Conference Planning Co-Chairs:

Maher Nasser, Director of Outreach in the United Nations Department of Global Communications

“The Department of Global Communications is very proud to be part of the planning and organizing of the 2024 UN Civil Society Conference in Nairobi, the 69^th since the Department’s creation and one that is receiving immense interest from civil society and other stakeholders, including from government representatives. This is the first of our civil society conferences to be held Africa and we are very grateful to the Government and civil society organizations in Kenya who have welcomed us with open arms and to our colleagues at the UN Office in Nairobi who will be hosting us in their beautiful campus sandwiched between Gigiri district and Karura Forest. As Co-Chair of the Planning Committee, my focus, and that of my colleagues in the Department, is to ensure the success of the Conference under the able leadership of Co-Chairs Carole Ageng’o and Nudhara Yusuf who are supported by a diverse and impressive civil society representatives from all around the world. The Conference comes at a critical point in the preparations for the Summit of the Future, a Summit that is billed as a major step towards a more inclusive and networked multilateralism providing multilateral solutions for a better tomorrow.”

Carole Ageng'o,Global Initiatives Lead & Africa Regional Representative at HelpAge International

"That civil society engagement remains a critical cog in the wheel of development, is well established. Greater collaboration between civil society organizations, governments and private sector can therefore not be more urgent at this time as we gear up for the Summit of the Future.  I look forward to a fruitful and effective partnership with my Co-Chair Nudhara Yusuf in putting together, and delivering (producing) a successful UNSSC to fully anchor civil society participation in the subsequent processes leading up to and including the Summit of the Future. Indeed, civil society participation will contribute greatly towards meeting the aspiration of “an international system – that is better prepared to manage the challenges we face now and, in the future, for the sake of all humanity and for future generations."

Nudhara Yusuf,GGIN Executive Coordinator at Stimson Center

"The Summit of the Future, above all, is a call to rethink the way things have always been done. I believe, along with my Co-Chair Carole, and many other civil society leaders, that Nairobi could and should be a moment for civil society to show, not just call for, process innovation; how civil society engages with intergovernmental processes. Come May 2024, we should have a clearer picture of what a Pact for the Future is likely to constitute, while the Nairobi moment would look to meaningfully feed civil society perspectives into the process, we hope it will also be a place to start the critical multistakeholder conversation about how to land the Pact for the Future. We hope we can capitalize on the multistakeholder and intergenerational convening to build ImPACT Coalitions of Member States, civil society, and UN and other entities, who will help take forth key issue areas and reforms. We hope the Nairobi moment will be a civil society hosted space to move the international community from language to an action oriented networked and inclusive multilateralism.”

Meet the Planning Sub-Committees Co-Chairs