UN-NGLS operates autonomously across the United Nations system and with civil society constituencies and social movements on cross-cutting and emerging issues on the UN agenda.
UN-NGLS advises civil society organizations on opportunities to engage with the UN and facilitates their participation in various UN processes and events (conferences, hearings, workshops, etc.).
UN-NGLS facilitates civil society participation in intergovernmental policy deliberations at the UN and monitors and reports on ongoing developments in the UN and summarizes information.
UN-NGLS led the production of the reports for this project, and co-organized a global meeting in Cambodia that brought together civil society and government representatives from the eight countries that conducted national consultations as part of this initiative.
2014-2017 Since 2014, UN-NGLS has become recognized for innovating more efficient and effective, open, transparent and participatory processes to enable more diverse, balanced and meaningful stakeholder participation in UN high-level events, including: · UN General Assembly dialogues with Secretary-General Candidates · UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants · High-level Civil Society Event for Refugees and Migrants with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon · Meeting between Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon & civil society for Paris Agreement entry into force · Paris Climate Change Agreement signing and ratification ceremonies · High-level Events and Thematic Debates hosted by the President of the General Assembly · UNGA High-level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance · UNGA High-level Meeting on the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons · UNGA High-level Meeting on Ending AIDS · Meetings of the Interagency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators · World Humanitarian Summit · Solutions Summit 2015 & 2016 · Post-2015 development agenda negotiations and Summit · 2015 World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction · UN Secretary-General's Sustainable Energy for All Forum 2016: UN-NGLS managed accreditation and registration for stakeholders to participate in the World Humanitarian Summit, the Mid-Term Review on the Istanbul Programme of Action for Least Developed Countries, the UN Sustainable Development Summit, and the Third International Conference on Financing for Development.
For the SDG Media Zone of the 71st UNGA General Debate period in September 2016, UN-NGLS introduced the participation of Google Made With Code and Code.org, where they conducted activities to raise awareness of the importance of engaging youth – particularly girls – in computer science education.
UN-NGLS surveyed NGOs over a six-month period to follow the patterns of misinformation and engaged them in the Verified initiative, to support the Department's work.
UN-NGLS also called for civil society on their response stories to the pandemic, highlighting their actions through a dedicated website and social media channels.
The UN Charter Article 71 states: "The Economic and Social Council may make suitable arrangements for consultation with non-governmental organizations which are concerned with matters within its competence.
Above all, the second generation of UN-NGOs relations are essentially political and reflect the motivation of NGOs to engage with the UN as part of the institutional architecture of global governance.
The commitment of Member States to give greater opportunities to NGOs has been reaffirmed in the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document (para 172–174).
[8] CSOs play a key role at major United Nations Conferences and are indispensable partners for UN efforts at the country level.
The Civil Society Unity of the Department of Global Communications oversees partnerships with associated NGOs and provides a wide range of information services to them.
The Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) NGO Branch is the Secretariat for the process for non-governmental organizations to apply for consultative status with ECOSOC.