I- Timeline
a. Primaries
Forward is accepting candidacies for the primaries until April 25th, 2021. Depending on the amount of candidacies received, the movement will either select one candidate or a list of candidates. In this second scenario, the most voted person will be Forward frontrunner candidate, while the others will be prospective names for other UN posts (such as Deputy Secretary-General, Head of UN Women, and so on).
The key dates of the primaries are as follows:
- April 25th: closure of candidacy process
- Last week of April: organization of presentation events and debates among candidates
- April 30th: closure of voter registration
- May 1st: the vote will take place starting on April 30th and will run for three days.
b. Campaign
In early May, as soon as the primaries are concluded, Forward will start its campaign effort behind the candidate(s). This will include, but will not be limited to:
- Social Media promotion
- PR support and media outreach
- Events and debates organization
- Grassroots mobilization of volunteers
- Lobbying countries for support
The aim of this phase is the one of pushing the United Nations, through public pressure, to consider the Forward candidate in their official proceedings.
c. Post-campaign
Regardless of the success of the campaign phase, Forward will continue its grassroots work to prepare the ground for future global political campaigns. In particular, thanks to the lesson learnt this time around, Forward intends to challenge again the UN Secretary-General process in 2026 with a significantly wider preparation and mobilization.
II- The Candidate Role
As a Forward primaries candidate, you will be asked to share the message and your participation online. This would push your followers to register. In addition, you might be contacted by the press to talk about your candidacy. We welcome this as it will help us get the word out there. We kindly request that you work with our media relations team to prepare the core messages.If selected to be Forward’s candidate, you will be expected to work with Forward’s campaign and:
- Push member states to support your candidacy,
- Make yourself available for interviews,
- Spread the word on social media and in-person (conferences etc)
- Advance Forward’s agenda as defined with the policy team.