PSPD in English Archive 2003-01-31   864

Asia Civil Society Forum 2002

The Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Status with the Untied Nations (CONGO), which facilitates participation of NGOs in United Nations debates and decisions on various issues, recently organized the Asia Civil Society Forum 2002 in Bangkok. This forum was held for five days (December 9-13, 2002) at the UN ESCAP building. During the 1990s, global issues became relevant to daily life to the extent that “think globally, act locally” became the motto of many people all over the world. To solve social, economic, or environmental problems more effectively and practically, the UN and NGOs need each other’s ideas and capabilities. In Europe and North America, NGOs involve themselves with the UN more often than NGOs in the southern hemisphere. Through this forum, CONGO intended to raise Asian NGOs’ attention to the possibility of working with the UN collaboratively.

For this purpose, the forum was designed to function as a place for meeting, training, analyzing and planning with Asian NGOs on the issues of NGO partnership with the UN. Asian NGOs shared their experience of working with the UN, participating in UN meetings (summits and conferences) as NGO representatives, and their on-going follow-up actions in their own contries. Presentations on the UN and CONGO’s working structure were also informative. CONGO’s history and projects were also introduced.

The training and capacity building sessions focused on the following questions: 1) How to obtain and effectively utilize consultative relationships with the UN; and 2) How to effectively make use of information and communication technology for advocacy in the UN. There was also a session on fund-raising and project management.

At the end of the forum, at an unofficial Korean evaluation meeting, NGO activists shared the urgent need for more skill training. UN and NGO projects are different in that NGOs often feel they need stronger skills in negotiating effectively. For grassroots NGOs, inclusion of opinions in UN agenda formation is increasingly important.

Participants analyzed and reflected on current issues in UN/NGO partnerships and the outcomes of recent UN meetings such as the UN Millennium Summit 2000, WCAR 2001, WSSD 2002, etc. This was to plan future strategies for such events. The questions of what NGOs can do for implementing the outcomes of UN meetings, how NGOs can strengthen the function of the UN in global society, and how NGOs can build networks among civil societies in Asia and in the world were also a part of the discussion. A strategic meeting for Asian NGOs preparing for the World Summit on an Information Society (WSIS) 2003, scheduled for December 2003 in Geneva, was held in parallel with ACSF. Participating organizations also prepared their collective efforts for the Asia-Pacific regional conference to be held in January 2003 in Tokyo.

Each day started with a plenary session, which dealt with a daily theme. Afterwards, the participants were separated into small workshop groups. There were three sessions throughout the day and 53 workshops and roundtable talks were held in the five days. Human Rights and Sustainable Development were the two pillars that supported the forum, as they are essential components of democratic governance. Some NGO representatives wondered, however, if the forum should have also focused on peace issues.

NGOs need to develop strategies to ensure that their governments sincerely implement what they pledge at UN meetings. The idea behind this is to create a system of responsibility for governments that make international commitments. This also applies to NGOs. After any party agrees to and signs a statement at the end of any forum or conference, monitoring and encouraging other parties to follow up can in fact be more important than attending the meeting itself.

Personally, it was a great experience to be exposed to such a large spectrum of “civil society” organizations: 567 participants from 413 organizations and 36 countries, including 39 participants from 28 organizations based inKorea, attended the forum. The participants ranged from grassroots activists to UN personnel. The future of these “different” people working together for common good in democratic governance issues remains a life-long project for everyone who is part of civil society.

As one of the follow-up plans, CONGO is considering holding a Northeast Asian Civil Society Forum in Korea later in 2003.

* For final statement of the forum and other information, please visit http://www.acsf.net

Park Yeara (International Solidarity, PSPD)

정부지원금 0%, 회원의 회비로 운영됩니다

참여연대 후원/회원가입


참여연대 NOW

실시간 활동 SNS

텔레그램 채널에 가장 빠르게 게시되고,

더 많은 채널로 소통합니다. 지금 팔로우하세요!