ECOSOC President hosted working breakfast on participation of all with NGOs
01.12.2017 / 02:06 | Aktualizováno: 01.12.2017 / 02:09
ECOSOC President, H.E. Marie Chatardová, in collaboration with the Permanent Mission of Colombia to the UN, hosted a working breakfast of Member States and NGOs on November 27th at the Bohemian National Hall. The topic of the discussion was the priority of the Czech presidency of ECOSOC: “Towards sustainable, resilient and inclusive societies through participation of all.” This meeting represents the first of a series of four working breakfasts in preparation for the ECOSOC Special Meeting on the issue in question, to be held in May 2018.
The meeting was commenced by the ECOSOC president, who noted, among other points, that achieving the 2030 Agenda required a strong partnership between governments, international organizations, civil society, academia and the private sector. As the first panelist, Bonian Golmohammadi, Secretary-General of the World Federation of UN Associations, suggested concrete steps to improve joint engagement of Member States and NGOs in UN processes.
Civil society speakers from the Czech Republic and Colombia explained how NGOs influence policy and decision making in their respective countries. The Czech speaker was Taťána Gregor Brzobohatá, chairperson and co-founder of a charitable foundation called Krása pomoci (Beauty of Help). The perspective from Colombia was provided by Philipp Schönrock, founder of CEPEI, a think-tank working through field based analysis and high-level advocacy to scale up the participation of Latin America and the Caribbean within the global development agendas. Representatives of various NGOs shared their experience in influencing decision-making and policy-making in their respective countries as part of the ensuing debate.
ECOSOC Breakfast with NGO