First meeting of the year of UN Major Group NGOs

In January, the UN Major Group NGOs resumed its work. The beginning of the year for the Group is traditionally associated with the preparation and holding of side events at the UN ECOSOC Partnership Forum. This year the Forum took place on January 30-31 in a hybrid format. It should be noted that with the gradual restoration of pre-pandemic activity, more and more UN system events invite participants to a wider use of face-to-face meeting formats, however, the experience of remote work allows attracting more and more participants to the direct work of the Forum.

As a result of the work of the Forum, the first meeting of the MG NGOs was held, and the following conclusions and decisions were made:

Drafting for the NGO MG Position Paper will begin in coming weeks. UN DESA will share the timeline, deadline for submission of the executive summary is likely by April.

A number of UN processes are currently very challenging to have wide participation, e.g. the ECOSOC Partnership Forum, etc. In many cases, the UN is now primarily insisting that participants should be in person in NYC to participate in activities.

Interventions and participation from CSO stakeholders seem to be shrunken at various UN spaces. There is a need to celebrate our own local actions, not only wait for 2-minute interventions at the UN. There was a lack of response from the UN on application for Partnership Forum side events.

To develop a survey for the NGO MG for the members to place inputs on participation and engagement process with ECOSOC- OPs can take to the CM and ECOSOC meetings. We can send a letter as NGO MG including signatures. Add to the survey a question with insights about who to approach.