This month’s edition contains news from the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, news from SI’s UN Youth Delegate in New York, updates from the International Migration Review Forum, and an introduction to the newly appointed Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

SI UN Representatives in New York attend the Economic and Social Council High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development.

This month, SI sent a strong delegation of UN Representatives to attend the HLPF. This year, the theme was ‘Empowering People and Ensuring Inclusiveness and Equality’. The goals reviewed throughout the forum were as follows:

• Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
• Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
• Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries.
• Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
• Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
• Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development.

Click here to read the SI UN Representatives’ collective and personal impressions of the Forum.

SI UN Representative, Bette Levy has also blogged about her thoughts on the HLPF event ‘Gender Diversity: Beyond Binaries’. Click here to read more.

 

News from SI UN Youth Delegate in New York

Claire Gilman, reports on her experiences working with Soroptimist International at the UN.

“My name is Claire Gilman and I am an upcoming sophomore and Division I rower at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. I am an International Relations and French double major with a minor in Religion, and I have made Dean’s List both semesters so far. This summer I had the opportunity to work with Soroptimist International which allowed me to also intern with the Non-Governmental Organisation Major Group (NGO MG) in preparation for the High Level Political Forum on the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda. I was also able to take a quick, three week break, from interning to take a summer course at the London School of Economics and Political Science on the Middle East in Global Politics. I have always had a particular interest in foreign relations and ways to better them, which also spiked an appeal to NGOs.

This internship with the Major Group alongside the class I took in London were dream experiences for my rising sophomore self. I learned a great deal about the UN, the Major Groups and other Stakeholders and their role in the UN, and the vast, diverse amount of NGOs in the world. It has inspired me to want to do more research with these on ground NGOs and seek more ways to become involved.

During this internship I had the opening to attend different side events, as well as the Opening Session of the High Level Segment held in the General Assembly. One side event that particularly sparked my interest was “Empowering Young People for Sustainable Development and Peace: Through Decent and Sustainable Jobs As Well As Civic and Political Participation.” There, I was able to hear different speakers concerned with different goals of the 2030 Agenda and how they incorporate and emphasise the participation of the youth. From climate action to religious and peace initiatives, it inspired me to want to do more, and made me feel welcomed in the UN community. Hearing these more experienced people encourage the necessary involvement of people my age empowered me. Prior to this event, it was easy to feel intimidated and powerless in environments where I was seen as inferior because of my age. A question was brought to these speakers by another young attendee: how can we ensure our opportunity for participation isn’t simply a check off of a boxed list to have a youth representative at a table? How can we ensure that representation allows us to actually be involved and voice our perspectives? The responses empowered me even more as hands shot up around the room, the first person explaining to us that when we get ourselves to that table, we have the power to speak up and be involved however much we wish to be. My interest was furthered when I was enlightened by more specific problems, specifically climate change related, and initiatives. The organisation Peace Accelerators spoke about their “Farms not Arms” initiative based in Lebanon which inspired me to look into their website more. Also, I learned about the direct effects and impacts of climate change in Bolivia that I don’t know if I would have learned about otherwise. This event is just a small portion of the things I have learned over the course of the summer, and the amount I learned within that event proves my overall new knowledge to be quite large. I am forever grateful for these experiences I was able to endure and for the doors it has opened for me, my curiosity, and my motivation”.

 

Introducing the new Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

SI UN Representative in Rome, Liliana Mosca reports from the 41st session of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Conference at which Qu Dong Yu was voted in as the new FAO Director General.

“Qu Dong Yu was born in 1963 and is a biologist by training, educated in Europe, America and China. He will be FAO’s ninth Director-General since the Organization was founded on October 16, 1945, and the first from a communist country.

Qu rejected claims that he would be beholden to instructions from Beijing, pledging that China would follow “FAO regulations and rules”.

Ahead of his election, Qu proposed five focused areas of action:

1. Zero Hunger and targeted poverty eradication in the world’s impoverished regions and vulnerable populations;
2. Weaknesses of tropical agriculture which is the main battleground for the fragile poor and hunger;
3. Address bottlenecks of dry-land farming which is suffering from drought and water shortage, even worse threatened by climate change;
4. Promotion of digital farming an digital rural development by embracing the digital era and ICT application;
5. Improving agricultural production and value chains for sustainable development.

In his victory speech, Qu said “this is a special day,” “this is our day”, and also that he was “grateful to his motherland,” but then added he would be faithful to the FAO’s missions. Addressing delegations in the room, on Saturday 22 June, he pledged to devote himself to build a dynamic FAO for a better world.

Ministers, vice-Ministers and heads of delegations congratulated the new General Director and paid their respects and applauded the outgoing General Director José Graziano da Silva, who begun a shift towards agro-ecological methods, calling on nature to both combat the effects of global warming,  increasing agricultural yields and achieve Zero Hunger.

With Chinese at the head of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) and ITU (International Telecommunications Organization), the election of Qu Dong Yu at FAO confirm that China is successfully increasing its presence in the ranks of the United Nations.

 

Informal Dialogue for Civil Society on the International Migration Review Forum.

Last Month, SI UN Representative in New York, Barbara Rochman attended the Informal Dialogue for Civil Society on the International Migration Review Forum at which she seized the opportunity to make a statement highlighting some of the challenges that migrant women and girls face and push for these areas to be addressed by the International Migration Review Forum. Click here to read Barbara’s Statement. Barbara has also outlined the areas of the Global Compact on Migration that directly relate to women and girls. Click hereto read more.

Follow the link to read more about the International Migration Review Forum.

Follow the link to read the Global Compact for Migration.

 

Dates for the Diary:

• 68th UN Civil Society Conference, 26-28 August 2019, Salt Lake City. Click here to find out more.
• Sustainable Development Goals Summit, 24-25 September 2019, New York. This event is the first UN summit on the Sustainable Development Goals since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda in September 2015. Click here to read more.