Panel of Eminent Persons on United Nations-Civil Society Relations
Meetings of the Panel
Note of Panel meeting, 11-12 December, Geneva
Participants: All panel members except two who were not able to attend for personal reasons. Panel secretariat.
A. General matters
1. The panel reviewed the main messages it has heard through its consultation process; the panel
members were broadly well satisfied with this process; all had engaged with it and had learnt
considerably from it. The “stock-taking” paper prepared for the meeting captured the main messages
from the process and helps the panel as it moves into its next phase: identifying the proposals it
will advance.
2. The meeting focused for the main part on setting a broad framework for the proposals the panel
will develop in its final report. It then considered possible avenues for addressing some of the
principal issues emanating from the consultation process.
3. The panel stressed the importance of balancing “big picture” analysis with specific technical
proposals that can open doors to new processes. Swift actions that make a discernable and immediate
improvement will be important.
4. The panel agreed to avoid a “one size fits all” approach; there are generic issues that should be
described, but how these apply will usually be context-specific.
5. Overall, the recommendations of the panel would be designed to contribute to enhancing the
performance of the UN and its agencies. This entails engaging the full weight of the global community
of civil society in a meaningful way in the normative, policy-making work of the UN and multilateral
processes and at the same time strengthening the UN’s performance at the national level, through the
operational aspects of the UN’s work, and building clear links between the two ends of this continuum.
6. The panel decided to amend the draft structure of the report to take into account the conclusions
of its deliberations. It is now envisaged that there will be an executive summary, an introduction
and context section (on the relevance of CS in today’s era of global change), a statement of the main
objectives that the panel suggests should guide the UN in its relations with actors beyond national
governments, a description of the paradigm shifts required to meet these objectives, a description of
the panel’s specific proposals (subdivided appropriately), and a conclusion section.
B. Main points of the Meeting
1. The context of global change
Part I of the panel’s final report will analyse the importance of UN-civil society engagement in a global context, emphasizing, among other things, how the power asymmetries inherent in globalisation present special challenges and opportunities to CS and the UN – including the challenges of participation, inclusion and of linking local and global levels. This section would also underscore other issues including: the emergence of a global public sphere, the growing role of non-state actors, the value to the UN of interaction with CS, the need and capacity of the UN to change to adapt to a more diverse and complex world, etc.
2. Definitions
The panel agreed to make clear how it uses the terms civil society, NGOs, private sector etc; this will be through refining the note from its first meeting on categories of actors of relevance to UN. The 3 categories (state-related, civil society, private sector) will be expanded, e.g. by adding indigenous peoples to the CS list. The panel will also clarify what is meant by UN and UN system, etc.
3. New Paradigm
A major objective of the Panel’s final report will be to describe and advocate a new mode of working which it believes should be a foundation for how the UN evolves its relations with civil society and other non-government actors. This could be titled in various ways the “Multi-stakeholder Partnership” or “Constituency Participation” mode – what is important is the notion that the key objectives of the UN cannot be achieved by engaging national governments only. The panel believes there is a compelling case for this and that it is already emerging.
- Until a few years ago, major global initiatives were likely to start with formal inter-governmental agreements reached through traditional deliberative processes. Now they are just as likely to be based on joint initiatives taken by a group of likeminded actors from differing perspectives (national governments, local authorities, CSOs, private sector entities etc).
- Such strategic alliances complement the traditional approach (not displace them); they are often effective because they focus on specific problems, are action-oriented and do not have to await a global consensus before they become effective.
- Such coalitions include global policy networks (e.g. the coalition on landmines) and operational partnerships (e.g. the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria).
- New mechanisms of engaging with non-governmental actors, and a new language, is needed to make the most of these powerful new opportunities. This, and the emerging role of civil society in matters of global change and global governance, sets the challenge for how UN bodies and the wider UN system approach matters of engagement with CS and others.
- The new mode requires more emphasis on the convening, facilitating and empowering roles of UN – providing safe spaces for interaction across geographic, sectoral and cultural divides.
4. Operationalizing the new paradigm
This requires mechanisms and capacities for identifying key stakeholders, mapping them, mobilizing/convening the constituencies, and providing them space for self-organizing (as with CSD’s major group format).
- Though the panel was clear that on-going CSOs engagement in the formal inter-governmental processes of the UN is vital (and indeed should be expanded), it believes that this should be supplemented by paying more attention to situation-specific engagements with the full spectrum of actors relevant to specific issues and occasions.
- The object should be to ensure genuine exchange and dialogue across the sectors at national, regional and global levels rather than token opportunities for civil society presentations in the final minutes of Commission meetings. This can often be achieved through informal forums for UN-CS engagement, including high-level roundtable style interactive dialogues and regional consultations prior to or during official meetings.
- Care is needed in identifying such CS interlocutors. Constituencies elected by wide franchise (such as local authorities, trade unions, members of parliament) have particular significance within debates related to their popular mandate; elsewhere criteria other than voting or membership should be drawn upon (including track record and expertise in the subject in question, command of public trust etc).
- Much more use should be made of new information and communication technology to achieve the expanded dialogue (e.g. regional consultations via email and video conferences).
5. The Country Focus – Building deliberation from bottom up
“Getting results” should be the maxim, hence there should be much greater emphasis on engaging at the country level in partnerships and deliberative processes alike, and on linking this (through regional and sub-regional processes) with the global level. This is one of the most important lessons that the panel wishes to convey to the UN and should be a guiding principle in how the UN evolves its civil society strategy. It necessitates adequate processes for consultation and participatory approaches at the country level, with related staffing and capacity building implications. Further, it entails the UN explicitly adopting a strategic intent to encourage and promote the strengthening of civil society at the national level. The panel has consistently heard a CS view that UN agencies coordinate inadequately at country level; a system-wide emphasis on CS engagement would help foster greater coherence across the agencies, and enhanced responsiveness to country-level actors. It would, by example, also encourage governments to respect CS more.
6. Accreditation issues
Through the above, CSOs seeking to contribute to UN matters will have more diverse channels for doing so. This might ease the demand to engage formally through ECOSOC processes; however there will continue to be a high demand for formal accreditation to take part in the global meetings of the UN. To meet this, the current accreditation processes need to be streamlined and made more transparent and consistent, with greater emphasis on factors relating to the competence and relevance of CS actors to specific forums. The panel established a sub-group to consider how best to address this. The importance of building on Resolution 1996/31 was stressed.
7. Leadership questions
The panel agreed that fostering a new paradigm requires consistent leadership, particularly by the UN Secretary-General (S-G), and hence is evolving a set of messages to provide a framework for this leadership challenge. This includes messages the S-G could underscore to governments (in keeping with B-5 above) about the importance of engaging with civil society and providing an enabling environment for CS to flourish.
8. System-wide coherence and consistency
The panel recognized that its mandate is to advise the S-G on what he can do to enhance UN-CS relations, both as Chief Executive of the organisation and as Secretary to the community of member states. However it also sees many areas in which the S-G is able to influence the wider international system (both the system of specialized agencies of the UN system and the international community more broadly). The panel will make suggestions on common approaches and standards the S-G might urge, though recognizing that the precise methods for achieving such standards (such as accreditation and stakeholder partnerships) will vary according to the agency and context; no one size fits all.
9. Civil Society governance
Enhancing opportunities to engage with the UN, and expanding and clarifying rights for doing so, bring corresponding responsibilities on the part of CS, the private sector and other non-governmental actors. The panel will indicate how this issue could be mapped out more explicitly in consultation with CSOs and others. It isn’t for the UN to define codes of conduct for CS actors, but it could encourage CS to prepare these and to exercise self-discipline.
10. Some specific issues
The panel is likely to evolve specific proposals on:
- Establishing an office or unit working closely with the S-G (and at high-level) to promote CS engagement and the partnership approach; this might be a small office, linking through a matrix mechanism with policy and operational units throughout the organization;
- Appointing country-level CS specialists working with UN Resident Coordinators and similar capacity in regional commissions and hubs; a major aim would be to enhance consultation and participatory approaches at the country level and expand CS involvement in country-level strategic planning;
- Establishing a special fund – met from both donor contributions and UN sources – to enhance the capacity of developing and transition country CSOs to engage with the UN;
- Developing mechanisms to identify and disseminate throughout the UN system lessons from good practices in CS engagement and partnerships;
- Enhancing the Security Council’s engagement with relevant CSOs (the draft proposals on this were broadly endorsed as a realistic set of measures);
- Developing more systematic UN relations with parliaments and associations of parliamentarians (again, the panel broadly endorsed the draft proposals on this topic); the idea of encouraging national parliamentary debates parallel to those at the UN was also floated;
- Opening opportunities for CS participation in meetings of the General Assembly, its committees and special sessions;
- Introducing specific measures of relevance to particular forums, such as the Commission on Human Rights, UN Information Centres etc;
- Developing other measures (besides those described above) to enhance Southern CS participation in UN activities;
- Exploring other measures to enhance the capacity of the UN to engage with CS – including staff training and skills development;
- Evolving proactive UN roles to enhance government-CS dialogue (especially at the national and regional levels) and build bridges to help overcome barriers of confidence and trust;
- Enhancing the critical role of the media, plus other elements of CS, in shaping global public opinion; (the panel will discuss this with DPI specialists etc);
- Utilizing potential galvanizing opportunities at the national level (such as MDGs, Human Development Report, UN Development Assistance Framework, PRSPs etc);
- Engaging with the private sector beyond partnership issues – the panel may address UN-PS-CS engagement to enhance corporate social responsibility;
- Encouraging CS actors to promote and strengthen multilateralism;
- The panel will explore, draw on and describe in its report further examples of effective practices;
- The panel will consider the merits of establishing a Special Rapporteur or Envoy for CS matters, to urge governments and specialized agencies to engage constructively with CS.