A Special Briefing to NGOs by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations

October 26, 2011

by Uraidah Hassani

[You can see the entire briefing at this link: http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/dpingorelations/home/events/briefings/Fall2011/26oct2011 ]

I was able to attend the Department of Public Information’s Special Briefing with the United Nations Secretary General on behalf of Susila Dharma International Association on October 26, 2011.

The Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, humbly stated that the purpose of the meeting was for the United Nations to give thanks to the NGOs and to allow them to ask him any questions. He thanked the audience, made up of DPI-Associated NGOs as well as those organizations in consultative status with ECOSOC, for their continued humanity, passion, contributions and criticisms.

The layout of the briefing was meant to accommodate the questions from the audience and to allow the Secretary General to answer them thoroughly and to outline his vision for his second term. Before outlining his priorities for his second term, the Secretary General began the conversation by declaring that the United Nations is driving forward The Bonn Declaration created at the DPI NGO Conference in Bonn this past September, where SDIA’s Sharifin Gardiner and Romina Vianden-Prudent were in attendance.

In Ban Ki-moon’s thirty-minute speech he focused heavily on the importance of disarmament, assisting countries in transition, and the power of partnership. For the year ahead, the Secretary General stated that the United Nations, in partnership with the NGOs, should concentrate on disarmament. While many dismiss disarmament as a futile idea, Mr. Ban Ki-moon emphasized that it was not. “Let’s bring the idea of disarmament to the earth,” he said. Another important focal point for the coming year is the assistance of transition countries, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. The Secretary General stressed the significance of a healthy civil society in the success of a country’s development. He called for the NGOs, alongside the United Nations, to help women’s groups, social media activists and others fulfill their roles as these nations move forward and develop. Lastly, and a point he repeated several times during the briefing, we need alliances. Government cannot govern alone. They need support from philanthropists, faith leaders, the business community and, most notably, civil society, which is where NGOs play a large role. This is the United Nation’s business model and the Secretary General claims this is the most ideal and effective way to confront the challenges of today.

Following the speech by the Secretary General, the briefing opened up to a question and answer style discussion. The first question noted the need to address the strong disconnect between rhetoric and implementation (financial and time-wise) in regards to the relationship between NGOs and the United Nations. The Secretary General simply stated, “I will lead by example as I have done in the past.” He illustrated that the three legs to a perfect partnership included the United Nations, government and civil society. They must all work together in order to accomplish things in an effective and timely fashion. This question allowed the Secretary General to more thoroughly explain his priorities for the next term.

For the Secretary General’s second term, five global issues are made a priority: (1) sustainable development, (2) preventive diplomacy, which includes peace and security, as well as disaster risk reduction, (3) ensuring a safer and more prosperous world, (4) helping countries in transition (in the Middle East and North Africa region and elsewhere), (5) work with and for women and youth.

The conversation was often directed, by questions from the NGOs, to the topic of women and girls, who are still marginalized groups in our societies. The United Nations established, for the first time this year, UN Women. This is one area where civil society has worked. Mr. Ban Ki-moon mentioned that he has appointed several special representatives and envoys that are working for the promotion of women’s rights and to prevent sexual violence against women. “The least utilized resource is women,” he stated amidst a loud applause from the audience. Mr. Ban Ki-moon has appointed more women Under Secretary Generals than all other past Secretary Generals, combined.

Another area of concern for NGOs is how some governments promote policies that are antagonistic to human rights. NGOs cited that when governments find it financially practical, they allow land grabs, resource removal and media secrecy under the guise of development. For this reason, it is often difficult for NGOs to do their job. Understandably, the Secretary General raised the issue of national sovereign right. If he [Ban Ki-moon] were to raise human rights violations to a government body, the likely response is that it is within their sovereign right. However, Mr. Ban Ki-moon suggested that when civil society (citizens and organizations) and media speak out on human rights abuses, it is much easier for him to also then speak out.

The remaining hour of the meeting was a continuance of the Q&A discussion, without the Secretary General, but with Kiyo Akasaka (Under Secretary General of DPI), Navid Hanif (DESA) and Maher Nasser (DPI, Communications) and a special focus on sustainable development.

Water was a large topic and Mr. Akasaka shared his views on the issue. As we know, out of 7 billion people, 1.4 billion do not have access to clean drinking water. Mr. Akasak pointed out that it is often municipalities, not national government, that has access to local water resources. For this reason, it is important to deal with water locally. It is Mr. Akasaka’s opinion that NGOs should adopt the concept that sees water as a commodity. If water is viewed as a commodity by the government and by people, it can be priced. If water is priced, the people’s attitude towards water will change and it will be viewed as more valuable. NGOs can help the international community to become more aware of best practices and continue to push for free access to clean water.

The role that religious leaders can and should play in the discourse on sustainable development was also raised. An NGO representative suggested that religious leaders have great power and their reach is wide and low. The discussion of sustainable development needs to be in every discussion, but Mr. Nasser accurately reflected that sustainable development as an important issue has not seemed to enter the dialogue of religious leaders yet, as they tend to be more focused on inter-faith partnership and religious tolerance. Representatives of several religious NGOs declared that they would take up this issue.

I thoroughly enjoyed being present at this briefing and thank Susila Dharma International Association for allowing me the opportunity. I hope that this report will prove useful in some capacity. Perhaps to fault of my own, I realized at this briefing, which allowed NGOs to directly share concerns and criticisms with the United Nations Secretary -General, that it would have been very beneficial if I had come armed with comments and questions from our projects so that I could report relevant and specific information back to them.

To feel that I am adequately representing SDIA’s projects, I would like to call on the projects of Susila Dharma International to send me questions, concerns or best practices that they would like the United Nations to address or be aware of. I find that SDIA’s consultative status with the United Nations is a significant one and we should draw on it (1) to improve our projects, as the United Nations provides us with a wealth of information on the best practices in the field of international development, (2) to help our projects gain greater visibility because the United Nations can be a very useful and powerful network, and (3) to help other NGOs by sharing practices our projects found effective when facing challenges on the ground.

Thank you,

Uraidah Hassani

Contact: u.hassani.1@alumni.nyu.edu