The Importance of NGO Major Group
When we think about the United Nations, we often think about organizations such as the United Nations Peacekeeping Force, or United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). However, one part of the United Nations that is often overlooked are the civil societies. According to the United Nations, civil societies are “ ‘the third section’ of society, along with government and business. It comprises of civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations” [1]. Civil society is extremely important to the United Nations as they provide expertise and consultation to certain issues. Many are NGOs that specialize in very certain topics.
One civil society organization that might not be well known is called NGO Major Group. NGO Major Group is an important organization that helps achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). SDGs are 17 goals set by the UN that they hope to achieve by 2030. These goals include poverty, illicit arms, gender equality, and synergy. The goals are reviewed every year in a conference called High Level Political Forum (HLPF). The main objective of NGO Major Group is to ensure that different NGOs participate in HLPF and have their concerns and issues addressed and this might be proven challenging due to the fact that there are a lot of different NGOs, all working on implementing different goals of the SDGs. NGOs also have different ways of approaching ideas. NGO Major Group needs to help organize the different NGOs in order to have a solid plan that they can present to the United Nations. In addition, NGO Major Group tries to ensure that different NGOs and the member states work together in order to achieve the SDGs’ goals. This is due to the fact that NGO Major Group works hands on with communities which gives them a unique perspective. An example is Cure violence, an NGO that works towards eliminating gun violence in inner cities. They have a unique perspective of first-hand experience that diplomats and government officials simply don’t have. NGO Major Group, like many other NGOs, also write position papers on the different SDGs and ways to approach them. In preparation for the 2018 HLPF, they wrote a position paper of what they hope to accomplish during the conference. One of the main objectives that they mention is the synergy between NGOs and member states[2].
NGO Major Group has been around for a bit over a decade. However, even in its nascent beginning, it established itself as an important part of civil society, as it worked on coordinating the different NGOs for HLPF and worked on developing training programs for the NGOs to ensure their knowledge of the HLPF’s mission[3]. Due to the fact that NGO Major Group was established to ensure the SDGs and the HLPF’s success, NGO Major Group is very knowledgeable when it comes to these events compared to other NGOs. NGO Major Group also helped organizing meetings between different NGOs. When it comes to solving issues regarding the implementation of the SDGs, no matter if it’s about peace or clean water, the most important thing the NGO Major Group works on an intrinsec collaboration between the different groups. SDG 16 relates to peace and justice. One NGO alone or one government institution alone simply cannot eradicate or solve violence. Whether it is Nonviolence International or the United States Government, this issue cannot be solved independently. It is only through synergy and cooperation that this issue can be solved. That is why the UN created SDG 17, which is about the cooperation between different institutions and that is what the NGO Major Group is trying to materialize.
NGOs have been and always will be an important part of the United Nations. Unlike countries, where there is a plethora of issues that need to be addressed, NGOs normally only concentrate on one bespoke area. These issues can be certain SDGs such as human rights issues, clean water, clean energy, or reducing the trade of illicit arms. They are often also apolitical. Even though the implementation of the SDGs’ target date is 2030, there is always more to be done. After all, not all good things have to come to an end.
References
[1] United Nations . “Civil Society .” Accessed August 2, 2018. http://www.un.org/en/sections/resources-different-audiences/civil-society/.
[2] NGO Major Group . “Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) Major Group Official Position Paper for the 2017 High-Level Political Forum.” Accessed July 22, 2018. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/15002NGO.pdf.
[3] Ibid.
