Helsinki process proposes new model for partnership between governments, business and civil society
Press release 140/2005
April 29, 2005
The High-Level Helsinki Group’s Co-Chair, Mr Erkki Tuomioja, Foreign Minister of Finland, and Deputy Co-Chair, Mr Abdulkader Shareef, Deputy Foreign Minister of Tanzania, urged for the co-ordinated action of all stakeholders to achieve the objectives of the UN Millennium Declaration whilst also extending the horizon for analysis and action beyond the scope of the Millennium Development Goals. Messrs Tuomioja and Shareef spoke at the meeting of the Helsinki Group which convened for its fourth and final time on 27-29 April in New York City.
The High-Level Helsinki Group addresses the inter-connectedness of the five issue areas of the Millennium Declaration and their use as a basis for looking beyond 2015. The Group recognises that effective global problem solving can only be reached through new kinds of goal oriented partnerships between governments, the private sector and international and civil society organisations. The Group’s Co-Chairs, Messrs Tuomioja and Shareef, stated that it is through working together that different stakeholders can pool the diverse resources available for change and thereby multiply their efforts at reaching a more equitable and sustainable future.
The multi-stakeholder approach to global problem solving should be made more permanent and developed into a strategic alliance to foster creative partnerships amongst stakeholders. In order to achieve this, the Helsinki Group introduced a Round Table approach through which people with different perspectives collaborate with the shared goal of generating both workable policies and political will.
This approach will be tested in practice at the Helsinki Conference, the culmination of the Helsinki Process, which will take place on 7-9 September 2005. The conference will bring together some 400 key stakeholders from governments, international organisations, the business community, municipalities, civil society, trade unions, academia and public policy research institutions. Roundtables at the Conference will be based on the recommendations of the Helsinki Process and seek to identify steps needed for their implementation.
The Helsinki Group draws on the work of the earlier commissions such as the High-Level Panel report on United Nations reform, the Cardoso Panel report on the role of Civil Society in the UN and the Sachs report on financing the Millennium Development Goals. The Group will release its final report in London at the end of June.
Additional information: konsul Jari Sinkari, Consulate of Finland in New York, [email protected], tel. +1 917 362 1350 and project manager Eero Kytömaa, Helsinki Process Secretariat, [email protected], gsm 040 569 8238