CIVICUS together with ANPED and Consumers International have been asked by the United Nations to continue to serve as Rio+20 NGO Partners through the end of May 2013 when the 20th and final session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) is scheduled to take place.
The NGO Organizing Partners will communicate to the NGO Major Group through the following communications channels:
- Regular updates on Post-Rio+20 developments through the ANPED-list of CSD/Rio+20
- Facebook group on Rio+20
- NGO MG Members for 2012 UNGA google group
UN DESA had a mandate to facilitate the Major Group engagement with CSD, but with the Rio+20 outcomes under the UN General Assembly (UN GA), DESA does not have that mandate and is not currently in a position to comprehensively facilitate and finance Major Groups involvement. Consequently, In the fast-moving context of post-Rio, the Major Groups Organizing Partners have engaged in a series of consultations organized by UN DESA to organize themselves to share information inclusively and transparently with their respective constituencies, to facilitate the development of advocacy positions, to track political developments within the UN processes established by Rio+20, and to mobilize & coordinate lobbying strategies to the extent possible at UN HQ and national levels.
The outcomes of Rio+20 established a number of processes and negotiating bodies to implement the Rio+20 outcomes beginning with the establishment of the Open Working Group (OWG) on sustainable development goals. Member States have decided to wait until the members of the OWG are appointed before forming the other expert working groups mandated by Rio+20. Because there is no clear structure for civil society engagement in these various bodies, the Organizing Partners of the Major Groups have recommended the establishment of a multi-stakeholder advisory group to be managed by the Rio+20 Major Groups to help facilitate civil society/stakeholder inputs into the OWG.
The primary entry points for political engagement in post-Rio+20 include:
- Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - we do not expect the 30-member intergovernmental Open Working Group to be announced until the end of October.
- High Level Political Forum (hlpf)
- Finance
- Technology
- 10 Year Framework Program on Sustainable Production and Consumption (UNEP)
- Future Generations
- Oceans
- Beyond GDP
- Thematic Areas
For those NGOs who will be actively engaged in lobbying Member States at the UNGA both at UN HQ and at national capitals, we invite you to join the google group "NGO MG Members for UNGA 2012". It is through this google group that we will share breaking developments at the UNGA, and discuss Major Groups & NGO advocacy strategies and positions, including the work of the NGO clusters. Go to groups.google.com and search for "NGO MG Members for UNGA 2012", click "apply to join group".
Jeffery Huffines (CIVICUS)
Leida Rijnhout (ANPED)
Luis Flores (Consumers International)