THE UN NON-GOVERNMENTAL LIAISON SERVICE

(UN-NGLS)
AIDE MEMOIRE

The Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) promotes dynamic

partnerships between the United Nations and non-governmental organizations. By
providing information, advice, expertise and support services, UN-NGLS is part of
the UNs effort to strengthen dialogue and win public support for economic and
social development.
UN-NGLS Mission Statement

1.

Introduction
In 2005, UN-NGLS will have been part of the UN system's machinery for engaging with
NGOs and Civil Society for 30 years. During this time UN-NGLS has played a pioneering
role on the UN system-civil society interface, introducing many innovations to UN system
policies and practices towards its non-governmental constituencies. With its unique
mandate and institutional set-up as an inter-agency UN programme, UN-NGLS can look
back on a creditable track record of work which has earned the respect of the UN system
itself and the civil society constituencies that engage with it. Similarly UN-NGLS's role as
a neutral interlocutor and honest broker of UN-NGO relations has earned for it the trust of
the NGO community active at the UN.
The report of the Secretary-General's High Level Panel on UN-Civil Society Relations of
June 2004 " recognizes and endorses the important and unique work being done by the
Non-Governmental Liaison Service", and proposes incorporating UN-NGLS into a new set
of institutional arrangements with a view to enhancing its authority and influence in the
UN system and resolving its perennial financial uncertainty and instability. (See para 14,
below).
This Aide Memoire has been produced to provide a succinct but comprehensive overview
of UN-NGLS's role and work in the UN system, its governance and its funding, in order to
inform the debate ahead on the implementation of the High Level Panel's report. UNNGLS welcomes comments, observations and questions from readers of this document.

2.

Background
UN-NGLS was established in Geneva and New York in 1975 and 1976 respectively. The
two offices were set up by staff in a number of organizations (including UNDP, UN/DPI,
World Bank) and government representatives from several Nordic countries, who
recognized the value of the UN system possessing a small unit that could reach out to, and
work with, both national and international NGOs active on the issues on the UN agenda.
This was seen as complementary to the UNs system of consultative relations involving
mostly international NGOs.

3.

Over the 1970s and early 1980s, the value of UN-NGLSs role and work was recognized
by a growing number of UN agencies, programmes and funds that sought to sponsor the
service and benefit from its work. Since UN-NGLSs work was mainly in the field of
information and communications, and its funding was provided mainly by the information
divisions of UN organizations, UN-NGLS became an inter-agency project of the Joint UN
Information Committee (JUNIC), the latter becoming the governing body of UN-NGLS in
the early 1980s.

4.

In 1990, the two offices of UN-NGLS, in Geneva and New York, were consolidated into a
single administrative, programme and budgetary entity. In 1993, JUNIC decided to
upgrade UN-NGLS to a jointly financed activity of the UN system based on voluntary
contributions. This enabled the then Secretary-General to request the General Assembly to
provide financial support for UN-NGLS from the UN regular budget in recognition of
UN-NGLSs role at the 1992 Rio Summit and its follow-up. The General Assembly,
through its Second and Fifth Committees, subsequently pronounced in favour of this.
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5.

Over the decade of the 1990s, UN-NGLS played a very active role in support of the NGO
dimension of the series of UN World Conferences through information and communication
work, facilitating the participation of NGOs in general and funding the participation of
developing country NGOs in the conference processes. UN-NGLS worked closely with
conference secretariats, supporting and complementing their own efforts and capacity. In
addition, UN-NGLS continued to develop its information outreach to NGOs and the
international community, and provided support in the form of advice, guidance and
strategic information to its sponsoring UN agencies with regard to developing and
strengthening their own relations with NGOs.

6.

In 1998, an independent strategic review of UN-NGLS, involving UN staff at all levels

across the UN system, including senior managers, and a large number of NGOs, strongly
affirmed the value of UN-NGLSs work. In the same year, UN-NGLSs 18 sponsoring UN
organizations adopted the mission statement for UN-NGLS (see above). This was
subsequently adopted by JUNIC, which elevated UN-NGLS to an inter-agency programme
of the UN system.

7.

UN-NGLS Today
UN-NGLS counts 5 professional and 5 support staff distributed between its offices in
Geneva and New York. The Coordinator is based in Geneva. Since 1988 UNCTAD has
acted as UN-NGLSs Administering Agency. The role of Lead Agency for UN-NGLS
rotates every two years among sponsoring UN organisations. Currently, UNDP is UNNGLS's Lead Agency. In the past, UN/DESA, UNICEF, UNFPA, UN/DPI, and FAO,
amongst others, have been Lead Agency for UN-NGLS.

8.

Governance
UN-NGLS is unique in the UN system in having an inter-agency programme with a
mandate to support and work with the organizations of the UN system in the development
of their relations with NGOs, and support and work with non-governmental organizations
engaging constructively with the UN system. This mandate has allowed UN-NGLS to
monitor and be involved in UN-NGO engagement across the UN system, providing it with
a unique experience, perspectives and knowledge which it uses in turn to advise the UN
system and non-governmental organizations.
UN-NGLS reports annually to its Programme and Coordination Meeting (PCM), which is
attended by representatives of the UN organizations that fund UN-NGLS. The meeting is
chaired by a high-level representative of UN-NGLSs Lead Agency. In the current period,
the Chair of UN-NGLS is Mr. Bruce Jenks, Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Resources
and Strategic Partnerships of UNDP. In the past, well-known UN figures, such as
Mr.
Nitin Desai, Mr. Richard Jolly and Ms. Sharon Capeling-Alakija have chaired the UNNGLS PCM.
Until 2002, an agency representative elected at the PCM would report to JUNIC (with the
UN-NGLS Coordinator) on the outcomes of the PCM and seek JUNICs endorsement of
those outcomes for transmittal to the then Organizing Committee of the Administrative

Committee on Coordination (OC/ACC). At its 2001, Session JUNIC was dissolved and
replaced by the UN Communications Group (UNCG) **. UN-NGLS now reports to the
annual session of the UNCG through its Coordinator and did so at its first session in June
2002. Subsequent to its Second Session in 2003, the report of the meeting states:
a.

b.
c.

9.

UNCG strongly reaffirms the unique role of UN-NGLS and urges system-wide
recommitment to supporting the Service. The Group recommends that the
members look into specific and concrete ways to enhance their financial support
for UN-NGLS;
The Group encourages UN-NGLS and UN system partners to actively identify
funding sources outside the UN system, and makes a strong and urgent appeal to
the UN Foundation to extend its financial support for UN-NGLS;
The Group requests the High-Level Committee on Programmes of the Chief
Executives Board to revisit the question of UN-NGLSs financial status. A letter,
addressed to the Chief of HLCP, will be forwarded by the chairman of the second
annual meeting of UNCG, urging action to shore up the Services financial
standing.

Funding
The core programme budget of UN-NGLS is around US$950,000. UN-NGLSs work is
financed on a voluntary basis by up to 18 UN offices, agencies, programmes and funds,
including UNCTAD, FAO, IFAD, ILO, UNAIDS, UNHCR, UN HABITAT, UNEP, UNDP,
UNICEF, UNFPA, UN/DPI, UNESCO, UNDCP, World Bank, WFP, WHO and UNHCHR.
As Administering Agency, UNCTAD has also absorbed some in-kind operating costs. Over
the past few years, total core funding from the UN system in cash has averaged around
US$630,000 per annum, including US$200,000 from the regular UN budget managed by
UN/DESA as a grant. Bilateral donors, DANIDA, CIDA and DFID have also funded UNNGLSs information outreach and communications programme. Over the period, 19992003, UN-NGLS has also benefited from a generous grant from the UN Foundation in
support of its information outreach to NGOs around the world conference reviews and
financing and facilitating developing-country NGOs in those reviews***.
A number of bilateral donors have funded UN-NGLSs work in facilitating the
participation of developing-country NGOs in UN conference processes, including Canada,
Sweden, Norway and the UK. Funding from the European Commission allowed UNNGLS to finance the participation of over one hundred LDC NGO representatives in the
Third UN Conference on the LDCs in Brussels in May 2001. On occasion UN bodies
provide funding to UN-NGLS for this purpose, including UNDP, and the FFD Secretariat,
while the World Bank and UN/DPI have recently provided financial support to UN-NGLS
to finance NGO participation in consultations on Financing for Development.

The ACC is now replaced by the Chief Executives Board (CEB), which, like its predecessor, is composed of the
Head of UN organizations and chaired by the Secretary-General.
*
Like JUNIC, the UNCG comprises of Directors of Information and/or External Relations of the entire UN
system.
**
United Nations Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Women 2000, Habitat II, World Summit
on Social Development, World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and Financing for Development.

Over the course of its existence UN-NGLS has faced perennial financial uncertainty and
instability due to the inability of the UN system to provide fully for UN-NGLS's core
budget. In light of this UN-NGLS has had to raise around 50% of its operating budget
(US$600,000 per annum) outside the UN system.
10.

Work Programme
UN-NGLSs work programme can be divided into three segments:

information outreach, communications and publications;

support to UN organisations, secretariats and offices etc., in their own work with
NGOs;

support to NGOs that seek constructive engagement with the UN, including
financing and facilitating the participation of developing-country NGOs in UN
conferences and fora.

11.

Information Outreach, Communications and Publications

This area of work is the backbone of UN-NGLSs programme. UN-NGLS has recently
undertaken a major upgrade of its website (UN-NGLS.org) and has launched an e-bulletin
'Civil Society Observer'. The new website permits UN-NGLS to rapidly upload
information material of interest to civil society and the UN system emanating from both
constituencies. UN-NGLS also produces its own publications in electronic and hard copy
form. These include:

Go Between, UN-NGLSs (36-page) newsletter produced six times per year, covering
news and information on the UN system, on UN-NGO cooperation and on NGO
activities;

Roundups, are 4 to 12 page briefings that provide in-depth information on UN events

and activities. UN-NGLS produces up to 18 Roundups each year and recent editions
have covered the following:
Roundup 112 - A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All;
Roundup 109 - Moving the Agenda Forward at the World Summit on the
Information Society;
Roundup 108 - Intensifying the War on HIV/AIDS;
Roundup 107 - FFD: The Challenge of Translating Dialogue into Change;
Roundup 106 - MDGs: Taking Root at the National Level?
Roundup 105 - NGOs Assess the Millennium Development Goals;
Roundup 104 - 2nd Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues;
Roundup 103 - UN Convenes Financial, Trade and Development Institutions;
Roundup 102 - CSD-11 Builds Implementation Track for Johannesburg Outcomes.

Development Dossiers: these are booklets written by NGO and other experts that
explore issues on the UN-NGO Agenda. Recent editions have covered The Building of
Capacity by Alan Kaplan, Engendering the Global Agenda: The Story of Women and
the United Nations by Hilkka Pietil, and Voluntary Approaches to Corporate
Responsibility: Readings and a Resource Guide produced in collaboration with
UNRISD;
4

Intergovernmental Negotiations and Decision Making at the United Nations:

A Guide. The first guide ever to explain how States negotiate and reach decisions in
inter-governmental processes at the UN.

The UN-NGLS Handbook describes the work of over 30 UN agencies, programmes,

funds and conventions, with a section in each entry on their work with NGOs and civil
society. It is updated every two years;

The Guide to the UN system for NGOs contains 2-3 page profiles of 68 UN system
organisations and entities, including contacts for NGOs and resources such as
publications and audio-visuals, etc.;

Voices from Africa is a series written entirely by African development activists,

experts and others. Recent editions have been compiled under the themes of Peace,
Conflict and Security (which carried the Secretary-Generals Report on the Causes of
Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa),
Information and Communication Technologies, and HIV/AIDS (produced with
UNAIDS for the GA Special Session).

Each year, UN-NGLS also disseminates up to 50 electronic alerts to NGOs about

upcoming UN events, newly published reports, and other UN initiatives. UN-NGLSs
publications are distributed in hard copy to over 7,000 NGOs, the majority to national
NGOs in developing countries, and to around 2,000 readers in the UN system/international
community. They are also carried on UN-NGLS's website.
12.

Support to the UN System

UN-NGLS is regularly called upon by its UN sponsors and other UN entities to assist and
support them in their own work with NGOs and civil society. Recent examples include:

working in close collaboration with the Secretariats of the WSSD and FFD;
assisting UN/DPI to organise a consultation with NGOs on FFD;
assisting the FFD Secretariat, World Bank and UNDP in organising a consultation with
NGOs on FFD;
producing a briefing paper for senior FAO management on Multi-Stakeholder
Dialogues;
working in close cooperation with UNICEF in the preparation of the GA Special
Session on Children;
working with the office of the President of the GA in the compilation of resolutions
concerning NGO accreditation to UN events and meetings;
providing advice and guidance to WHOs recently created Civil Society Initiative;
staff seminar at FAO;
Advice and guidance to the MDG Campaign.

In addition to these kinds of support and backstopping activities, UN-NGLS also works, at
their request, with high-level administrative policy organs of the UN. In 1997, for example
CCPOQ and UN-NGLS jointly organized a system-wide consultation on Operational
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Collaboration with NGOs which led to two Guidance Notes on this subject for Resident
Coordinators. UN-NGLS has also made requested inputs into discussions of ACC/OC on
NGO matters and was requested by the High Level Committee on Programmes, to support
the carrying out of a study to take stock of the state of collaboration between
organizations of the system and CSOs, highlighting the policy dimension of such
cooperation.
In another area of work, UN-NGLS convenes informal meetings of the NGO and CSO
Liaison Officers and Focal Points from across the UN system and other international
organizations to discuss and clarify common challenges, best practices and so on. In 2003,
UN-NGLS organized and hosted a meeting that brought together the NGO/CSO Liaison
Officers from 30 UN and international organizations. In 2004 UN-NGLS and IFAD
worked together to organize and host the second meeting that brought together the focal
points of 35 UN and international organizations. In Geneva, UN-NGLS convenes and
chairs informal meetings of NGO Liaison Officers from Geneva-based organizations
including UNHCR, UNCTAD, ILO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNEP, UNRISD, WHO and WTO.
UN-NGLS also organizes briefings and consultations with NGOs and civil society
organization in Geneva and New York.
Finally, UN-NGLS is often invited by organizations, Member States and NGOs to speak at
their meetings and provide information and analysis on UN system-civil society relations.
13.

Support to NGOs
UN-NGLS works in close cooperation with a wide variety of NGOs active at the UN and
is often called upon to provide advice and guidance on how NGOs can constructively
engage with the UN. At major UN events UN-NGLS often provides, or is part of,
orientation and briefing sessions for NGOs and provides practical services including
maintaining the calendar of NGO room bookings and ensuring logistical support. The
offices of UN-NGLS are visited regularly by NGOs seeking advice and guidance on a
wide array of questions and substantive issues.
Over the years UN-NGLS has become a highly trusted interlocutor for the UNs NGO
constituency. Nowhere is this more apparent than in its work funding and facilitating the
participation of developing country NGOs in UN conferences and other events. The
system employed by UN-NGLS is unique in the sense that responsibility for identifying
beneficiaries is devolved to NGO networks, associations and umbrella groups in
developing countries, respecting a set of criteria such as relevance and competence,
willingness to share, and gender balance. This devolves accountability to the local level
and breaks the link between the source of funds (usually bilateral donors) and who gets
funded. During UN-NGLSs testimony on this work to the ECOSOC review that led to
resolution 1996/31, a number of industrialised and developing-country governments
expressed appreciation for these features of the UN-NGLS funding model.
Since the Rio Summit in 1992, when UN-NGLS was requested to do this work by the
Summit organisers, UN-NGLS has funded the participation of well over 5,000 NGO
representatives from developing countries in UN events. It is often the case that NGOs
based in donor countries raise the funding for this work from their bilateral donors and
request the funding to be managed independently by UN-NGLS.
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14.

High Level Panel Recommendations on UN-NGLS

The Report of the Secretary-General's High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on UN-Civil
Society Relations proposes that the UN Secretariat establish a new Office for Constituency
Engagement and Partnerships (OCEP), headed by an Under Secretary-General and
bringing together the Global Compact, UN Fund for International Partnerships, the
Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, a Parliamentary Liaison Unit,
and a Civil Society Unit. On UN-NGLS, the report says:
" 152. An important question is whether the Unit should absorb the current activities, staff
and institutional resources of the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service. The Service is
highly respected inside and outside the UNlargely due to its interagency mandate and
role as a trusted interface between the UN system and civil society, its semi-autonomy and
its high professional standards. With some of the flexibility and mobility of CSOs, it
reports to the annual meetings of UN sponsoring agencies and to the annual session of the
UN Communications Group. If the Service were to become the core of this new unit, the
UN could lose a valuable semi-autonomous mechanism. But the Service faces chronic
funding instability and uncertainty for its core and special activities, and its ability to
provide system-wide guidance on civil society affairs could be enhanced by locating it in
the Secretariat.
153. The Panel recognizes and endorses the important and unique work being done by the
Non-Governmental Liaison Service and feels that this would provide a solid pillar for the
new office. This should give it a firmer resource base and allow it to share its experiences
and approaches with the other units in the office and the UN system more widely. The
Service would also provide the new office with a resource base and a track record of
credible work with the UN system and the NGO community. We recognize, however, that
the balance is sensitive and that the devil lies in the details. We thus advise that the
decision be taken in consultation with the Services sponsors once the other details of the
new offices structure are agreed. In the meantime the Panel urges the Services UN
sponsors to maintain their best funding efforts for it.
154. If UN-NGLS is incorporated into it, the new unit must be given a considerable degree
of autonomy. This could best be achieved by having its strategy and work programme
guided by a management or steering committee comprising the existing principal sponsors
of UN-NGLS plus a comparable number of its primary civil society clients. A similar
governance model could be considered for other units in the office".
UN-NGLS is consulting widely with its sponsors, donors and stakeholders to seek their
views on the changes proposed by the High Level Panel.

UN-NGLS
7

21 June
2004