14th Meeting of the Mediterranean Commission on

Sustainable 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, to
contribute to a working document which will be the basis for the outcome
document of the upcoming UN Conference for Sustainable Development to be
held 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 2nd Preparatory Committee meeting in New
York, (March 7 and 8, 2011).

The Bureau runs the process leading up to the conference, and has been
selected according to the UN General Assembly resolution calling for the 2012
conference. The Bureau is made up of the following countries: The African
Group: 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 11
members, three are MAP and MCSD parties.

The focus of the conference is clustered in two groups, the objectives and the
focus 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 the
implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable
development
• 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 development
issues 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 poverty
eradication
• the institutional framework for sustainable development

The Major Groups are referred to in 7 of the 29 paragraphs in the General

Assembly 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 this
resolution 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 the
Major Groups shall participate in all meetings and at all levels of the
preparatory process at all geographical levels, nationally, regionally and
globally including in the conference itself.

The Bureau agreed that contributions from the stakeholders to the conference
working document must be sent to the UN DESA secretariat no later than by
the first of November this year, 2011. The proposed working document has not
been 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 on
the matter the 2nd Committee, acting on behalf of the General Assembly, will
have the final say. The 2nd Committee is expected to deal with these issues
during its November meetings.

Civil society can help frame the structure, and thus make sure its voice and its
concerns are heard and noted. Most importantly, the structure of the document
will help frame the action programmes that need to be outlined and agreed to
as the follow up to Rio + 20. Not many seems concerned with this issue at
the moment.

The success of Agenda 21 in 1992 was that it became a people’s agenda. With
all Major Groups now formally invited into the discussion, it will again be
possible to interact with the UN and the national governments in a positive and
constructive way to build content in the agenda and the follow-up programme.

In terms of the objective 3 of the conference, new and emerging

challenges, some topics have already been raised like:
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Develop the precautionary principle to a framework convention to include
issues on emerging technologies, bio-engineering and nano-technology
It would be wise to add resiliency to this list.

Regarding the focus (green economy and Institutional framework for

sustainable development) we should foster regional policy development
and implementation, obviously a core issue for MCSD. The UN sustainable
development global strategy lacks a regional approach. Apart from the
Mediterranean region, were MAP and MCSD represent an excellency. The
constitution of MAP surpassed the national and continental logic addressing the
region 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 the
preparatory process toward Rio + 20. The Italian Association of Local
Agenda 21, a network of 500+ Italian Local Authorities engaged in sustainable
development practices, will be happy to have an active role in this. Other than
being a member of the MCSD Steering Committee we have been following
closely the Rio + 20 process through our close partnership with ICLEI, the
Local Authorities Major Group designated Organising Partner, and through our
participation in the Stakeholder Forum, the UK based structure that
represents the main coordinating structure among the UN Major Groups.

We strongly advise this Commission to draft a contribution to be submitted to

UN DESA within the Nov. 1 deadline. Our contribution should call for an
implementation roadmap that shall include regional strategies and visions,
developing systems strengthening participation, transparency, accountability in
the framework of a clear decision making process with a defined timetable and
periodic assessment.
We should also call for strengthening governance structures at all levels,
local, national, regional, global and ensure and strengthen the role of major
groups in the whole process.