GFMD‘s network and our tools can help you with planning and making connections when you are putting together an advocacy strategy. We want to ensure that voices like yours are heard when relevant policies are made. That holds for news media and journalism organisations, as well as the support and development community. We aim to help you build your skills and know-how through knowledge-sharing with your peers, and to increase your impact through the contacts in our extensive network.
Author: GFMD Secretariat | 18. December 2023
Can you give us an example?
The Challenge
“Over the years, my organization has been attempting, without success, to make presentations at the UN Human Rights Council and the UN engagements,“ says Vusumuzi Sifile, the Executive Director of Panos Institute Southern Africa, GFMD Steering Committee member and GFMD IMPACT regional coordinator for Sub-Saharan Africa. Faced with the challenge of accessing these high-level platforms, Vusumuzi Sifile and Panos Institute Southern Africa reached out to the GFMD Secretariat for assistance. Since July 2018, GFMD has held special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a status that allows member organizations to access various UN bodies and events.
What can this special status achieve?
In practise, this special status means that, through GFMD, a member organisation can access ECOSOC, subsidiary bodies, and human rights mechanisms of the United Nations as well as special events organized by the President of the General Assembly. Special consultative status organisations such as GFMD can be accredited to attend conferences convened by the United Nations.
ECOSOC consultative status
5,100 NGOs from around the world now enjoy consultative status with ECOSOC. The organisations are allowed to participate, present written contributions and make statements to the Council and its subsidiary bodies.
There are three types of consultative status: General, Special and Roster. Most new accreditations are in the Special category.
You can sort and review all NGOs with ECOSOC consultative status in an online database. Access the database here.
General and special status NGOs are required to submit a ‘quadrennial report’ every four years. Learn more.
See more about the ECOSOC consultative status and what this status entails here.
The Guidance
With GFMD’s help, in July 2023, Panos Institute Southern Africa succeeded in organizing a side event at the 54th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva:
”We reached out to the GFMD Secretariat and we got permission to use the GFMD ECOSOC accreditation, and it enabled us to organize what I believe was a very effective side event to the 54th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on the status of the rights to access to information in Zambia.“
How did GFMD and PSAf manage to achieve that? Would you be able to do the same for us?
PSAf and our other members agree that gaining access to a UN body such as ECOSOC is an important step in achieving our goals, yet in our experience, it is a highly complex one. We can advise and assist you, though we cannot guarantee applications will be accepted. A closer look at how we were able to help PSAf may indicate how we might assist you.
Let’s look at the three main areas where PSAf needed assistance, and what GFMD could do:
Access to UN structure and bodies – GFMD’s special consultative status provides an avenue of access to UN events and institutions.
Assistance in complex registration and application processes – according to Panos, other members as well as GFMD’s own experience, getting access to UN events is one of the more complex processes, although it is a very important one.
Providing resources – PANOS gained access to GFMD’s resource base, literature and evidence-based information the GFMD has compiled over the years and across regions, which informed their engagement with different stakeholders – diplomats, civil society leaders, and government representatives.
Laura Becana Ball, GFMD’s Policy and Advocacy Manager, assisted PSAf in navigating these complex processes and utilising this advocacy avenue to highlight this important issue of access to information in Zambia.
“There are different forms of participation and engagement with UN bodies and complexity of the application process depends on the type of engagement. We assist members through the process of submitting applications for side events, preparing and submitting written or oral statements. However we cannot guarantee the statement or session application will be accepted,” Laura noted.
Can GFMD help with access to organisations other than ECOSOC?
See more details about GFMD’s partnerships hereand let us know if you would like more information about the engagement with these organisations.
Do you need assistance with a policy or advocacy initiative?
If you are planning a policy or advocacy initiative and believe GFMD can assist with planning and outreach through our channels, partnerships, and advocacy tools, please contact us at: advocacy@gfmd.info.
