Newspage: You described the 2024 UN Civil Society Conference (2024 UNCSC) as “momentous” in your post-conference reflection piece. How momentous was it considering the fact that it was organised on short notice yet received a huge turn-out and active participation of stakeholders from government and civil society?

Yusuf: The UN civil society conferences have been happening for several years, yet the 69th edition of the conference was, in my view, “momentous” in a couple of different respects. 

Firstly, unlike the previous 68 conferences, it was the first to be tied to an intergovernmental process — it was explicitly in support of the Summit to the Future (SOTF). Secondly, it was the first conference to take place in the Global South, particularly in Africa–a region with potential for highest impact and influence in the future. Thirdly, it was planned within the shortest notice a planning committee has ever had to plan for such a conference. 

Unlike previous conferences that had taken almost a year of planning, this one was planned within barely nine weeks. Carole [Osero-Ageng’o] and I were only appointed co-chairs in the middle of February, then the co-chairs for the planning subcommittees came on board in the third week of February. Moreover, this was the first UN civil society conference where we saw other stakeholder groups like Member States and UN entities showing up in full force. We also had a large representation of non Department of Global Communications (DGC) and Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) accredited NGOs (49.6%).

I believe this was crucial because, by and large, we are realizing that civil society talking to itself (and often privileging those based in New York) will not achieve the urgent impact we need for the future of multilateralism. And if we are to engage with the intergovernmental processes, if we are to engage with cross-sectoral processes, we really need to start convening beyond ourselves, which made the conversation at the 2024 UN Civil Society Conference a step in the right direction.

Newspage: One of the crucial components of the conference was the ImPact Coalitions (ICs), which you also described as reinventing how civil society engages with intergovernmental processes. How crucial were the ICs to the overall success of the conference?

Read the full interview in Africa Newspage.