ECOSOC Consultative Status

About Our UN Consultative Status

The Women's Right to Education Programme (WREP) is an NGO in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. This designation recognises WREP's work in the areas of women's rights, education, peacebuilding, and gender equality — and gives us a formal voice within the UN system.

ECOSOC consultative status is granted by the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations to organisations whose mandate, competence, and activities are closely relevant to the work of ECOSOC. It provides WREP with the right to participate in UN conferences, circulate written statements, and consult with the UN Secretariat on matters within our mandate.

There are three categories of ECOSOC consultative status: General, Special, and Roster. WREP holds Special Consultative Status, which applies to organisations with a special competence in only a few of the fields of activity covered by ECOSOC — in WREP's case, women's rights, education, gender equity, and peacebuilding in Nigeria and West Africa.

As an ECOSOC-accredited NGO, WREP can attend sessions of ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies, submit written statements for circulation as official UN documents, make oral statements at designated meetings, and organise parallel events during major UN conferences. This standing reinforces our credibility and amplifies the voices of Nigerian women and girls at the highest levels of global governance.