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14
th
Meeting of the Mediterranean Commission onSustainable Development
Budva, Montenegro 30 May – 1 June 2011
RIO 2012 – The stakeholders vision
Emilio D'Alessio, Italian Local Agenda 21 Association
In a unique decision, the UN has invited all stakeholders, governments,intergovernmental agencies and civil society including the major groups, tocontribute to a working document which will be the basis for the outcomedocument of the upcoming UN Conference for Sustainable Development to beheld in Rio in June 2012 called
Rio + 20.
The Bureau for Rio + 20 developed the concept and proposed the decision,which was formally adopted by the 2
nd
Preparatory Committee meeting in New York, (March 7 and 8, 2011). The Bureau runs the process leading up to the conference, and has beenselected according to the UN General Assembly resolution calling for the 2012conference. The Bureau is made up of the following countries: The AfricanGroup:
Egypt
and Botswana; The Asian Group: Pakistan and South Korea;GRULAC (Latin American and Caribbean Group): Argentina and Barbuda; CEIT(Countries with Economies in Transition):
Croatia
and the Czech Republic;WEOG (Western European and Others Group): the US (first half of the period)Canada (second half of the period) and
Italy
; ex officio: Brazil. Among the 11members, three are MAP and MCSD parties. The focus of the conference is clustered in two groups,
the objectives
and
thefocus
of the conference.According to the UN resolution: The
objective
of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development will be to:
•
secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development
•
assess the progress to date and the remaining gaps in theimplementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainabledevelopment
•
address new and emerging challenges The third component of the objectives, the so-called
new and emerging issues,
may provide opportunities for input reflecting the sustainable developmentissues the world has to face today and in the future. The
focus
of the Conference, 2012 will include:
•
a green economy in the context of sustainable development and povertyeradication
•
the institutional framework for sustainable development The
Major Groups
are referred to in 7 of the 29 paragraphs in the GeneralAssembly resolution for Rio + 20, and civil society one time in the resolution,making it a total of 8 references to civil society and the Major Groups in thisresolution by the UN General Assembly. The Major Groups have been defined by Agenda 21 in 1992 and represent civil
society in this process. The MGs are: Women, Children and Youth, Farmers,Indigenous Peoples, NGOs, Trade Unions, Local Authorities, Science and Technology, Business and Industry. The intent behind these references should be clear: that civil society and theMajor Groups shall participate in all meetings and at all levels of thepreparatory process at all geographical levels, nationally, regionally andglobally including in the conference itself. The Bureau agreed that contributions from the stakeholders to the conferenceworking document must be sent to the UN DESA secretariat no later than bythe first of November this year, 2011. The proposed working document has notbeen given any official name, although reference is made to the
Zero Draft
of the document. The structure of the outcome document it's yet to be defined. It seems that onthe matter the 2
nd
Committee, acting on behalf of the General Assembly, willhave the final say. The 2
nd
Committee is expected to deal with these issuesduring its November meetings.Civil society can help frame the structure, and thus make sure its voice and itsconcerns are heard and noted. Most importantly, the structure of the documentwill help frame the action programmes that need to be outlined and agreed toas the
follow up to Rio + 20
. Not many seems concerned with this issue atthe moment. The success of Agenda 21 in 1992 was that it became a people’s agenda. Withall Major Groups now formally invited into the discussion, it will again bepossible to interact with the UN and the national governments in a positive andconstructive way to build content in the agenda and the follow-up programme.In terms of the objective 3 of the conference,
new and emergingchallenges
, some topics have already been raised like:
•
Corporate Social Responsibility
•
Develop the precautionary principle to a framework convention to includeissues on emerging technologies, bio-engineering and nano-technologyIt would be wise to add
resiliency
to this list.Regarding the focus (green economy and Institutional framework forsustainable development) we should foster
regional policy developmentand implementation,
obviously a core issue for MCSD. The UN sustainabledevelopment global strategy lacks a regional approach. Apart from theMediterranean region, were MAP and MCSD represent an excellency. Theconstitution of MAP surpassed the national and continental logic addressing theregion as a whole, in spite of the fact that three continents are facing our basin.MCSD itself captured some of the original spirit of Rio 1992 and Agenda 21,involving stakeholders in its structure and its governing body.For its very own peculiar mission and structure, MCSD must play a role in thepreparatory process toward Rio + 20.
The Italian Association of LocalAgenda 21
, a network of 500+ Italian Local Authorities engaged in sustainabledevelopment practices, will be happy to have an active role in this. Other than
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