CoNGO Civil Society Development Forum (CSDF)

Geneva June 29-July 1, 2011
Release Date

CoNGO Civil Society Development Forum (CSDF)

Geneva June 29-July 1, 2011

By Teresa A. Hintzke, President, PPSEAWA International

As the representative of PPSEAWA International and a member of the CoNGO Board, I

attended the CSDF conference, which was followed by a 2 day CoNGO Board meeting

in Geneva.

The theme of the CSDF 2011 Geneva Component was “Civil Society’s Essential role in

Achieving Education for all”.

Each year, the CSDF focuses on the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) that is the

priority of ECOSOC’s Annual Ministerial Review. In 2011 the theme of the ECOSOC

Annual Ministerial Review is “Implementing the Internationally-agreed goals and

commitments in regard to education”. Hence, as in previous years, the CSDF 2011

Geneva Component was held before the ECOSOC High Level Ministerial Review

session with the aim to monitor important developments and to promote action.

The result was a collective preparation for Civil Society input to the UN ECOSOC 2011

Annual Ministerial Review, which was presented to the ECOSOC by CoNGO as follows:

Outcome Document

1. Representatives of member organizations of the Conference of Non- governmental

Organizations in Consultative Status with the United Nations (CoNGO) and other civil

society groups met in Geneva for the Civil Society Development Forum (CSDF) 2011

Main Component, in preparation for the UN. ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Review (AMR)

taking place on July 24-8, 2011. The 2011 AMR is dealing with “Implementing the

internationally-agreed goals and commitments in regard to education”, and the CSDF

focused on “Civil Society’s essential role in achieving education for all”. CoNGO has

organized such pre-ECOSOC Fora during the past decade.

2. The CSDF received warm messages of encouragement and partnership from the UN

Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN.DESA) and the United Nations Office at

Geneva (UNOG). The discussions were led off and inspired by excellent statements

from:

1 Manjit Dosanjh, International Federation of University Women and Guild of

Service

2 Bob Harris, Education International, and former President of CoNGO

3 Jason Scorza, International Association of University Presidents and of

Fairleigh Dickinson University

4 Eunlim Chi, Kyung Hee University

5 Meena Kadhimi, Bahrain Women Association for Human Development

6 Addaia Marrades and Margarita Serra Mestre, Intervida

7 Liberato Bautista, United Methodist Church and former President of CoNGO

8 Royston Flude, CMDC-SPOC (Self-Sustaining Peoples, Organizations and

Communities)