North Gyeongsang Province announced that six delegates from the United Nations World NGO Conference visited the province on January 20.
The delegation includes UN officials, including Maher Nasser, director of the Outreach Division in the United Nations Department of Public Information, and organization committee officials including Chairman Chang Soon-heung. They visited Korea for five days from January 17 to 21 to visit the host city, Gyeongju, and have meetings with governor of North Gyeongsang Province and officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and leading Korean NGOs.
During the meeting with North Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kwan-yong, the delegation explained the purpose of the conference and specific plans and asked for cooperation and support from the local government and North Gyeongsang Province.
The 66th UN NGO Conference, which is to be held from May 30 to June 1 in Gyeongju, is an annual event officially hosted by the UN. It is the world’s most prestigious conference on civil society in which NGOs around the world gather to discuss how to cooperate one another. With a theme of global citizenship education, this year’s conference will be attended by 2,000 officials from NGOs in 60 countries all over the world.
In particular, it is more meaningful in that Korea has become the first host country to hold a NGO forum in Asia in the first year of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) led by the UN from 2016 to 2030.