About us

The Origin
During the period 1960-1980, the economic growth and social progress of developing countries moved to the top of the UN’s economic agenda. The adoption of a series of United Nations Development Declarations set the broad policies and goals seen as necessary to reduce the gap between rich and poor countries. A landmark session of the General Assembly in 1974 defined the steps to achieve this goal in its  Declaration and Program of Action on The Establishment of a New International Economic Order.

Given the increased focus by the UN on development issues, members of the NGO community in New York felt that the time had come to establish a committee under CONGO (Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations) specifically devoted to monitoring the activities of the UN in this field and ensure that the NGO “development community ”was kept informed. 

Roma Stibravy (left), Chairperson of the
UN NGO CSD Committee, during a meeting.
Next to her is Scott Sklar, President of
The Stella Group.

With the emergence of the concept of sustainable development in the report of the Brundtland Commission and its enshrinement in the Rio Declarationof the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, the Committee decided that the concept of sustainable development should govern it activities and be in its title. Thus, the Committee on Development became the Committee on Sustainable Development to keep pace with the UN approach to economic growth, social development and environmental protection.