WLO responds to open call for NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC to address the Economic and Social Council at the 2021 ECOSOC High-level Segment

The 2021 ECOSOC High-level Segment (HLS) will be held from 13 to 16 July 2021, based on the theme of the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) on “Sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, that promotes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development: building an inclusive and effective path for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development”. An open call was announced by the Office of Intergovernmental Support and Coordination for Sustainable Development of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs for the organizations in consultative status with ECOSOC to contribute to matters of extreme importance to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in the form of written statements. In response, the WLO has stated that it is continuously working towards sustainable human development.

The pandemic has negatively impacted the entire world and has made it difficult to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Thus, we, at the WLO, are dedicated towards improving the well-being of people through well-chosen leisure experiences. We have introduced a new strategic plan to keep working towards our mission and have revised the Charter for Leisure in order to adapt to the current circumstances. To ensure the availability of leisure to all, we celebrated the first World Leisure Day which promoted the importance of leisure for human development. The pandemic forced the event industry to innovate and embrace digital transformation. We celebrated the World Leisure Congress in a hybrid format for the first time in 2021 and also introduced different webinar series’ including Global Leisure Debates and Think Tanks. With the growing challenges and opportunities, knowledge will play an important role in development and it becomes necessary to understand leisure worldwide. Keeping in mind the role of observatories in transfer of information, we are working towards establishing a World Lesiure Observatory. Therefore, we aim to rethink some aspects of leisure to make it accessible to everyone, and innovate according to the requirement of the situation.