
Against this background, the President of the General Assembly requested members of his Task Force to provide him before the end of July with inputs on the following:
1. Selection criteria for high level representatives of NGOs (in consultative status with ECOSOC), other civil society organizations and the private sector to actively participate in the summit.
2. Submission of 5 or 6 nominations of high level NGO, civil society and private sector representatives as input in the selection of the three anticipated speaking slots in the plenary sessions (one slot for each of these three categories).
3. Submission of 24 nominations of high level NGO and civil society representatives (four representatives for each of the six roundtables) as well as 12 alternate nominations.
At a meeting held on 21 July, the Task Force members agreed on the following selection criteria:
- High profile/public representative of the organization;
- Gender and regional balance;
- Emphasis on speakers from developing countries;
- Significant and broad issue-based experience and expertise (including “on-the-ground”) on themes relevant to the HLPM and the Roundtables;
- Balanced and wide constituency-based representation (e.g. women’s groups, trade unions, faith-based organizations, indigenous peoples, youth, people living with HIV/AIDS,issue-based NGOs: social justice, development, human rights, climate change, etc.)
- Balance between local and global scope of activity;
- Affinity with the MDG process, including critically constructive engagement (commitment, proven experience, expertise)
These have been transmitted to the Office of the GA President to assist him in his selection process.
Task Force members will also be guided by these criteria for the submission of CSO/NGO nominations, in response to the requests made by the GA President (points 2 and 3 above).
Task Force members are committed to engaging in as inclusive a nominations process as possible, within the constraints imposed by time and the parameters set out in the Resolution A/RES/64/184. They have requested NGLS to make this information publicly available, in order to enable civil society organizations to submit nominations based on the above criteria with enough time for the Task Force to agree on a set of nominations to be submitted to the GA President before the deadline of 30 July.
For this purpose, NGLS has set up an online form for submission of nominations. The deadline for submissions is Tuesday 27 July COB New York Time.
It should be noted that the GA President will also be drawing from many other sources of input for his selection of civil society and other participants at the summit.
Further information on the possibility for a limited number of civil society representatives to attend the summit plenary sessions as observers will be made available on this website as soon as an official decision on this issue is made.
The deadline for nominations was Tuesday, July 27 6.00 pm EST
Do not hesitate to contact us at mdg2010@un-ngls.org in case you have any questions.
