USCIB Contributes to 2026 ECOSOC Partnership Forum and Meetings on UN Reform

Norine Kennedy, SVP, Global Strategy and United Nations Affairs and Executive Director, The USCIB Foundation, and Emine Shinjatari, Program Associate, UN Affairs and The USCIB Foundation, represented USCIB at the United Nations in New York at the 2026 UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Partnership Forum on January 27. The forum focused on the UN's program of work in 2026 on innovation, infrastructure, water, energy, and cities.

On the margins of the Partnership Forum, Kennedy and Shinjatari also hosted an official side-event with the Business and Industry Major Group (BIMG), which is co-chaired by USCIB and the International Organisation of Employers (IOE). The event, Public-Private Partnerships to Mobilize Infrastructure Investment: Innovation for Impact, featured keynote speaker Dominika Dor, Partnerships Officer at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and panelists, Kristen Edgreen Kaufman, SVP, Global Impact Initiatives at USCIB, Paulina Concha Larrauri (Microsoft), Dominique Gatel (Veolia & Aquafed), and Amadou Sako (IOE).

Kennedy and Shinjatari also participated in the Partnership Forum session on inter-governmental discussions on industry, innovation, and infrastructure, highlighting the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships to strengthen innovation ecosystems, which included insights from USCIB member Mark Jacobs (IBM).

Additionally, USCIB representatives joined a briefing to discuss UN80 reform and its implications for the UN development system, hosted by the Missions of Spain, Belgium, Canada, and Australia. Member state representatives expressed the necessity for business inclusion as an element of the UN80 Initiative.

Kennedy also participated as a panelist in the ECOSOC Coordination Session, in a panel on ECOSOC as the gateway for all stakeholders on January 29. This session highlighted the value of stakeholder engagement within ECOSOC, and its ecosystem of bodies, to ensure that ECOSOC continues to include business and other stakeholders. In her remarks, Kennedy underlined the fundamental and distinct role of the private sector, and encouraged UN ECOSOC to consider reform for efficiency, effectiveness and enhanced inclusion of business.