UN CSOs Conference
UN CSOs Conference 2024
The flagship event on Civil Society’s calendar was The UN Civil Society Conference which happened in Nairobi, Kenya during May 9-10, 2024. CSOs were offered a forum to address global issues, convene senior UN officials, notable international civil society organisations, youth changemakers, academics, public opinion leaders, and international media to deliberate on matters of worldwide concern. The conference managed to provide preliminary discussions and data ahead of the ‘Summit of the Future’ in September 2024 at the UN Headquarters in New York.
The UN CSOs conference participation was “successful”, despite some shortcomings: the oversight of prioritising health in the ‘Pact for the Future’ and the displeasing fact that health was not recognized among the 20 ImPACT coalitions; managed to score a big win on the latter, by which CSOs delivered as one and secured an ImPACT coalition for health despite all the push back and unfounded reasoning to make up for the failure to do so. So far the Health ImPACT coalition has 329 members from all over the world.
WACI Health was at the centre of this success by providing its experience, technical advice and assistance and coordinating with other CSOs on the lobbying and demonstration, urging the UN to recognize Health among the ImPACT coalitions. Our efforts have contributed to the success of having the ImPACT coalition on Health which is co-led by WACI Health, GFAN, ITPC Global, GNP+, Frontline AIDS and STOPAIDS. Following the formation of the Coalition, on May 21, the Co-Leads hosted a webinar ‘The Summit of the Future: Implications for Global Health’. In parallel, ITPC published a white paper: “From the Ground UP: How Community Action Redefines Global Crisis Management”. Key considerations ahead of the 2024 UN Summit of the Future – aiming to support the urgent call to action to do things differently.
With over 120 participants online, we applied to establish a coalition focused on health to provide a space to continue this discussion and engage in the Summit of the Future. At the UN CSOs Conference, additional organisations/participants joined the effort, delivering the following statement;
The Pact of the Future must COMMIT TO HEALTH
Today, over half of the world’s population lack access to essential health services. The pact for the Future cannot speak of the interests of the future generations without prioritising the right to health, among all, economic, cultural and social rights. Action on health requires action on the social, commercial and political causes of health and disease.
Health is a fundamental human right. Every human being is entitled to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, conducive to living a life in dignity. Health and gender are closely intertwined, through sexual and reproductive health rights, UHC and the struggle against HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, non-communicable disease and childhood illnesses.
There is no future without health. Without health for all, we cannot eradicate poverty and inequality to tackle our climate crisis. Health is essential to meet all the SDGs. Yet, health inequalities are a pervasive global issue. There is no health if it is not properly funded, or if our governments are crippled by debt and tax injustices. Furthermore, we have already seen that private financing and provision of health services drives health and gender inequities. Our future generations deserve the right to health care as a public service. Our financing architecture needs to be transformed to include health as a critical priority, served by global finance rather than subservient to money.
Health is not a privilege. Health is a human right, for everyone, everywhere! Health rights are necessary for fulfilling all other human rights. Every human being is entitled to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health conducive to living a life in dignity.
What is the point of a Pact for the Future that ignores health? The draft version for civil society makes scant mention of health, and equally undervalues human rights, gender and all other public services. That must change before the Pact is finalised at the Summit for the Future.
Summit of the Future:
The Summit of the Future is a high-level event, bringing world leaders together to forge a new international consensus on how to deliver a better present and safeguard the future. This once-in-a-generation opportunity serves as a moment to mend eroded trust and demonstrate that international cooperation can effectively tackle current challenges as well as those that have emerged in recent years or may yet be over the horizon.
We already have the “what” in the form of many existing agreements and commitments, starting with the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and many others.
The Summit of the Future will look at the “how” – how to cooperate better to deliver on the above aspiration and goals? How are the needs of the present while also preparing for the challenges of the future?
The ImPACT Coalition:
This ImPACT Coalition will focus its efforts on ensuring that the outcomes of the Summit of the Future are well connected to the upcoming World Social Summit set to take place in September 2025. This includes a strong focus on poverty eradication, social protection, and social cohesion