MOST Forums of Social Development are providing Ministers and decision-makers with a unique multi-stakeholder platform for dialogue with researchers, the UN system and civil society, to share experiences, knowledge and policies.
Forums of Ministers:
- offer a space for regional dialogue at the Ministerial level on national and regional social policy strategies, including exchange of experiences and successful practices, with the participation of social scientists from the region and UN experts;
- provide opportunities on this basis for the co-production of knowledge and South-South and South-North learning;
- identify research gaps;
- support interaction between research and policy in MOST thematic priority areas; and
- contribute to policy making informed by analysis of evidence and dialogue.
Member States are encouraged to host regional or sub-regional Ministerial Forums. This empowers them to contribute to the advancement of Agenda 2030 by strengthening the use of social science and humanities knowledge in their policy design and its implementation *.
Background
The first MOST Forum of Ministers was held in Latin America, in Peru, in 2004. Since 2006, the Ministerial Forums in Latin America have been replicated in several other regions: the Caribbean, the East (EAC) and West (ECOWAS) African region, the Maghreb region and the South Asian (SAARC) region.
Regional Ministerial Forums were also organized in the Asia-Pacific region (Malaysia, March 2017) and in the Arab region (Egypt, December 2018).
So far 24 MOST Ministerial Forums have been co-organized by host countries and MOST.
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* See also: Comprehensive MOST Strategy (paragraph 25); decision adopted at the 14th session of the Intergovernmental Council of the MOST Programme (19-20 March 2019)