PRETORIA, South-Africa, August 25, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The 65th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference, titled “2015 and Beyond: Our Action Agenda,” will be held at United Nations Headquarters in New York from Wednesday, 27 August to Friday, 29 August 2014.
Over 1700 representatives of civil society will convene from around the world to discuss key issues on the post-2015 development agenda, including climate change, poverty eradication, sustainability, human rights, and accountability frameworks and partnerships as crosscutting themes. The discussions aim to support the crafting of a transformational post-2015 development agenda, and positive outcomes of climate change negotiations in Lima and Paris in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Co-hosted by the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) and the NGO/DPI Executive Committee, the Conference provides a unique opportunity for NGOs from around the world to come together to engage diplomats, UN officials, policy experts, scientists, educators, businesses, trade unions, parliamentarians, local authorities and others on the role of civil society in the new Global Partnership for Sustainable Development. Speakers include UN Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-moon via video message. The opening and closing sessions and roundtables will be webcast live on http://webtv.un.org/.
Invited by the UN to participate in the conference and to speak at the closing session is Ms. Nonhlanhla Mkhize, the Executive Director of the Durban Gay and Lesbian Community and Health Centre. Ms. Mkhize has active links in both the gender and human rights sector and plays a leading role in highlighting and advancing the rights of sexual minorities in South Africa. Ms. Mkhize is a counsellor, researcher and human rights defender who is also engaged in issues around climate change. Holding a Masters Degree in Anthropology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Ms. Mkhize has been a co-chair of Amnesty International South Africa, served as a board member of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project in South Africa, and is an advisor to various youth groups in the country. She is also the lead author of a book titled The Country We Want to Live In: Hate crimes and homophobia in the lives of Black Lesbian South Africans (HSRC Press, 2010).
In line with previous Conferences, this 65th Conference will adopt an outcome declaration to offer a global civil society “Action Agenda” for the post-2015 sustainable development goals.
The 65th DPI/NGO Conference takes place less than a month prior to the 23 September 2014 Climate Summit convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and the launch of intergovernmental negotiations at the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly.
The Conference is held at a critical time in the post-2015 process. As the international community strives to achieve the Millennium Development Goals while formulating the post-2015 development agenda including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 2015 is recognized to be a once-in-a-generation opportunity for transformational change.
The launch of the post-2015 agenda will culminate within months of each other in the second half of 2015, with the potential to shape the future of our peoples and our planet for the better. The purpose of this Conference is to harness the strategies, expertise and resources across the broadest spectrum of civil society to move poverty eradication, sustainability, human rights and climate justice into the mainstream discourse, and spark sustained public demand for lasting political action in support of an ambitious outcome from the post-2015 sustainable development process.
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