The United Nations will this year begin the process to select and appoint its next Secretary-General, a statement issued in Accra from the United Nations Information Centre has announced.

The process of soliciting candidates for the position has already started and the General Assembly has received seven candidates as at February 29, the statement said.

It noted that by resolution 69/321 of September 2015, the UN General Assembly decided to conduct informal dialogues or meetings with candidates for the position of Secretary-General.

The meetings were expected to provide candidates with an opportunity to present their candidatures and Members States with an opportunity to ask questions and interact with them.

A letter from the Office of the President of the General-Assembly (OPGA) issued on February 25, said the process “will be open and transparent as possible, with the considerable interest from the global public and civil society…”

To this end, the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) is facilitating a call for questions from civil society after which it would then convene a civil society Committee to review all questions submitted and create a short-list of 30 questions for the OPGA to select from for inclusion in the General Assembly dialogues.

Selected questions could be presented in person, via video or audio recording, or read aloud by the President of the General Assembly during the dialogues.

The statement said questions may be submitted by March 20, via Twitter (https://twitter.com/unngls/status/703758693842722816), Instagram, Weibo (www.weibo.com/unngls), an online form (https://unngls.org/UNSGcandidates), and email (askSGcandidates@un-ngls.org).

“For further information, visit http://unngls.org/index.php/80-home/2746-unsg-candidates,” the statement added.