Closing its annual two-day coordination segment today, the Economic and Social Council examined how it can use its unique convening role to offer various stakeholders meaningful participation in developing impactful solutions to the challenges of both today and tomorrow.

“We need to better leverage ECOSOC’s vast expertise and convening power, translating its guidance into targeted action across the system and providing transformative, evidence-based leadership to drive progress where it matters most,” said Li Junhua, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, as he delivered closing remarks.

He added that, as the principal UN platform for stakeholder engagement, the Council must continue to champion the meaningful participation of civil society, academia, the private sector and other partners, as their insights and experience help ensure that policies “meet real needs and deliver real impact”.

**‘Connective Tissue’ Linking Peace, Development, Human Rights, Humanitarian Action **

Paruyr Hovhannisyan (Armenia), Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council, then spotlighted how the Council functions as the “connective tissue linking peace, development, human rights and humanitarian action”. Stressing that strengthening the Council is “within reach”, he said that this can be accomplished through “clearer political guidance, stronger oversight and more purposeful use of its convening power”. He added that the Council plays a distinctive role in supporting the UN’s development pillar, emphasizing: “While our commitment to ECOSOC is clear, so is our resolve to improve and strengthen it.”

This year’s Coordination Segment, under the theme “Transformative, equitable, innovative and coordinated actions for the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs for a sustainable future for all”, will contribute to the in-depth reviews of the high-level political forum on sustainable development of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6 (clean water and sanitation), 7 (affordable and clean energy), 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and 17 (partnerships for the Goals). (Coverage of the Segment’s opening day is available here.)

The first of today’s three panel discussions, held under the theme “ECOSOC as the gateway for all stakeholders”, featured a keynote address by Council President Lok Bahadur Thapa (Nepal). Presenting key messages from the Council’s annual Partnership Forum, which was held on 27 January, he noted that interventions at that event made clear that “the scale and urgency of today’s challenges demand more than incremental change”. In this, partnership is not just helpful, but “indispensable”, he stressed, as it enables the effective use of scarce resources to “sustain impact where it matters most”.

Value of Partnerships, Civil Society Participation to Deliver Real Results

Noting the Forum’s inclusive, multi-stakeholder format — which created space to “learn from partnership models that deliver real results” — he underscored that solutions must be co-created with local actors to ensure lasting impact. He added that, throughout the Forum, speakers emphasized the value of partnerships that are practical, demand-driven and aligned with national and local priorities. “Partnerships are a key instrument for delivering results where they are needed the most,” he concluded.

Speaking for one avenue for partnership was panellist Foteini Papagioti, Director of Policy and Advocacy of the International Center for Research on Women. “Civil society participation is not a procedural formality,” she underscored; rather, it is a source of legitimacy, expertise and accountability for multilateral decision-making. She spotlighted, however, the “growing gap” between the acknowledged value of civil-society participation and the conditions under which that participation occurs. “This makes the Council’s role as an inclusive gateway more important than ever,” she said, adding that civil society should be engaged earlier — “before the negotiations harden” — which allows these partners to contribute evidence, flag implementation gaps and support more coherent outcomes.

“The gap between experience and participation represents a missed opportunity,” concurred panellist Anes Mušić, member of the GenJust Youth Network established by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). While young people are often “among the first to recognize negative trends within their communities”, he noted that their voices remain unheard and unsupported. Stakeholder engagement, then, should be strengthened by “moving from consultation to co-creation”, he said, also underlining the importance of involving stakeholders in planning, drafting processes and follow-up mechanisms at an early stage. He observed: “When stakeholders see that their input leads to tangible results, engagement becomes meaningful and sustainable.”

The panel also heard from Norine Kennedy, Executive Director of the United States Council for International Business Foundation, and Lili Qiu, Founder and President of the Peaceland Foundation, who represented the private sector and humanitarians, respectively.

**Breaking Out of Institutional Silos to Expedite Sustainable Development **

The second panel discussion focused on “The ECOSOC system working together towards the 2026 High-Level Political Forum”. Speakers from various UN entities and subsidiary bodies explained how their work sits at the intersection of multiple SDGs and how they are breaking out of institutional silos to address synergies and trade-offs.

Gerd Müller, Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), stressed that “industry must lead the way”. His organization’s Industrial Development Report 2026 shows how key SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure) is to supporting other Goals. It is therefore crucial to mobilize private-sector knowledge and resources, he said, highlighting UNIDO’s Net Zero Partnership for industrial decarbonization and its Global Alliance for Responsible and Green Minerals. UNIDO is also the custodian of six of Goal 9’s indicators and is playing a key role in its review.

Also spotlighting the interconnectedness of many SDGs was Anacláudia Rossbach, Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), pointing out that approximately 1.2 billion people worldwide live in slums or slum-like conditions. She added that such informal settlements “not only reflect extreme urban poverty”; they also hinder progress across multiple Goals. While Goal 11 (sustainable cities and communities) is directly impacted, informal settlements also affect Goal 6 (clean water and sanitation), because housing and urban prosperity depend on these services. Similarly, Goal 7 (affordable and clean energy) is constrained because energy access and affordability are limited in informal settlements and slums.

Meanwhile, Retno Marsudi, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Water, who had just attended the high-level preparatory meeting for the 2026 UN Water Conference in Senegal, called for collaborative action “outside the water box” to “strengthen the political standing of water within multilateral decision-making”. Financing and investment remain lacking, she said, noting that official development assistance (ODA) for water and sanitation has fallen by 9 per cent since 2019. “Where water systems are weak, progress across SDGs slows down; where they are strong, prosperity and resilience follow,” she said.

The discussion also featured Maria Dimitriadou, Special Representative of the World Bank to the United Nations and Pablo Fernández Marmissolle Daguerre, Deputy Secretary-General for Global Partnerships at United Cities and Local Governments.

**Strategic Imperatives: Reforming Mandate Creation and Implementation, Addressing Structural Inequalities **

The afternoon’s panel, on “ECOSOC after 80: Strategic imperatives for the future”, examined the role that the Council can play amidst current institutional reform.

Carolyn Schwalger (New Zealand), Co-Chair of the Informal Ad Hoc Working Group on the Mandate Implementation Review, highlighted the need for a “cultural change” in how the UN creates, implements and reviews mandates. On 8 January, her delegation and that of Jamaica presented a zero draft of a General Assembly resolution setting out practical actions to guide this approach. “It is a high-ambition text,” she said, which acknowledges the importance of ensuring fit-for-purpose coordination mechanisms between the main UN entities. She also shared a key insight from the recent Economic and Social Council retreat: “Dissatisfaction with the functioning of international institutions should not lead us to disillusionment with the rules-based international system they underpin.”

Leticia Leobet, International Advisor at Geledés Instituto da Mulher Negra (Black Woman Institute), added that, for the Economic and Social Council to have greater impact, it is essential to recognize that structural inequalities — including those based on race, gender and disability — continue to shape “who participates, who decides and who benefits from multilateralism”. These are not procedural issues; they are core indicators of whether the UN system is delivering, she said. The voices and knowledge of historically marginalized groups must be systematically incorporated from priority-setting to implementation follow-up.

**‘Ambitious and Unusual Mandate’ Laid Blueprint for Global Development, Social Protection **

“In many ways, ECOSOC was the UN’s first experiment in integrated multilateral governance, long before we used that language,” Achim Steiner, Senior Fellow at Oxford Martin School and former Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), reminded delegates. From its founding in 1946, it had an “ambitious and unusual” mandate to serve as a central forum where economic progress, social justice and international cooperation would be treated as a single project. He recalled that the Council provided a platform with which to turn post-war reconstruction into a long-term project of global development and social protection.

He therefore stressed that, instead of imitating the Security Council or competing with the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council should focus on its role as a convenor, coordinator and source of intellectual leadership.

Also participating in the panel were José Antonio Ocampo, Chair of the Committee for Development Policy; Guy Ryder, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Policy; Jaewon Choi of Children and Youth International; and Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College, London.