Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Most Open and Participatory UN Process

Vice-Chairman of the CSD-16 Bureau Mr Sasa Odjanic (Serbia), has faith in the unique CSD dialogue format, and believes the outcome of the processes stands a good chance of making a difference and reaching a wider audience:

As a CSD-16 Bureau member and Vice-Chair assigned to liaise with the nine Major Groups, I would like to share a few impressions from our first week of dialogue sessions. I express my complete satisfaction with our continued work with the Major Groups, and with their support in my present rather complex assignment.

As all of us can observe, the working programme at the CSD-16 Review Session is well prepared for integrated participation by all Major Groups. Let me remind you, although you are all aware, that during the first week of CSD-16, all Major Groups were invited to participate in almost all meetings – from the opening session to the side-events as well as the specially designed multistakeholder dialogue session, including one during the Ministerial segment this week. This bears repeating as it is politically and practically of huge importance. CSD offers within the UN system and, I think, worldwide, one of the most open and participatory intergovernmental processes on sustainability issues.

The success of Major Groups in mobilizing and inspiring the participation of all sectors is already evident in the unusually high number of more than 1100 civil society participants from more than 100 organizations. Such interest also indicates that the CSD continues to provide a dynamic forum for addressing critical issues that affects us all, especially people from the African continent. As H. E. Ambassador Ms Mona Elisabeth Brøther, Head of the Norwegian delegation said in “Outreach Issues” last Friday, the fact that the CSD gets a lot of attention from society and stakeholders proves its relevance. It is unique as a dialogue forum.

Sustainable development, as a complex process with many interacting factors, requires the participation of all members of society: public policy makers, producers, consumers, scientists, indigenous people, engineers, educators, communicators, local activists and so on. While the main challenge perhaps is to harness inter-sectoral and integrated approaches and engage Ministries and private actors in concrete interaction, there is also need to mobilize resources so as to provide funding and support. As the Major Groups are networks of cooperating organizations, expert information about issues and opportunities for interaction with government delegates or heads of delegations is most welcome. We all look forward to the next Major Groups session during the ministerial segment as well as the ministerial Round Tables. It is important that all government delegations come here in large numbers, as well as with a presence of ministers for the high-level interaction. A fruitful discussion depends on their involvement. Some of the positive examples of cooperation and funding by governments to the Major Groups were announced during last Friday afternoon’s multistakeholder dialogue in conference room 6.

That particular multistakeholder session was especially designed for participation of representatives of Major Groups, including 5 representatives of CSD registered partnerships, who sat in the first line behind the microphones trying to exchange their views in an interactive way with government representatives of Member States. This represents a new effort by the CSD to offer a unique practical and dynamic dialogue. Statements from representatives of Major Groups warranted attention, and narrowing the subjects down to the most important aspects of their work to fit the content into two minutes was a great success. After this, Major Groups shared their insights, understandings and significant experiences with the audience and Member States. I like to think that after 90 minutes of dialogue some progress was achieved. What is more, all the meetings, as was done last year, have been webcasted. It cost the Trust Fund a lot of money, but it is absolutely worth it.

I truly believe that conclusions of the first draft of the Report of the CSD-16 will be able to respond forcefully to the current global issues, and to the satisfaction of us all. Then its relevance will be proven to a broader audience, even beyond the UN system.