As the United Nations grapples with shifting power dynamics, forms of conflict, funding flows and development issues, the Secretary-General asked a panel led by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to consider the relationship of the UN to civil society and other actors such as parliamentarians, business and local government. In the evolving thinking of the Panel, partnership as a strategy and modus operandi for the UN has emerged as a key feature for consideration.
This paper by Synergos' founder and Panel member, Peggy Dulany, and Synergos’ President, Bruce Schearer, offers suggestions on how the UN might engage in partnership building and facilitating as a way of relating to non-central government actors. These suggestions include that the Secretary-General and the UN:
- Establish a normative framework for much broader intersectoral convening and partnership-building role within the UN system by expanding the political conception of the United Nations from simply a multilateral membership body of governments to a membership body whose primary mission is to search out and strengthen common ground among diverse stakeholders to advance the common good of all.
- Establish an interagency executive body to design and put in place operational mechanisms throughout the UN family of institutions to perform this expanded convening and partnership-building role.
- Engage the participation of the civil society and business sectors, as well as parliamentarians and local governments in these actions by establishing an Advisory Council of Non-Central Government Actors made of a rotating membership partly appointed by the Secretary-General and partly selected by the Advisory Committee itself.
- Convene the UN specialized agencies and extended family of related institutions (WHO, ILO, etc.) in a process designed to produce a new framework of principles and actions directed at their playing a much larger role in the future of catalyzing, enabling and participating in multi-stakeholder, cross-sectoral development partnerships.