Please join us for this side event to the United Nations Summit of the Future (SOTF) which is taking place in New York during 20 to 23 September 2024, attendance is available online.

In this webinar experts and advocates in Environment, Financing for Development, and Social Justice will explore how to transform systems to prioritize human well-being, equal rights, and planetary health. The current economic model, focused on growth, has led to resource depletion, environmental harm, and social inequalities. Environmental protection is a necessity, not a luxury.

The United Nations Summit of the Future (SOTF) aims to establish a global consensus on creating societies that prioritize collective well-being and sustainability over mere economic output. The resulting Pact for the Future calls for a shift from GDP-focused growth to a model that emphasizes intergenerational solidarity, ecological sustainability, and equity. To achieve this, deep reforms in global financial, tax, and monetary systems are essential.

Indigenous knowledge offers valuable insights into sustainability and intergenerational solidarity, promoting a harmonious relationship with nature and community. By integrating these perspectives, we can address current challenges while fostering long-term resilience.

This event will explore the role of NGOs in ensuring the successful implementation of the Pact for the Future, driving structural change and advancing global momentum toward a sustainable and equitable future.

Panelists include:

• Liberato C Bautista, President, The Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO)
• Cecilia Schirmeister, Bahá’í International Community
• Ivy Koek, Soka Gakkai International
• Ananda Lee Tan, Just Transition Alliance
• Ranbir Singh Mangat, Sikh Human Rights Group
• Stephen Eugine Okanda, Kenya United Nations Youth Delegate, Executive Director of Unlock Young Leaders Summit

Introductory remarks: Maria Fornella, Soroptimist International

Moderator: Dr. Despoina Afroditi Milaki, International Presentation Association

Register here to join this webinar!

Co-organisers are:

• International Presentation Association (IPA) 
• SHRG (Sikh Human Rights Group) 

This webinar is sponsored by:

• Baha’i International Community 
• NGO Committee on the Status of Women New York (NGO CSW/NY)

 

Speaker biographies

Liberato C Bautista, President, CoNGO

Liberato C. Bautista is a civil society leader whose professional life has been dedicated to working with faith-based, ecumenical, and non-governmental organizations worldwide, spanning the last four decades. Dr. Bautista serves as President of CoNGO—The Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations—an international non-governmental organization with general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Bautista represents both CoNGO and The United Methodist Church-General Board of Church and Society at the United Nations. He was previously the Chair of the Council of Organizations of the United Nations Association of the USA (COO UNA-USA) and the Committee of Religious NGOs at the UN (CRNGO). Bautista studied political science, history, international studies at the University of the Philippines and religion and social and political ethics at Drew University (USA). He is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS). Bautista has traveled to more than 80 countries worldwide, attending major United Nations conferences and ecumenical, interreligious, civil society, and academic meetings. Bautista has lectured and taught in university, college, and seminary settings and has published articles and monographs on varied subjects, and edited books, including international affairs, NGO and civil society dynamics, social and political ethics, theology and religion, ecumenism and religious liberty, human rights and human dignity, indigeneity and decolonization, global and forced migration, and peace, justice, and social transformation. For more information about Bautista, including his publications, visit https://bit.ly/42x8SSJ. For more information, email him at president@ngocongo.org.

Cecilia Schirmeister, Bahá’í International Community

Cecilia Schirmeister is a Representative of the Baha’i International Community’s UN Office in New York. Her primary areas of work include youth, social development, and climate change. She also currently serves as Chair of the World Social Summit Subcommittee for the NGO Committee on Social Development. Cecilia’s professional background spans project management, public affairs, and communications work related to development at the international, national, and local levels. Most recently, she managed the implementation of public health projects based in Africa and Asia; prior to that, she worked in research and global policy analysis, as well as in the analysis of how social and economic development- related experience generated at the grassroots influences multilateral decision-making. Her research examines supranationall response capacity to cross-national challenges amidst the limitations of an us vs. them-bound system, and explores the normative potential of centering the well-being of humanity in migration policy. Cecilia holds a Bachelors in Political Science with a focus on international relations and a Bachelors in French and Francophone Studies.

Ivy Koek, Soka Gakkai International

Ivy Koek is a Representative to the UN for Soka Gakkai International (SGI) based in New York and Focal Point for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. She is engaged in SGI’s work in gender justice, sustainability and climate change, peace, disarmament, and human rights mainly through its nonformal education approach since joining in 2013. Currently the Co-Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New York (NGO CSW/NY), the global convener of civil society during the annual UN Commission on the Status of Women, she has served on the Executive Committee since 2014 in various roles including as Vice Chair. Ivy’s prior work has taken her from her home in the U.S. to Venezuela and Japan in the fields of education, study abroad, editing and translation. Her Capstone for her Masters in International and Intercultural Management at the School for International Training was on “Women’s Empowerment for Peacebuilding.” Ivy is passionate about young women’s leadership, building the culture of peace, co-creating inclusive spaces with fellow feminist advocates and partners, and interfaith collaboration.

Ananda Lee Tan, Just Transition Alliance

Ananda Lee Tan has been organizing grassroots movements since 1986 – building coalitions, networks and alliances for land defence, environmental justice, worker rights, energy democracy, food sovereignty, zero waste, labour rights and just transition, serving frontline communities and workers around the world. Over the years, Ananda has served networks like Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Indigenous Climate Action and the Indigenous Environmental Network, and co-convened the Climate Justice Alliance, a network of frontline communities organizing a Just Transition away from the colonial extractive economy.

In 2013, Ananda brought together the Building Equity and Alignment for Impact, an initiative aimed at shifting philanthropic resources and centering the leadership of Black, Brown, Indigenous, Migrant and Poor communities on the frontlines of the ecological crises. He also co-convened the NYC People’s Climate March which birthed the It Takes Roots coalition in 2014. 

Presently, Ananda lives on unceded Coast Salish territories in the Pacific Northwest, and serves as an advisor, facilitator, trainer and guide for the Just Transition Alliance, the Indigenous Food & Freedom School, the International Alliance of Waste Pickers and the Labor Network for Sustainability. 

Ranbir Singh Mangat, Sikh Human Rights Group

Ranbir works with the Sikh Human Rights Group, where he is currently organising efforts to assess how Sikh communities around the world contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He studied international development at York University, where he contributed to research on social innovations within Toronto’s diasporic communities. In 2017, TD Bank recognized him for his youth community leadership, including his role as a student trustee on one of Canada’s largest school boards.

Stephen Eugine Okanda, Kenya United Nations Youth Delegate, Executive Director of Unlock You

Stephen Eugine Okanda, is the Kenya United Nations Youth Delegate, Executive Director of Unlock Young Leaders Summit, a Youth-Based Leadership Organization in Kenya championing SDGs 4,8,16 having built a community of more than 25,000 young people from High Schools, Universities and Community Serving Organizations.

For more information on the event please read the Concept Note