Voices of San Francisco—the Birthplace of the United Nations: Collective Narratives of the UN75 Global Consultations in San Francisco | March–October 2020 (UN Day Edition)

Presented at the UN Day Ceremony on October 24, 2020 in San Francisco, California

In January 2020, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced that the UN is hosting the largest-ever global conversation on the role of global cooperation in building the future we want. This worldwide campaign commemorates the UN’s 75th anniversary by engaging individuals, civil society, businesses, and political leaders in sharing their hopes for the future.

In response to this call, the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA) has engaged its network of more than 20,000 members and over 200 chapters across the country to host Global Consultations involving Americans in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Notes and recommendations from the Global Consultations were provided to the UN and key decision makers within the public sector, including Members of Congress.

As part of these efforts, the United Nations Association of the USA, San Francisco Chapter (UNA-SF) hosted eight UN75 Global Consultations in San Francisco in March and April 2020. When choosing a format for these dialogues, we wanted to make sure that our delegates have an opportunity to frame issues and recommendations in their own language so that their voices could be heard directly in the form they sounded before high-level expert interpretations. To achieve that, we used a combination of the World Café process and the Collective Narrative Methodology which allowed us to engage delegates in generative conversations and collectively document a balanced overview of key ideas and recommendations.

The results of this work were published in our UN75 Report “Voices of San Francisco—the Birthplace of the United Nations” that we presented at the UN Charter Day Ceremony on June 26, 2020. This report reception was overwhelmingly positive and it was acknowledged by many as a valuable resource and a useful example of innovative stakeholder engagement.

Since the UN Charter Day edition was published, the UN Global Consultations Committee has hosted two more consultations. UN75 Charter Day Dialogues put the voices of San Franciscans in global context by bringing together participants from nearly 40 countries including senior leaders of some of the national United Nations Associations. Our Final UN75 Global Consultation in San Francisco hosted on October 4 provided an opportunity to our delegates to share their reflections on the results of the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly and assess how the United Nations is responding to their recommendations.

Collective narratives from these two consultations were added to our report along with other relevant materials, and we are happy to present the UN Day Edition of our UN75 Report “Voices of San Francisco—the Birthplace of the United Nations.”

You can request an electronic copy of the report by filling out and submitting the form below. You are also welcome to request one or more printed copies of the report that will be available in early 2021. 

We would like to express our deepest appreciation to all the delegates, partners, and supporters who contributed to this effort. If you have any questions about the report, you can contact us through the form below.