A blog by Marie-Christine GRIES, UN- SI representative UNESCO
Session 212 of the Non-Governmental Partners Committee 8 October 2021
The NGP Committee of UNESCO is the body of the Executive Board, made up of representatives of the States, in charge of the organisation of the relations with the representatives of the Civil Society, NGOs and Foundations.
This Committee approves (or not) the proposals of the Director General of UNESCO on the admission of new NGOs and Foundations, possible deletions, periodic renewals, changes of partnership status (associative or consultative).
It also has the task of providing a framework for the operation of these partnerships by issuing Directives, the rules governing the operation of NGO relations with UNESCO. The Directives in force were established in 2012. Within this framework, the Committee issues opinions and wishes on the collective work of NGOs and makes recommendations on the organisation and themes of this work in order to strengthen the effectiveness of cooperation between civil society partners and UNESCO.
This 212th session was chaired by Ms. Tamara Rastovac Siamashvili (Serbia) whose term of office is coming to an end. In her introduction, she mentioned the project to organise thematic debates between NGOs and Member States, the implementation of which had been postponed due to the pandemic. The objective of these debates will be to better understand the NGO-UNESCO cooperation and to make known the best practices of the NGOs in this cooperation. The President confirmed that these debates would be well organised, with the necessary rigor for the representativeness of the speakers, favouring geographical diversity. She mentioned, as a subject for reflection for the members of the committee, Finland’s proposal that the themes of the discussions be broadened to include forms of partnership and the possibility of organising parallel events during the UNESCO General Conference
Having been questioned by Ms. Rastovac Siamashvili on the project of thematic debates, Davide Grosso, President of the NGO Liaison Committee, sent a written reply, for which she thanked him, underlining its interest.
Representing the Director General, Mr. JY Le Saux, Director of Strategy, commented on the work undertaken by the NGO Liaison Committee elected in 2020. He described the Committee as active, dynamic, and appreciated the diversity of its geographical origins and the wide range of its work, conducted in close cooperation with the UNESCO Secretariat, Civil Society Partnerships Unit.
He referred to the International NGO Conference in December 2020, and stressed that this Conference had brought together a larger number of NGOs than previous ones: the online format had facilitated participation, especially by NGOs that are far away and have difficulty travelling to UNESCO headquarters. The pandemic had thus promoted a breakthrough in the means of inclusion of all partners.
Taking his turn to speak, Mr. Davide Grosso, Chair of the NGO Liaison Committee elected in 2020, strongly emphasised the need to include all NGO partners in the work of the NGO Liaison Committee. He announced that regional webinars would be held to reach out to NGOs in remote and under-represented regions of the world. These webinars should give a voice to these remote partners and bring in new NGOs as partners. The first webinar will be organised for the Caribbean region.
Mr. Grosso also stressed the importance of anchoring cooperation in UNESCO’s programmes. He confirmed the holding of the two forums foreseen by the roadmap of the International NGO Conference 2020: Global Citizenship next December, and entrepreneurship later.
He mentioned the formation by the Liaison Committee of a group of young people in charge of taking part in the celebration of the 75th anniversary of UNESCO, a step forward to involve young people from partner NGOs in the NGO-UNESCO cooperation.
He confirmed that the thematic debates with the States are very much awaited by the NGOs and this work will have the support of the Liaison Committee which wants to strengthen the contribution of the NGOs to UNESCO, in particular for the field actions.
The President of the PNG Committee thanked Mr. Grosso and said she was pleased with the vision he had presented.
In accordance with the first items on the agenda, the 212th session of the Committee voted to renew the partnership status of some 60 NGOs and one foundation, and also validated the admission of six new NGOs.
During the speeches by the Member States which followed these presentations and the vote on the admission of the NGOs, a broad consensus was visible on the points considered fundamental by the States for the smooth running of the partnership and its improvement:
-the interest in organising thematic debates between NGOs and Member States
– the synergy of the NGOs brought together by the NGO Liaison Committee with UNESCO’s programme sectors
-the need to improve the geographical diversity of the NGO partnership, the cultural and international pluralism, in particular with Africa, which is currently under-represented. The NGO Liaison Committee must also reflect this diversity.
-Inclusion of young people: In this respect, the representative of Kyrgyzstan mentioned the numerous UNESCO prizes and deplored the fact that none had yet been awarded to a young person.
-All speakers approved the project of the NGO Liaison Committee in line with the above orientations, and President Grosso was congratulated for this.
The NGOs were also given the opportunity to speak, most of them to present their organisations.
An interesting remark was made (once again) on the issue of international NGOs whose geographical location is diverse, while their classification is based only on the location of their head office. In the most significant cases, an NGO from the Arab world was cited whose only headquarters is in Switzerland, but which was unable to present its candidature for the Arab region to the NGO Liaison Committee, where this seat is currently vacant for lack of candidates.
Resolution 212/EX36 on partnership, submitted by the Director-General, was unanimously approved by the members of the NGP Committee, with the addition of a recommendation to give special attention in the cooperation between UNESCO and NGOs to UNESCO’s priorities and its priority groups, small island states and youth.
NB the resolution voted on will be soon available on the UNESCO website, documentation section, under the above reference 212/EX36