Opportunities for the UN and civil society to collaborate more effectively

In 2002, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan established a Panel on UN Civil Society Relations, to which were appointed more than a dozen `eminent persons'. The establishment of this Panel was a signal that the UN at its highest levels recognised, rightly, that an opportunity was being lost for it to work more effectively with civil society, and to take more account of the views of civil society in the pursuit of human development.