outreach informal 2 day 5

Were the delegates who founded the UN braver and more forward looking than those negotiating IFSD at present? Almost seventy years ago, back in1945, the founding nations of the UN devised and constructed a system of governance that has proved to be more successful than many of its critics would give it credit for, writes Jan-Gustav Strandenaes, Stakeholder Forum… More

In preparation for the Rio+20 Conference, ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) is publishing a Local Sustainability 2012 study, consisting of a global review of the position of local governments as sustainable development actors and a collection of 14 case studies, writes Ania Rok, ICLEI. Both publications include a set of recommendations for the future of local action and will be available shortly at www.iclei.org/local2012… More

The need for water is obvious. What is less clear is how to ensure reliable access to adequate supplies of good quality water for people, environments, and economies, writes Meg Patterson, WWF The challenges facing freshwater systems are considerable and include: climate change, increasing urbanisation, global population growth, pollution, overexploitation, and desertification… More

Building a Global Network of National Councils for Sustainable Development

National Councils for Sustainable Development (NCSDs) and National Strategies for Sustainable Development (NSSD) were products of Agenda 21 in 1992 writes Farooq Ullah, Stakeholder Forum. Both were given new life and support at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002 as integral elements of work on sustainable development, where all countries committed to have both councils and strategies in place by 2005… More

Date: April 28, 2012
Time: 10-16:00
Location: The Church Centre, 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017 More

United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and UN-Habitat, with the support of Cities Alliance and United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities (UNACLA), gathered local and regional government leaders and networks in a meeting in New York on 23 April, where they presented key messages for Rio+20 to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UN officials and the group of 23 states, Friends of Sustainable Cities, writes Natalene Poisson, UCLG… More

In the 40 years since the Club of Rome’s ground-breaking book, Limits to Growth, was published, it has become more widely accepted that infinite growth is not possible on a planet with finite resources, writes Marian Schreier Furthermore, since the 1972 Stockholm conference on the human environment, the science around this issue has continued to evolve and solutions to tackle the related challenges have emerged… More

The international community is looking for a successor to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which will expire in 2015, write Olimar Maisonet-Guzman and Ben Vanpeperstraete. The current framework helped the international community to rally behind a common understanding of poverty eradication, and provided targets and indicators to guide policy decisions. However, the MDGs emphasised economic poverty over the other dimensions of deprivation and gave limited attention to the structural causes of poverty… More

‘We underscore that a fundamental prerequisite for the achievement of sustainable development is broad public participation in decision-making. Sustainable development requires major groups… to play a meaningful role at all levels’ quotes Vicki-Ann Assevero, Committee on International Environmental Law… More

The Japanese National Preparatory Committee for Rio+20 was established on July 13, 2011, in order to promote dialogue about Rio+20 between stakeholders in Japan, write Hiroshi Komiyama and Yuko Sakita, Co-Chairs of the Japanese National preparatory committee for Rio+20. It was established as a voluntary gathering of a stakeholders with an interest in Rio+20, including the 9 major groups… More

The introductory paragraphs for section IV on the Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development express the hope that sustainable development decisions will be based on: good information; all stakeholders and partnerships will be involved; progress on implementation of previous agreements (such as Agenda 21) will be monitored; and that the efficiency of the UN – and other international institutions – will be increased, write Michele Morek, UNANIMA International and Bridget Brady, Mount Holyoke College… More

Quote of the day

With all our knowledge and creativity should we not be able to act in a bold and courageous manner and create the IFSD for the future? Or will the legacy of those at Rio+20 be – ‘they had the chance to change, but not the courage to do so’.

Jan-Gustav Strandenaes, Stakeholder Forum

Outreach is a multi-stakeholder magazine which is published daily at Rio+20 Intersessional and Preparatory Meetings. The articles written are intended to reflect those of the authors alone or where indicated a coalition’s opinion. An individual’s article is the opinion of that author alone, and does not reflect the opinions of all stakeholders.

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