Join Women on the Road to Rio+20

UN Conference on Sustainable Development 2012 - Rio + 20

14.12.2010 | WECF Campaigns

Countries:	international
Partners:	VAM - Voices of African mothers; WEDO, ENERGIA; WOCAN, Global Forest Coalition, Earth Care Africa, Earth Day Network and many other regional and global networks
Duration:	06/2010 - 06/2015

The UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or 'Rio+20') will take place June 2012, in Rio de Janeiro, 20 years after the historic Earth Summit. Women's participation in the process and input on the themes and objective are crucial to a successful outcome. WECF is co-organising partner, together with Voices of African Mothers, for all input from women worldwide. WECF and VAM coordinate all activities closely with the Women's Rio+20 Steering Committee.

More Information

The Women’s Major Group/Rio+20 Steering Committee is facilitating ways to make the links among the many women, men, organizations and movements from all corners of the world taking action for a gender-responsive Rio+20.

Sign the Women's Rio+20 position statement
The Women's major group has submitted its policy recommendations for Rio+20 to the United Nations on the 1st of November. Over 70 organisations and numerous individual contributors have signed on to the Women's major group submission. Go to this website and sign onto the Women's position statement, the more support the better! http://www.womenrio20.org/

Be Part of the Official Process
Join the Listserv for Women’s Major Group Rio+20 Steering Committee. The listserv is for anyone interested in planning for the official process for Rio+20. The group schedules monthly teleconferences; circulates information about meetings, conferences, position papers; and discusses ideas and activities. To join, send an email to chantal.vandenbossche@wecf.eu

Join our monthly conference calls
Join the Women's Rio+20 steering committee monthly conference calls. Contact: karin.volha@wecf.eu

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Follow updates on Twitter and Facebook! And remember, spread the word! Tweet “I’m joining Women on the Road to Rio+20 @Women_Rio20 #RioPlus20 #UNCSD”

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More Information

The 1992 Earth Summit brought the need for sustainable development to the global agenda, led to a number of key Conventions designed to reduce environmental degradation and limit the impacts of climate change, and to move the world towards fair and green development and eradication of poverty. The Earth Summit also led to Agenda21, in which women were - for the first time - defined as one of the nine major groups with a critical role to play in the formulation and implementation of policies for sustainable development.

Many of the women-led environmental and development organisations which were created in preparation for the 1992 Earth Summit, or to respond to its requirements, are now joining forces to work together to create a global women’s movement for equitable and green development, with women as leaders and catalysts for change.

What is at Stake at Rio+20 in 2012?

Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of present generations without compromising those of future generations. The 1992 Earth Summit led to worldwide recognition that the current development model is not sustainable - that we need to decouple economic and social development from resource depletion and environmental pollution, and also restructure inequitable systems that perpetuate poverty. The Earth Summit led to historic Conventions, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). But global environmental and development governance has been fragmented and thus too weak to ensure real change, especially in terms of implementation of agreements. Global trade agreements and financial institutions have had more influence on development than Agenda 21, and lack of adequate national legislation and frameworks for sustainable development have also contributed to the lack of progress so far in achieving the aims of the Earth Summit.

Rio+20 will need to reform our global environmental and development governance, to ensure that sustainable development becomes the leading paradigm for international, national and local policy makers. It will need to produce international agreements to implement sustainable development, based on green, just and equitable economic indicators and tools. Rio+20 will also need to upgrade public participation, allowing and supporting civil society organisations to participate meaningfully in the discussions and negotiations, with women’s full engagement and leadership.

What women are planning for Rio+20 so far:

International preparations:

We are inviting women organisations from all sectors and regions to join in the preparations for the Rio+20. We are setting up a coordinating group to steer our activities towards Rio+20 and have set up a list-serve to share our plans and documents.

We will organise a women’s best practice fair during the prepcom for Rio+20 in 2011, and share our experience through best-practices publications.

We will coordinate with media organisations and organise media events and press contributions, including through new media.

National and regional preparations

We encourage women to become active in the national and regional preparation processes for Rio+20. Together with other major groups, governments, local authorities, parliamentarians, sustainable development councils and media organisations, we want to come up with creative and innovative recommendations and let our policy makers know that we expect transformative results to come from Rio+20.

How can you get involved?

We call on women from local government, parliamentarians, women entrepreneurs, academics, unionists, artists, scientists, and all types of women’s organisations to think and plan with us and develop common recommendations. Send us your ideas, join our regular coordination conference calls, add your name and logo, spread our call and link to our websites!

Contact one of the organising partners or steering committee members:

WECF, Sascha Gabizon (contact person for relations with the UN) secretariat@wecf.eu

VAM, Nana Fosu Randall , nanamo2000@hotmail.com

ENERGIA, Gail Karlsson, gkarlsson@igc.org

WEDO, Eleanor Blomstroem,eleanor@wedo.org