Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority, the nation’s oldest Greek-letter organization for African-American women, has been granted special consultative status by the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a designation that will help the sorority further its international aid work under the U.N. banner.
“Obviously we’re quite delighted,” said AKA spokeswoman Melody McDowell. “It’s something that we’ve worked hard for and certainly are deserving of because of our international reach.”
This designation, reserved for nongovernmental organizations (NGO), was created to “strengthen and enhance dialogue between NGOs and the United Nations to enable NGOs to participate in the economic and social development activities of the organization,” according to the U.N. ECOSOC Web site. The sorority and its members can now access ECOSOC's provisional agenda, make oral presentations at ECOSOC meetings, submit written statements for circulation by the U.N. Secretary-General and attend international conferences relevant to its expertise.
Alice M. Dear, the former Ambassador/U.S. Executive Director to the African Development Bank during the Clinton Administration, was recently appointed by AKA President Barbara A. McKinzie to be the AKA’s NGO representative to the U.N.
