Asia-Pacific, Civil Society, Development & Aid, Headlines, Poverty & SDGs

DEVELOPMENT: Civil Society – Window Dressing For the UN?

Zofeen Ebrahim

GENEVA, Jun 29 2007 (IPS) - Is global governance the sole domain of governments or are they willing to share what has traditionally been their preserve? Has civil society finally inched its way into the United Nations system and made its presence felt?

Not quite, says Jo E. Butler, from the Intergovernmental Affairs and Outreach Service of the U.N. Council for Trade and Development (UNCTAD). She believes the participation and presence of civil society remains elusive and restricted to ‘’the margins and corridors.’’

Organised by the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO), the Civil Society Development Forum, being held in Geneva from Jun. 28-30, aims to review the relationship between the U.N. and civil society.

Elaborating, Butler said: ‘’They (civil society) seem to be talking to themselves when there should be dialogue and discussion between them and the U.N. member states.’’ She reprimanded the latter and warned them that ‘’they will only be talking in a vacuum’’ and that little good would come if dialogues are held after policies were made.

Many still look at this new relationship with the U.N. reform agenda in the backdrop. Governments challenge the motives behind this relationship. But more and more, it seems clear that engaging civil society and investing in partnership is becoming more a necessity than an option for achieving global goals.

Renate Bloem, president of CONGO, put it bluntly when she said: ‘’They (the U.N.) need us, to look more legitimate.’’


There is widespread concern that to remain relevant and to play a pivotal role in eradicating poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the U.N. needs to regain its lost authority and influence over other inter-governmental forums, especially the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the G8 countries.

While on the one hand the involvement of a diverse range of actors from civil society is seen as essential for effective action on global priorities, on the other it provides the U.N. with an opportunity to learn from a profound wealth of grass roots experience in meeting the challenges facing the world today.

Kumi Naidoo, secretary general of ‘Civicus’, was sceptical when he said that while civil society was made to feel important when invited to speak at various U.N. events, it did not mean they ‘’were heard and listened to’’. Their participation had little impact on outcomes.

He demanded ‘’an improved and deeper’’ involvement, not mere ‘’window dressing’’. But Naidoo said he was not sure if this was possible given the limitations imposed on the U.N. system by a few governments that dominate major decisions.

Talking of the various deficits the U.N. faced, including coherence and compliance, Naidoo said: ‘’While it (U.N.) preached democracy to others, it failed to follow suit. Many members forget what they were signatories of even before they fly back home after their meeting.’’

But Tony Hill of the U.N. Non-governmental Liaison Service refused to accept that U.N. was anything but coherent. ‘’It’s not the U.N. which is incoherent, it’s what the member states, especially the Security Council members do outside the U.N. which gave a bad name to it,’’ he said, adding that some of them were among the world’s biggest arms dealers.

Taking the cue from Naidoo, Finnish ambassador to the Helsinki Process, Ilari Rantakari, stressed on cooperation among various stakeholders, including the media, governments, civil society and the private sector. ‘’A multi-stakeholder cooperation is the way forward,’’ he said, but observed that the challenge for civil society was not just mere representation but ‘’quality input.’’

John Clark, a senior civil society specialist with the World Bank, who came to the forum as a ‘friend’ and an ‘insider’, said civil society had transformed the term multi-lateralism through networking and linking global interventions with local counterparts. He, however, looked at civil society with a measure of wariness, asking: ‘’Who did they represent?’’

Taking the point further, Jan Aart Scholte from the School of Global Studies, Gothenburg University, asked if the voices that the civil society groups emphasise so much did not just mean the urban, western-educated elites but included less articulate grass roots groups that remain unrepresented. ‘’Civil society needs to be answerable, to be made accountable for their mistakes like they demand of others.’’

 
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