ISA Status to United Nations

As the International Schools Association’s Representative to the United Nations, it was a pleasure to connect in New York with ISA Secretary General Edgardo Manzitti, while the United Nations General Assembly was taking place. It was an excellent meeting and discussion to refresh and re-energize the relationship ISA holds with the UN.  Given the difficulty during this COVID19 period, the limitations in non-governmental organizations participation, such as ISA, has been largely limited to virtual modalities. The hopes of this meeting foreshadow ways for future in-person engagement and participation at the UN, such as developing educational conferences.  Another area of focus was the recruitment of more schools to bring the global perspective into the classroom.

ISA is privileged to hold consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN since 1970.  This consultative status is issued through a UN Member State vetting process in which organization must showcase their work and how it may synergize with the work of the UN, as well as provide a report every four years on the activities of the organization.  Through this unique accreditation, ISA has the ability submit written statements to ECOSOC functional commissions that become a part of the official documentation of the UN.  This status also allows ISA to participate in these commissions as well as grants access to UN headquarters. 

The meeting led to some fruitful discussions that look ahead for ways to utilize and leverage ISA’s relationships at the UN, a role which I am very happy to develop as the representative to the UN.