An update on the Millennium Summit process. This newsletter was primarily produced for NGOs in the UK but contains useful information for NGOs and other organisations round the world which interested in reform of global institutions. A key document will be the General Secretary's paper, to be published in March. This will set out issues and proposals. The indications are that the Secretary General wants innovation in governance and a more people orientated organisation, with a greater role for civil society.
Poverty eradication is likely to be a key theme.
The UK Government's approach Stephen Pattison, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office official responsible for preparing for the Summit, said at the UK Millennium Hearings preparing for the Summit that the government does not want the Summit to produce kind of long-winded declaration that makes no different in practice, but a 'punchy new agenda' on which their is agreement between countries. It is not seeking to amend the Charter, which could be made even weaker in the process. In a letter to Charter 99, the British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said that poverty eradication would be a key theme of the government's approach to the Summit. It may be useful to think of a short 'millennium mandate' as a concise expression of what we want from the Summit. All UN delegations have been asked to support the principles of Charter 99 and to send a copy to their relevant ministers.