On March 13 2018, WFUNA Secretary General Mr. Bonian Golmohammadi met with UN Deputy Secretary-General Ms. Amina Mohammed to present WFUNA´s initiatives and to discuss ideas for collaboration. The meeting also focused on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, the importance of civil society involvement, the UN Development System Review, the Peace and Security sector reform, the current trust deficit in the UN and ending child marriage.
The UN Deputy Secretary General highlighted the importance of “socializing the Sustainable Development Goals” and building a movement that would speed up their implementation. “We need to involve WFUNA, build bigger networks and coalitions of parliamentarians, executives. We should leverage more support, not drown civil society and empower them at the local level.” Involving young people is also key and for this to happen we need to answer the question “how I can get engaged in my day job?”.
Ms. Mohammed highlighted the Spotlight Initiative, between the EU and the UN to eliminate violence against women and girls, as an example of partnerships and also talked about the UN Development System Review and the process towards empowering UN Resident Coordinators at the national level, calling for bringing United Nations Associations closer to UN Country Teams.