The United Nations is reiterating its commitment to Africa
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2 weeks, 3 days ago
That effort is personified by the Department of Global Communications’ (DGC) Civil Society Conference being held In Nairobi, Kenya, on 9 May. IPRA’s senior UN representative Jim McQueeny and youth rep Alexa Moyer participated this week in a town hall meeting in New York to discuss final planning for the event.
IPRA has a rare double-accreditation with the UN’s DGC, as well as the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The global public relations organization has been involved in prior UN conferences and session/agenda-planning, most recently the pre-pandemic conference in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2019.
IPRA was invited to participate in the Nairobi conference which is designed to create a collaborative communications and outreach platform for civil society, and national stakeholders in the region, including individuals, business and commercial organizations, quasi-governmental groups and NGOs.
A variety of workshops will focus on ways for better governance in civil societies. IPRA’s African members were notified of possible participation in the event, as part of the increased calendaring of future UN events, globally and regionally, by IPRA’s five-person UN bureau.
While focusing on Africa during the town hall, and the increasing commitment to that region, Maker Nasser, head of the DGC, said the Nairobi event had “very high” registration from across the globe. More than 4,000 people from 3,083 organizations indicated they would attend. A word cloud was exhibited that emphasized the topics most mentioned in the planning. They were: “diversity,” “gender,” “climate” and generic “change.”
Carol Agengo, a conference organizer, told those attending the workshop that she would describe attendees looking to join together for reforms as forging “impact coalitions.” While roughly three-fourths of the registered attendees were from Africa, Nasser said a surprisingly large number come from elsewhere, most notably Western Europe (568) and Asia/Pacific (436).
To learn more about IPRA’s work at the UN please visit ipra.org/news/ipra-and-the-un/ or email [email protected].
Jim McQueeny and Alexa Moyer contributed to this report.
Upcoming at the UN:
- How can we shape the future by meaningfully engaging young persons with disabilities? UN Women, virtual, 30 April
- 2024 United Nations Civil Society Conference Nairobi, Kenya, 9 – 10 May
- 4th International Conference on Small Island Developing States Antigua and Barbuda, 27 – 30 May
- Youth Powering Media and Information Literacy Responses to the use of Generative AI UNESCO, Paris, France, 29 – 30 May
- The High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development New York, USA, 8 – 17 July
- Summit of the Future New York, USA, 22 – 23 September
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