In early May, the United Nations Civil Society Conference took place in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference invites civil society organizations to address major global challenges and to feed the problem-solving skills of NGOs into the United Nations system. Some 1,500 participants assembled in Nairobi to discuss the pressing challenges facing our world: Research institutes, media representatives, entrepreneurs, but first and foremost representatives of civil society organizations.
Representing KOLPING INTERNATIONAL, board members of Kolping Kenya took part in the conference and contributed to the diverse debates. Executive director Patrick Kioko expressed his enthusiasm for the opportunity to exchange ideas with so many stakeholders and to meet UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Fair burden-sharing in the face of climate change and the need to support countries of the Global South in particular were addressed by many participants. The head of the UN office in Nairobi, Zainab Hawa Bangura, emphasized how urgent it is for the voice of civil society to be heard when it comes to solving global challenges.
KOLPING INTERNATIONAL contributes to this debate many decades of experience in international cooperation and, above all, the perspectives of over 400,000 people from more than 60 countries around the world. Kolping does this regularly as part of its participation in the deliberations of the United Nations Economic and Social Council in New York and this year in particular through the participation of the Kenyan delegation in Nairobi.
