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)