The Millennium Summit will be asked to provide guidance to the Organization for meeting the challenges of the new century, with focus on the following questions:

• "What kind of United Nations do Member States desire?"

• "What substantive objectives are they prepared to support?"

• How should the United Nations relate to the growing number of "international institutions," an "increasingly robust global civil society," and "ever more integrated global markets and systems of production?"

The Secretary General expects to prepare a report on the Millennium Assembly's theme, "The United Nations in the Twenty-first Century" and to submit it to Member States by midsummer of the year 2000. This report is expected to be acted upon by the Millennium Summit of the fifty-fifth session of the UN General Assembly. The Secretary General is now organizing a series of regional events in cooperation with Member States and involving representatives of NGOs and other members of civil society.

The Millennium Assembly will be asked to:

• take "stock of progress achieved in the wake of world conferences, for example, or examining sectoral issues, as in the case of the tenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development."

• create "innovative ideas regarding specific objectives of the United Nations should strive to achieve in the decades ahead in the five core areas of its work: peace and security, economic and social affairs, development cooperation, humanitarian affairs and human rights."

• "assess, in the light of the process within the Administrative Committee on coordination, the extent to which a clearer division of labor within the system is emerging through a sharpening of the mandates, competencies, and comparative advantages of the component parts."

• "determine whether the present constitutional framework governing the agencies and their relationships with the United Nations is sufficiently flexible to adopt and respond to the challenges ahead." and

• if warranted establish a "Special Commission" to examine the constitutional framework. prepare a consolidated report for consideration by the Millennium Summit and Assembly

The Secretary General has proposed that non-governmental organizations and other civil society actors organize a Millennium Forum in connection with the Millennium Summit & Assembly. Following a series of consultations organized by its Task Force on UN Reform, The Conference of Non-governmental Organizations (CONGO) Executive Board had the opportunity in Geneva to brief the Secretary General on its plans for the Millennium Forum and the possibility of establishing a liaison mechanism for consultations with the UN Secretariat. The CONGO Task Force determined that the objectives of the Millennium Forum will be:

• to create a forum for channeling imaginative and forwarding looking ideas and vision of NGOs at the local, national, continental and international levels.

• to create an organizational structure whereby NGOs with Consultative Status, DPI NGOs, local and national NGOs, thematic networks, coalitions and other organizations of civil society could participate effectively.

• to make the process for NGO participation democratic, transparent and representational.

• to establish an efficient system for gathering and distributing information on local, national, continental and international Millennium Forums through the operation of websites, list servers and electronic discussion forums.

• to prepare a consolidated report that would feed to the Report of the Secretary General scheduled for mid summer 2000.

Complete and up-to-date information on the Millennium NGO Forum may be obtained at the Forum's website at www.millenniumforum.org