DPI/NGO CONFERENCE EXAMINES MILESTONES AND CURRENT TRENDS IN UNITED NATIONS/NGO PARTNERSHIP
Press Release
NGO/296
PI/1029
DPI/NGO CONFERENCE EXAMINES MILESTONES AND CURRENT TRENDS IN UNITED NATIONS/NGO PARTNERSHIP
19970910 Non-governmental organizations must devise systems of accountability to ensure that high standards of ethical behaviour are upheld consistently by NGOs, panellists told participants in the fiftieth annual Department of Public Information (DPI)/NGO Conference this afternoon.The theme of the afternoon was "Overview of UN-NGO Partnership", and two panels were held -- one on the milestones and the other on the current trends of that partnership.
At the outset of this afternoon's session, Leona Forman, Chief of DPI's NGO Section, introduced two short films, the first entitled "United Nations and NGOs: Fifty Years of Partnership", on the history of the relationship between the NGO community and the world body. Produced by DPI, its narrator noted that more than 1,500 organizations had since obtained consultative status with the United Nations, and that NGOs had contributed importantly to several United Nations conferences.
The second film was a videotaped greeting from the crew of the Mir Space Station. The flight commander, Cosmonaut Anatoli Solovyev, said the crew was confident that in the new millennium, only partnership and cooperation could be the foundation of a meaningful future for humanity. Flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov said they had raised the "Banner of Peace" over the earth because they wanted wars and hostility to be replaced by culture. American astronaut Michael Foale said the "Banner of Peace" had been taken to space to remind people of the global responsibility for the fate of humanity and planet Earth.
The Conference will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 11 September, to continue its deliberations.
Milestones in UN-NGO Relationship
The Panel's Moderator was GILLIAN SORENSEN, Assistant Secretary-General for External Relations, Executive Office of the Secretary-General. She said the fiftieth anniversary indeed represented a milestone for the United Nations-NGO relationship. "In this room, 'We the people' are made manifest", she said, referring to the preamble of the United Nations Charter.
Participants in the Conference had not lost faith in the founders of the Organization. Governments which previously considered NGOs to provide an ancillary function would be surprised to find that they were now involved in central functions.
The United Nations now had a Secretary-General who recognized the contribution of NGOs to the Organization, and who was taking active steps to enhance their role, she said. Indeed, his reform proposals had paid particular attention to their contribution. The United Nations-NGO relationship had "some work to do", but there was good will on both sides. The world conferences to which NGOs had contributed represented another milestone. The "People's Millennium Assembly" which the Secretary-General had proposed, would be a wonderful opportunity for the NGO community. Its exact role had yet to be defined, presenting an opportunity for participants to consider the contribution of the NGO community.
The relationship between NGOs and the United Nations needed continued thought and attention, she said. Participants and United Nations officials enjoyed a complementary relationship, providing each other with resources and expertise, as well as passion and skills. When speaking with a unified voice, the relationship's prospects were unlimited.
BECKY CAIN, President, League of Women Voters, said the League and the United Nations had enjoyed a long relationship, dating back to the Organization's predecessor, the League of Nations. In 1944, the League of Women Voters had encouraged United States participation in the proposed world body; towards that end it trained 5,000 speakers for the United Nations Charter Conference, and was one of 42 NGOs with consultative status at the Conference, held in San Francisco. By 1948, the League had called for strengthening of the Organization, particularly Member States' payment of contributions.
The League later drew attention to tensions between the United States and the then Soviet Union, she added. The League had undertaken studies of United Nations development. Since 1945, the League had maintained observers at the Organization, who sent out mailings, held workshops, hosted visits to the United Nations and had provided specific information to League members. The League consistently monitored United States actions at the Organization, and lobbied for adequate funding for the United Nations, and disarmament. The United Nations remained the best existing instrument to promote world peace, and to promote the health of its peoples.
Responding to a participant's question about the United States' financial contribution to the Organization, Ms. Cain said the NGO community should frame the matter in personal terms, so that American citizens could appreciate the urgency of the matter. To a question about the efficacy of
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women's electoral power, Ms. Cain said women should work towards their own election to political office. They should also ensure their representation in census-taking, she said.
Speaking on the role of the New York-based Church Centre for the United Nations in facilitating the work of the NGOs, Reverend RANDOLPH NUGENT, General-Secretary of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, said the Centre had been built in 1963 by churches in the United States to reaffirm their support for the United Nations and to symbolize their belief in the potential that the Organization offered to the world. The Centre was the home of several denominational United Nations offices. It was the place where Christians from around the world went to observe the United Nations and participate in its work. The Centre had been and was an educational setting for youth and adults from around the world. Working in partnership with NGOs, the United Nations was better able to create the forum which would enable people and nations to manifest their sense of purpose.
Responding to questions, he said the Centre organized workshops to encourage better understanding of the work of the United Nations.
SVEIN ERIK ODDEN, Secretary-General of the United Nations Association of Norway, speaking on partnership of his organization and the Government of Norway, said it was established in 1946 and currently had 30 full-time officers working at a national information centre in cooperation with the United Nations Information Centre in Norway. The organization worked with the Foreign Ministry of Norway, and had developed a working relationship with other NGOs without losing its independence. Norway had been involved in United Nations peacekeeping operations and it planned to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the involvement in 1998, he noted.
A participant called for United Nations support for a "world street summit" to address the problems affecting youth. A conference participant from Mexico also said more attention should be paid to youth.
Ms. SORENSEN, in a comment, said the United Nations had many activities in which youth were involved. She said the Secretary-General encouraged the participation of youth in the Organization's activities.
Mr. ODDEN said 75 per cent of his organization's budget was spent on educational projects, such as the writing of textbooks and other information materials about the United Nations and global issues.
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UN-NGO Partnership: Current Trends
The Panel's Moderator was CYRIL RITCHIE, President, Federation of International Institutions of Geneva. She said the NGO community should speak plainly about its relationship with the United Nations. The NGO community played an immense variety of roles in the relationship -- sharing expertise, promoting empowerment and holding governments accountable for their actions. The NGOs must also hold themselves accountable, for ever greater influence went hand-in-hand with ever greater responsibility. Did the NGO community need an NGO tribunal to ensure adherence to standards and possible punishment for NGOs which failed to do so, he asked.
The variety of the United Nations-NGO partnership models was extraordinary, particularly in the area of election monitoring, he said. "How can we go through these open doors, rather than complaining about closed doors?", he asked. The NGOs' roles were changing as new organizations entered the United Nations. Their increase in number reflected the rise of civil society globally. How could those NGOs be assisted? he asked. The NGOs had also contributed importantly to several United Nations conferences, a practice that had grown substantially during the 1990s. Whereas governments often downplayed NGOs' contributions to such conferences, NGOs had in fact played important negotiating roles. The NGOs must find ways to increase their acceptance by governments.
AHMAD KAMAL, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations and Chairman of the Subgroup on NGOs of the General Assembly's High-Level Working Group on the Strengthening of the United Nations System, said the problem of the relationship of NGOs and the United Nations was so complex and the results of the relationship so meagre that a few observations should be repeated. Five Working Groups had been created in 1995 to consider areas of reform to the United Nations. Two years later, their efforts had produced "next to zero". Reform efforts had since been overtaken by the Secretary- General, who had tabled his own proposals, which would likely be examined aggressively by Member States.
Loss of credibility and relevance were widely seen as the major problems facing the United Nations, he said. It was thought that the Organization had been created by consensus in 1945, but this was largely not true, and lack of consensus was even more true now. Also, powerful new actors had emerged on the scene, and the Organization was slow to react to their emergence. The first new actor was civil society. Secondly, the private sector was far more prominent today, and was able to mobilize tremendous levels of aid and investment. A third actor was "informatics" -- new information technology -- which was difficult to control. The NGOs, in particular, were able to utilize that technology to a much greater extent than governments.
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How much access to United Nations decision-making and meetings should NGOs be given, he asked. An answer had not yet been found. Debate on the role of NGOs was in truth about power-sharing, and the United Nations had so far declined to share power. The Working Group was "up against a tide" from Member States, even though NGOs had asked only for incremental change. Yet NGOs were the most important group in the Organization today, due to their connections to the grassroots, and had done brilliant work. Eighty per cent of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' budget was administered by NGOs, for example.
But there were also difficulties, he said: some NGOs were good, others not. The NGOs had to exercise a system of accountability in response to that reality. Self-censorship, and a mechanism to enforce it, were needed. Also, there was a North-South divide among NGOs that must be confronted. There was a preponderance of northern NGOs, even though the South was more populous. NGOs must devise a solution to that problem.
TECHESTE AHDEROM, Principal Representative to the United Nations of Baha'i Centre, speaking about partnership in the development and human rights area, said NGO influence and contributions to development were unique. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) had estimated that the total contributions of NGOs to development efforts was $8.3 billion. The World Bank had also estimated that registered NGOs in India spent $20 million annually or 25 per cent of all India's external aid. He also said that the 1993 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimated that the combined efforts of NGOs from developed and developing countries had reached 250 million people.
He said NGOs should really be involved in the implementation of follow- up of United Nations conferences of the past decade if partnership with the world body was to become a reality.
TATSURO KUNUGI, Professor at the International Christian University at Tokyo, said there was a very large number of NGOs in Japan, mostly non-profit and tax-exempt with a total expenditure equivalent to a trillion dollars. A compromise legislation was before the Japanese parliament to ensure tax exempt status for grass-roots NGOs, which was already enjoyed by the non-profit bodies. A world NGO conference would be held in Japan in 1999, with a focus on building partnerships between civil society and intergovernmental organizations within the United Nations system. A preparatory meeting had been held in September 1996.
MARGARETA WAHLSTROM, Under-Secretary-General for Disaster Response and Operations Coordination, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the level of humanitarian assistance worldwide had "skyrocketed" in the past 10 years; its level of funding was now $3.5 billion.
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More than 75 per cent of that humanitarian assistance was delivered by the NGO community. Many humanitarian aid agencies were active on the ground, including within conflict areas. Because disaster victims must receive the assistance they need, an "accountability revolution" had been necessary.
Thus the Federation of the Red Cross had three years ago established a 10-point Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief, to safeguard NGOs' independence and to ensure that NGOs' intentions were indeed humanitarian, she said. Emphasizing a need for transparency, the Code had been endorsed by 131 NGOs. Further, 147 States had in 1995 pledged to support its implementation. Evidence of support was found in donor countries, which regarded the Code as a judge of agencies' quality.
The Code of Conduct had since become an accepted standard of NGO behaviour, she said. Donors were beginning to question NGO behaviour which did not meet the Code's standards. A further effort to establish minimal performance standards was started by the Federation in July, with help of NGOs, governments and United Nations agencies, and would be complete within one year. Such an effort would have a profound effect on the Red Cross work, and would, in tandem with the Code of Conduct, form a framework of accountability for humanitarian NGOs. The Federation would look to governments to support those efforts. The key to the standards' potential success was not merely technical quality, but the fact that they come from within the aid community. That fact could "start a process rolling, which would drive NGOs' quality and efficiency".
ANDREI KORTUNOV, Chairman of the Moscow Public Science Foundation, said the NGO community could be important partners to international organizations such as the United Nations. They were important to the promotion of global ideals such as those of the United Nations and in mobilizing global resources. The concept of power-sharing was not a practical ideal. Governments could not be forced to share power. It was a challenge and a task for NGOs to ensure that there was no new world order without them.
A participant asked whether it was not possible to allow NGOs to make contributions to special sessions of the General Assembly? Another asked how the United Nations could help northern and southern NGOs to work beneficially together.
Replying, Mr. KAMAL said what was being witnessed was a "class struggle between governments and NGOs with regard to power sharing". There was no doubt that NGOs had the capacity to organize themselves when called upon to do so. Objectives of northern NGOs were perceived differently from those of southern organizations and a balance had to be struck. The NGOs must fight to ensure that their work was not misused by governments. They must decide that they were citizens of the world and of their countries as well.
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