Civil society groups nudge and cajole world leaders from the sidelines of United Nations week
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Every September, a crush of events unfold on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the annual high-level meetings of world leaders in New York. Nonprofits, advocates and fundraisers descend on midtown Manhattan to mingle and lobby the world leaders, billionaires and companies who are also in town. They gather in mostly elite spaces to get their messages to the people with their hands on the levers of power. UNICEF deputy executive director Kitty van der Heijden said the world faces many protracted and overlapping crises that raise the stakes for the negotiations for funding and political commitments.