World NGO Day

World NGO Day is an international day dedicated to recognize, celebrate and honour all non-governmental and nonprofit organisations, and the people behind them that contribute to the society all year around. It is celebrated annually every 27 February. It was declared by the 12 member countries of the Baltic Sea NGO Forum, Council of the Baltic Sea States in 2010 and recognised by the European External Action Service, European Union. It was first marked by the UN, EU leaders and international organizations in 2014.
History
World NGO day was founded in 2009by Marcis Liors Skadmanis. It was officially proposed and declared in 2010, and adopted into the X Baltic Sea NGO Forum’s Final Statement Resolution on 23-25 April 2012 at Humboldt University of Berlin. It was acknowledged by representatives from 12 countries, as part of the German CBSS Presidency.
Members
The member countries of the Baltic Sea NGO Forum were Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Norway and Sweden.
Awareness of the World NGO Day was increased through a roundtable at the House of Commons and House of Lords, UK Parliament. The same year, UNESCO acknowledged it in 2013.
The first global inaugural event of World NGO day was hosted by the Ministry for Foreign affairs of Finland on 27 February 2014 in Helsinki, Finland. The international guests were leaders from UNOPS, UNESCO, UNDP, European Union, Nordic Council and international organizations.
Impact
The day is celebrated in February in more than 89 countries and over six continents. The universal concept of the World NGO Day is to Celebrate, Commemorate and Collaborate - the various NGOs around the world, and the people behind them that contribute to society all year around.
Worldwide
Each year World NGO Day is celebrated in different languages from Australia, Asia, Africa to North and South Americas. The first Pakistani World NGO Day was held on Thursday, 27 February 2014, and was organized by Zafar Iqbal, since then World NGO Day more known, bringing together up to 1,000 Pakistani NGO leaders to conferences, awards, workshops, exhibitions on 27 February every year in Islamabad.
Europe
Since 2017, each year the European External Action Service (Foreign and Defence Ministry of the European Union) issues the international statement on the occasion of World NGO day. The EEAS indicates the global focus and themes of World NGO Day.
Since 2019, World NGO Day is celebrated in Europe by the INGOs Conference of the Council of Europe, Council of Europe. It represents a variety of stakeholders, including representatives of civil society, Permanent representations of Council of Europe Members States, prominent human rights activists, students and members of the Secretariat of the Council of Europe.

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