The 2024 UN Civil Society Conference (2024UNCSC) provided preliminary discussions and data ahead of the Summit of the Future (SoF) in September 2024. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said ImPact Coalitions that assembled during the Conference “promised a new era of engagement, spanning ages, regions and sectors, focusing civil society’s energy and expertise for maximum impact.”
Themed, ‘Shaping a Future of Global and Sustainable Progress,’ the two-day event convened from 9-10 May 2024 in Nairobi, Kenya. It brought together UN system officials, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academia, think tanks, Member States, media, the private sector, change makers, and leaders from diverse groups to build awareness, ambition, and accountability for the Summit of the Future, shape multi-stakeholder ImPact Coalitions to champion reforms proposed in consensus language of the Pact for the Future, and to innovate how civil society and other stakeholders interact with intergovernmental processes.
Welcoming participants, Carole Agengo, Co-Chair of the 2024UNCSC Planning Committee and Africa Regional Representative at HelpAge International, said ten diverse subcommittees “further conceptualized the inclusivity in the objectives [of the Conference] to level up inclusion, impact, and innovation.”
Nudhara Yusuf, Co-Chair of the 2024UNCSC Planning Committee, Global Governance Innovation Network, and Youth Coordinator at the Coalition for the UN We Need, said civil society “need[s] to be willing to push the envelope on how they engage[] with multilateral and intergovernmental processes.”
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed described the Conference as “a testament to the strong voice of civil society, despite rising threats and shrinking space,” stressing that the Summit of the Future needs to resonate with civil society’s priorities, concerns, and expectations.
UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Dennis Francis urged civil society to be “steadfast advocates for our multilateral system,” to achieve transformative change by crafting “an indelible legacy of peace, progress, prosperity and sustainability for the present and future generations.”
Thirty-seven workshops were held on Day 1 of the Conference. Civil society provided recommendations on the five chapters of the Pact for the Future, on the Declaration on Future Generations, and on the Global Digital Compact – the three expected outcomes of the Summit of the Future.
On Day 2, participants engaged in an interactive dialogue on the Summit of the Future and beyond and convened as ImPact Coalitions that shared perspectives on how to achieve transformative change in, among other areas: accountability, standards, and monitoring; artificial intelligence (AI); children’s rights and participation; inclusive global governance; and financing for development (FfD) and international financial architecture reform.
In his closing remarks, the UN Secretary-General outlined a vision for a more inclusive and effective multilateralism set out in his ‘Our Common Agenda’ report and called for establishing dialogue between decision makers and civil society within all international institutions, which he said is “key to rebuilding trust.”
The UN Department of Global Communications (DGC) organized the 2024 UN Civil Society Conference in Support of the Summit of the Future in collaboration with civil society. An ImPACT for the Future Outcome Package is expected to leverage the recommendations, innovation, and expertise of civil society to bolster the Summit of the Future in a spirit of collaboration, innovation, and impactful change. [UN News Story on 2024UNCSC Opening] [UN News Story on 2024UNCSC Closing]