Introduction to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development Process

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CSD – the UN Commission on Sustainable Development – The CSD process made simpleorUnique opportunities for governance and sustainabledevelopment

The UN CSD - the UN Commission for Sustainable Development - offers the world one of the mostopen and participatory intergovernmental systems working on sustainability issues. Like anyintergovernmental system, its success relies to a large extent on content and cooperation. Butintegrated in any successful negotiation is process. It is process that helps guide and focus content.Understanding and respecting process are therefore basic and paramount elements in anyintergovernmental system: it avails accountability, participation, transparency and focus on the issuesat stake.This document tries in a simple and general way to explain the basic modalities and processes thatneeds to be understood in order to be able to participate fully in the CSD process and utilize its manyopportunities to work to develop and promote sustainable development and contribute to andstrengthen the evolving international environmental governance.

An SDIN document1

Table of contents

1.0 - CSD – an organisational structure:1.2 - Coordinating with the other Major Groups,1.3 - A small recap concerning the struggle for civil society’s space at UN CSD,2.0 - The modalities available to civil society at CSD,2.1 - Creating space for civil society, points of entry and engagement,2.2 - Safeguarding space for civil society in the official process, a principle formallyupheld,2.3 - Civil society statistics, from the IPM and CSD proper,2.4 - Major Group policy meetings,2.5 - Modalities to ensure participation,2.6 - Involving NGOs in various processes,3.0 - The reality of the new CSD,3.1 - CSD 17 should be labelled a success3.2 - Process understanding – key to the success3.3 - Delegates show disregard for process3.4 - Attempts to derail CSD?3.5 - Leading or following?3.6 - CSD – most interactive3.7 - Process and a UN Council on Sustainable DevelopmentANNEX I

: The CSD themes 2004 - 20017:

ANNEX II

: (excerpts from guidelines, CSD secretariat, see the UN DESA/ CSD website for exact information.)

Postscripts

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1.0 - CSD – an organisational structure:

The UN CSD - the UN Commission for Sustainable Development

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- offers the world one of the most open and participatory intergovernmental processes on sustainability issues. With arenewed mandate from the JPOI

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, CSD started work with its new organisational mandatefocussing on the sets of cluster themes known as the thematic clusters. The themes are foundwithin two-year cycles complete with its organisational choreography as decided by CSD 11(for all themes see Annex I). Broadly outlined the organizational choreography is as follows:First year:

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Developing the Secretary General’s report – governments and civil society are allinvited to contribute to the content; governments are invited to send, on a voluntary basis, a country report on the cluster issues.

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The 9 Major Groups

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compose an 8000-review document on the CSD agenda issues,which is subsequently translated into all official UN languages; it is imperative thatthis document does not deal with policy issues (see annex II); the documents are sentthe CSD delegations as part of the official background documents.

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Each of the five UN economic commission regions organise regional meetings, a so-called RIM, Regional Implementation Meeting, to discuss the cluster themes from aregional perspective. These meetings are supposed to come up with a non negotiatedstatement; civil society through their Major Groups are all invited to participate; it isrecommended that the modalities used to involve the major groups follow the practiceset at CSD proper in New York.

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Towards the end of the first year of the two-year CSD cycle, governments and civilsociety participate in the two-week review session held in April/May at UNheadquarters in New York to finalise the identification of success stories and obstaclesto progress; these meetings also have a set choreography (details dealt with in another ANPED document).Second year:

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Based on the outcome of the Review Session, policy documents are developed by theSecretary General and by each of the 9 Major Groups. The Major Group policystatements, based on the outcome of the Review Process, and not exceeding 1000words, are translated into all UN languages and distributed to all governments as partof the background documents.

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The second year of the CSD cycle deals with policy outcomes, through two sessions:The first, the IPM, the Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting, held end of February, beginning of March, is a week long session which prepares the negotiating text for what has been called ‘CSD Proper’ in May that same year. CSD ‘proper’ negotiatesthe final CSD outcome.

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The primary function of the IPM is to prepare the negotiating text for the CSD in May:the IPM should agree on the number of issue points raised (always to be held withinthe mandate of the CSD and the issue clusters including the overarching themes, a point not often understood or appreciated, be that by civil society or governments,)

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CSD, the Commission on Sustainable Development, a standing committee under the Economic and SocialCouncil, charged with following up work on Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, bothdealing with global sustainable development.

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JPOI, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, decided on at the UN Summit on Sustainability, the WSSD inJohannesburg 2002 as the principal outcome document from that summit.

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women, youth, trade unions, farmers, Indigenous Peoples, NGOs, local authorities, science and technology, business and industry

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