Voices of San Francisco:

Annual Multi-Stakeholder Consultation and Charter Dialogue 

April 25, 2025 Report

 

In January 2020, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced that the UN was hosting the largest-ever global conversation on the role of global cooperation in building the future we want. This worldwide campaign commemorates the UN Charter by engaging individuals, civil society, businesses, and political leaders in sharing their hopes for the future.

In response to this clarion call, the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA) engaged its network of more than 20,000 members and over 200 chapters across the country to host global consultations across all US territories. 

The United Nations Association of San Francisco joined these collective efforts, hosting eleven global consultations in the first two years. The results of these convenings were provided to the UN and key decision makers within the public sector, including Members of Congress, as well as with our National, State, and local leaders, consular corps members, UNA affiliates, and other decision-makers.   

The response to the collective narrative reports, Voices of San Francisco, has been overwhelmingly positive and acknowledged by many as a valuable resource and a useful example of innovative stakeholder engagement.

As such, we have made an effort to do a global consultation with our UNA-San Francisco community every year. We believe there is value in bringing different perspectives to a table and allowing for fruitful conversations and connections to occur, and maintaining written reports of how the dialogues change over time. 

We would like to express our deepest appreciation to all the delegates, partners, and supporters who contribute to the dialogues and collective narrative each year. We also recognize the past leadership who responded to the UN call to action. Within the UNA SF leadership, we would like to give a special recognition of gratitude to Fyodor Ovchinnikov, Mary Elizabeth Steiner, Melinda Lord, Elsia Galawish, and the current Chair of the Global Consultation Committee Agustina Singh for spearheading this program for years to come. 

 
 

Historic Timing and Location

The UNA San Francisco chapter and its members have the privilege of gathering on a historically significant day and place! The UNA SF Board of Directors have envisioned that we could host a Global Consultation on or around April 25th, which would commemorate the start of The United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO). 

The conference took place at the War Memorial Opera House and San Francisco War Memorial Veterans Building from April 25, 1945, to June 26, 1945.  After two months of negotiations and consultations, the United Nations Charter was signed by all 50 delegations, with 3 more member states ratifying the Charter shortly thereafter. Therefore, we are honored and privileged to gather and engage in diverse discussions through our Global Consultations and commemorate the UN Charter each year.

A Call To Action

United Nations Association of San Francisco is calling for the people of San Francisco to gather on an annual basis to engage in dialogue on the UN Charter, and to reflect on:  

  • What local and global issues matter to our community;

  • How the work of the United Nations impacts these issues; 

  • What stakeholders hold the most power to make positive change; and

  • What collective message we want to communicate to the United Nations and other stakeholders through our combined advocacy channels.

A Collective Narrative

When choosing a format for recording the global consultation dialogues, we wanted to make sure that our delegates were provided the opportunity to frame issues and recommendations in their own language rather than  high-level expert interpretation and synthesis. To achieve that, we used a combination of the World Café  process and the Collective Narrative Methodology  which allowed us to engage delegates in thought-provoking conversations and document a balanced collective overview of key ideas and recommendations.

During the UNA San Francisco global consultations, participants and delegates rotated across several breakout rooms to share their perspectives, link ideas, identify patterns, and articulate insights. After that, group representatives worked with five Rapporteurs to come up with summaries of the conversations. All participants and delegates have an opportunity to add to the summaries by filling out a Google form if they felt that something important was missing.

All summaries and comments were processed into a collective narrative in accordance with the Collective Narrative Methodology. Every idea included in the report can be traced back to the summaries shared by the Rapporteurs or the comments submitted by participants and delegates. Likewise, every idea shared by the Rapporteurs or properly submitted by a participant or a delegate was included in the reports. 

The results of these annual consultations will be published in standalone reports representing the evolution of the discourse on the UN Charter over the years.  This living documentary/archive of the Voices of San Francisco’s Global Consultations may guide the future of the local as well as international community.

Voices of San Francisco Global Consultation Reports

UNA-SF does not automatically endorse any ideas presented in these reports, but we are deeply committed to making the voices of all participants and delegates heard.  See the collection of our past reports: 

  • UN 75 Report, Voices of San Francisco - the Birthplace of the UN (March - April 2020)

  • UN 76 Report, Voices of San Francisco for Our Collective Future (April 25, 2021)

  • UN 77 Report,  Voices of San Francisco a Multi-Stakeholder Consultation (April 25, 2022)

  • UN 79 Report, Voices of San Francisco Global Consultations and Charter Day Dialogues (June 25, 2024)

  • UN 80 Report, Voices of San Francisco Charter Day Dialogues (April 25, 2025)

If you have any questions about the Global Consultations Committee or are interested in being trained in the collective narrative method for hosting UNA-San Francisco Charter Dialogues, please complete this form. Also, if you have interest in supporting the Global Consultations collective reporting for the Voices of San Francisco program, please inquire below.