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Inside this Issue: Youth Cafeteria Campaign, Latest Update The Way Forward: Open, Unscripted and Interactive NGO Input at the Ministerial Dialogue with Representatives of the Major Groups Is your suitcase heavier upon return? IISD's Climate Knowledge Management Project Cracking the Peanuts or the Coconuts? |
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Friday, May 16, 2008Don’t Worry. Do Something.The first ever Cuban civil society representative to attend the CSD, Liliana Nuñes Valis found a conference with barely any input from her region.By: Ida Bergstrøm, Stakeholder Forum When Liliana Nuñez Velis decided to take her Cuban NGO ‘Fundacion Antonio Nuñes Jiménez de la Naturaleza y el Hombre’ to the CSD, she wasn’t aware that she would find herself one of extremely few civil society participants from Latin America. ‘Besides me there are some from Mexico, and somebody from Costa Rica. But in comparison with other regions, there’s nobody. I don’t know why they are not here. I thought each region would be represented, in each major group. In the future, it should be a goal, or a target, to ensure that all regions are fairly represented.’ As it is her first time at the CSD, Liliana sees CSD16 as a learning experience. Newly accredited with consultative status to ECOSOC, she is in the process of identifying what conferences are worth attending. But while Liliana is eager to learn from the CSD, as Andrew Simms told us in last Tuesday’s issue, Cuba most certainly has a few lessons we would do good to take notice of. ‘Yes, we are very unique’, says Liliana. ‘According to the WWF report last year, Cuba was the only country in the world that managed to have both social development with a high GDP index, and a low ecological footprint’. But awareness needs to be raised in Cuba, as increasingly environmentally friendly options are being associated with the poor. ‘After the breakdown of the Soviet Union, everybody was using bicycles. Now, with economic growth, people drive cars. Bicycles are for times of crisis. The sentiment is developing in regards organic food. Cuba needs to not link sustainability practices to poverty. NGOs have an important role to play in this.’ Liliana’s organization represents the first ever Cuban NGO to attend the CSD. Despite what many people think, she insists civil society is well and alive in Cuba. Her own organization was founded by her father, who once used to fight alongside Che Guevara. A prominent figure within science and society in Cuba, Dr. Antonio Nuñes Jiménes advocated holistic approaches to socio-cultural and environmental practices. ‘My father used to say that sometimes we have so much confusion in our heads that when the problems are in front of us, we are too exhausted to even think about them.’ ‘He always used to say, Don’t worry. Do something.’ |