Civil Society Participation and UN Women
Globalsister.org presses for a role for civil society as advisors and actors in the functioning of UN Women.
Tag: NGOs
How well-represented is the average person, or the average dollar?
Consider the three pie charts below, which show (1) the percentage of NGOs at the UN headquartered in OECD nations, G77 nations, or nations that are neither OECD nor G77 members against (2) the percentage of world population living in each group and (3) the percentage of world GDP (by purchasing-power parity) living in each group. Note that the UN representation is much closer to GDP percentage than to population percentage.
Civil society self-correcting
Nonkosi Khumalo, the chairperson of Treatment Action Campaign South Africa, asks whether African civil society has “lost the plot” in its efforts to encourage stronger international action on the AIDS crisis in Africa.
Civil society in action at the UN
The international HIV/AIDS Alliance (Senegalese representative Magatte Mbodj) prepares its representatives to advocate at the UN in June of 2011.
How Much Does Your GDP Matter for UN Representation?
This chart shows how many NGOs a region (UN Geoscheme) has in consultative status to the UN for every billion dollars of GDP (purchasing-power parity) it produces.
Global Civil Society on the Rise
This simple chart shows the approximate trend in the overall “population” of global NGOs over the past few years.
How many NGOs with consultative status to the UN does each region have per million inhabitants?
This bar graph compares the representation of different regions at the UN, in terms of NGOs with consultative status, for the citizens of different regions (UN Geoscheme-defined regions).
Two steps forward, one step back for Arab civil society
James Traub, writing in Foreign Policy, discusses the failed effort of the Arab “Forum for the Future” to incorporate civil society, and its ramifications: “A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum”.
Egyptian civil society: a bellwether for the Arab Spring?
Did civil society in Egypt presage the uprisings in the Maghreb? Issandr El Amrani suggests that that might be the case, writing in a blog on foreignpolicy.com: “Egyptian Civil Society at Risk”.
Civil society in Iran today
Azar Nafisi was recently interviewed by Britt Peterson in Foreign Policy, where he discussed Iranian civil society: “a forgotten civil society”.
Civil society, acting under a centralized regime
The Economist recently published a brief article on the Chinese government and nascent civil society: “a work in progress”.
Civil society: we’re no angels
Alim Remtulla writes about the recent questioning regarding Greg Mortenson’s “Three Cups of Tea”.
Civil society reaches every corner of the globe, even the frozen North
The International Institute for Strategic Studies refers repeatedly to the role of civil society in addressing new questions about the thawing Arctic on www.realclearworld.org.
Civil Society in the “Arab Spring”
The role of civil society in the countries recently thrown into turmoil by the Arab Spring is significant. Some reflections from Tunisia were shared by Abdulwahab Alkebsi on www.realclearworld.org.
Civil society is an issue not just for the developing world
Patrick Diamond, writing in the Guardian, says that “market competition is driving David Cameron’s ‘big society’; but it cannot rebuild civil society’”
An international organization with local issues
From the Botswana Gazette: “Public Services International supports civil servants’ strike”
Syria: Tracking protests with Ushahidi
The Technology for Transparency Network, an NGO, is tracking protests in Syria using Ushahidi, an open-source tool for tracking and mapping crowdsourced information.
ICBL Landmines Monitor
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines is one of the most successful examples of an international, “loose-affiliation” NGO. See how they continue their work through a decentralized model.
World Commission on Dams
The World Commission on Dams is one of the first examples of a broad-based, consensus-seeking project on a global issue.
Burma Rivers Network
The Burma Rivers Network is a great example of local, issue-focused advocacy.
How does the UN incorporate NGOs?
Through this website, you can get an idea of how the nine different commissions subsidiary to ECOSOC incorporate (or exclude) NGOs from their work.
How an NGO becomes part of the UN’s deliberative process
This website gives an overview of the current workings of the Committee on NGOs, which approves and denies consultative status for new NGOs.
NGOs taking part in UN deliberations
This website gives a basic numeric overview of NGO participation at the UN.
Amnesty International and the UN: an animation
NGOs are actively involved with the largest multilaterals, often working to support or oppose major initiatives. This video by Amnest International is in support of a step that would give individuals a voice in protecting their economic, social and cultural rights.
An example for the future? The World Commission on Dams
The World Commission on Dams is one of the first multilateral efforts to involve global and local civil society of many kinds in deliberations. Do you think it’s a success?
