Dhaka, Sept. 17 -- Asia's rising nations, including Bangladesh, need to be in focus in democratising the United Nations, a forum of academics, development practitioners and diplomats recommended at an international webinar on Thursday.

They insisted that civil society organisations (CSOs) and the corporate sector should be incorporated into the process of the ongoing transformation of the UN to make sure that communities, rather than mere nation-states, are served.

They reacted to questions from the audience on how people's voice would matter in the functioning of the UN, at the two-day webinar on "The UN in Time of People's Needs: Rethinking Multilateralism", organised by North South University's Center for Peace Studies and the United...