Major Group: NGOs
Thank you Mr. Chair,
Why is the 10YFP important? This will depend on what it does and who it serves.
As the WSSD pointed out ten years ago in its assessment of progress since Rio, the social and environmental
trends are getting worse, despite improvements in eco-efficiency, public awareness and government policy
action. Much of this is because of increasing consumption and production patterns. Thus changing those
patterns was agreed to be one of the overarching objectives of sustainable development.
What commitments will stakeholder make for the10YFP? This will depend on what efforts are made to include
stakeholders as equal partners.
During these past ten years the trends continue to worsen, despite the activities of the Marrakech Process. Yetin these past ten years, there has also been a flowering of thousands of stakeholder initiatives working to
change production and consumption patterns all around the world, by civil society groups, business, women,
indigenous peoples, youth, educators, consumer groups, workers and trade unions, local and national
governments -- as well as national and regional multi-stakeholder networks.
Many of these stakeholder groups who knew about the 10YFP have been patiently waiting for delivery of
those programs which were to ?support national and regional initiatives accelerating the transition to SCP.?
We are still waiting and are frankly disappointed to see how little attention is being paid to this original
mandate, how the purpose of the programs appears to have been lost amid all the hours of discussions about
institutional structure and selection of programs.
Many hours have been devoted to specifying criteria for selecting the programs to be part of the 10YFP. This
includes various principles and concepts of SCP (e.g., LCA). The criteria neglect the purpose of the programs ?
to support national and regional initiatives. One would think that the first priority of the criteria would be to
define the nature and target of that support ? but they do not. Or for a fair distribution of initiatives to be
served by the programs, across regions and groups and needs. But they do not.
The criteria should call for the programs to clearly focus on ways to help raise public awareness and support of
these initiatives, to broker financial and technical support, to help strengthen the effectiveness and inspire
those thousands of stakeholders working through their initiatives to change production and consumption
patterns around the world. But the criteria do not mention these functions. They do not define or even
mention the nature of that support which the JPOI called for ? which was the whole point of the 10YFP.
This may sound a bit critical, but I would like to see the message from this meeting inspire others to look to
the 10YFP as a partner in this global movement, not just another UN program in which the partners talk only
to themselves and do not reach out in partnership with the rest of us.
We appreciate having these three minutes to share these concerns and still hope and urge you to consider,
from our perspective, how you will assess the success of the 10YFP. Who will these programs serve? Will they
provide support to the thousands of initiatives of stakeholders around the world, or just a few UN and
government ?programs??
Simply telling the story of the thousands of initiatives by stakeholders around the world, would be a great
source of support, especially if some of these were showcased in an online database. Agreeing to a concrete
annual target of providing even minimal support to at least 1000 initiatives each year could be a powerful
indicator of progress of the 10YFP doing what it said it would do ? and who it would serve.
Thank you.
Why is the 10YFP important? This will depend on what it does and who it serves.
As the WSSD pointed out ten years ago in its assessment of progress since Rio, the social and environmental
trends are getting worse, despite improvements in eco-efficiency, public awareness and government policy
action. Much of this is because of increasing consumption and production patterns. Thus changing those
patterns was agreed to be one of the overarching objectives of sustainable development.
What commitments will stakeholder make for the10YFP? This will depend on what efforts are made to include
stakeholders as equal partners.
During these past ten years the trends continue to worsen, despite the activities of the Marrakech Process. Yetin these past ten years, there has also been a flowering of thousands of stakeholder initiatives working to
change production and consumption patterns all around the world, by civil society groups, business, women,
indigenous peoples, youth, educators, consumer groups, workers and trade unions, local and national
governments -- as well as national and regional multi-stakeholder networks.
Many of these stakeholder groups who knew about the 10YFP have been patiently waiting for delivery of
those programs which were to ?support national and regional initiatives accelerating the transition to SCP.?
We are still waiting and are frankly disappointed to see how little attention is being paid to this original
mandate, how the purpose of the programs appears to have been lost amid all the hours of discussions about
institutional structure and selection of programs.
Many hours have been devoted to specifying criteria for selecting the programs to be part of the 10YFP. This
includes various principles and concepts of SCP (e.g., LCA). The criteria neglect the purpose of the programs ?
to support national and regional initiatives. One would think that the first priority of the criteria would be to
define the nature and target of that support ? but they do not. Or for a fair distribution of initiatives to be
served by the programs, across regions and groups and needs. But they do not.
The criteria should call for the programs to clearly focus on ways to help raise public awareness and support of
these initiatives, to broker financial and technical support, to help strengthen the effectiveness and inspire
those thousands of stakeholders working through their initiatives to change production and consumption
patterns around the world. But the criteria do not mention these functions. They do not define or even
mention the nature of that support which the JPOI called for ? which was the whole point of the 10YFP.
This may sound a bit critical, but I would like to see the message from this meeting inspire others to look to
the 10YFP as a partner in this global movement, not just another UN program in which the partners talk only
to themselves and do not reach out in partnership with the rest of us.
We appreciate having these three minutes to share these concerns and still hope and urge you to consider,
from our perspective, how you will assess the success of the 10YFP. Who will these programs serve? Will they
provide support to the thousands of initiatives of stakeholders around the world, or just a few UN and
government ?programs??
Simply telling the story of the thousands of initiatives by stakeholders around the world, would be a great
source of support, especially if some of these were showcased in an online database. Agreeing to a concrete
annual target of providing even minimal support to at least 1000 initiatives each year could be a powerful
indicator of progress of the 10YFP doing what it said it would do ? and who it would serve.
Thank you.