Ten questions about the 2024 UN Civil Society Conference • Stimson Center

As the countdown begins to the long-awaited United Nations Civil Society Conference 2024, anticipation is building for an event that promises to be transformative and inclusive. Building on the successes of previous editions, this conference will bring together a wide range of voices and perspectives from around the world, serving as a critical platform for dialogue, collaboration and action on pressing global challenges.

In the lead up to this historic event, we had the privilege of participating in a question and answer session with Nudhara Yusuf, co-chair of the 2024 United Nations Civil Society Conference and Stimson expert for information on what attendees can expect and how this meeting aims to catalyze positive change on the global stage.

1. What is the focus of the 2024 United Nations Civil Society Conference in Nairobi and what can attendees expect, both in person and remotely?

Basically, it is about supporting the Future Summit process (which will take place on September 22 and 23 in New York) by incorporating voices from civil society to increase its ambition and think about its impact and implementation in an inclusive and grid. For me, more profoundly, we are trying something new here. The conference presents new processes, ideas and ways of working and thinking that I think are challenging for all of us, but we are trying to rethink the way we work as parts of civil society, which I think reflects what we are asking of the UN to do at the Future Summit.

2. How will civil society participation influence the Future Summit in September?

The outcome of the conference – the ImPACT package for the Future – contains two key pieces. First, the Chairs’ Summary will capture an overview of all the discussions that took place at the conference, including the Civil Society Recommendations plenary, the Interactive Dialogue with Co-Facilitators, workshop recommendations, and more. Second, a major outcome of the conference is the creation of ImPACT Coalitions (ICs) that bring together various stakeholder groups, including civil society, academia, Member States, UN entities, philanthropic organizations and others. , to think about and support the implementation and impact of specific proposals in the Compact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations. The work plan commitments of these ICs from May to September and beyond will form the second part of the ImPACT for the Future package, which will be presented at the final CSO meeting on May 30 in New York.

3. How do UN civil society conferences like this one increase the ambition of UN Summit activities?

The hope is that the ImPACT Coalitions will create a support and accountability mechanism for the intergovernmental process leading up to the Future Summit. Let’s bring together the Member States that are negotiating and want to defend certain ideas, with the experts who can tell you exactly which resolution has what decades-old language, and the grassroots activists who know what works and what doesn’t. If we can give them a space to meet and collaborate, I think that’s our best bet for increasing ambition in any process.

4. What are the main objectives that the 2024 conference aims to achieve?

Inclusion. Impact. Innovation.

5. How is this civil society conference different or innovative from the previous 68 held since 1947?

This is the first time we have explicitly linked the conference to an intergovernmental process. So it is not just about recommendations, but about what is the role of civil society in supporting the Future Summit and the intergovernmental negotiations of its final documents. I believe we also have the most diverse and intergenerational planning committee of any previous conference. I am a young global governance researcher and my co-chair is part of the Core Group on Aging. The 29-person planning committee is made up of 20 women, 9 men, of which 20 are people of color, from 18 different countries, and the majority are in the Global South. Your planning has really reflected this diversity of experience in the innovations you will see at the conference.

6. How does the UN ensure diverse global participation in the conference?

7. How does the host location of the UN civil society conference influence or shape?

We wanted this conference to take place on one of the continents of the future. An overwhelming majority of conference participants are from the African region and, in the next century, this will represent the global demographics of the future. I hope to hear voices that we don’t always hear in New York.

8. What are the main barriers to progress at the Future Summit and how could this conference help overcome them?

The Future Summit comes at a difficult but, therefore, critical moment for the international system. We are in one of those critical moments in which, in the words of the UN Secretary General, “we either collapse or we advance.” I believe that this context is both the need and the greatest obstacle of the Future Summit. I would like to think of this conference convened by civil society as a moment in the eye of the storm. There have been challenges in the past and there will be challenges to come, but if we can use May 9 and 10 in Nairobi as a time to come together, collaborate and build coalitions to reinforce and support our work towards September and beyond, we will be a little more prepared to achieve the necessary advances.

9. What has been the biggest challenge or unexpected aspect in planning this conference?

I think the biggest challenge was the time we had to plan the conference. My counterpart, Carole Agengo and I were appointed in February to give the conference the first week of May. Previous civil society conferences were planned almost a year in advance and not on this scale or with so many new ideas. It’s been like running a marathon, but we’ve had a truly incredible planning committee that has continued to help us achieve it every step of the way. Maher Nasser and colleagues in the United Nations Department of Global Communications, United Nations colleagues in Nairobi and others have also been real pillars of support. Everyone has gone the extra mile, including civil society and participants who continue to adopt quick deadlines, new processes and have really decided to come forward with full force and will to do something new. That’s also what has been pleasantly unexpected. The United Nations, Member States, civil society and many others have decided to speak out in a big way and take advantage of this moment to advance the Future Summit process. It is exciting!

10. What are you most looking forward to at the conference?

Honestly, Carole and I know what we’ve done with the planning committee. What I’m most excited about is seeing what others are doing at the conference. How space is used, how ideas are driven, how ImPACT coalitions are formed, how exhibits are displayed, and much more. We hope to create a space for true interaction and collaboration between different stakeholders. I think it is very clear to us that this is not an event, it is part of a process and is starting important reflection on implementation and impact for what comes in September and beyond, which we hope to also include in Days of Action before of the Summit of the future. But I cannot wait for the time when we attend the closing session knowing what civil society has done and that much more will follow.