|
|
 |
Standing before this honorable Assembly after such a vote of confidence, I feel deeply moved and
honoured, and I hope I can live up to your expectations and trust.
I am reminded of what someone told me is written on a small plaque on one of the walls at Harvard
University: "I have drunk from wells I did not dig. I have been warmed by fires I did not build".
In other words, I do not look at my new responsibility as something that has come to me by my own
merit. Rather, I feel very fortunate and immensely comforted in the sense that I can build on and
benefit from the results of years and years of untiring efforts by not only my immediate
predecessors but by many of you present in this audience as well as those back home, whom you
represent, and I sincerely thank you for this.
Coming from the Women's Committee and a faith-based organization, the World Federation of Methodist
Women, let me say that I pray and hope that feminine energy and spiritual values will continue to
inspire me and provide me with the necessary strength and insight to serve all of you.
It is a particular challenge to step into a position which Afaf Mahfouz is vacating. Her expertise,
courage and passion, her vision and dedication make it a difficult act to follow for anyone, even
the most brave. At this moment, it is my prerogative, on behalf of all who have had the privilege to
work with her, to pay homage to her passionate and compassionate leadership and to convey to her how
much her openness, team spirit and friendship has meant to so many and me in particular. I would
also like to especially recognize Danielle Bridel, our First Vice President, with whom I had the
privilege and pleasure to work and walk for over 15 years, particularly during the last three years
in the NGO Committee on the Status of Women. They both were and are models for me of lifelong
learning and stretching. I sincerely salute you both and I am happy that you, Afaf, will continue
to serve as Past President, and you Danielle, as Zonta International, on the new Board.
I have here a long list of wonderful people with whom I had the privilege to work and from whom I
have learned, including past Presidents Bob Harris, Marek Hagmajer and Edith Ballantyne; my
Committee Vice Presidents and Secretaries Conchita Poncini and Michaela Told and Giovanni Ballerio;
and other WG Conveners; further the Chairs in New York and Vienna Sudha Acharya, Leslie Wright,
Maria Jonas and many, many more to whom I would like to give thanks; my colleagues and friends in
New York and Vienna Techeste Ahderom, Marlene Parenzan - time does not allow to name them all.
However, I would still like to mention Raymonde Martineau, NGO Liason UNOG and her always available
advice and support; Hanifa Mezoui, NGO Section in New York, who even let me have her own computer;
Therese Gastaut and Marie Heuze, respective Directors of DPI in New York and Geneva; Angela King,
Gender Advisor to the Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Yakin Erturk from the Division for the
Advancement of Women; friends and representatives at the Office of the High Comissioner for Human
Rights, at UNICEF, UNIFEM and UNFPA and in other UN Programs and Specialized Agencies. Very special
thanks go to Lee Weingarten for her untiring efforts to keep the CONGO office going in Geneva.
I turn to you all, in particular to the newly elected Board, for guidance, advice, cooperation and
support. I would like to thank my family for letting me spend so much time elsewhere, my organization
which allowed me to serve, and above all to Mia Adjali from the Women's Division of the United
Methodist Church for her very warmhearted support.
Afaf has moved CONGO into higher gear (which started already with Bob). Among the many achievements,
- and you have all heard her impressive report - I would like to underscore her success in
procuring institutional support and funding, for making CONGO stronger, more sustainable and fit to
deliver on some of its envisioned programs. And, as you have witnessed during the presentation of
the task force on Communication, under Afaf CONGO has leaped into the technological age. She has
truly been a great leader.
Some of you have asked me "What are you going to do as President?" Those were the kind ones. Others
were more blunt: "What are you going to change or do differently?" Either group and you all have
the right to receive an answer. I trust that you will agree with me that this moment is not the time
to go into details. However, I would like to benefit from the occasion of having so many of you in
attendance and still listening, to share with you two or three general thoughts as to what I
envisage some of CONGO's priorities might be and how we might go about accomplishing them.
Let me start from the basis of the aims of CONGO, as stated in our rules1. While a bit too elaborate
to be called a mission statement, these aims nevertheless aptly describe the current six principal
areas of CONGO activity. Wisely, the aims - or if you like: goals and objectives - do not specify
how CONGO should go about realizing them. It is up to each new Board to interpret them, and - in an
ever changing world - provide members with timely recommendations of strategies and/or specific
action plans, including proposals for their funding.
The above mentioned aims portray CONGO in different roles, including - as a facilitator, an
organizer, a catalyst, an administrator, a lobbyist, an educator and one could add others. Common
to all the roles that CONGO plays is communication, not communication just to be on-line, but
communication filled with personal contact, information and meaning to empower other people,
communication for the three priorities which I see: outreach, dialogue and training. Without being
yet too definitive, among the strategies and/or action plans I envision under the three themes is
something like the following:
- Outreach:
Expanded communication efforts, including through an ever enriched website, using modern electronic
as well as traditional modes of interaction to
- facilitate even closer contact with old and new members as well as with and between the regions
and sub-regions, including, where appropriate, the establishment of regional CONGO Committees
- support a concerted new membership drive to become a truly inclusive and representative body/voice
as partner for the United Nations
- Dialogue:
- Institutionalize and intensify the dialogue with the UN Secretariat, UN member States
(particularly the Committee on NGOs), and UN Agencies for strengthening, expanding and protecting consultative
status; and among ourselves for better understanding of each other's concerns, opportunities and
constraints in a transparent way
- Strive to convert hearts and minds to tear down fences, leaving behind old and new ideologies,
to "embrace the dynamic solidarity of our membership of the one human family"
- Training:
- Provide orientation, briefings and training at UN meetings and World Conferences for NGOs on
UN/NGO relations
- Enable active NGO participation to respond effectively to the overarching challenges confronting
us: poverty, racism, HIV/AIDS, globalization, environmental challenges, how to achieve gender
equality and a new child rights agenda and how the enjoyment of all human rights can be assured for
all.
In following these priorities, we want to build on and enhance our diversity - one of our greatest
strengths and one of our greatest challenges. Greater diversity will enable us to serve an ever
expanding circle of NGOs, with the challenge of finding common cause among them. In recognition of
the now recognized interrelatedness among so many of the development issues of our time, I hope that
such common cause will be expressed through new forms of interaction and expression among NGO
committees. We have been given a call to action by the General Assembly President, Harri Holkeri,
the Millennium Forum and the Millennium Summit to this effect. Let it not be said that we were found
wanting
In closing, let me come back to the plaque on the Harvard wall. I will - and I call upon all of you,
friends and colleagues, to join me in this effort - I will do everything in my power to improve the
yield of existing wells and to build new ones where there are none, to rekindle those fires that may
look burnt out but aren't and to light new ones where there is lack of warmth or where an infusion
of new energy may be needed.
It is with gratitude for your confidence, with trust in your ongoing support and with anticipation
of a bright future for CONGO that I humbly accept the office of President.
Thank you for your kind attention.
1 The aims of the Conference are:
- to ensure that NGOs in consultative status enjoy the fullest opportunities and all appropriate
facilities for performing their consultative functions;
- to foster cooperation and dialogue among all NGOs and with groupings of NGOs related to the UN
system;
- to provide a forum for the exchange of views on matters relating to the consultative process,
and on strengthening of the relationship between NGOs and the United Nations, including the
contributions which NGOs in consultative status can make to promoting the principles, purposes and
effectiveness of the UN and its related agencies and programs and;
- to mobilize public opinion in support of the aims and principles of the United Nations, and to
promote education about the UN with special emphasis on the contribution which NGOs make to its work;
- to convene meetings of NGOs for the exchange of views on matters of common interest.
|
|
|
|
