The 2024 United Nations Civil Society Conference, which is the premier event on civil society at the United Nations, kicked off today at the United Nations Office in Nairobi, Kenya. The 2 Day (9-10 May) International Conference, will see over 2000 participants and is an important opportunity for global civil society and multi-stakeholder engagement ahead of the world leaders’ Summit of the Future scheduled to take place on 22-23 September 2024 in New York, USA. The Nairobi conference aims to promote civil society’s insights and initiatives to bolster the Member State-led Summit of the Future process and its outcome document, the Pact for the Future, alongside a Global Digital Compact and Declaration on Future Generations.
President William Ruto of Kenya and the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will deliver remarks at the closing session of the Civil Society Conference on Friday 10 May. The key outcome of the 2024 United Nations Civil Society Conference will be called “ImPACT for the Future.”
The Conference offers civil society organizations an opportunity to put a global perspective on a specific issue and brings together senior UN System officials, prominent international civil society organizations, youth changemakers, academia, public opinion makers, and international media to discuss issues of global concern. Since 1947, sixty-eight civil society conferences have resulted in successful outcomes due to previous interactions with civil society organizations.
CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE SUMMIT OF THE FUTURE
Civil society plays a fundamental role in shaping a future that, today more than ever, needs multilateral approaches to ensure an inclusive, sustainable, and safe society for all.
The Summit of the Future will deliver a UN 2.0 for people and planet in the 21st century and beyond. The historic summit represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strategize the path forward for the United Nations and the global community, to advance the work marked by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and build a world where no one is left behind. Civil society as an essential partner in this global endeavor, must come up with solutions and approaches from all sectors in society, in a spirit of collaboration and true networked and inclusive multilateralism, much of which will be the focus of the Nairobi Summit.
OBJECTIVES OF THE CIVIL SOCIETY CONFERENCE
The 2024 UN Civil Society Conference has three main objectives:
- INCLUSIVITY. Increase awareness, ambition, and accountability for the Summit of the Future beyond New York and support the amplification of diverse voices and initiatives to inform an inclusive Pact for the Future.
- IMPACT. Use the Nairobi moment to build multi-stakeholder ImPACT Coalitions constituting Member States, civil society, academia, think tanks, foundations, and the private sector, to champion, act on, and push forward specific issue areas or big-ticket reforms proposed in the consensus language of the Pact of the Future. These coalitions seek to both raise the ambition of the Pact, and see through its implementation and action. The civil society-hosted, multistakeholder “ImPACT for the Future Package” seeks to be a contribution by diverse stakeholders to enhance the implementation of key reforms and issues across the Pact for the Future.
- INNOVATION. Seize the conference itself as an opportunity to innovate the way civil society interacts with intergovernmental processes. To showcase an effective model of intergenerational cooperation and solidarity, championing diverse expertise, and doing something new in a civil society-hosted multi-stakeholder forum.
THE ImPACT FOR THE FUTURE PACKAGE
The key outcome of the 2024 United Nations Civil Society Conference will be called “ImPACT for the Future.” Given the short time frame for the Conference, as well as the fluid nature of the negotiations around the intergovernmentally negotiated Pact for the Future, the outcomes will take shape in various formats to have the greatest impact in the following ways:
- A hub for “ImPACT Coalitions,” which will be civil society generated, diverse stakeholder constituted coalitions which agree to work towards advancing certain key reform initiatives leading up to and beyond the Summit of the Future.
- A Co-Chair’s Summary as a record and summary of the Conference itself.
(With inputs from Molly Ogogo, our on the ground reporter in Nairobi for the 2024 Civil Society Conference)
