As a groundbreaking development, the U.N. General Assembly organized informal and interactive hearings with NGO, civil society and private sector representatives from June 14 to June 15.
The event forms part of the U.N.’s effort to seek perspectives from various stakeholders to enable them to contribute their input to the preparatory process for the New York summit slated Sept. 20-22.
Speakers include representatives from ActionAid, Global Call to Action Against Poverty, Transparency International, Caritas Manila and Oxfam International. Delegates from World Vision, Plan International, Amnesty International, Rural Women’s Movement, Arab NGO Network for Development and Pan African Climate Justice Alliance were among the respondents.
Meanwhile, activists rallied outside the U.N. to call for faster progress in meeting the MDGs.
“We are working to try and push governments across the world meet their commitments to end extreme poverty by 2015,” said Rajiv Joshi from the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, which organized the protest.
An open letter was also signed by about 100 international and national civil society organizations from various sectors and was sent to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The letter includes recommendations to improve effectiveness of actions in pursuit of MDGs.
