Submitting Your Quadrennial Report

1. Who Needs to Submit?

Only NGOs in special or general consultative status are required to submit quadrennial reports. Organizations in roster status are not required to submit this report. To search the status of an organization, please click here.

2. When to Submit

Quadrennial reports are due for submission according to the schedule detailed in the following table:

As a rule, reports should be submitted no later than 1 June of the year following the last year of the reporting period. Therefore, a quadrennial report covering the 2019-2022 period should be submitted no later than 1 June 2023.

3. Getting Started

Use your organization's username and password to log in to our website. If you no longer have that information, please contact our office through the CSO Net messaging system at: https://esango.un.org/civilsociety/displayCorrespondence.do?method=addPublicMessage to request new username and password information.

By logging in to our system you will also be able to do several things: (i) update the contact information of your organization, including the address of your headquarters and telephone number, the main email address and contact persons/designations; (ii) review information about upcoming conferences and events at the United Nations that you are entitled to attend; (iii) preregister for many of ECOSOC's functional commissions; and (iv) search other organizations that have similar interests to yours.

For submitting quadrennial reports, please take the following steps:

• 1. Click on the link to login to the iCSO database. (http://esango.un.org/civilsociety/newLogin.do)
• 2. Use your organization's username and password to connect to your organization's profile.
• 3. Place your mouse over the "Consultative Status" tab and then click on "Quadrennial Reports" from the drop-down menu.
• This page allows you to look at your reports submitted for previous periods, as well as reports that are due for submission.
• 4. To submit a new report, click on the icon for "Submit Report" with the following image:
• 5. A screen will appear with seven text fields for you to complete. You will be required to complete all the fields in order to finalize your report and for the report to be submitted to the Committee on NGOs for review.

N.B. Your entire report should not exceed 700 words. Please note that the report must be completed either in English or French. Once you have correctly completed the above fields, your report will be ready for submission to the Committee on NGOs.

4. Completing your Report

The information must be typed as running text. Information presented in frames, boxes, columns, tables or graphs cannot be processed. Also, please do not provide any annexes or attachments since the Committee will not review any appended material.

Box 1 - Introduction 

A brief introductory statement (no more than 2 or 3 sentences) should include information about your organization's area of work, goals, and geographical coverage. Please do not state "No Change". Please note that your organization's name or title must be exactly the same as the name in our system. If the name has changed, please indicate that in Box 3 under "Significant changes in the organization."

Box 2 - Aims and purposes of the organization 

Enter a brief statement of the aims and purposes of your organization, and how your organization works to achieve those aims, including the main activities. It should not be more than 3 or 4 sentences. Please do not state "No Change".

Box 3 - Significant changes in the organization 

Here you can list any changes in your organization's objectives, programme, or scope of work that may have had a significant impact, if any. These changes might include:

• an amendment to the constitution or by-laws;
• a change of name of your organization (please also see our website for instructions on how to change your organization's name in the official records of the United Nations);
• a change in the address of your headquarters if the headquarters of the organization has moved to a different country;
• an increase or significant change in the geographical distribution of the membership or funding;
• any new organizational affiliations or mergers with programmatic, legal or other implications; and/or
• a need for reclassification of consultative status with the Economic and Social Council.

*If there are no significant changes to the report, you can state "There have been no significant changes."

Box 4 - Contribution of the organization to the work of the United Nations

NGOs in consultative status are expected to undertake activities to advance the achievement of the development agenda of ECOSOC and the United Nations at large. Your report should therefore list your main activities over the past four years (during the reporting cycle) that are in support of that agenda. Please list no more than 5 or 6 activities that are most relevant for your organization starting with the most important/priority activities.

Box 5 - Participation in meetings of the United Nations

NGOs are encouraged to take part in appropriate intergovernmental meetings so that the work of the Council, and the United Nations at large, can benefit from your input. Participation in the work of the Council and its subsidiary bodies might include contributions to meetings and outcome documents or reports; oral and written statements; proposal of agenda items; and organization of parallel NGO meetings or side events, among others. For information about ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies, please go to: https://www.un.org/ecosoc/en/home

Please be precise when you list your activities. Each reference to a conference or meeting attended or organized by the NGO should indicate the official title of the meeting (without acronyms and abbreviations), the United Nations agency or office organizing the meeting, the location where it took place (city and country) and the exact date of the meeting. Please indicate the nature of your participation (i.e., attending a meeting, participating in consultations or round tables, contributing to a report, etc.), and the title or theme of any document, contribution or statement presented by your organization at the event.

For example:                                 
"Representatives attended the 93rd session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for the review of France, and Jordan's reports under the Convention on the Rights of Child, Geneva, Switzerland, 8 - 26 May 2023."

Box 6 – Cooperation with United Nations Bodies

In this section, please list any cooperation your organization has had with a United Nations body, entity or agency in your country or elsewhere. Cooperation with United Nations agencies in the field or at Headquarters might include: joint funding, preparation, or contribution to events, research papers and studies, joint organization of meetings, humanitarian activities or operational projects, or financial assistance received from or given to the United Nations.

For example:                                 
"The NGO Implemented a project in collaboration with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to create meeting points and contexts which promote adolescent education in Bolivia, Paraguay and Perú, from 2020 to 2021." Or, "The NGO signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to enhance environmental governance in Africa through capacity building for law enforcement agencies in 2023."

Box 7 – Initiatives taken in support of the SDGs               

In this section you can list all initiatives undertaken by your organization in support of internationally agreed development goals, in particular, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which form the basis of the United Nations global peace and development agenda. For information about the SDGs please go to: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs.

For example:

                                 
"The organization contributed to SDG 3 in Madagascar, Benin and Gambia by providing nutritional care to 162,079 children and prenatal care to 7,950 expectant mothers during the reporting period."                                 
You can also list your activities in support of global principles such as: "The organization observed the World AIDS Day each year on 1 December. It also commemorated the 2019 World AIDS Day at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, resulting in a turnout of several thousand people and web-cast globally via the Kaiser Foundation network website."

If your organization did not undertake any specific activities you could state, for example: "Our organization‘s activities did not focus on specific initiatives in fulfillment of the SDGs, but rather on supporting the overall development agenda through advocacy and outreach."

5. Editorial Guidelines

Quadrennial reports are expected to observe strict editorial guidelines before they can be considered ready for submission. If reports are improperly drafted and fail to follow the correct format, style and content, they may be refused.

Font: Please note that since the submission of the report is online, it includes a default font and does not require you to select one. However, please do not write in all capital letters, such as "THE NGO CELEBRATED THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY."

On Style: Please observe the following points:

• The report should be drafted in the third person. For example, use phrases such as "The organization attended…" not "I attended…" Please avoid the use of proper names and titles of people from your organization who attended.
• References to United Nations documents or publications should cite both the title and indicate the relevant symbols, if possible. Quotations should be referenced.
• Abbreviations and acronyms (words formed from the initial letters of other words, e.g. UNESCO) should always be spelt out. As is good practice everywhere, the name or title should be written out in full the first time it occurs in a document, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.
• "United Nations" should not be abbreviated in English. The form "ONU" is acceptable in French.
• In United Nations style, abbreviations and acronyms are written without periods, such as: UNDP, not U.N.D.P.

Do Not Use Acronyms: Do not use any acronyms for the following but write them in full:

• Principal organs and major offices of the United Nations: General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council; United Nations Office at Geneva/Vienna/Nairobi;
• Titles of senior officials: Secretary-General, Under-Secretary-General, Special Representative of the Secretary-General;
• United Nations conventions, treaties, plans or programmes of action;
• Funds, programmes and agencies;
• Names of Member States
• The World Tourism Organization and the World Trade Organization, to avoid confusion;
• The International Criminal Court (to avoid confusion with organizations such as the International Chamber of Commerce);
• The International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and other courts and tribunals;
• Military or police forces, and military terms, such as: ASZ (air safety zone), GSZ (ground safety zone), EAF (Entity Armed Forces), JSF (Joint Security Forces), or DDR (disarmament, demobilization and reintegration);

Use correct names of Member States and United Nations terminology when referring to countries and certain territories.

It is important for documents to adhere to the accepted United Nations terminology with respect to the names of Member State countries and territories.

Please note the correct terminology for the following countries and territories:

• Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela [Venezuela]
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Brunei Darussalam
• Democratic People's Republic of Korea [North Korea]
• Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC or RDC]*
• Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China [Hong Kong SAR of China]*
• Islamic Republic of Iran
• Kosovo (should be referred as a territory, not a country) **
• Lao People's Democratic Republic
• Libya
• Macau, Special Administrative Region of China [Macau SAR of China]*
• Myanmar [Burma or Birmania]
• Occupied Syrian Golan **
• Republic of Chechnya of the Russian Federation [Chechnya]
• Republic of Congo [Congo Brazzaville or Congo]
• Republic of Korea [South Korea]
• South Sudan
• State of Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, or Kashmir
• State of Palestine (Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem or Palestine when referring to the geographical area of the Palestinian territory) **
• Sudan (Republic of the Sudan, which refers to the North)
• Syrian Arab Republic
• Taiwan, Province of China
• The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia [FYROM]*
• Tibet, Autonomous Region of China
• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Notes:                                 
* The short form is also acceptable.                                 
** These are territories.

For additional information, please visit the following websites: http://unterm.un.org.

The above list is a quick reference guide to the most frequently used terms, and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all geographic areas or territories. It also must be checked against the latest information available in the terminology database.

Short Titles: A short title may be used to replace a name or title that occurs several times in a document, provided that the full name is used the first time it occurs and that there is no risk of ambiguity; the Assembly (the United Nations General Assembly), the Council (the Economic and Social Council), the Committee (The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations), the United Kingdom (the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), the United States (the United States of America).

Dates: The day should always be followed by the month and year such as: 21 April 2004. The months must not be abbreviated but written in full.

6. Saving and completing your report

Once you have satisfactorily completed the online reporting form, you must save it by clicking on the "Save" button at the bottom of the page. After that, please click on the "Submit" button. If you fail to click on the "submit" button, the report will not reach us.

When you have submitted the report, you will receive an automated response that acknowledges receipt of your report.

NOTE: To ensure that you are notified by email about the receipt of the report, please be sure to update the contact information in your organization's profile in our system at all times.

To do so, please go to: http://esango.un.org/civilsociety/displayAdvancedSearch.do?method=search&sessionCheck=false and log into your profile by using the username and password.

If you no longer have the username and password information, please send us a message through the messaging system at: https://esango.un.org/civilsociety/displayCorrespondence.do?method=addPublicMessage

7. Next steps

Your report will be received before submission to the Committee on NGOs. Should there be any questions or concerns, you will be contacted. Quadrennial reports are reviewed by the Committee on NGOs during one of its two annual sessions, in January and in May each year. You will be notified if the Committee has any questions or requests clarification on any issue in the report.