The following is the last in a two-part series by the UN correspondent for the Paris-based magazine JeuneAfrique. He is also former director of Africa II Division, UN Department of Political Affairs.

The decades of the 1980s and 1990s witnessed an unprecedented increase in the role and activities of NGOs. Three factors in particular accounted for this development: (1) the rise of a new, younger and more dynamic leadership of various NGO groups; (2) the widespread use of communication facilities, especially the fax and the Internet; and (3) the establishment of global ties through networking.

NGOs began to approach the various United Nations forums with a renewed sense of capability, effectiveness and responsibility. Thus, they left a deep mark on the Cairo Conference on Population, the Rio Conference on Environment and Development and on the Beijing Conference on Women.

Until the mid-'90s, NGOs' increased role and potential weight in making an effective contribution to the resolution of global problems facing the international community were not adequately recognized by governments or the UN Secretariat. In many instances, this role was met with indifference, if not outright rejection. About six years ago, a group of NGO representatives held a meeting in conference room 4 to discuss the subject of preventive diplomacy. The meeting led for the first time to the formulation of what could only be described as sound and innovative recommendations on the use of what at the time was a new political instrument. And when these conclusions were transmitted to a high Secretariat official by a staff member with the recommendation that the UN might consider examining the new political role of NGOs with the aim of channeling it toward a positive outcome, the reaction was not only glacial but arrogant: "Those academic idiots!" exclaimed the high official. This disdain of academia which largely prevails among senior UN officials who refuse to call someone with a Ph.D. "Dr." can partly be explained by the fact that very few of them hold a doctoral degree.

So long as representatives of NGOs devoted their efforts and energies to issues which governments considered to be of a technical nature, including those related to disarmament, oceans, environment and population, their work did not really fundamentally pose serious difficulties to the diplomats. NGOs were free to participate in UN major meetings on these items, and they were allowed to make concrete contributions to their outcome. The Rio Environmental Conference was just one example.

It was not until NGO representatives began to turn their energies to issues of a political nature par excellence that their work began to be looked upon with caution. For decades, they remained aloof from these sensitive areas. Throughout this long period and until now, the representatives of NGOs were not standing before the entrance door of the General Assembly or the Security Council to hand delegates papers containing their political positions on the subjects under examination. For one thing, they do not have access to these two important bodies, which are located on the second floor of the Secretariat building, an area off limits to the public.

The mid-'90s witnessed a tremendous surge in the activities of NGOs on the international scene. The global conferences gave them a platform not only for formulating and advocating their specific positions but also for insisting on the right to be consulted and on full participation in decision-making. During this period, NGO leadership began to formulate new strategies on networking, programming, organizing and lobbying. Thus it initiated and developed closer ties with the presidents of the General Assembly and selected members of the Security Council. The latter were kept informed about NGO initiatives and were invited to their meetings. Some of these diplomats subsequently expressed both sympathy and support for NGO positions on specific issues, such as in the values caucus. But it was only in the last few years that NGOs escalated their demands by calling for full partnership with the UN, as reflected in the 50th annual UN/NGO/DPI Conference.

Clearly, this is a political demand, winch will undoubtedly raise some apprehensions in the counsels of governments. Partnership implies equality of NGOs and representatives of governments and of the Secretariat as well as sharing in decision-making and policy formulation.

Under the present circumstances, partnership constitutes a revolutionary development.

But in a historic period such as this, characterized by the information revolution, the globalization of the planet, rapid changes in practically every field, and increasingly by the democratization of international society, it would be reasonable to expect the "representatives of the people" to play a more visible and significant role in the various forums of the United Nations. Thus, the question put before the high UN official six years ago is still awaiting an answer: in an era requiring a global response to global problems, how to channel the enthusiasm and the expertise of NGOs toward constructive and positive ends.

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