The International Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) took place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris (France) from 15 to 17 December 2014. It focused on “Culture and Cultures: reconciling universality and diversity”. It focused on the theme “Re-enchanting the World with the Post-2015 Development Agenda”. It was organized around four subthemes: “The Involvement of NGOs for the Promotion of Quality Education in the Post-2015 Agenda”; “Water and Sustainable Development: From Awareness-Raising to Decision-Making”; “Enhancing Cultural Heritage and Fostering the Diversity of Cultural Expression”; and “Climate Change: Acting Now”.

This Conference gathers 120 non-governmental organizations in official partnership with UNESCO and about 340 participants. Moreover, representatives of Member States of UNESCO and numerous other NGOs and foundations in official relations also attended the Conference as observers.

The Conference provided a welcome opportunity to examine collective NGO action carried out in 2013 and 2014, and adopt the main lines of collective cooperation for 2015-2016. At the outcome of the Conference, NGO participants adopted a final resolution, the text of which will be available soon.

Participants were also called upon to elect a new Chairperson for the Conference, as well as a new NGO-UNESCO Liaison Committee. The new composition of the Liaison Committee is given below.

The International Conference of NGOs brings together all of UNESCO’s NGOs in official partnership with UNESCO every two years.  It is a key forum in which UNESCO’s official NGO partners meet and hold discussions, its primary purpose being to “review the state of cooperation with UNESCO […] and facilitate cooperation between organizations having common interests”. 

For further information, please contact the Desk for Intergovernmental and Non-Governmental Organizations (email: ngo(at)unesco.org) or the UNESCO-NGO Liaison Committee (email: comite.liaison.ong(at)unesco.org).

You will find herewith the related documents of the Conference:

- Programme;

- List of participants;

- Report of the elections

- Composition of the NGO-UNESCO Liaison Committee

- Speech of the Director-General, Irina Bokova;

- Opening speech of ADG/ERI, Eric Falt.

On the other hand, please find herewith the Call for Peace distributed by some NGOs at the International Conference of NGOs.