Civil Society Day: UN Resident Coordinator's Closing Remarks

Good afternoon,

Co-organizing committee;

Honorable guests;

Speakers and participants;

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Congratulations to all of you for convening the first civil society day in Cambodia!

It is truly a timely moment to take stock, understand the changing context, share lessons, generate new ideas, celebrate the contributions of CSOs to development in Cambodia, and design the future you want to see.   (I will come back to this last point – designing the future you want to see.)

First and foremost, I do need to acknowledge and commend you as you have covered a lot of ground today – from discussing global trends and how these trends impact on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals; to understanding how an enabling environment can be nurtured for civil society to flourish and contribute to an inclusive and sustainable development pathway for Cambodia; to taking a deep dive on issues of governance and anti-corruption, natural resource management, SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions), subnational democratic reform, multi-stakeholder engagement, as well as gender and social inclusion.     

That’s a lot.  The agenda you covered is enormous. Civil society are often on the frontlines, protecting the most vulnerable in our societies as well as our natural resources.  All of your reflections are drawn from your first hand experiences and your stories and lessons are extremely valuable.

But how have we codified your contributions?  How have you measured the impact of your efforts?  How can we quantify what each one of you has contributed to:  as individual change agents, as organizations of rights advocates, service providers, development practitioners; and more importantly, as coalition of champions to “leave no one behind” in the transformation of Cambodian society?

I hope that in your deliberations, you have thought about systematically measuring impact and codifying the evidence, to make the case for how investments in diversity, openness, inclusion, creativity in society contribute not only to economic growth, but for a more vibrant and sustainable development.

I am convinced that in the digital age, in the 21st century, knowledge is our only currency.  [I repeat, in this day and age, knowledge is our only currency.]

Why do I say that?

The more we see the bigger picture and understand the connections, the  better able we are to respond in a more purposeful manner.  If we are able to visualize the present and design the future [interventions] through [platforms or] distributed networks of expertise, or networks of ideas, of solutions providers, of innovators; and know where the gaps are and who can fill these gaps, the more we are able to broker ideas, to connect solutions providers with those who can benefit from these solutions, to channel resources where they are most needed or where it can deliver the best impact.  If we operate in a networked fashion, then we are less stymied by physical barriers or resource constraints.

When there is limited space, or when participation in constrained spaces are pre-defined, what if we create alternative spaces? What would we need? Would having information, data and knowledge be sufficient to start with?  What about access?  What are the relevant networks? What about connectivity?  How do I know who I don’t know but need to know?

What if civil society becomes knowledge entrepreneurs, how would that look like?  How would entrepreneurship provide solutions, create new spaces to engage and deliver impact?  How can knowledge create shared value by which CSOs can design a more sustainable business model?

What if together with the United Nations, civil society and other partners in Cambodia, could create platforms of distributed networks of expertise and facilitate innovations to achieve the SDGs?  What would success look like?

Maybe you say, this is already being done. But the premise of what I offer to you is curiosity.  Curiosity to ask the question, “what if?”

What if we designed the future we want to see, including the systems, capabilities and knowledge that would be required to achieve that preferred future?  I believe that the systems and capabilities that made us successful in the 20th century are not the same systems and capabilities that will make us succeed in the 21st century.  I also believe that the best way to predict the future is to design it.

What I say is no less relevant than in how the United Nations in Cambodia needs to urgently change to help partners deliver the ambitious 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.  We have embarked on what we call the SDG Leadership Lab, which seeks to embed innovation and learning in the DNA of how the UN delivers the SDGs in Cambodia.  Through innovation and learning, we commit to nurturing people-driven ideas and solutions, to experimenting and taking risks, to adapting, learning to fail fast and changing course, to better measuring our progress, and sharing our results, connecting with others to understand better how these made a difference in people’s lives.

We will soon be expanding the SDG Leadership Lab to also include young leaders, civil society, private sector and government partners.  We hope this could be one of the ways we can collaborate in delivering business unusual for the SDGs in Cambodia.

Thank you to all that you do.  And I am honored to be a part of it.