Ambassador Jean-Francis R. Zinsou (Benin) at the 5th OWG session

Invitation​: Sustainabl​e Energy for All Forum, 4-6 June at UN HQ

Guardian Profession​al – IPCC’s Outdated Climate Change Communicat​ion Won’t Cut It

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

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G77 countries plus China support stand-alon​e goal on equality for the new SDGs  !

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Brief Survey – Preparatio​ns For COP 20 Climate Change Event – Deadline Monday May 19, 2014

Dear Community of Educators,

—————————————————————————————————

UNEP Side Event:  Briefing on Sustainabl​e Consumptio​n and Production​, 7 May, Room 9, 13:15

Potential Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Targets & Indicators for the SDGs and 10YFP support to implementation

SIDE EVENT

7 May 2014
13:15-14:30
UN Headquarters, Conference Room 9

Overview:

The United Nations and its Member States are currently crafting a post-2015 development agenda to build on the Millennium Development Goals. Outcomes of previous UN Summits, including Rio+20 in 2012, have shown that the objective of shifting to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns is central to achieving sustainable development. Negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda, and on the associated sustainable development goals (SDGs), indicate that there is a strong interest among Member States in embedding the objective of SCP in both. 

UNEP will:

— Present the findings of an advance copy of a newly released UNEP discussion paper, which provides insights into potential targets and
indicators for SCP, based on scientific literature, as well as on existing international agreements and processes on environment and
sustainable development.

— Present the 10YFP as a capacity building mechanism for the shift to SCP patterns, which could support the implementation of the SDGs.

Panellists:
Mr. Jamil Ahmad, Deputy Director, New York Office, UNEP (Moderator)
Mr. Arab Hoballah, Chief SCP branch, UNEP
Mr. Lazlo Pinter, co-author of the discussion paper, Senior Fellow and Associate, IISD

Additonal information can be found in the attached:

[Beyond 2015:301] Policy briefing: Sustainabl​e developmen​t requires a ¨fiscal revolution

• This briefing can be downloaded in pdf format at: http://www.cesr.org/downloads/fiscal.revolution.pdf
• To learn more about CESR’s work on human rights and the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, see: http://cesr.org/article.php?list=type&type=157

 DESA News: Renewing Focus on Sustainable Islands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezPQO-Bs-3o#t=16

———————————————————————————————

Dear Colleagues,

The e-discussion facilitation team, jointly led by UNDP and UNDESA, would like to thank you for sharing your perspectives throughout the recent e-discussion on “Addressing ongoing and emerging challenges for meeting the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and for sustaining development gains in the future” that took place (from the 3rd February to the 16th March 2014). We also want to extend a warm thank-you to our moderators from UNDESA, UNDP, UNRISD, and International Committee for October 17 for offering us “food for thought” to keep the discussion flowing. This year’s open e-discussion generated dynamic engagement through over 5000 views, with 335 participants from 130 countries, contributing around 115 comments in total. In addition, we wish to thank several UNDP Communities of Practice that took part in these consultations, including MDGNet, DGPNet, PRNet, UN Human Rights Policy network – HuriTALK, Gender Net, HIV, Health and Development; Capacity Development Network; and Crisis Prevention and Recovery network – CPRP-net.

In the coming weeks, we plan to post to the discussion at Teamworks space and also at ECOSOC AMR webpage a summary report of the main recommendations and proposals that emerged from the e-discussion.  In addition to serving as a resource for you in your work, we also hope to incorporate the recommendations made into the deliberations and outcome of the Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) of the UN Economic and Social Council in July in New York.
Although the officially moderated phases of the e-discussion have come to a close, we would like to encourage you to continue posting to the discussion space on relevant issues covered by the discussion on MDGs in the coming months. The facilitation team aims to remain engaged with the discussion space, posting documents, links and questions that emerge from the ongoing consultations on these issues in the lead-up to the AMR in July.
We thank you again for your participation and look forward to your continued engagement.
With best regards,
The 2014 AMR Facilitation Team  UNDESA – UNDP

Call for Selected Speaker for the 4th Low Carbon Earth Summit-201​4

The 4th Low Carbon Earth Summit-2014

Theme: Green Action for Sustainability

Time: Sep.21-23, 2014

Venue: Qingdao International Convention Center, Qingdao, China

Website: http://www.lcesummit.com/

Dear Ars Mustafa,  info@worldviewmission.nl

Under the support and guidance of CCPIT Qingdao Sub-Council and Information Research Center of International Talents, SAFEA, the 4th Low Carbon Earth Summit-2014 (LCES-2014), co-organized by BIT Congress, Inc., is scheduled to be held on September 21-23, 2014, Qingdao, China. It is our great honor to have you to be the Speaker and give a speech at Session 1002: Resilience in Urban and Regional Development, and Building Effective Resilience Allian of Forum 10: Adaptive Capacity and Resilience to Climate Changes.

LCES-2014 is expected to outstrip the past three conferences in size and scale, this year our conference will contain ten parallel Forums and various Sessions related to the issues of Climate Change Adaptation, Low Carbon Economy & Finance, and Low Carbon Technologies for Climate Mitigation, Low Carbon City, Carbon Trade, Low Carbon Transport, Low Carbon Building and etc. The details are listed as below:

Forum 1: Climate Change Adaption

Forum 2: Low Carbon Economy & Finance

Forum 3: Climate Change Mitigation Leadership

Forum 4: Low Carbon Technologies for Climate Mitigation

Forum 5: Best Practice of Low Carbon Industry

Forum 6: Low Carbon City

Forum 7: Low Carbon Transport

Forum 8: Low Carbon Building

Forum 9: Carbon Trade

Forum 10: Adaptive Capacity and Resilience to Climate Changes

More information: http://www.lcesummit.com/programlayout.asp.

In addition, for the time being, Mr. Donald Johnston, Former Secretary-General of OECD and Mr. Dewen Mei, President of China Beijing Environmental Exchange have confirmed their participations in the Plenary Session to give speeches. Also, we have been honored to invite Sir Christopher A. Pissarides and Sir Edward C. Prescott, the 2010 and 2004 Nobel laureate in economics, respectively in our concurrent conference, the Congress of Knowledge Economy-2014. Meanwhile, we have uploaded our initial program online please feel free to visit: http://www.lcesummit.com/program.asp.

Looking forward to your support and attendance!

Sincerely

Ms. April Wang

Organizing Committee of LCES-2014

BIT Congress Inc.

Add: East Wing, F11, Building 1,

Dalian Ascendas IT Park, 1 Hui Xian Yuan,

Dalian Hi-tech Industrial Zone,

LN 116025, China

Tel: 0086-411-84575669-858

Fax: 0086-411-84799629

Email: april@lcesummit.com

Japan for Sustainabi​lity

Years of Living Dangerously – http://yearsoflivingdangerously.com/

Please share with your colleagues and networks.

Haworth Announces Goal to Remove 56 Chemicals From Products, Releases Ninth Annual Sustainability Report

Sixth Session of the Open Working Group (OWG) of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

TO UN DESA NGO MAJOR GROUP — FYI

Hi Jeffery, could you share the below  e-mail with your network

Spanish below

Do you work on environmental or social issues related to forests? Is your organization trying to improve forest management at a local, national, or international scale? If yes, or if you are interested in expanding your field of work into forest-related issues, please join us to learn more about the power of Global Forest Watch by attending a webinar hosted by the World Resources Institute.  

The purpose of the webinar is to introduce Global Forest Watch (GFW) and demonstrate how organizations, communities, and individuals can use the tool to monitor forests in near-real-time and access a trove of valuable data for free. During this time, GFW staff will provide an overview of the tool, demonstrate its functionality, and then offer real-world examples of how to turn GFW and the information within into on-the-ground action. Each session will be 30 minutes, with 15 minutes for questions and answers (total time of 45 minutes). We encourage you to visit Global Forest Watch prior to the webinar in order to gain familiarity with the site and brainstorm more specific questions related to your work. See more information about GFW by visiting www.globalforestwatch.org or read below.

SIGN UP! (Click on a time below to register)

April 17

9:00-9:45am EST

5:00-6:00pm EST

April 21

9:00-9:45am EST

5:00-5:45pm EST (En Español)

April 28

9:00-9:45am EST

5:00-5:45pm EST

¿Está usted involucrado en temas socio-ambientales relacionados a los bosques? ¿Su organización busca mejorar la gestión forestal a niveles local, nacional o internacional? Si es así, o si usted está simplemente interesado en extender su trabajo en temas forestales, le invitamos a aprender más sobre el poder de Global Forest Watch (GFW) en  un webinar organizado por el Instituto de Recursos Mundiales (WRI por sus siglas en inglés).

El propósito de los webinars es el de presentar GFW y demostrar como las organizaciones de la sociedad civil, comunidades, individuos pueden usar la herramienta para monitorear los bosques en tiempo casi real y tener acceso a la información de forma gratuita. En el webinar, el personal de GFW proporcionará una perspectiva general de la herramienta, hará una demostración de su funcionalidad, y ofrecerá ejemplos reales de cómo transformar la información de GFW en acción en el campo. Cada webinar durará 30 minutos, como 15 minutos para preguntas (un total de 45 minutos). Por favor visite el sitio de Global Forest Watch, www.globalforestwatch.org, antes del webinar para familiarizarse con el sitio y preparar preguntas específicamente relacionadas con su trabajo. Para más información sobre GFW, vea el documento ajuntado.

¡REGISTRESE! (Seleccione una hora, abajo, para registrarse)

Abril 17

9:00-9:45am EST (En Inglés)

5:00-6:00pm EST (En Inglés)

Abril 21

9:00-9:45am EST (En Inglés)

5:00-5:45pm EST (En Español)

Abril 28

9:00-9:45am EST (En Inglés)

5:00-5:45pm EST (En Inglés)

Espero que pueda participar en uno de los webinars para aprender más sobre Global Forest Watch, ¡Transformemos la información en acción por el bien de los bosques del mundo!

—
Jeffery Huffines
NGO Major Group Organizing Partner
CIVICUS UN Representative (NY)
Cell: +1 646-707-1060
Email: jeffery.huffines@civicus.org
Skype: jefferyvhuffines

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
PO BOX 933, Southdale 2135, JHB, South Africa
www.civicus.org

Twelfth Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III (WGII-12) and Thirty-ninth Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-39)

7-12 April 2014 | Berlin, Germany

http://www.iisd.ca/climate/ipcc39/

The IPCC Working Group (WGIII) will meet from 7 to 12 April 2014 in Berlin, Germany, followed by a session of the entire Panel. Focusing on the mitigation of climate change, the meeting is expected to endorse the third part of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). As such, IPCC WGIII will aim to approve line-by-line the WGIII Summary for Policy-Makers and accept the underlying assessment of scientific literature. Subsequently, the Panel will convene in full to formally to endorse the WGIII report.

The AR5 has been under preparation for six years and will consist of a Synthesis Report and of the contributions by the three WGs. The Panel adopted its WGI contribution on the physical science basis of climate change in Stockholm, Sweden, in September 2013. The IPCC WGII is meeting from 25 to 29 March 2014 in Yokohama, Japan, where the Panel is expected to adopt the WGII contribution on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. A Synthesis Report of all three WG volumes is expected to be finalized by the IPCC in October 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

IISD RS will produce daily web updates and a summary and analysis from these sessions will be available on this site.

Summary coverage will be available at:   http://www.iisd.ca/climate/ipcc39/

Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter

————————————————————————————————

http://www.mrfcj.org/

All the best,

 TertuliasPostRIO 20_26marzo2014_FarajEl-Awar

TertuliasPostRIO 20_26marzo2014_FarajEl-Awar

Estimados Sres./Sras.:

El miércoles 26 de marzo tendrá lugar, en La Fabrica del Sol (Barcelona), una tertulia a cargo de Dr. Faraj El-Awar sobre “ Water Operators´ Partnerships as means of Water Cooperation”.
Nos complace invitarles a esta tertulia, al considerar que los temas tratados en esta tertulia pueden ser de su interés.
Confiando en poder saludarles personalmente, reciban un atento saludo,

IISD:  Sustainabl​e Developmen​t Policy & Practice

EECapacity Launches Community Climate Change Fellowship Program

We are excited to announce the launch of a new fellowship program focused on climate change, education, and community engagement

http://www.eecapacity.net/ccc-fellowship.html

Corporate Social Environmen​tal Responsibi​lity – Educating for Sustainabi​lity: What’s in your Smart Phone

Newly Arrived Articles from Japan for Sustainability
25 – 31 Mar. 2014

Social Vision in an Era of Population Decline from the Perspective of
Local Economy and Well-being
JFS Newsletter No.139 (March 2014)

In fiscal 2013, Japan for Sustainability (JFS) worked on a Local
Well-Being Project as one of its activities. This issue of the JFS
Newsletter introduces a translated summary of the keynote speech at the “Thinking about Happiness at the Local Level” symposium held on February
6, 2014 in Tokyo. Prof. Yoshinori Hiroi of the Social and Health Policy
Department, Faculty of Law and Economics, Chiba University.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034791.html

‘CDP Japan 500 Climate Change Report 2013’ Indicates Improved Corporate
Disclosure, Performance

CDP released its report on the climate change activities of 500 major
Japanese companies, the CDP Japan 500 Climate Change Report 2013, on
November 6, 2013. According to the report, the average disclosure score
(the adequacy of a company’s climate-related disclosure) is 73 points,
an increase of 6 points from the previous year, and the largest number
of companies achieved the performance grade of “B” for contribution to
climate change mitigation and adaptation, an improvement from “C” in
2012. The CDP is an international non-profit organization that aims to
disclose, manage, and share environmental information on companies and
cities.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034778.html

Joint Crediting Mechanism Established between Japan and Costa Rica

The Ministry of the Environment of Japan announced on December 9, 2013,
that the Memorandum of Cooperation on a Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM)
was signed by Nobuteru Ishihara, the Japanese Minister of the
Environment, and H.E. Dr. Ren e Castro Salazar, the Minister of
Environment and Energy of the Republic of Costa Rica.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034779.html

Toyama City Works Toward Compact City Utilizing Public Transportation

Toyama City in Toyama Prefecture is one of the largest cities in Japan
and located in Japan’s northern Hokuriku region. The city is promoting
its Toyama Compact City Strategy, expecting changing social needs in
light of low birth rates and an aging population. The main pillar in
creating a compact city centered on public transportation is a
light-rail transit system with lower-floored cars, barrier-free station
platforms, and less noise. Measures including discounted fares for users
of public transportation, and free admission to public facilities for
elderly people when visiting with their grandchildren will hopefully
encourage elderly people to go out more, and vitalize shopping areas in
the city center.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034781.html

Japan’s Solar LED Association Unveils Three Models of Small
Solar-Powered Water Purification System

The Solar LED Association in Japan announced in February 2014 that it has started selling a new type of small, solar-powered water purification
system that can produce potable water from rainwater, river water, well
water, and even household bathwater, without the need for external power.
This would make it especially useful in times of disaster.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034782.html

Fujitsu’s Communication Technology for Smart Meters Gains Status with
International Standards Promotion Organization

Copyright Fujitsu All Rights Reserved. Fujitsu Limited, a major
Japanese producer of communication and information processing systems,
announced on November 15, 2013, that its ad-hoc communication technology
was adopted as a global internet standard by the Internet Engineering
Task Force, an open international community where internet technology
standards are submitted, reviewed and publicly archived for reference
once approved as a potential Internet standard.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034785.html

Winners of Japan’s Second Annual “Excellent NPO Award” Announced,
Improved NPO Performance Recognized

The winners of the second annual Excellent NPO Award were announced in
December 2013 by a Japanese civil group that promotes excellence in
non-profit organization (NPO) activities. Among the 173 applicants for
the award, the Japan Association for Refugees won the top prize (Grand
Prix) plus a prize for its organizing power, Pool Volunteer received the
civil prize, the Japan Multicultural Center Tokyo got the prize for task
solution ability, and the Kamonohashi Project also won a prize for its
organizing power.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034787.html

Japan for Sustainability (JFS) is a non-profit communication platform to
disseminate environmental information from Japan to the world. We are
grateful that people in 191 countries have found an interest in our free
e-mail publications, and will continue to do our best to deliver useful
information to our readers all around the globe.

Please feel free to forward this message to your colleagues and friends
wherever the Internet can reach. If you know colleagues or friends there
with an interest in sustainability, please do forward them one of our
newsletters and invite them to try our service. To subscribe for JFS
Newsletters, visit www.japanfs.org/en/newsletter/subscribe.html

If you find our information and activities unique and valuable,
we appreciate your support!
http://www.japanfs.org/en/join/donation.html

We welcome your comments. Please send them to: info@japanfs.org

Japan for Sustainability (JFS)
Website: http://www.japanfs.org/en/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/japanfs
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/japanfs.en

Newly Arrived Articles from Japan for Sustainability
25 – 31 Mar. 2014

Social Vision in an Era of Population Decline from the Perspective of
Local Economy and Well-being
JFS Newsletter No.139 (March 2014)

In fiscal 2013, Japan for Sustainability (JFS) worked on a Local
Well-Being Project as one of its activities. This issue of the JFS
Newsletter introduces a translated summary of the keynote speech at the “Thinking about Happiness at the Local Level” symposium held on February
6, 2014 in Tokyo. Prof. Yoshinori Hiroi of the Social and Health Policy
Department, Faculty of Law and Economics, Chiba University.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034791.html

‘CDP Japan 500 Climate Change Report 2013’ Indicates Improved Corporate
Disclosure, Performance

CDP released its report on the climate change activities of 500 major
Japanese companies, the CDP Japan 500 Climate Change Report 2013, on
November 6, 2013. According to the report, the average disclosure score
(the adequacy of a company’s climate-related disclosure) is 73 points,
an increase of 6 points from the previous year, and the largest number
of companies achieved the performance grade of “B” for contribution to
climate change mitigation and adaptation, an improvement from “C” in
2012. The CDP is an international non-profit organization that aims to
disclose, manage, and share environmental information on companies and
cities.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034778.html

Joint Crediting Mechanism Established between Japan and Costa Rica

The Ministry of the Environment of Japan announced on December 9, 2013,
that the Memorandum of Cooperation on a Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM)
was signed by Nobuteru Ishihara, the Japanese Minister of the
Environment, and H.E. Dr. Ren e Castro Salazar, the Minister of
Environment and Energy of the Republic of Costa Rica.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034779.html

Toyama City Works Toward Compact City Utilizing Public Transportation

Toyama City in Toyama Prefecture is one of the largest cities in Japan
and located in Japan’s northern Hokuriku region. The city is promoting
its Toyama Compact City Strategy, expecting changing social needs in
light of low birth rates and an aging population. The main pillar in
creating a compact city centered on public transportation is a
light-rail transit system with lower-floored cars, barrier-free station
platforms, and less noise. Measures including discounted fares for users
of public transportation, and free admission to public facilities for
elderly people when visiting with their grandchildren will hopefully
encourage elderly people to go out more, and vitalize shopping areas in
the city center.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034781.html

Japan’s Solar LED Association Unveils Three Models of Small
Solar-Powered Water Purification System

The Solar LED Association in Japan announced in February 2014 that it has started selling a new type of small, solar-powered water purification
system that can produce potable water from rainwater, river water, well
water, and even household bathwater, without the need for external power.
This would make it especially useful in times of disaster.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034782.html

Fujitsu’s Communication Technology for Smart Meters Gains Status with
International Standards Promotion Organization

Copyright Fujitsu All Rights Reserved. Fujitsu Limited, a major
Japanese producer of communication and information processing systems,
announced on November 15, 2013, that its ad-hoc communication technology
was adopted as a global internet standard by the Internet Engineering
Task Force, an open international community where internet technology
standards are submitted, reviewed and publicly archived for reference
once approved as a potential Internet standard.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034785.html

Winners of Japan’s Second Annual “Excellent NPO Award” Announced,
Improved NPO Performance Recognized

The winners of the second annual Excellent NPO Award were announced in
December 2013 by a Japanese civil group that promotes excellence in
non-profit organization (NPO) activities. Among the 173 applicants for
the award, the Japan Association for Refugees won the top prize (Grand
Prix) plus a prize for its organizing power, Pool Volunteer received the
civil prize, the Japan Multicultural Center Tokyo got the prize for task
solution ability, and the Kamonohashi Project also won a prize for its
organizing power.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034787.html

# # #

Japan for Sustainability (JFS) is a non-profit communication platform to
disseminate environmental information from Japan to the world. We are
grateful that people in 191 countries have found an interest in our free
e-mail publications, and will continue to do our best to deliver useful
information to our readers all around the globe.

Please feel free to forward this message to your colleagues and friends
wherever the Internet can reach. If you know colleagues or friends there
with an interest in sustainability, please do forward them one of our
newsletters and invite them to try our service. To subscribe for JFS
Newsletters, visit www.japanfs.org/en/newsletter/subscribe.html

Tenth Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II (WGII-10) and
Thirty-eighth Session of the IPCC (IPCC-38)

25-29 March 2014 | Yokohama, Japan

Tenth Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II (WGII-10) and
Thirty-eighth Session of the IPCC (IPCC-38)

25-29 March 2014 | Yokohama, Japan

http://www.iisd.ca/climate/ipcc38/

The IPCC WG II will meet from 25 to 29 March 2014 in Yokohama, Japan, followed by a session of the entire Panel. The meeting is expected to endorse the findings of the second part of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) addressing climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. As such, IPCC WG II will have to approve line-by-line the Summary for Policy-Makers and accept the underlying assessment of scientific literature. Subsequently, the Panel will convene in full to formally give the effect to the endorsement of the WG II report.

The AR5 has been under preparation for six years and consists of the contributions by the three WGs of the IPCC and a Synthesis Report. The Panel adopted its WG I contribution on the physical science basis of climate change in Stockholm, Sweden, in September 2013. It will consider the WG III contribution on mitigation of climate change in Berlin, Germany, from 7 to 12 April 2014. A Synthesis Report of all three WG volumes is expected to be finalised in October 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

IISD RS will produce daily web updates and a summary and analysis from these sessions. Kindly return to this site on Tuesday, 25 March 2014, for more information.

Daily and summary coverage will be available at http://www.iisd.ca/climate/ipcc38/

Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/IISDRS and follow us on Twitter athttps://twitter.com/IISDRS

————————————

Langston James “Kimo” Goree VI
Vice President, Reporting Services and United Nations Liaison
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) — United Nations Office

300 E 56th St. Apt. 11D – New York, NY 10022  USA

Direct Line: +1 973 273 5860 Email: kimo@iisd.org Mobile phone (new!): +12128107701 Skype: kimogoree

Where: NYC through 27 March, 28 – 9 April West Texas (cycling), 12-15 Ottawa

Notice:This email and any attachments may contain information that is personal, confidential, legally privileged
and/or copyright. No part of it should be reproduced, adapted or communicated without the prior written consent of the author.

International Workshop
“Green and Social: Managing Synergies and Trade-offs”

12-14 March 2014 | Bonn, Germany

http://www.iisd.ca/gs/         

The International Workshop “Green and Social: Managing Synergies and Trade-offs” was held from 12-14 March 2014, in Bonn, Germany. The workshop was organized by the German Development Institute (DIE) and the Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network (PEGNet) to explore how existing development pathways can be transformed to become both more environmentally sustainable and more socially inclusive. It brought together researchers and practitioners from the environmental and social inclusion communities to discuss how to bridge the gap between the social and environmental perspectives of development.

The first two days of the workshop featured a series of paper presentations, keynote speeches and panel discussions. On the third day, an invitation-only dialogue was held with about 50 researchers, civil society representatives, government officials and representatives of international organizations who came together to discuss how possible trade-offs may be addressed in the design of the post-2015 development agenda.

This report summarizes the presentations and discussions during the three days of the workshop.

The  Summary of this meeting is now available 

in PDF format at  http://www.iisd.ca/download/pdf/sd/crsvol220num1e.pdf   

and in HTML format at http://www.iisd.ca/gs/html/crsvol220num1e.html

Coverage of this meeting by IISD Reporting Services was funded by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, on behalf of Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ).

———————————————-

Langston James “Kimo” Goree VI
Vice President, Reporting Services and United Nations Liaison

International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) — United Nations Office

300 E 56th St. Apt. 11D – New York, NY 10022  USA
Direct Line: +1 973 273 5860 Email: kimo@iisd.org Mobile phone (new!): +12128107701 Skype: kimogoree

Where: NYC through 27 March, 28 – 7 April West Texas (cycling), 12-15 Ottawa

From: TWN News <news@twnnews.net>
Date: Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 8:43 PM

Subject: (Corrected version) TWN Info Service on UN Sust Dev: SDGs intergovernmental negotiations begin

To: TWN Mailing List <news@twnnews.net>

Contents:

TWN Info Service on UN Sustainable Development (Mar14/01)
2 March 2014
Third World Network
www.twn.my

SDGs intergovernmental negotiations begin

Dear friends and colleagues,

The United Nations intergovernmental negotiations on specific sustainable development goals will begin on 3-5 March at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

This is the first of five sessions in the second phase of the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The eight sessions so far of the OWG that began its work in March 2013 constituted the “input” phase.

The eighth, and last, stocktaking session of the OWG took place on 3-7 February. This marked the end of the input phase of the OWG, with the next phase focusing on the intergovernmental negotiation of the final output including the SDGs themselves. This second phase comprises 5 sessions, with the first on 3-5 March.

The OWG is a key process for the follow-up of the outcome of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012 (Rio+20). The Co-chairs of the OWG are Ambassadors Macharia Kamau of Kenya and Csaba Ko?r?si of Hungary.

At the February session, the Co-Chairs announced two ways in which they will be leading the way forward.  First, the Co-Chairs will produce a stocktaking document that will summarize the entire OWG process since the first session commenced in March 2013.  This was distributed on 14 February to member states’ representatives in New York as well as to capitals: a 30-page “Progress report of the Open Working Group of the General Assembly on Sustainable Development Goals”.(URL:http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/3238summaryallowg.pdf)

Secondly, and more importantly, the Co-Chairs will present a text outlining the thematic areas of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  It will be based on the key focus areas within the eight OWG sessions that have occurred since March 2013. The Co-Chairs text of the SDGs will not indicate specific goals and targets; rather, it will identify clustered thematic areas that governments will discuss and develop further in their negotiation process.

This was circulated in a letter to member states dated 21 February from the Co-Chairs (URL http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/3272cochairsletter.pdf) with an attached 8-page document with 19 focus areas (URL: http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/focussdgs.html).

In their letter, the Co-Chairs stated:

“The attached document does not constitute a zero draft of the report that the Group has been mandated to submit to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. While the document is recommended for further consideration, the focus areas identified here are not exhaustive. Therefore, they do not preclude inclusion of other issues discussed within the context of the thematic clusters but that may not have been captured here.”

The intergovernmental consultations on a final SDG report will be based on this second text outlining the key themes, as identified by the two Co-Chairs.

The 19 focus areas identified by the Co-Chairs are: poverty eradication; food security and nutrition; health and population dynamics; education; gender equality and women’s empowerment; water and sanitation; energy; economic growth; industrialization; infrastructure; employment and decent work for all; promoting equality; sustainable cities and human settlements; sustainable consumption and production; climate; marine resources, oceans and seas; ecosystems and biodiversity; means of implementation; peaceful and non-violent societies, capable institutions.

The other OWG negotiation sessions are: 31 March – 4 April, 5 – 9 May, 2 – 6 June and 14 – 18 July.

Meanwhile, gender equality and women’s empowerment gained significant member state attention at the 8th session in February. Below are highlights of the statement of the Group of 77 and China (that also included income inequality), as well as a joint statement by 48 government delegations of developing and developed countries

(The thematic focus areas included: oceans and seas, forests, biodiversity; promoting equality, including social equity, gender equality and women’s empowerment; and, conflict prevention, post-conflict peace building and the promotion of durable peace, rule of law and governance.)

With best regards,

Third World Network

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Item 1

SDGs: Group of 77 and China call for actions to address income inequality, and support gender equality and women’s empowerment

New York, 27 February (Bhumika Muchhala) – The eighth, and last, consultation session of the UN General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) took place on 3-7 February in New York.

The thematic focus areas included equality (and inequality), social equity, gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The Group of 77 and China (G77) in their plenary statement stated that the reversal of the universal trend of growing income inequality should be a global goal in the SDG framework.  This calls for reversing the secular decline in the share of labor income in most countries.

A goal to reverse income inequality could be pursued through various means to establish a level playing field between labor and capital, including greater international mobility of labor, regulation of international financial markets and capital movements, more equitable taxation of wage income and incomes from capital and financial assets, prevention of tax competition and a code of conduct for the private sector, especially transnational corporations.

The pursuit of such a goal calls for breaking the dominance of finance and corporate interest in the formulation of policies and operation of the global markets.  No single country alone can do this; it should be pursued collectively at the global level.

The G77 pointed out that studies show that income inequality among countries is higher than within countries.  Thus, there should be international action to reverse the trend and thus to reduce international inequality.  Other aspects of international cooperation, namely the means of implementation (which involves the commitment of financial resources as well as the transfer of technology), and the global partnership for development, should also be agreed on under the goal of reducing inequality.

The G77 statement also expressed widespread concern over the trends of greatly widened inequality between and within countries. In many countries, the share of income of the top 1% to 10% of the population has gone up very significantly, while the share of the bottom 40% has declined greatly and in some countries the incomes of the bottom segments of society have declined or stagnated.  Social equity was emphasized as the key ingredient of social cohesion and development.

Furthermore, establishment organizations including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Economic Forum have also identified inequality as a major global problem to be tackled.

One way to address inequality is to put a limit to the wealth and income of the economic elite, for example the moves in some developed countries to curb the bonuses or earnings of top executives, or through taxes on wealth and income.

The G77 also stressed social protection, stating that there is a strong case for the SDG framework to reduce inequality through social protection policies and measures, including social benefits and security, including transfer payments to poor families and free or subsidized healthcare, food and other services.  Social protection is also clearly linked to poverty eradication, which is the central and overarching goal for the Group.

The G77 highlighted employment in stating that generating full and productive employment, and providing access to economic opportunities for all sections of society, needs to be prioritized.  The SDG framework should encourage and support such objectives and policies.

Particularly in developing countries, inequality needs be tackled by pursuing policies of inclusive economic growth.  This needs to be coupled with enhanced investments in social and economic infrastructure and human resource development, in particular, education, health, housing and sanitation.

G77 calls for gender equality goal in the SDG framework

The Group of 77 stressed that nationally determined targets for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment should be considered in the SDG framework through the following key dimensions:

• Elimination of all forms of      violence and discrimination against girls and women;
• Promotion of gender equality in      the access and ownership of productive resources, assets and opportunity;
• Better and increased      participation of women in decision making in political, economic and      social spheres; and,
• Equal access of all women and      girls to education, health and other basic services.

The Rio+20 Summit recognized that persistent social, economic and political inequalities prevented the realization of potential of women to benefit from sustainable development as leaders and change agents.  The outcome document of R?o+20, entitled “The future we want,” stated in paragraphs 236 through 241 the need for specific targets for increasing women in leadership positions, reforms to give women equal rights, and promote equal access to women and girls to social services.

Whilst there is a gender equality goal in the Millennium Development Goals, MDG 3 to be precise, it is widely and commonly agreed that the MDG 3 goal has not been sufficiently broad or deep enough to deal with the wide variety of challenges facing women in the world.

The MDG 3 goal primarily focused on gender parity in education, which does not address the multiple and deeply entrenched structural issues of violence, biases and discrimination that women and girls must confront in their social, economic, private and public lives. +

———————————————————-
Item 2

SDGs: 48 governments call for gender equality and women’s empowerment

New York, 27 February (Bhumika Muchhala) – At the 8th consultation and stock-taking session of the United Nations General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), held in New York from 3-7 February, a joint statement was delivered to the two Co-Chairs of the OWG by 48 countries on the issue of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Among the thematic focus areas of the 8th OWG session were inequality, including income inequality, social equity, gender equality and women’s empowerment.  The SDGs are an outcome of the Rio+20 UN conference on sustainable development, held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012.

The joint statement from 48 UN member states was delivered by the Permanent Representative of Argentina to the UN,Maria Cristina Perceval, on behalf of the Governments of Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cape Verde, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Mexico, Montenegro, Mozambique, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Uruguay.

The above group of member states requested the Co-Chairs to reflect their statement and its main contents in the summary report for the 8th OWG session as well as in the final reports of the Open Working Group deliberations.

The joint statement called for the SDG framework to prioritize the achievement of gender equality and advancing the human rights of women, girls and all young people, especially those living in poverty or otherwise excluded and marginalized.  The SDG framework must specifically address the systematic inequities they and other groups face worldwide.

The statement said that gender inequality undermines progress, not only for women and girls, but for families, societies, economies and countries as a whole.  On the other hand, achieving equal rights for women and girls improves the well-being of children and households, increases prosperity and economic growth, enhances environmental stewardship and participatory governance for all.  The needs of older women and experiences should not be forgotten, as they can share with the view to contribute to sustainable development.

Today’s generation of adolescents and youth is the largest in history. Decisions about their place in the post-2015 agenda will be determining of humanity’s and the planet’s future.

At this stage of intergovernmental discussions in the UN, member states must be strategic, pragmatic and attentive to the realities people around the world face.  Building on the Millennium Development Goals, and from an evidence-based approach, the member states emphasized that the following must be incorporated into the Sustainable Development Goals as essential elements of a universally-relevant, transformative, high-impact and cost-effective post-2015 development framework:

• The promotion, respect,      protection and fulfilment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms,      without discrimination on any grounds, must be the basis of a sustainable      development agenda rooted in principles of equality, equity and social      justice for all.
• Achieving gender equality and the      empowerment of women and girls must be a priority in the new agenda, as      well as mainstreamed, with commitments across the range of social,      cultural, economic, civil and political rights. Emphasis should be placed      on ensuring equal rights for women and girls to education, health, social      protection, economic opportunities, access to justice and decision-making      in public and private life; and on fostering shared rights and      responsibilities with men and boys.
• While increasing access to quality      education for all children, continue to close gender gaps at all levels of      education, eliminate gender biases in curricula and teaching practices,      enable secondary school completion for girls, ensure universal access to      comprehensive sexuality education for all young people, both in and out of      school, and eradicate female illiteracy.
• Ensure equitable access to      quality universal health care focused on prevention that is affordable,      and that protects individuals and families from financially-catastrophic      consequences and impoverishment.
• Respect, protect and fulfil the      sexual and reproductive health and rights of all individuals throughout      the life-cycle, including through universal access to quality, integrated      sexual and reproductive health information, education and services.
• End all forms of gender-based      violence, including through public education campaigns for prevention and      universal access to critical services, rehabilitation, justice and      remedies for all victims/survivors; end harmful practices against girls,      including early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation;      criminalize sexual violence and end impunity of perpetrators, whether in      peacetime or as a tactic of warfare; and eliminate sexual harassment and      violence at home and in schools, workplaces and other public spaces.
• Create decent employment and      livelihood opportunities with decent wages, with emphasis on women and      youth, including by supporting successful school-to-work transitions;      ensuring women’s equal access to economic opportunities and productive      assets, equal pay for equal work, and equal access to land, property,      inheritance, banking and financial services, agricultural supports and      information and communication technologies; reducing disproportionate      time-use burden and unpaid care work for women and girls, and      strengthening family-friendly policies for affordable child and elderly      care, maternity and paternity leave; and enact and enforce legislation to      protect human and labour rights and eliminate exploitation in all its forms.
• Increase women’s and young      people’s participation in decision-making at all levels, including through      temporary special measures for women’s increased political participation,      as well as leadership in all areas including economic, media, scientific and      research spheres; and ensure women’s and young people’s voice and      participation in decision-making in disaster- and conflict-affected      situations  and as an integral part of the peacebuilding process.

In all these areas, policies need to be implemented effectively, with transparent resource allocation and supported by stronger efforts on data collection and analysis.

As the thematic debates of this Working Group come to an end, the member states urged that the human rights and empowerment of women and girls and gender equality, the rights and empowerment of adolescents and youth, and the respect, protection and fulfilment of sexual and reproductive health and rights for all be positioned as critical pillars of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

These are fundamental priorities for any human rights-based, people-centred and planet-sensitive agenda.+

Towards Cities Where Anybody Would Wants to Live: the “FutureCity” Initiative
http://futurecity.rro.go.jp/

In recent years, people in many parts of the world are working to create
new types of cities and communities. The Japanese government is also
developing an environment-friendly “FutureCity” Initiative (FCI). This
issue of the JFS newsletter introduces the FCI, based on information
from the national government’s Cabinet Office.

The FCI was launched in 2011 and is now in its third year. It is being
promoted by the Cabinet Office, and 11 cities have been authorized as
“Future Cities” as of March 2014. In this article, we would like to
report on both the FCI concept and its progress so far.

1.    Background and significance of the FCI

Urban populations have increased sharply and now comprise half of the
world’s population. The United Nations projects that they will grow to
about 6.4 billion in 2050, comprising about 70% of the world’s
population. This rapid urbanization is seen prominently in developing
nations in regions such as Asia and Africa, where it causes various
environmental and urban problems. The 21st century is being referred to
as the age of the city. The challenge of realizing an affluent life
without increasing the burden on urban environments is a common issue
for all humanity.

Japan is known as a country that is already facing challenges that other
countries will be facing in the future, and one problem it is now facing
is a decreasing birthrate and the rapid aging of its population. It is
projected that in 2050, seniors over the age of 65 will comprise 40% of
the population. It is an urgent task for Japan to realize cities and
regional population centers that maintain their social vitality so that
senior citizens can live fruitful, healthy and secure lives. In the near
future, many countries, starting in Asia, are expected to experience the
same challenge of an aging society. Japan’s experiences in tackling
this problem will provide meaningful lessons on this common challenge
for humanity.

In making cities into a source of social energy, it is extremely
important for stakeholders to mutually recognize the problems, organize
them in a comprehensive way, and think about frameworks that can help
common human challenges such as environmental problems, aging, and the
need to revitalize economies and societies.

In this context, the Japanese government identified the FCI as one of 21
national projects in its “New Growth Strategy” published in June 2010.
The government also designated FCI as one of the national projects
specified in its “Japan Revitalization Strategy” adopted in June 2013.
The latter’s section provisionally entitled “Realizing National
Strategic Special Zone[s],” notes the government’s intent to integrate
related measures: “The government will steadily continue to proceed with
the current special zone system and such measures including ‘Future City’
Initiatives [will] interlock with the special zones.” The FCI is aimed
at realizing cities capable of creating people-friendly values to solve
the challenges of the environment and aging, and is the world’s first
model case for solving common human challenges in this way.

Japan Revitalization Strategy
http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/keizaisaisei/pdf/en_saikou_jpn_hon.pdf

The Cabinet Office has also been promoting the Eco-Model City initiative
to realize low-carbon cities. These two initiatives were re-organized in
March 2013, as shown in Figure 1, so that the Eco-Model City initiative
will be integrated into the FutureCity Initiative, and Future Cities
will be selected from Eco-Model Cities.

Figure 1. Overview of the “FutureCity” initiative
http://www.japanfs.org/en/files/future_city_02_en.jpg

2. About the FutureCity Initiative

1) Basic Concept of the Initiative

The FCI’s basic concept is to create cities that embrace new
people-friendly values in order to deal with environmental issues and
the aging society. Its goal is to solve problems being faced by Japan
and the world such as global warming, resource and energy constraints,
and aging societies through establishing sustainable social and economic
systems and recovering social solidarity. At the same time, it will be
necessary to increase the quality of life and make cities into places
where anyone would want to live and where everyone enjoys vitality as
new sources of value continually come into being.

To realize a sustainable society, it will be essential to take
environmental, social and economic values into consideration. A Future
City where anyone would want to live and everyone enjoys vitality is
defined as a city where environmental, social and economic values are
being innovatively enhanced. The basic premise of a Future City calls
for the attainment of a certain level of enhanced value in each of these
three aspects of life.

2) Requirements for Future Cities

Each FCI candidate city has to decide on its own strategic future vision
for realizing the FCI’s basic concepts, with the aim of maximizing an
integrated total of environmental, social and economic values. When
setting out the future vision, both a backcasting approach of looking
back from a desirable future to the present and a forecasting approach
of looking forward from the present to the future are essential to
enhance feasibility. Moreover, it is important to set the vision in a
way that fully embodies each city’s diverse and unique features that
arise from its natural and social characteristics.

Each city is required to tackle the challenges of the environment and
aging society, and is further encouraged to take on additional
challenges in areas that can enhance their originality and comparative
advantages in cooperation with other cities in Japan and abroad. It will
be important to gather worldwide wisdom by absorbing information on
other cites’ successes from all over the world, as this will help
integrate a variety of efforts in different fields and realize
synergistic effects. The FCI is not merely an experiment, but a process
aiming at innovation in socio-economic systems that continuously creates
new value. By accumulating successes, cities are expected to break away
from subsidies and acquire self-financing independence, establishing
financially and socially autonomous models that are applicable both
inside and outside Japan.

3) The FCI Promotion Scheme

Important factors in making the FCI a success include steady
implementation of project management, powerful executive authorities
that can act quickly, and strong cooperation among cities.

FCI project management is needed at three levels: how to effectively
promote the FCI as a whole on the national level, how to manage all
projects at the individual city level, and how to grasp progress at the
individual project level. Steady project management using the
plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle at each level will increase the
possibilities for success.

Powerful and quickly acting executive authorities are essential to
create successful cases and disseminate them both inside and outside
Japan. The national government will not only give advice to FCI cities
but also establish a system to promote coordinated financing,
deregulation and various reforms. Each selected city is expected to form
a consortium with relevant corporations, citizens, universities and
local governments.

Strengthening cooperation among cities can improve the success of
projects and speed up dissemination. The national government will
construct an international intellectual platform by collecting,
arranging and analyzing worldwide successful cases, disseminating the
information, and arranging opportunities for intellectual exchanges, for
example by holding international forums where FCI cities can exchange
information about successes with other cities both inside and outside
Japan. They can utilize this platform while continuing to deepen
cooperation with participating cities, including exchanges of citizens.

3. About the Eco-Model City Initiative

The Eco-Model City initiative was designed to specifically and
comprehensively demonstrate the image of the low-carbon society that our
country aspires to be in future. In fiscal 2008, 13 cities were selected
to take on the challenge of pioneering approaches with lofty goals aimed
at realizing a low-carbon society.

Each city has created specific Action Plans to achieve its goals and has
been moving ahead accordingly while receiving advice from the Eco-Model
City Evaluation and Research Review Commission. These model cities have
been striving to implement their action plans in a cross-sectional
manner and to take a comprehensive approach to overcome the barriers
between various stakeholders. At the same time, they are cooperating
with citizens and private organizations to generate vitality in their
cities in pursuit of a low-carbon society, and working to become models
for municipalities nationwide.

Amid growing concern about energy issues due to the Great East Japan
Earthquake, it has become even more essential to further disseminate
information about the efforts being made by Eco-Model Cities towards
developing low-carbon societies. In response, an additional selection of
seven more Eco-Model Cities was made in 2012, with three more in 2013;
it is hoped that this will help spur further efforts to realize a
low-carbon society.

4. Further Development of the FCI

In order to refine efforts among municipalities and encourage other
municipalities around the nation to take on the challenge,
“FutureCities Promotion Council for the Eco-Cities/FutureCity
Initiatives” was set up.

In the course of this Council’s discussions, three more eco-model cities,
Niseko Town in Hokkaido, Ikoma City of Nara Prefecture, and Oguni Town
in Kumamoto Prefecture, were added on March 7, 2014, expanding the scope
of target cities.

Later on, the FCI will strive to create unprecedentedly successful cases
that resolve issues related to the environment and super-aging
population, common issues throughout the world in the 21st century,
through technology, socioeconomic systems, services, business models and
city rejuvenation. The FCI also aims to share information about such
cases nationwide to create both economic demand and jobs that will
ultimately contribute to a more sustainable economy. Stay tuned for
future progress on the FutureCity Initiative!

Written by Junko Edahiro

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Social Vision in an Era of Population Decline from the Perspective of
Local Economy and Well-being

In fiscal 2013, Japan for Sustainability (JFS) worked on a Local
Well-Being Project as one of its activities. This issue of the JFS
Newsletter introduces a translated summary of the keynote speech at the
“Thinking about Happiness at the Local Level” symposium held on February
6, 2014 in Tokyo. Prof. Yoshinori Hiroi of the Social and Health Policy
Department, Faculty of Law and Economics, Chiba University.

—————————————

Social Vision in an Era of Population Decline — Localization Beyond
Globalization
Lecture by Prof. Yoshinori Hiroi, February 6, 2014, Tokyo

The essence of issues Japan now is facing is population decline and an
aging population. Japan is one of the world’s frontrunners of these
issues; therefore I think it is meaningful not only for us but for the
world as well to know how Japan tackles them. It is true that population
decline presents a huge challenge. To me, however, there seems to be
some positive potential, and this could be a turning point, a chance to
go in an opposite direction from which we have come.

According to a graph of Japan’s population, we can see that
while it remained at around 30 million people during the Edo Period
[1603 to 1867], it started to rapidly increase at the end of that period,
and kept going up until 2004, when it reached a peak. After that it
started to decline, and is expected to fall to under 100 million people
in 2050 if the population decreases at the same pace. On one hand, I am
worried about what will happen in the future. On the other hand, however,
I wonder how hard we pushed ourselves to go uphill in the past. Although
we achieve a certain degree of wealth, we also absorbed considerable
difficulties and contradictions.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/files/Population_800-2100_en.jpg

When Japan was climbing upward, everything was concentrated in Tokyo,
which led to centralization, simply because it is the most efficient
economically. In industrial societies, it works well if the central
government plans out roads, rails, and airports. Therefore, every flow
came into Tokyo, which controlled everything. But now, it seems we have
reached a state of turnabout at which the flow needs to change, and that
the time is coming for a local, decentralized economy, from an economic
perspective.

In terms of unemployment rate by prefecture, the worst 10 prefectures,
unexpectedly, include those with metropolitan areas, such as Osaka,
Fukuoka, Hyogo, Kyoto, Tokyo, Saitama, and Kanagawa prefectures. In the
metropolitan areas, overproduction brings unemployment, while in the
rural areas and smaller cities, population outflow itself causes the
loss of employment. In other words, going to a big city does not assure
that people will get a job any longer. Taking such a situation into
account as well, I think we must find mechanisms to change the flow of
people in the future.

Looking at my students, I am amazed how remarkable it is that more and
more young people have become locally-oriented. According to data in
Japan, such a trend is clear. It shows that the rate of young people who
chose their preferred universities so they could remain in their
hometowns is up by 10 points compared to four years ago. Also, the
employment rate of those who gain jobs outside their local prefectures
is decreasing. And the number of young people who want to live
permanently in their hometowns is increasing. In reaction to such a
trend, some people criticize them for being too inward-looking. I think,
however, we should rather take it as a hopeful trend that can save local
communities and Japan itself.

As a big, future vision, we can envision a society, as it were, that has
a “multi-polar concentration.” It is an image that while the number of
“poles” (cities, towns, and villages) increases, the attraction of each
pole also becomes a bit stronger. In any case, we need to paint a future
vision using a new and different way of thinking.

When we think about the future of Japan, one positive aspect is the
increase of community-based populations. Working generations have a
strong bond with their companies, and less involvement with their
communities. On the other hand, the community-based populations combine
children and elderly who are deeply entrenched in their local
communities follows a clear U-shaped curve. During the past 50 years,
the number of people who had a strong bond with their communities
continued to decrease, but this group of people will steadily increase
its number, especially among the aging population in the next 50 years.
From this perspective, the community will play more and more of a
significant role in the age to come.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/files/nl_140331_05_en.jpg

Let’s think about the community economy. In the figure of a pyramid, the
top is the “market economy,” the middle is the “community,” and the base
is “nature and the environment.” The top of the pyramid was cut off in
capitalism. Originally, economy and community were linked, but they
began to break apart.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/files/nl_140331_06_en.jpg

What is the economy? It should include a kind of mutual cooperation in
addition to a simple optimization of profit. Conversely, it is difficult
to create a community when the economy is not involved. In short, a
connection with some economic activity is essential for a practical
community. In that sense, I think the community economy is important for
the intent of reconnecting the community and the economy.

A community economy has four factors. The first is an economy’s
circulation within the community, which means an economy where people,
goods, and money circulate in the area. In order to win the global
competition, people sometimes get into the competition to keep the
prices down by cutting costs. As a result, wages drop and people become
trapped in a vicious cycle. Instead, we could create local circulation
in the economy, to be more resilient in the face of globalization.

Iida City in Nagano Prefecture set a target to achieve an economic
self-reliance ratio of 70 percent, aiming at creating industries that
allow young people to return to their hometowns. The economic
self-reliance ratio shows how much income needed for a community is
supplied by the multiplier effects of local industries. Specifically, it
is calculated by dividing the total amount of multiplier-effect income
from manufacturing, agriculture and forestry, and tourism industries in
the South Shinshu area by the total amount of necessary income in the
whole area (national average of real annual income per capita x total
population of the South Shinshu area). The estimated figures were 52.5
percent in 2008, and 45.2 percent in 2009. Focusing on manufacturing,
agriculture and forestry, and tourism industries in the area, they
actively work to increase internal circulation.

As a nation, an international comparison on the export percentage of GDP
shows that while many countries range from 30 to 40 percent, Japan
actually has a low percentage of slightly above 10 percent. It has been
overemphasized that Japan won’t be able to survive without exporting,
but Japan is in fact maintained by a high percentage of domestic
consumption. In short, Japan has the potential to create an economy that
circulates internally.

The second factor of a community economy is to connect the productive
community and living community as much as possible. On the shopping
streets and in rural villages, these two communities overlap greatly. In
the United States, there may not be many shopping streets, but in Europe,
including Germany, the whole town is a community space consisting of
shopping streets. Revitalization of the economy and circulation within
these areas appear to be very active.

The third factor of the community economy is the mutual aid characteristic
that an economy originally has. One example is that the ancient merchants
in Ohmi area (currently Shiga Prefecture) had a motto, “sampou-yoshi,”
meaning that things would be good if three players were happy — the
venders, the buyers, and society. Another is found in the words of
Ei-ichi Shibusawa, a father of Japanese capitalism, in his book
titled “Rongo to Soroban” (roughly translated as “the Analects of
Confucius and the Abacus”). Shibusawa wrote: “Wealth will not last
perpetually if it is not just and reasonable. In this regard, today we
need to make efforts to match two opposites, like the analects of
Confucius and the abacus.” In today’s context, it means that when we
think about sustainability, the economy, and ethics, they will
ultimately overlap each other.

The fourth factor of the community economy is redefining the concept of
production in a finite context. This means a transformation from labor
productivity to environmental efficiency, or an economy of using human
resources more while saving resources. In other words, a labor-intensive
area where productivity used to be low, such as welfare and education,
will be more important, and investing in human resources will be
essentially important, because the area where people take care of other
people will be expanded.

One of the activities in which I am engaged is the “Chinju-no-mori”
Alternative Energy Community Initiative. (Chinju-no-mori refers to the
grove of ancient trees typically growing around a local village shrine).
In Japan, we have 80,000 shrines and 80,000 temples, whereas the total
number of convenience stores is 50,000. The number of middle schools in
Japan is 10,000, so this means we have eight shrines and eight temples
for each middle school. At shrines and temples, people would often open
fairs and festivals, and they were the center of each local community.
My interest is to connect such local centers with alternative energy and
develop them as distributed, local energy resources connected with
worship in nature. Alternative energy is to generate power using natural
energy resources, and a local community’s endeavors to use alternative
energy means to restore autonomy and power back to the community.

Looking back to Japan’s creation of social capital in the past, railway
construction was the first stage, road construction and the use of the
motor vehicle after World War II was the second stage, and the in the
third stage, at the end of the period of rapid economic growth, waste
disposal facilities and airports were constructed. The planning of these
kinds of infrastructure should be made at a national level. But welfare,
environment, culture and community building, all of which will be
important in future, are essentially local. From the shift of economic
structure, localization can also be a trend.

When thinking about a local economy, it is important to match it well
with local traditions and culture, and with the inherent local setting.
In fact, it is in the places where people really enjoy traditional
festivals today in Japan that many young people remain, or return to
their hometowns after spending several years in a city.

So far, there was a certain monolithic standard to judge communities as
advanced or delayed. But, from now on, I believe the individuality and
diversity of each local community will be placed at the forefront. Thus,
we are welcoming the “landing” of an era of connecting the economy with
community and nature, and leaving behind a capitalist economy in which
the economy “took flight” or was separated from the community and nature.

Adapted from a lecture by Yoshinori Hiroi, the Social and Health Policy
Department, Faculty of Law and Economics, Chiba University
Summary by Junko Edahiro

——————————————————————–

Expressing Gratitude by Presenting Gifts in “Fuguro” Bags

About 35,000 persons used to live in Watari Town, located about 26
kilometers south of Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture. The Great East
Japan Earthquake and the following tsunami on March 11, 2011 destroyed
about 300 lives and the everyday livelihoods of the entire town. Every
house in its costal neighborhoods was swept away and many residents are
still forced to live in temporary housing. Its agriculture and fisheries,
which used to support livelihoods in the community, have not recovered
yet. A once bustling port has not been restored, and community bonds
remain broken by the disaster.

Under these circumstances, various attempts have been made to help
restore the town. One is a handwork project that sells bags made by
local women. I interviewed Megumi Hikichi, representative of Watalis,
a local group women organized in the wake of the disaster.

Junko Edahiro (JE): What does Fuguro mean?

Megumi Hikichi (MH): The word “fuguro” is the local pronunciation of
“fukuro,” the Japanese word for “bag.” In this context, it means a
double-drawstring bag made of kimono cloth with a liner. This kind of
bag has been used traditionally to present a gift that expresses
gratitude for a favor performed. Before the disaster, I worked for the
town government as a curator of folk art and customs, and conducted a
survey in Watari Town in which I learned that farm women used to sew
‘mompe’ – women’s Japanese-style pantaloons – with kimono cloth until
about 40 to 60 years ago. With remaining scraps of cloth, they sewed
drawstring bags and put them aside to use when they needed to give a
gift meant to return a favor.

Farmers would put rice or beans into the bag and give it to show their
thanks or as a souvenir. I was impressed by this tradition of preparing
to show appreciation. If you are prepared to show appreciation, it seems
that you often encounter things to be thankful for. After the disaster,
our Watalis group started producing these fuguro bags and selling them
under the brand name “Fuguro.”

JE: In traditional Japanese culture, people would carry a small packet
of tissue paper with them to wrap around something to share, or
a “pochi-bukuro,” a small paper envelope for giving someone a cash
present. Thus, they would always be prepared to show gratitude.

MH: Many volunteers visited Watari Town repeatedly after the disaster.
Some of them told me “I am happy to hear people say ‘Thank you,’ or ‘Take
this as a token of my gratitude’ when I come here.” Hearing such
comments, fuguro started to seem to me a symbol of our tradition of
showing our gratitude with a physical gift.”

JE: Every Fuguro bag is beautiful, isn’t it?

MH: Made of used kimono cloth sent from throughout Japan, each Fuguro
bag is original. Fuguro are made of gorgeous traditional patterns,
classic-modern patterns from the early half of the 20th century, cute
patterns for children, traditional splashed patterns, or quiet pongee.
Each is a treasure which the customer can meet with once in lifetime. We
use brand-new cloth for the bags’ liners, so that customers can feel
comfortable about using them.

JE: How did you decide to set up the Watalis project?

MH: After the disaster, demolition work started with flooded houses in
the coastal areas and then moved on to the completely destroyed houses
inland. One day I was invited to conduct a survey at old shops which had
been closed for many decades; I was hoping to find some decent items to
be conserved at our reference library.

One of the shops was a small dealer of kimono fabrics. Keeping the heavy
demolition crew waiting outside to start work, we sought for suitable
things. When I saw a pile of kimono cloth, “fuguro” flashed into my mind.
I returned home with three garbage bags full of kimono cloth, and
started to sew fuguro with my sister, my mother, and a friend of ours
starting in autumn 2011, not long after the disaster.

At first we sold our Fuguro bags at bazaars and so on. A folklore
scholar evaluated our activity and told us, “Selling culture as a
commodity is a good way to communicate information on the local culture
of gift exchanges as well as to pass sewing skills on to the next
generation,” and helped us by selling Fuguro at academic conferences. In
time, Tokyu Hands, one of Japan’s major household goods stores, started
selling Fuguro as a way to support reconstruction of disaster-hit areas.
Because our volume had increased, I resigned from the town office where
I had been working for 19 years, and as of March 2012, one year after
the disaster, I started working full-time on the Watalis project.

In April 2013, our organization acquired legal status as a general
incorporated association, which authorized us to sign contracts with
businesses. Since then we have extended our business partners not only
to local department stores such as Sendai Mitsukoshi, but also to stores
in Tokyo such as those belonging to the Marui group and to Odakyu
Department Store.

JE: How do you make products that are high enough in quality to be sold
in large department stores?

MH: When we planning to market Fuguro, we asked an instructor at a local
sewing school to give us sewing lessons. I had met this instructor
during my folklore research, and she told us that there used to be about
200 students in the sewing school in earlier times when fuguro were
commonly used, and that these students normally learned to sew the
clothes of their family members by the time they got married.

The instructor initially asked us “What sewing level are you aiming at?
The teaching style differs according to the target level, specifically,
for commercial products, bazaar items or presents.” I intuitively
replied, “Commercial products!” Thus, she gave us strict lessons.

JE: How do you get the materials for Fuguro?

MH: When we were running low on the rolls of kimono cloth that we first
got from the old shop just before its demolition, we began receiving a
lot of kimonos from people who had heard about or purchased Fuguro. They
donated their kimonos to us.  Many said that, even though they didn’t
wear them any more, they didn’t want to throw their kimonos away or sell
them cheaply. Sometimes people kept the kimono because it was formerly a
family member’s favorite. Many also added, “I’m happy if you use my
kimono with memories and for a good cause.” In this year alone, we
received 200 to 300 cardboard boxes of kimonos, weighing a total of more
than one ton.

JE: Who are making these Fuguro bags?

MH: Initially, I asked my friends and our sewing instructor to find
people who were interested in making Fuguro, and I also placed an ad for
homeworkers. Now, we have about 40 people, mainly in their 30’s and 40’s,
who are serious about doing the work. Of those, twenty-some people
regularly work at home while participating in a training workshop once a
week. It takes a few months to master the skill, but many of them say
that they are pleased to have the job because they can work even though
they have children, or because they can find work near their family
members after experiencing the disaster.

JE: It’s great to create dozens of jobs. How are the bags made?

MH: The first process is to remove the stitches of the old kimono, then
wash and iron the kimono cloth. This process is undertaken by those who
are not yet good at sewing. Secondly, our in-house staff cut the cloth
and put together individual kits of materials, each of which consists of
the outer material, lining and string, with a view to creating good
color combinations. Receiving these kits, sewing workers make Fuguro.
Skilled workers can make one bag in about an hour to an hour and a half.
At present, however, our total monthly output is 300 bags at most.

JE: Japanese kimonos are made of several strips of straight, uncut
fabric which are simply stitched together. Just by removing the stitches,
we can return a kimono to straight lengths of cloth. Formerly, it was
quite common for people to take apart a kimono and remake it into
another kimono or a child’s kimono. When kimonos were completely worn
out, people finally used them as cleaning rags or diapers. So, the old
kimonos that you receive from various parts of Japan can be returned to
cloth simply by removing the stitches, can’t they? How many bags can
you make from one typical kimono?

In the case of the largest size (36 x 32 cm) Fuguro bag, we can make
five from one kimono. We use the remaining cloth to make small items
such as hair accessories. Elderly women in this area say, “Do not throw
away remnants of cloth that can hold even three azuki beans.” They keep
small pieces of cloth in preparation for whatever might come up. This
must have been a common virtue in the past because such remnants were
used to patch clothes.

They don’t throw away left over thread, either. In the past, sericulture
(silk farming) was a thriving business in this town. Many people grew up
in families that were raising silkworms and spinning cocoons into thread.
So, they know how much time and labor were required. In the past,
mothers often wove cloth using home-grown silk thread and made kimonos
as a dowry for their daughters. Those who received such kimonos cannot
find it in their hearts to discard or sell them even though the kimonos
may be worn out or it is very unlikely that anyone will wear them.

This is why we want to fully utilize small pieces of cloth as well as
faded cloth. We are now learning a recycling weaving method called
“saki-ori,” literally “torn and woven,” and have recently been marketing
small pouches made of this recycled cloth. We want to use up materials
without waste.

JE: Using up something is how to realize the Mottainai spirit of
Japanese culture, isn’t it?

MH: When we spoke to people who lived in those days, they said, “In the
past, farmers in particular had no cash income, so it was more economical
to produce clothes at home. But as the Japanese economy has grown, more
and more people think that it is better to work outside and buy things
instead of expending the time and effort to make them at home. Before we
knew it, homeworkers faded out.” Somehow it seems strange, doesn’t it?

JE: How would you like to promote this activity further?

MH: I would like to study design and teach others in a systematic way. I
would like to learn about management. We are focusing on women’s
independence, dissemination of traditional culture, reconstruction of
the disaster zone by local residents, rediscovery of the wonderful
Japanese aesthetic sense as seen in kimono materials, and the culture of
reuse and recycling. I think we should also be creative in the way we
inform others about our activities.

Our goal is to give bonuses to homeworkers. Of course, customers are
important. And, our homeworkers are important too. When Fuguro bags sell
well in department stores, we all feel happy, and our homeworkers say
that this makes them feel that both their work and they, themselves, are
valuable. Of course it is important to work and earn money, but it makes
me particularly happy when they say that they feel they can do more and
indeed can accomplish anything if they do their best.

We also hold gatherings that welcome everyone. At these events, people
enjoy making relatively simple crafts and many people join us every time.
It brings together people living in the same town but unknown to each
other, and people from different generations talk with each other and
begin friendships. I am pleased to report that some people come from
different prefectures, especially from Fukushima Prefecture, or even
from other countries. I was delighted to hear one old lady in the
neighborhood say, “I come here, laugh, and go back home feeling younger.”

On afternoons when a gathering is not being held, we use the space as a
kind of open house or salon. Some people come in to work on their
unfinished crafts, and there is an elementary school near here, so the
children of mothers who work at Watalis drop by and wait for their
mothers, doing their homework and so on. Watalis has been managed on
subsidies for the last two years, but I hope we can continue project
without subsidies in the future.

JE: Do you think that it was a good idea for you to resign from the town
office to concentrate on Watalis?

MH: I feel as if I have been doing this work for decades. When I was
employed by the town office, I worked hard and enjoyed it. Now I feel I
am working five times more than before. I am living my life to my
fullest.

I want to make everyone’s dreams come true. I want to realize my own
dream, too. When you live in a rural area, you tend to avoid risks such
as dabbling in new businesses or making friends with strangers. To try
to realize your dream is something not easily accepted by others here. I
was born and raised in Watari Town, and everyone told me, “You are safe
as long as you stay here.” Before the disaster occurred, I had only
enough courage to go as far as to Sendai.

JE: But now your Watalis project is about to sally forth into the world.

MH: Yes. We have, though little by little, more opportunities to sell
our products overseas through JETRO or at antenna shops such as the MONO
Shop in Bangkok. We also would like to improve our mail-order system for
individual sales. I want to let people in the world know about Japanese
culture, including presenting your gift in a Fuguro bag.

JE: JFS is also going to help you! Thank you so much.

Written by Junko Edahiro

———————————————-

[JFS Web Site Additions of the Month]

– “Media Coverage” page is updated.
Can Happiness Save the Environment? by Our World(2014/03/26)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/aboutus/media.html

– This month’s cartoon:
“Reconstruction aid shopping” on the Eco Cartoons Page (2014/03/11)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/manga/manga_id034749.html

– We updated two graphs on “Trends in various actors after nuclear
accident” page:
Decrease Rate of Electricity Sales and Operation Rate of Nuclear Power
Plants (2014/03/01)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id032737.html

– JFS Newsletter No.138 (February 2014)

The Foodloss Challenge Project, a Co-created Project
on Food Loss and Waste(2014/03/18)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034727.html
Japan’s First Floating Offshore Wind Power Project Making
Progress, Addressing Challenges(2014/03/04)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034728.html
Review and Future Directions of JFS’s Local Well-Being
Project(2014/02/27)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034719.html

———————————————-

We hope you enjoyed this issue of the JFS Newsletter.

We will be delivering more information every month from Japan on
activities and developments in the field of the environment. Please
visit our website for the latest news!
http://www.japanfs.org/index.html
And please send your comments or requests to us at info@japanfs.org.

We will be back next month with more news.

Junko Edahiro
Hiroyuki Tada

Extended until March 28: Public Consultati​on on Indicators for Sustainabl​e Developmen​t Goals Draft Report

In celebration of International Water Day, PCI Media Impact’s My Water – My Community program coalitions in Peru are hosting innovative outreach events across the country to educate and motivate the communities on issues of sustainable water practices, preservation of natural resources and collective commitments to responsible water usage.

Our coalition in Comas, Lima has organized a battle-of-the-bands style event, where local musicians representing various genres of music, are competing to write and perform the winning song which engages the audience with themes of responsible water usage. The victorious band will be featured on the Comas coalition’s radio show, Aguita Pa’ Ti!

In Pampachica, Iquitos, our partners are hosting a lively festival which features regional dance, murals, and other creative visual arts. Community members will compete and be judged on how well they use their art form to convey important messages about responsible water usage.

Our coalition in La Matanza, Piura is also hosting an engaging creative arts competition for local students at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Students will be given a half hour and arts-making materials to create visual art which promotes responsible water usage in their school and community. The winning design will be printed as a pamphlet and distributed with credit to the artist.

Finally, in Andahuaylillas, Cusco, our partners are kicking off a community festival where participants will enjoy a variety of carnival games that touch on the key themes of responsible water use. The festival will also have a visual arts contest and concert of its own… Stay tuned

In celebration of International Water Day, PCI Media Impact’s My Water – My Community program coalitions in Peru are hosting innovative outreach events across the country to educate and motivate the communities on issues of sustainable water practices, preservation of natural resources and collective commitments to responsible water usage.

Our coalition in Comas, Lima has organized a battle-of-the-bands style event, where local musicians representing various genres of music, are competing to write and perform the winning song which engages the audience with themes of responsible water usage. The victorious band will be featured on the Comas coalition’s radio show, Aguita Pa’ Ti!

In Pampachica, Iquitos, our partners are hosting a lively festival which features regional dance, murals, and other creative visual arts. Community members will compete and be judged on how well they use their art form to convey important messages about responsible water usage.

Our coalition in La Matanza, Piura is also hosting an engaging creative arts competition for local students at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Students will be given a half hour and arts-making materials to create visual art which promotes responsible water usage in their school and community. The winning design will be printed as a pamphlet and distributed with credit to the artist.

Finally, in Andahuaylillas, Cusco, our partners are kicking off a community festival where participants will enjoy a variety of carnival games that touch on the key themes of responsible water use. The festival will also have a visual arts contest and concert of its own… Stay tuned!

The centerpiece of the My Water – My Community initiative is the 90-episode, Spanish language radio drama, Sed de Ti (Thirsty for You) that broadcasts throughout the country. In honor of International Water Day, a new music video for the Sed de Ti theme song is premiering throughout the events listed above. Check out the subtitled video here.

http://mediaimpact.org/

http://post2015.iisd.org/post2015-update/2014-03-21/

http://www.iisd.ca/vol16/enb16111e.html

JFS WEEKLY DIGEST >>> 4 – 10 Mar. 2014

Newly Arrived Articles from Japan for Sustainability
4 – 10 Mar. 2014

Japan’s First Floating Offshore Wind Power Project Making Progress,
Addressing Challenges

JFS Newsletter No.138 (February 2014)

The trial operation of Japan’s first floating offshore wind power facility
off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, which we also introduced in our
November newsletter, is of significant importance for the expansion of
renewable energy introduction.

The project also stands as a symbol of the recovery and reconstruction of Fukushima, with the introduction of renewable energy being regarded as a pillar of regional recovery.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034728.html

NEDO, Kyoto University Develop Uninterrupted Automotive Transmission

Kyoto University and the New Energy and Industrial Technology
Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan announced on December 16, 2013,
that they have jointly developed an innovative new transmission that
does not experience interruptions in driving force during gear shifts.

The organizations expect the system will extend the cruising range of
electric vehicles (EVs) by about 10 percent compared to EVs not equipped
with a transmission.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034730.html

Japan’s NEPC Subsidizes 27 Businesses Utilizing Renewable Thermal Energy

The New Energy Promotion Council (NEPC) of Japan announced on November
21, 2013, that the council selected 27 businesses from among the
applicant pool to support the use of renewable thermal energy with
subsidies.

The council was established to promote the introduction of
new energy utilization systems such as systems for utilizing renewable
energy sources or storage cells.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034733.html

Japanese ‘Eco-Leather’ Factory’s Public Tours

Yamaguchi Sangyo Co., a Japanese company that produces certified
“eco-leather” in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward, offered public tours of its
factory on November 12, 2013.

The factory’s leather product is called eco-leather, as it is certified under the Japan Eco Leather Standard (JES), the Eco Mark certification for leather set by the Japan
Environment Association. http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034735.html

Survey Shows 60% Satisfied with Current Life, 70% Dissatisfied with
Social Security

The Japanese Consumers’ Cooperative Union released the results of its
Social Security survey on November 28, 2013. According to the result of
the online questionnaire, 58.1% answered “Satisfied” or “Somewhat
satisfied” to the question of satisfaction with one’s current life.

On the other hand, only 26.8% answered “Satisfied” or “Somewhat satisfied”
to the question of satisfaction with Japan’s current Social Security
program. This suggests that about 70% of people surveyed are
dissatisfied with Japan’s Social Security program.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034738.html

Award-winning Portable, High-Efficiency Hydroelectric Generator Now on
the Market

Ibasei Ltd., a Japanese manufacturing engineering company in Ibaraki
Prefecture, launched sales of a new portable flow-through type of
hydroelectric generator, called the “Cappa,” in December 2013.

It was jointly developed with a team led by Assistant Professor Yasuyuki Nishi
of the Graduate School of Science and Engineering at Ibaraki University,
and won the Product Design Prize (Small and Medium Enterprise Agency
Director-General Award) at the 2013 Good Design Awards ceremony.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034740.html

Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs Adopts Nine Projects for
Conservation and Inheritance of Dialects in Disaster-Stricken Area

The Agency of Cultural Affairs has been surveying the actual situation
of the dialects used in five prefectures of the Tohoku region, namely
Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki, with regard to their
possible extinction in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake
in March 2011.

On September 20, 2013, based on the survey results, the
agency adopted nine projects for fiscal 2013, aiming at conservation and
inheritance of these dialects, and the revitalization of dialect use.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034743.html

# # #

Japan for Sustainability (JFS) is a non-profit communication platform to
disseminate environmental information from Japan to the world. We are
grateful that people in 191 countries have found an interest in our free
e-mail publications, and will continue to do our best to deliver useful
information to our readers all around the globe.

Please feel free to forward this message to your colleagues and friends
wherever the Internet can reach. If you know colleagues or friends there
with an interest in sustainability, please do forward them one of our
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Copyright (c) 2014, Japan for Sustainability. All Rights Reserved.

IISD:  9th Session Open Working Group (OWG) on SDGs

New Release – Discussion Paper on Corporate Social Responsibi​lity

*Apologies for cross-posting*

UNDP MDG Carbon has recently released a new Discussion Paper on ‘Corporate Social Responsibility as an enabler of Green Growth and Climate Action’ which looks at the role of UNDP and MDG Carbon in helping a host country to establish a CSR Agency, a CSR Strategy and a CSR Fund for sustainable development.

The discussion paper is intended primarily for policy makers, regulators, and implementing agencies to relook at the private sector initiatives under CSR as a driver for green growth and climate action as well to encourage the private sector and organizations interested in CSR to act with national / regional governments to align their CSR efforts with broader sustainable development goals.

Kindly download the Discussion Paper here.

Best regards,

Alexandra

E-mail : alexandra.soezer@undp.org

—————————————————————————————————–

The International Conference on Valuation and Accounting of Natural Capital for Green Economy (VANTAGE) in Africa was held from 3-4 December 2013, at the headquarters of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference was convened by UNEP, in partnership with the World Bank, the UN Statistics Division and the African Union Commission (AUC), and brought together 116 experts, government delegates from Africa and around the world, and representatives of several UN agencies and bodies.

The overall objective of the conference was to showcase successful efforts by countries and organizations in the pursuit of valuation and accounting of natural capital, and to promote awareness of, and participation in, future efforts.

The first day of the conference was dedicated to a capacity building workshop on VANTAGE, during which participants discussed experiences and lessons learned from key international initiatives on ecosystem valuation and measurement. On the second day, participants convened in a high-level policy forum to discuss African experiences with natural wealth valuation and accounting. The meeting resulted in a draft outcome document that takes stock of progress to date and barriers to implementation, and makes recommendations on increasing implementation of VANTAGE in Africa.

This report summarizes the presentations and discussions held during the conference.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF VANTAGE

In recent years, the importance of assigning value to natural capital and incorporating this into national accounting practices has gained widespread acceptance. In Africa, it has also been recognized that this approach should be integrated into development efforts in order to transition to a green economy.

In May 2012, in Gaborone, Botswana, at the Summit for Sustainability in Africa, governments of ten African countries, along with various public and private sector organizations, adopted the Gaborone Declaration. This Declaration contains principles and development goals for considering the value of natural capital in development planning processes and acknowledging that ecosystem services should be fully accounted for and integrated into development planning processes.

At the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012, the importance of a green economy approach to sustainable development gained recognition, and figured prominently in the outcome document, The Future We Want. Other international processes, such as the International Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), are also expected to contribute to national and international efforts on valuation and accounting of natural capital.

UNEP’s Ecosystem Services Economics (ESE) Unit, among other things, supports governments and other stakeholders in incorporating ecosystem services into their national economic and development planning and policy choices. Some of the Unit’s main areas of work include: economic valuation of ecosystem services; developing indicators, such as the Inclusive Wealth Index; and encouraging the integration of ecological services into planning. In response to the Gaborone Declaration and the Rio+20 outcome, the ESE initiated the VANTAGE programme.

VANTAGE specifically focuses on: economic valuation of ecosystem services; natural capital accounting; macroeconomic policy and ecosystem linkages; economic instruments and incentives; capacity development in valuation and accounting; and advisory services, with a focus on economic valuation, accounting, and policy linkages.

It has established linkages with several relevant organizations, including the GEF-funded Project for Ecosystem Services, the UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services and the UN Statistics Division’s System of Environmental-Economic Accounting.

The VANTAGE programme has also published a guidance manual for ecosystem services valuation and contributed to methodological development of tools for design of payment for ecosystem services and non-market-based valuation. On valuation and accounting, VANTAGE is: conducting studies on the socio-economic role of forest ecosystems in national economies in collaboration with UN-REDD; and implementing the Inclusive Wealth Report (IWR) initiative to provide quantitative information and analysis to transition to sustainability, among others.

VANTAGE also carries out activities on trade-off analysis, such as between ecosystems and food security, and provides input on the science-policy interface, including with its partners. VANTAGE has carried out several country pilot studies on assessing ecosystem services by applying valuation and accounting methodologies to test scientific findings, including in Chile, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, and Viet Nam.

REPORT OF THE MEETING

The International Conference on Valuation and Accounting of Natural Capital for Green Economy (VANTAGE) in Africa convened from 3-4 December and was divided into two broad sessions: a capacity building workshop on VANTAGE held on 3 December; and a high-level policy forum held on 4 December. This report is organized around these two broad sessions.

CAPACITY BUILDING WORKSHOP ON VANTAGE

OPENING SESSION

On Tuesday, 3 December, Shereen Zorba, Head, News Desk, Division of Communication and Public Information, UN Environment Programme (UNEP), opened the International Conference on VANTAGE, outlining its objectives, including encouraging implementation of natural capital accounting at national and regional levels.

Mounkaila Goumandakoye, Director, Regional Office for Africa, UNEP, emphasized the need to bridge economic, policy and scientific approaches to managing ecosystem services in order to promote human wellbeing. Noting Africa faces multi-dimensional challenges to inclusive, sustainable growth, he recommended building on natural assets to deliver sustained prosperity for all.

Pushpam Kumar, Chief, Ecosystem Services Economics, UNEP, challenged participants to consider how to make economic arguments, social accounting and natural capital frameworks useable and convincing for policymakers.

ECONOMY AND ECOSYSTEM: MEASUREMENT AND AGGREGATES

Jacqueline McGlade, UNEP, moderated this session. Robert Costanza, Australian National University, highlighted the need to recognize that all human activity is dependent on the earth’s natural life support systems, stressing that “we must live within planetary boundaries.” He underlined the importance of pursuing sustainable and equitable wellbeing, based on a new development paradigm that recognizes natural capital and uses full cost accounting.

Costanza highlighted various private sector and NGO initiatives that have incorporated this new approach and called for a new indicator of human wellbeing that acknowledges alternative types of capital. He encouraged an integrated systems approach that recognizes non-linear relationships in natural systems.

Anantha Duraiappah, International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change, UN University (UNU-IHDP), reflected on findings from the UNU-IHDP and UNEP Inclusive Wealth Report, highlighting key policy concerns, such as regarding health, security, food, employment and water. Citing case studies from Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria, he discussed how countries have differed in their investment in produced capital, and how they have drawn down their natural capital over time. Duraiappah urged the integration of environmental policies into investment initiatives, and called for the development of a consistent evaluation framework to allow for comparison.

Glenn-Marie Lange, Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES), emphasized the need to demonstrate policy linkages between natural capital accounting and decision-making. She highlighted lessons learned from WAVES, inter alia: ecosystem services such as carbon storage and hydrological services can be reliably measured and valued while other services are still in the experimental stage; and national natural capital accounting can increase ministers’ ability to argue for budget allocations.

Ivo Havinga, UN Statistics Division, described monitoring and reporting systems as critical in galvanizing development through goals and indicators. He said the statistics community is working to advance existing accounting frameworks that capture economic, environmental and social dimensions, noting that the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) is the official statistical standard. He identified challenges, including the need to integrate data and work across ministries.

ECONOMIC VALUATION IN AN ACCOUNTING FRAMEWORK: EXPERIENCES AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM AFRICA

Michel Masozera, Wildlife Conservation Society, Rwanda, moderated this panel. Patrick Birungi, National Planning Authority, Uganda, highlighted his country’s reliance on natural resources, with 66% of economic activity arising from the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors. He outlined Uganda’s Vision 2040, which provides the basis for a green economy.

Birungi described national initiatives undertaken, including valuation of urban wetlands, forests and biodiversity. He noted methodological challenges, including a lack of accurate data and uncertain monetary values, and lamented that ecosystem services have yet to be granted adequate consideration in decision-making. He urged the integration of environmental-economic accounting into national development planning processes.

Bernard Okumu, Ministry of Devolution and Planning, Kenya, cautioned that the absence of natural wealth valuation can lead to “brown” growth and “killing the goose that lays the golden egg.” He said the green economy is an important tool for achieving sustainable development and poverty reduction.

Okumu noted the lack of comprehensive and holistic natural capital indicators, required for international comparison, and called for standardization in data collection. He highlighted a model used to integrate alternative forms of wealth, using a dynamic systems approach to link society, the environment and the economy.

Juma Mgoo, Tanzanian Forest Services Agency, said Tanzania remains very dependent on its forest sector, particularly for biomass for fuel. He outlined non-use forest values not reflected in gross domestic product (GDP) figures, including US$360 million in watershed services, US$7 million in tourism values, and US$34.5 million in carbon storage. He said that if these values were considered, the total value of forest goods and services would be US$2.2 billion, or 20.1% of Tanzania’s GDP.

Eric Mungatana, UNEP, presented case studies from East and South Africa from the Implementing Environmental Accounts report, with a focus on the mineral accounts of Tanzania. He noted challenges associated with inadequate data and data confidentiality.

METHODOLOGIES AND DATA NEEDS FOR ECONOMIC VALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

Rodney Smith, University of Minnesota, US, moderated this session. Ersin Esen, UNEP, described the Project for Ecosystem Services (ProEcoServ), underscoring its aim to mainstream ecosystem services into development and policy making. He said valuation may only be practical every five years because complex valuation studies can be costly, and identified several challenges, including scaling up ecosystem services to the national level.

Mike Christie, Aberystwyth University, UK, stressed the importance of natural science in ecosystem services frameworks, underscoring its role in understanding physical changes. He discussed the benefits and limitations of different data types, noting empirical data is valuable but expensive.

Jean-Louis Weber, European Environment Agency Scientific Committee, recommended creating shared environmental information systems and implementing integrated physical accounts to facilitate further work on assessment, modeling and valuation of ecosystem services.

Luke Brander, Environmental Economist, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, described value transfer methods, which use existing value information from one study site to estimate value at a new policy site. He emphasized the applicability of value transfer in scaling up values from site-specific studies to the national level.

In the ensuing discussion, participants commented on, inter alia: data collection with limited resources; existence of knowledge gaps in biophysical data; the need for statistical specificity; the potential of green gross national product; and the costs of unsustainable consumption. On the limitations of value transfer, Brander noted more sophisticated functions and methods have been developed but cautioned that it is also important to be aware of uncertainties.

Esen emphasized the importance of recognizing tradeoffs between conservation and use values. Smith noted some natural resource processes are better understood than others.

COUNTRY EXPERIENCES IN THE USE OF NON-ECONOMIC AND NON-MARKET TECHNIQUES

Caroline Kayonga, Ministry of Natural Resources, Rwanda, moderated this session. Ashbindu Singh, former Chief and Regional Coordinator for North America, Division of Early Warning and Assessment, UNEP, described new measurement tools and methodologies, including satellite imagery, remote sensing, and web-based ‘crowd-sourcing’ tools. He described the UNEP Atlas series, which monitors 200 hotspots of rapid environmental change, including the retreat of African glaciers, urban expansion, and receding shorelines. He emphasized the need to communicate the importance of this work to a broader audience.

John Gowdy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, noted that there is consensus that the natural environment has been severely degraded in a short timeframe and that social and behavioral constraints to change exist. He explained that research on community-based natural resource management has shown that people make decisions differently depending on how they relate to each other, and that the concept of a ‘global’ community is a relatively new one.

Gowdy further noted that rent-seeking can be an obstacle to institution building, resulting in the ‘resource curse’ phenomenon.

Franz Gatzweiler, University of Bonn, Germany, emphasized that marginality and poverty are largely man-made phenomena, and that externalities need to be integrated using a more intelligent framework, in order to avoid negative outcomes for the environment and society. He noted the importance of properly assigning property rights and valuing social capital.

THE ROLE OF ECONOMIC VALUATION AND NATURAL CAPITAL ACCOUNTING IN ACHIEVING A GREEN ECONOMY

Salman Hussein, Scotland’s Rural College, UK, moderated this panel. Peter North, University of Liverpool, UK, encouraged participants to consider bigger picture questions such as the reasons for seeking to value nature in economic terms. He highlighted that the term ‘nature’ itself is a social construct, and noted the need to consider intrinsic value. North described various ways that can be used to encourage alternative valuation.

Gunnar Köhlin, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, discussed the implications of VANTAGE, the need for capacity building, and the emerging consensus that the environment is important to the green economy and development. He called for greater investment in data collection, organization and analysis, highlighting that these will help to properly inform policy research.

Köhlin further cautioned that country-specific policy analysis is resource-intense, but said that drawing upon academic institutions can assist in this regard and provide a good repository of data.

Paul van Gardingen, Director, Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation Programme, UK, called for policies to recognize the relationship between the economy, the environment and human wellbeing, in order to ensure equitable benefits for the poor. He stressed that valuation must consider people and said new methodologies are necessary to predict the impacts of policy options on the climate, land use and environmental change.

Mark Schauer, Coordinator, Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) Initiative, Germany, said ELD focuses on poverty alleviation, food security and sustainable land management. He described African case studies that show the benefits of investing in sustainable land management.

In the subsequent discussion, participants considered, inter alia: methodologies for ecosystem services valuation, including contingent valuation, production function approaches and coupled systems modeling; behavioral science and political ecology approaches; and scaling up from case studies to regional and global levels.

Van Gardingen described the challenges of contingent valuation approaches, noting donors and policymakers rarely evaluate the long-term effects of policies, and stressed the importance of cross-system, multi-disciplinary approaches to valuation. Köhlin agreed that evaluations of interventions are critical and recommended carrying out baseline assessments and evaluations more frequently.

CONCLUDING SESSION

Kumar summarized the day’s discussions. On measurement, he emphasized the role of science in analyzing asset interaction and wealth generation, and the importance of monitoring and reporting on targets. On African experiences, he noted the lack of accurate, reliable data and communication, and the limited awareness of ecosystem services by policymakers.

Regarding methodologies and data needs, Kumar said economic valuation requires a sound biophysical foundation and noted that opportunities exist to construct integrated ecosystem accounts and natural capital accounting. On economic and non-market techniques, Kumar highlighted, inter alia: limitations in discounting approaches for assessing long-term costs and benefits, such as biodiversity loss and climate change; and the critical role of institutions in sustainable development.

On priorities, Kumar emphasized the need for: capacity building to facilitate uptake of policy prescriptions; cross-disciplinary networks to share knowledge; frameworks to generate and share data; and systematic approaches to ecosystem service valuation. He said while some tools already exist to transition to wealth accounting, others will require more time for development.

HIGH-LEVEL POLICY FORUM ON VANTAGE

OPENING SESSION AND KEYNOTE ADDRESS

On Wednesday, 4 December, Nick Nuttall, Director, Division of Communication and Public Information, UNEP, opened the high-level policy forum on VANTAGE and introduced participants.

Stephen Wainaina, Economics Planning Secretariat, Ministry of Devolution and Planning, Kenya, speaking on behalf of Anne Waiguru, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Devolution and Planning, Kenya, noted that Africa is presently discovering its natural wealth and that a green approach to development needs to be encouraged. He said the African Green Economy initiative seeks to sustain livelihoods in the long term, but faces challenges such as: a lack of accurate, holistic and internationally comparable indicators; limited capacity for accounting; and competing national priorities.

Wainaina noted that Africa requires a shared policy and legal framework to manage the exploitation of its resources and to resolve conflicts caused by discovery of high value resources in transboundary areas. He called on participants to work together to overcome these challenges, and highlighted Kenya’s Vision 2030 approach to developing its resources, based on a series of medium-term plans.

Achim Steiner, Executive Director, UNEP, provided an overview of UNEP’s work, and lamented the continued decline of the world’s environment. He emphasized the need to steer the development agenda towards a green economy and to address inequality in order to avoid political instability, stressing that resource constraints and loss of agricultural land will affect the future of development and food production.

Noting that progress has previously been defined by humanity’s ability to master nature, Steiner said that in the future, progress will be measured by humanity’s ability to live within the limits of nature. He underlined that Africa has the opportunity to choose a green development path, and that valuing natural capital should be part of that.

Pushpam Kumar summarized the first day’s discussions and recommended, inter alia: changing the fundamental compass of development; making nature visible by capturing its values in fiscal reforms and monetary policy; measuring better in order to manage better; and changing incentive structures.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

In a keynote address, Partha Dasgupta, Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Cambridge, UK, discussed the role of national natural capital accounting in policy and sustainability analyses. He outlined components of sustainability analysis, including capital assets such as produced, human and natural capital, and enabling assets, such as institutions, knowledge, social capital and time.

Dasgupta argued for adding new indicators while retaining conventional indicators such as GDP to measure the wealth of nations and social wellbeing across present and future generations.

POLICY DIALOGUE ON VANTAGE

Belete Tafere, Minister of Environment and Forests, Ethiopia, chaired the session. Laila Rashed Iskandar, Minister of Environment, Egypt, presented on progress towards achieving a green economy in Egypt, including: assessing wind and solar energy potential; assessing environmental, biodiversity and climate change risk; and establishing an information clearinghouse. She noted the need to reflect the social and environmental costs of industries such as cement manufacturing, and highlighted challenges associated with incentivizing private investment.

Caroline Kayonga, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Natural Resources, Rwanda, described Rwanda’s Vision 2020 plan, explaining that it commits Rwanda to achieving specific sustainable development goals, such as poverty reduction and economic development. She further highlighted that Rwanda’s Cabinet has approved green growth and climate resilience strategies and that Rwanda’s energy strategy includes environmental options.

Kayonga listed several challenges, including dependence on fossil fuels, lack of private sector investment, high population growth and regional harmonization. She noted the need to create: a policy environment conducive to meeting green economy goals; and an action plan for natural capital accounting and integration into national development planning systems.

In a video message, Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), described economic valuation of ecosystem services and biodiversity as key in realizing a green economy. He called for achieving social and economic goals while improving natural capital stocks in ways that recognize the role of indigenous communities as custodians of natural capital.

In the subsequent ministerial dialogue session, Mohamed Halifa, Delegate in charge of Agriculture and Fisheries with the Vice-Presidency in charge of the Ministry of Production, Environment, Energy, Industry and Handicrafts, Comoros, described poverty as an obstacle to development in Comoros. Pohamba Shifeta, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Namibia, said his country is working to integrate environmental and natural capital accounting across sectors.

Andrew Mutaba Mwali, Minister for Land, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Zambia, stressed the need for data and information to support natural resource arguments. He looked forward to agreement on a roadmap for evaluation and accounting of natural capital.

DRAFT OUTCOME DOCUMENT

In the afternoon, Tafere presented the draft outcome document of the meeting (UNEP/DEPI/CONF/VANTG/2).

The document recognizes the importance of valuation and natural capital accounting, and the role it can play in moving Africa towards a green economy. It takes stock of the various international efforts to promote this approach, including the Gaborone Declaration, the Aichi Biodiversity Target 2, the outcome document of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, and the International Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

The document lists limitations to implementation, including: the inadequacy of current measures of economic performance, such as GDP; the need for more research, data and political will; and the need for better quality and comparability of data, and coordinating international efforts in this regard. It recommends promoting efforts by African countries to mainstream valuation and accounting of natural capital, and encouraging UN bodies and agencies, international financial institutions and stakeholders to assist in such efforts.

The document further recommends a series of specific activities to be undertaken, inter alia: promoting environmental policy as part of economic stimulus packages; building capacity in the field of valuation and accounting of natural capital, including via academic collaboration; providing relevant tools and methodologies; facilitating the collection and organization of data; promoting knowledge sharing; and mobilizing financial and technical assistance to support implementation in Africa.

Kayonga invited comments on the draft outcome document. Robert Costanza proposed including Ecosystem Services Partnership as a partner. The Maldives suggested involving national finance and planning ministries. The Gambia cautioned that prioritizing environmental policies within stimulus packages may affect food security and Mauritania encouraged the involvement of civil society. Several participants emphasized the need to link VANTAGE to concrete policies, development goals and poverty reduction.

THE WAY FORWARD

In a plenary discussion on recommendations and the way forward, Glenn-Marie Lange informed participants about WAVES activities and explained that WAVES is in the process of producing a knowledge platform with an ecosystem accounting resource section.

Ivo Havinga emphasized linking development to policy in order to ensure sustainability and noted that the post-2015 UN development agenda will require transformational statistics at the national and international levels, including the use of ‘big data.’ Kumar suggested that the African Union consider expressing support for the VANTAGE outcome document at its next summit.

Participants expressed appreciation for the exchange of experiences during the conference and supported forwarding the VANTAGE outcome document to the African Union for its consideration. Participants also agreed that data needs to be available, reliable and useful for policy.

In response to a question on the difference between natural capital accounting and SEEA, Lange agreed that different terminologies could lead to confusion. She said WAVES is an institutional mechanism that promotes the concept of natural capital accounting and that SEEA is the methodology used. One participant stressed an immediate need for capacity building on natural capital accounting methodologies.

Participants also discussed pricing versus valuing, with one participant emphasizing that both monetary and non-monetary valuations are useful for decision-making. Niger stressed monetary values are necessary to show the productivity of a sector, sharing experiences from his country’s land sector.

In response to a question from the Seychelles about methodologies for valuing transboundary resources such as tuna, Lange described an example from Iceland, Norway and the Russian Federation, where the regional fisheries management organization played a role in assessing national fish stocks. She said management is critical when valuing transboundary resources, noting problems arise when there is no management of regional stocks.

Kumar closed the conference at 5:10pm, thanking everyone for their participation and engagement.

UPCOMING MEETINGS

IPBES-2: The second meeting of the IPBES Plenary will address, inter alia the IPBES initial work programme, financial and budgetary arrangements, and operational rules and procedures. dates: 9-14 December 2013 venue: Rixos Sungate Hotel location: Antalya, Turkeycontact: UNEP Secretariat e-mail: ipbes.unep@unep.org www: http://www.ipbes.net/plenary/registration-ipbes-2.html

Consultative Workshop on Measuring Progress in the Post-2015 Development Framework: This meeting, the Consultative Workshop on Measuring Progress in the Post-2015 Development Framework: Environmental Performance Indicators and Environmental Welfare Indicators, is organized by the UN Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD) as the first step in the ‘Study on Measuring Sustainability in three Dimensions: Society, Economy and Environment (SEE).’ The consultation will bring together around 30 policy-makers to discuss how a diagnostic system and indicators may be developed to measure urban sustainability. dates: 10-11 December 2013 venue: Yonsei University International Campus location: Incheon, Republic of Korea contact: Jong-soo Yoon phone: +82-32-822-9088 fax: +82-32-822-9089 email: unosd@un.org www:http://www.unosd.org/content/documents/216Agenda_consultative%20workshop%20on%20measuring%20progress.pdf

First Global Conference on UN Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE): The inaugural PAGE conference will provide an opportunity to review progress on implementing the green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication following the Rio+20 Conference, as well as a chance to consider how greener economies can contribute to the emerging post-2015 development agenda and new global architecture for sustainability. dates: 4-5 March 2014 location: Dubai, United Arab Emiratescontact: Leigh Ann Hurt e-mail: Leigh-Ann.Hurt@unep.org www: http://www.unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?DocumentID=2755&ArticleID=9676&l=en

International Forum on Payments for Environmental Services of Tropical Forests: This forum is jointly organized by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the National Forest Financing Fund of Costa Rica. It aims to highlight the importance of developing and implementing PES mechanisms in tropical countries, and to share best practices and lessons learned. The Forum is expected to recommend actions at local, national and international levels for the development and effective implementation of PES mechanisms in support of sustainable forest management in the tropics. dates: 7-10 April 2014location: San Jose, Costa Rica contact: Ma Hwan-ok, ITTO email: ma@itto.int or FO-PES-forum@fao.org www:http://www.fao.org/forestry/84884/en/

Sustainable Development Transition Forum: UNOSD will host the first annual Sustainable Development Transition Forum (SDIF) (formerly Sustainable Development Implementation Forum). The SDTF aims to serve as a global platform for sharing knowledge in the formulation and implementation of sustainability programmes, reviewing evidence of impact, and charting new and improved pathways for implementation. dates: 9-11 April 2014 location: Incheon, Republic of Korea contact: UNOSD phone: +82-32-822-9088 fax: +82-32-822-9089 e-mail: unosd@un.org www: http://www.unosd.org/index.php?page=view&type=13&nr=16&menu=177

CBD COP 12: The 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 12) to the CBD will engage in a mid-term review of the implementation of the Strategic Plan and the Aichi targets. The theme of the meeting will be ‘Biodiversity for Sustainable Development.’ The Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP/MOP 7) will immediately precede COP 12. dates: 6-17 October 2014

location: PyeongChang, Republic of Korea contact: CBD Secretariat

phone: +1-514-288-2220 fax: +1 514-288-6588 e-mail: secretariat@cbd.int

www: http://bch.cbd.int/protocol/e-doc/?notification=2036

GLOSSARY

 CBD             Convention on Biological Diversity
ESE             UNEP Ecosystem Services Economics Unit
GDP             Gross Domestic Product
SEEA            System of Environmental-Economic Accounting
UNEP          United Nations Environment Programme
VANTAGE      Valuation and Accounting of Natural Capital for Green Economy
WAVES         Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services

The VANTAGE Bulletin is a publication of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) info@iisd.ca, publishers of theEarth Negotiations Bulletin © enb@iisd.org. This issue was written and edited by Catherine Benson and Peter Wood, Ph.D. The Digital Editor is Francis Dejon. The Editor is Tomilola Akanle Eni-ibukun, Ph.D. tomilola@iisd.org. The Director of IISD Reporting Services is Langston James “Kimo” Goree VI kimo@iisd.org. Funding for coverage of this meeting has been provided by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). IISD can be contacted at 161 Portage Avenue East, 6th Floor, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0Y4, Canada; tel: +1-204-958-7700; fax: +1-204-958-7710. The opinions expressed in the Bulletin are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of IISD. Excerpts from the Bulletin may be used in other publications with appropriate academic citation. Electronic versions of theBulletin are sent to e-mail distribution lists (in HTML and PDF format) and can be found on the Linkages WWW-server athttp://www.iisd.ca/. For information on the Bulletin, including requests to provide reporting services, contact the Director of IISD Reporting Services at kimo@iisd.org, +1-646-536-7556 or 300 East 56th St., 11D, New York, New York 10022, USA.

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International Workshop “Green and Social: Managing Synergies and Trade-offs” 

12-14 March 2014 | Bonn, Germany

http://www.iisd.ca/gs/

The international workshop on “Green and social: managing synergies and trade-offs” will be held from 12-14 March 2014, in Bonn, Germany.

The workshop is being organized by the German Development Institute and the Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network (PEGNet) to explore how existing development pathways can be transformed to become more environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive. It will provide a platform for discussions on how to bridge the gap between the social and environmental perspectives of development, by bringing together researchers and practitioners from the environmental and social inclusion communities.

The objective of the workshop is to examine synergies and trade-offs, find ways to merge research approaches and discuss good practices in the design of environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive policies.

IISD RS will provide a summary report of the Workshop. Kindly return to the website (http://www.iisd.ca/gs/) on Monday, 17 March 2014, for more information.

Coverage of this meeting by IISD Reporting Services is funded by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

——————————————————————–
Langston James “Kimo” Goree VI
Vice President, Reporting Services and United Nations Liaison
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) — United Nations Office
300 E 56th St. Apt. 11D – New York, NY 10022  USA
Direct Line: +1 973 273 5860 Email: kimo@iisd.org Mobile phone (new!): +12128107701 Skype: kimogoree

Where: 10-13 March Hout Bay, 14 Beijing 15-27 NYC, 28 – 9 April West Texas (cycling)

Notice:This email and any attachments may contain information that is personal, confidential, legally privileged
and/or copyright. No part of it should be reproduced, adapted or communicated without the prior written consent of the author

At UAE-hosted Inaugural Conference on Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) 

New UN-led Global Partnership to Help Green  30 National Economies by 2020

Donors Provide over US $11 Million in Support of Country-level Action  Front Runners Showcase Economic and Social Benefits of Transformation 

DUBAI, 4 March, 2014 – Countries such as Burkina Faso, Peru, Mauritius, Mongolia and Senegal are set to boost their economies through a shift of investment and policies towards a new generation of assets that include clean technologies and resource-efficient infrastructure, green skilled labour, well-functioning ecosystems and good governance.  Such a transformation, supported by the UN-led Partnership for Action on a Green Economy (PAGE), will pay significant dividends in social, environmental and economic terms. PAGE aims to extend its support to a total of 30 countries by 2020.

Well over US$11 million were announced in support of PAGE activities by donors including Finland, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Sweden and Switzerland.  The announcement was made at the first Global PAGE Conference, hosted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), under the auspices of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The event attracted more than 30 ministers of finance, environment, labour and trade from around the world, in addition to high-level UN officials, international experts, representatives from the business community and civil society.

In his welcome address, the UAE Minister of Environment and Water, Rashid Ahmed Bin Fahad, speaking on behalf of His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, referred to the UAE’s Vision 2021 and Green Growth Strategy, which was launched in 2012.

Minister Rashid Ahmed Bin Fahad said:  “As the United Arab Emirates begins its own journey towards a more sustainable future, it is fitting that we host the inaugural meeting of the UN-led Partnership for Action on Green Economy – PAGE.  The next few days are an opportunity to identify innovative ideas and best practices, which can be replicated and scaled-up, as well as areas of common concern that need further study and resolution.  Together, country by country, we can contribute to a global transformation – one that is thriving for future generations”.

Speaking on behalf of UN PAGE partners, Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said: “On behalf of the UN PAGE partners, I would like to thank the Government of the UAE – and especially His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum — for graciously hosting this pioneering inaugural PAGE conference in Dubai; allowing countries to exchange experiences and create opportunities for a more prosperous and sustainable world. It is becoming increasingly evident that generating growth and prosperity can and must be achieved within the ecological boundaries of a resource-constrained world.”

“The Partnership for Action on Green Economy has the potential to help countries improve human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities in line with their own national development priorities. Growth in income and employment would be driven by public and private investment that reduces carbon emissions and pollution, enhances energy and resource efficiency, and prevents the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services.”

“The time has now come to ensure that by 2015 – when the UN Millennium Development Goals transcend into the Sustainable Development Goals – the global community has the strategies and the policies in place to fully integrate nature into economic planning and accounting. Lifting the world’s 1.2 billion poorest to a life of dignity will require financing, innovation, technology transfer and capacity building, along with effective governance and mutually beneficial partnerships at all levels. Underpinning all that is the sustenance of the natural capital upon which any form of development relies,” he added.

In the context of the Partnership, UN partner agencies – UNEP, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) – will provide a comprehensive suite of green economy services that will enable countries to transform their national economic structures to meet the growing demands and challenges of the 21st century. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is also set to join PAGE.

Also speaking at the PAGE inaugural session were: Oyun Sanjaasuren, Minister of Environment, Mongolia; Jae-Hyun Lee, Deputy Minister of Environment, Republic of Korea; and Katariina Poskiparta, State Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Finland.

Participating in the event were ministers and high-level representatives from Armenia, Bhutan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China, Denmark, Ghana, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Norway, Palestine, Peru, Republic of Moldova, Saint Lucia, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania and Uruguay.

The Conference covers key issues such as: green and decent jobs; fiscal policy and investments; green industrial policies; social inclusion and poverty eradication; trade policies and opportunities; and metrics and indicators for inclusive green economies.

The outcomes of the two-day Conference are expected to contribute to the post-2015 development talks, currently under way at the United Nations, as well as other international fora, such as the first United Nations Environment Assembly meeting, due to be held in Nairobi this June.

The event is one of the first opportunities, since the Rio+20 Conference in 2012, for Governments and other stakeholders to take stock of national progress on the Green Economy as a pathway for achieving sustainable development and poverty eradication.

The Rio+20 Declaration – the Future We Want – mandated the United Nations to support countries in their transition to greener and more inclusive economies.  The PAGE initiative was created last year by UNEP, ILO, UNIDO and UNITAR, in response to this call for action.

Friends of PAGE, a group of countries committed to supporting the economic transition to sustainability, have collectively contributed and pledged more than USD11 million to jump start activities under the Partnership.

Notes to Editors

Quotes by PAGE partners:

* Underscoring PAGE’s ambition, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said: “Supporting the creation of new green and decent jobs is part of the PAGE offer, but so is ensuring that all workers – women and men – have the skills and support needed to help making the transition to an inclusive, low-carbon economy.  In a time of persistent unemployment, especially among youth, investing in new forms of entrepreneurship and small enterprise development could lead to real and sustainable gains in the economy.

* UNIDO Director General LI Yong added: “Greening industry can play a key role in helping countries deliver their sustainable development goals.  Under PAGE, UNIDO is scaling up its work with key industrial sectors to examine how they can increase their productive use of natural resources, minimize generation of waste and emissions, and foster safer and more responsible production, which in turn will contribute to creating cleaner and healthier societies.

* Sally Fegan-Wyles, Executive Director and Acting Head of UNITAR, underscored the benefits of the Partnership: “One of the goals of PAGE is to create a space for policy dialogue, knowledge sharing and learning on Green Economy among countries.  Our role in UNITAR is to support these efforts and to offer learning services and training programmes to help Governments and stakeholders develop and implement their Green Economy plans.

”   – This inaugural PAGE Conference will draw on the experiences of countries adopting national Green Economy pathways and policies, and put forward recommendations on how Governments can accelerate their transition. The Conference outcomes are expected to be announced at the close of the meeting on 5 March.

– The PAGE partnership was launched earlier this year in response to country-led demand for support and training on how to implement Green Economy policies and best practices. The Rio+20 Declaration, The Future We Want, also asked UN entities to support countries interested in making this transition by providing them with the tools and resources.

– Drawing on the expertise of its various members, PAGE assists participating States to build enabling conditions by shifting investment and policies towards the creation of a new generation of assets, such as clean technologies, resource-efficient infrastructure, well-functioning ecosystems, green skilled labour and good governance.

– Information on PAGE is available at: http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/PAGE/tabid/105854/language/en-US/Default.aspx

– UAE’s PAGE Conference website: http://www.moew.gov.ae/Portal/en/home.aspx

For more information, please contact:

UNEP: Shereen Zorba, Head of News and Media, Tel. +254 788 526000   Email:  Shereen.Zorba@unep.org
Leigh-Ann Hurt, Green Economy Initiative, Tel. +44 7827 536 869     Email: Leigh-Ann.Hurt@unep.org

ILO: Dorit Kemter, Email. kemter@ilo.org

UNIDO: Charles Arthur, Communications Officer, Tel: +43-1-26026-3638, Email: Arthur@unido.org

UNITAR: Akiko Perona, Chief of Communication and Information Technology, Support Services, Tel. +41-22-917-8400Email: Akiko.Perona@unitar.org

UAE Ministry of Environment and Water:  Aisha Al Abdooli, Undersecretary for Environmental Affairs, UAE Tel. +971-50-344-3777

 UN PAGE PR 2014 English

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Jim Sniffen
Programme Officer
UN Environment Programme
New York
tel: +1-212-963-8094
sniffenj at un.org/jsniffen88 at gmail.com
www.unep.org

Reflections for the 21st Century: On How to Discern on the Importance of International Women’s Day

By Marta Benavides,

GCAP Global Co Chair, and the Feminist Task Force/FTF,

SIGLO XXIII Movement for Culture of Peace,

El Salvador

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The International day of Women was created in recognition and to celebrate the Rights of women workers, in order to promote their participation in the struggle for equity and equality, which presently is one of the UN Millennium Development Goals/MDGs.. and in the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals/SDGs, it is being considered as a possible stand alone goal, so, women can have an effective equal presence with men, for social and personal development. In the Sustainability and Social development Agenda, gender perspective and women rights are considered to be key to the eradication of poverty and hunger, and to the creation of the WORLD AND FUTURE THAT MUST BE CREATED FOR THE CARE OF PRESENT AND FUTURE GENERATIONS AND THE URGENT CARE OF THE PLANET.

It was first celebrated on 8^th March1911, in Germany, Austria, Denmark and Switzerland The United Nations at its General Assembly in 1977, proclaimed 8^th March as the International Day for Women´s Rights, and now this celebration and commemoration is in most countries a Nationally celebrated day.

Today, in spite of all the work about it, the concern on all types of violence and discrimination against women continues to be a major issue and concern, to the point that in many countries there are offices to monitor them as feminicides. El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru and Mexico are concrete examples of this situation, which happen in many more countries and still does not seem to be effectively addressed.

Violence against women is not just what is happening to individual women, we see that the educational, economic, social and cultural aspects of the current systems, at local, national and global levels must intentionally work with a transformational agenda to be able to achieve this urgently needed change, that not only robs women and societies of peace, but does not allow the qualitative development for the new paradigm to become a reality in our life time.

There are aspects, many historical, many legal, many cultural, and economic that affect directly the maintenance of this reality: the colonial and slave enterprise, the international division of labor, the forced impoverishment that maintains people to live in survival, which in turn needs to force women into the care and the so called informal economy and to be cheap labor. All these conditions are based in ignorance and a culture of discrimination and the exploitation of peoples and whole nations, this is what we consider to be the extractive model of development, which is based in the violations of all human rights, the economic,social and cultural rights of peoples, and the rights of the planet and the environment.

The structures of the state, must reflect the commitment to this understanding, that this is a matter of peace and of national security, thus there must be policies of state and administration of government that in fulfillment of the national constitution go about meeting in a timely manner, these demands for the well being of all, and the care of the planet. The national and international budgets must reflect this commitment. This is not about assistance, but about real transformation of all the endeavors of national and global society. If a country finds a way to meet the basic needs of women by taking loans that the whole society must pay, but the national constitution, and the various policies and services do not show the timely commitment for equity and equality, the chance to eradicate poverty and hunger will only be about the alleviation of these two major indicators of real development and sustainability It is then urgent and important not to fall in such a trap, which only comes to add to the financial and economic indebtedness of the society, and nations, to say the least, and to maintain the system of inequality and impoverishment as it basically exist..

If we are serious about this commitments and we keep our eyes wide open, and our eyes in the prize as the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., called us to be, we will be able to detect the countless very costly gimmicks that are being created and carried out today, under the guise for women equality and for the defense of their rights.

It is time to go from the promises to real action, it can be done, and the enjoyment of the fullness of life can be a reality sooner rather than later.Now is the time… let us move now.

A way to contribute to this societal change of paradigm about equity and equality for all, and in particular for women, it is most important to make sure we have clarity of the call, FOR THE WORLD AND FUTURE THAT ARE NEEDED FOR THE CARE OF PEOPLE AND PLANET, FOR THE ERADICATION NOT THE ALLEVIATION OF POVERTY AND HUNGER.

In El Salvador we have been conducting consultations on the MDGs and toward the SDGs, with the very people that have been excluded for centuries, since the colonizers went global around the world. These are some of the considerations that are key to real, timely and relevant results:

Women, youth/children, migrants, older adults, first nations, LGBTQ, people with special challenges, rural and coastal peoples, who have been and are traditionally excluded must be intentionally listened to, and brought into the circle of all.

Use the correct language when referring to people in conditions of poverty– not the poor, the marginalized, the less fortunate, the disadvantage.. etc. etc.. you know all the names used to refer to people forced into poverty

Do remember that there is lots of expertise in our communities, we know how to transform the situations we have to face, besides resisting them, we create possibilities. When we say we know how to end poverty and hunger, listen to us.. it is because of the illegal colonial practices, that we do not have our lands, water, seeds.. we know how to feed people, we have been doing this in spite of the land graving that is still going on. See our expertise. Do not continue to dismiss it, commit to not do it any more.

Know that INGOs and NGOs can only accompany us in the social transformations that must happen, but each of person can choose to walk with us. Do not look down on us, nor use our situation to live privileged life.

Be willing to see deeply on what has been going on.. we know of high level staff at the UN, who deny the impact of the historical colonial and slavery experiences.. these two are key to understand the conditions in which we are now, and to figure out the ways to move ahead. Cultural aspects are also very important factors of development

For our communities peace and development are one and the same.. and happiness is what we see as a good result of them… success and progress do not mean the same to us as those people that see them as privilege, position and money.

The UN is a peace organization, thus all its work must be for the enjoyment of a culture of peace.

We understand that there is a critical financial and economic crisis, a crisis of employment and an environmental – climate change crisis that are impacting very negatively all aspects of life and that is also at the roots of conflict and violence, and wars.

Especially we need to call attention to the following recommendation, which for our people is the most important and needed work that must carried out immediately:

We are affirming the recommendation consumption and production patterns by Social Watch:

Joint civil society action around Post-2015 has to focus on goals and commitments for the countries of the North, the necessary changes of the consumption and production patterns in these countries, and the structural framework conditions shaped by these countries, particularly in the global financial, investment and trade systems.

This call to do this urgent work is best understood and underlined by a message from Bolivians on the terrible floorings they are suffering today: Therefore the Bolivian tragedy cannot be blamed only in climate change but in the fatal combination of causes all related to the thirst for energy of the occidental way of life.

Here are suggested indicators to measure the effectiveness of this work, they were presented Feb 2014 to the UN by the Women Major Group and the Women Post 2015 Coalition working for the creation of the SDGs:

• Secure Safe and Sustainable and Just Production and Consumption Patterns and eliminate hazardous substances and technologies.
• Guarantee (100%) application of the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle to policies and programs on sustainable production and consumption and to new and existing technologies, products and waste management processes.
• Ensure full application of prior free and informed consent: Indigenous and local knowledge systems and technologies are adequately recognized, protected, strengthened and used ensuring control by the indigenous communities. Women and other affected groups participate effectively in decision-making throughout all stages of technology development, including assessment.
• Eliminate (100%) hazardous substances: Phase out harmful substances and chemicals and radioactive substances linked with persistent and/or irreversible damage to humans and the environment.
• Harmful chemicals: hazardous pesticides, endocrine disrupting chemicals, CMRs, PB…etc.
• Harmful substances including so mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, asbestos in products and processes

Radioactive substances

• Eliminate (100%) all unsustainable tax incentives: Tax exemptions, subsidies, regulatory frameworks and other incentives are redirected towards sustainable, knowledge and employment-intensive sectors and local sustainable value chains and away from unsustainable activities, including industrial fisheries, forestry and agriculture, risky and otherwise unsustainable forms of energy production like fossil fuels, nuclear energy, unconventional energy production/franking and industrial bioenergy, extractive industries and chemical industry
• 100% Internalization of environmental costs for the full life-cycle of products; this includes full insurance costs for greatest expectable accidents in case of high-risk technologies. Currently, nuclear power operators and many other high-risk industrial complexes, are exempted from insurance obligations, which means that in case of accidents, the tax-payer/ citizens end up paying for the damage.
• Full environmental and social corporate reporting and accountability. Set binding criteria that industrial production and consumption practices, especially extractive industries, do not cause violence, toxic pollution, displacement, poverty, resource scarcity, gender disparity, or environmental degradation.
• Enact corporate social accountability standards are put in place to enforce decent labor conditions and prevent overuse and overproduction of resources and pollution by investors and corporations.
• Ensure access to environmentally sound technologies, developing countries have equitable access to technologies, agreement on lifting of intellectual property barriers and measures to ensure that knowledge is in the public domain.
• Full technology assessment and authorization: Ensure independent social and environmental impact assessments to monitor and evaluate new and existing industries by establishing a multilateral mechanism for ecological, social, cultural, and economic evaluation of technologies. Enact moratorium on all technologies that can damage Earth cycles, such as geo-engineering and deep sea mining.

 And here is also the Oxfam document on inequalities:

Newsletter : 1- 15 February 2014 Vol. : 50   

Paryavaran Mitra Puraskar nominations are throwing open a treasure trove of Handprint actions. Most of them deal with applying the knowledge students have acquired through their classroom learning to the environment around them to the extent of addressing local environmental issues within their reach and also spreading the message in the community, beginning with their own families.

Exploring, discovering, thinking and acting schools of Uttar Pradesh.

Handprint projects by students have documented biodiversity (varieties of rice, mangoes, cattle, birds, vegetables, flowering plants) of their village. Environment improvement projects included fixing leaking taps and conserving water, channelizing waste water to gardens, and cleaning water sources near their school. Some action projects also targeted behaviours which included students adopting hand washing as a habit, reducing usage on non-biodegradable cups, plates at social functions, etc.

In the teachers’ category the physical education teacher from Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Malihabad, Lucknow saw worth in improving students’ physical wellness while doing environmental projects, negating the myth that Environment Education connects only to the classroom science subjects. The state also acknowledges the partnerships which played a key role in the outreach. One such partnership is the media partnership with DLA publications, with a readership of more than 3.5 lakh the newspaper carried an environment feature every fortnight on various issues in the environment and also spread the word on the actions done by students in the Paryavaran Mitra programme to various audiences. Read school stories here.

Environmental action moves beyond the schools’ boundaries in schools of Bihar.

Schools in Bihar scored on the magnitude of their work and the outreach to the community within and outside the school. Students of K.R.High School, West Champaran surveyed water use in 261 households in the community. Students started with assessing several environmental parameters including water and energy use and waste in the school and worked on several environment improvement projects including, plantation of trees, vermi composting, etc. At Rajkiya Kanya Madhya Vidyalaya, Sasaram the documentation of water use and wastage from source to sink and thereafter was good enough to get shortlisted for the WIPRO Earthian water conservation award. Take a look at the best school, teacher, student, district nominations here

Showcasing our Handprints on a world stage

CEE has partnered with the United Nations Environment Programme’s UNertia campaign and competition through the Paryavaran Mitra programme. The initiative encourages anyone and everyone, in particular young people, students and schools in the Asia-Pacific region, to engage in Sustainable Actions which will yield positive environmental benefits in their local communities. Take a look at the UNEP page here and stay tuned for more updates on UNertia from the Paryavaran Mitra network.

Doing and documenting Handprint actions in Tamil Nadu schools

Schools have not only carried out interesting action projects in the thematic areas but have meticulously quantified their Handprint (the positive actions towards sustainable development). Schools in the state make EE and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) activities seem like they are a way of life! Check out the best school nominationshere

Addressing local-specific environmental issue of Olive Ridley Turtle conservation by schools in Odisha

Schools in Odisha have done in-depth actions in the themes of energy conservation, waste and biodiversity. Schools in Ganjam Odisha have worked on locale-specific environmental issues. Their projects addressed a very important local environmental issue of the rare Olive Ridley Turtle conservation. They’re work focused on cleaning and protecting nesting sites and to also sustain the work in future. here

Schools creating to inspire

CEE has partnered with Nokia India and GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) on ‘Create to Inspire to work in 100 schools of Ahmedabad. Schools will work on action projects in the themes of E-waste, Water, Energy and Transport focusing on sustainable consumption. The actions will begin at school and students’ will be spreading the message in the community around their schools through creative expressions like art installation, poster exhibition, and presentation by film or powerpoint etc. CEE will also facilitate schools with mentors for the creative expressions from eminent institutions in Ahmedabad. The initiative was flagged off with a teachers orientation on 21st December 2013 with 12 schools. Schools in Ahmedabad are invited to join the initiative here.

http://paryavaranmitra.in/Default.aspx?sID=61

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From: UNESCO-UNEVOC [unevoc@unesco.org] Sent: 2014-03-21 10:39:53 Subject:

Upcoming: Special Virtual Conference on Revising the Revised 2001 Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education
Dear e-Forum members,
Monitoring the implementation of standard setting instruments in the field of TVET is part of UNESCO’s mandate and is one of the key areas of work outlined in UNESCO’s Strategy for TVET. The Third International Congress on TVET called for profound transformations in the conceptualization, governance, funding and organization of technical and vocational education and training. During the Congress, a special session held on the normative instruments concerning TVET confirmed that the 2001 Revised Recommendation would benefit from revision and updating, to ensure a stronger focus on lifelong learning and to become responsive to challenges many countries currently face, such as rapid demographic and technological changes, youth unemployment, social inequalities, and sustainable development.
As part of a rigorous process involving a number of high level consultations with UNESCO Member States over the next months, UNESCO-UNEVOC and the UNESCO TVET Section are jointly organizing a Special Virtual Conference from 1 to 14 April 2014 on the UNEVOC e-Forum. Interested members from the TVET community, including learners, employers, education providers, analysts and development experts are invited to participate and provide inputs to the revising process. This is a unique opportunity for everyone in the TVET community to share their vision and help shape the future of TVET and skills development.
For more information and to sign up, visit http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/virtual-conference
Moderated by Professor Simon McGrath, Director of Research and Professor of International Education and Development at the University of Nottingham, this Special Virtual Conference will introduce the background and context of the normative instruments and will aim to gather inputs from participants on the following key questions:
* What should be the scope of a successful international standard setting instrument in the field of TVET? * What, for the purpose of this revised instrument, should be understood by the term ‘TVET’? * What should be the guiding principles upon which to base the Revised Recommendation? * How should the text of the Revised Recommendation be organized so as to be applicable to a diversity of country contexts and to remain current in a constantly changing world?
Contributions will be synthesized and summarized into a final synthesis report, which will feed directly into the broader consultation process that is currently taking place with UNESCO Member States.
We look forward to your active participation in the discussion from 1-14 April and we encourage you to circulate information on event to your networks and encourage relevant colleagues to participate.
Best regards, UNESCO-UNEVOC
view thread online: http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/go.php?q=e-Forum+-+Message+Board&skin=efor&lang=en&action=threadlist&thread=2533

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From: UNESCO-UNEVOC [unevoc@unesco.org] Sent: 2014-03-21 18:12:04 Subject: Just published: Shanghai Update 2
Dear e-Forum members,
We are pleased to share with you the second issue of the Shanghai Update! This newsletter gives an overview of the activities undertaken by UNESCO and UNEVOC to respond to the recommendations that were made to UNESCO by its Member States in Shanghai. This new issue contains information about recent and future events and developments on the post-2015 agenda for education and skills development.
In May 2012 more than 700 TVET experts gathered at the Third TVET Congress in Shanghai to set an international agenda for TVET for the next five years. UNESCO and UNEVOC published the first Shanghai Update one year after the congress

( see here: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ED/pdf/shanghaiupdateJune2013.pdf ).
Read the Shanghai Update in:

English: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002270/227059e.pdf

French: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002270/227059f.pdf

Spanish: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002270/227059s.pdf

Best regards, UNESCO-UNEVOC
view thread online: http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/go.php?q=e-Forum+-+Message+Board&skin=efor&lang=en&action=threadlist&thread=2535

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This analysis, taken from the summary issue of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin © enb@iisd.org, is written and edited by Tallash Kantai, Elisa Morgera, Ph.D., Delia Paul, and Elsa Tsioumani. The Digital Editor is Mike Muzurakis. The Editor is Pamela Chasek, Ph.D. <pam@iisd.org>. The Director of IISD Reporting Services is Langston James ╲Kimo╡ Goree VI <kimo@iisd.org>. The Sustaining Donor of the Bulletin is the European Commission (DG-ENV). General Support for the Bulletin during 2014 is provided by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, SWAN International, the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Japanese Ministry of Environment (through the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies – IGES), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Specific funding for coverage of this meeting has been provided by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea. Funding for translation of the Bulletin into French has been provided by the Government of France, the Wallonia, Québec, and the International Organization of La Francophonie/Institute for Sustainable Development of La Francophonie (IOF/IFDD). The opinions expressed in the Bulletin are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of IISD or other donors. Excerpts from the Bulletin may be used in non-commercial publications with appropriate academic citation. For information on the Bulletin, including requests to provide reporting services,

contact the Director of IISD Reporting Services at <kimo@iisd.org>, +1-646-536-7556 or

300 East 56th St., 11D, New York, NY 10022 USA.

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Climate change and the risks of global food system collapse

Globalized diet: More food, less diversity, more associated risks
As experts have been suspecting for a while, and as many of us have certainly noticed, people’s diets around the world have become very similar. So much so that in the past 50 years the whole world has come to rely increasingly on just a few crops for most of its food supplies – including old favorites such as wheat, rice, maize, and potato but also more recent ones like soybean, sunflower oil and palm oil – along with meat and dairy products. Many local crops that used to be important in Africa or Asia such as sorghum, millet, rye, sweet potato, cassava, and yam are failing to keep up.
While we generally eat more calories, protein and fat than 50 years ago, the lack of diversity in such a “standard globalized diet” may deprive us from the micronutrients our body needs. It may also increase the occurrence of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, even in countries that are struggling to make enough food available to their people.
The other danger of relying upon just a few crops is that this makes agriculture and the global food system more vulnerable, and increases the risk of food crisis. Similar to the concept of portfolio diversification in finance, a diversified agriculture is more resilient to major threats like drought, insect pests, and diseases, all expected to worsen with climate change.
Read the full post and access the study by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the Global Crop Diversity Trust at

http://www.ciatnews.cgiar.org/2014/03/03/globalized-diet-more-food-less-diversity-more-associated-risks/

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From: gerald darryl baiden [gdbaiden@gmail.com]

Sent: 2014-03-21 12:15:30 Subject: Setting up a school bridging the gap between academia and practice
I am interested in setting up a school with core focus on the built environment which would aim at bridging the gap between academia and practice as well making academia relevant. Would like to instill the discipline of quality delivery of service in the training, introduce new technology and encouraging the challenge to meet international standards. Presently the system is filled with apprentice trained artisans who have perfected the mistakes of the masters over time in the informal sector a few vocational trained ones who have theory but no practicals, as well as train new people, i would like to sanitize the existing system.
view thread online: http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/go.php?q=e-Forum+-+Message+Board&skin=efor&lang=en&action=threadlist&thread=2534
—-

UNESCO-UNEVOC e-Forum, http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/e-forum

Login for read-only access: User “Bulletin”, password “read” Contributions and feedback: forum@unevoc.unesco.org

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3-5 March 2014 | UN Headquarters, New York, United States of America

http://www.iisd.ca/sdgs/owg9/

Ninth Session of the Open Working Group (OWG) of the UN

Assembly (UNGA) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

3-5 March 2014 | UN Headquarters, New York, United States of America

http://www.iisd.ca/sdgs/owg9/

The ninth session of the UN General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) took place from 3-5 March 2014, at UN Headquarters in New York. Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative of Kenya, and Csaba Kőrösi, Permanent Representative of Hungary, continued in their roles as Co-Chairs of the meeting, which brought together OWG members and other Member States, representatives from UN agencies, and Major Groups.

OWG-9 served as the first session of the OWG’s second phase, which began the process of narrowing down preferences for a set of SDGs following an extensive, eleven-month “stocktaking” phase. Delegates considered a list of 19 “focus areas” that had been distributed by the Co-Chairs one week prior to OWG-9, participated in a joint meeting with the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing, heard the reactions of Major Groups to the Focus Areas, and discussed the way forward for its next session, which begins on 31 March 2014. At the end of the meeting, the Co-Chairs offered to prepare four informational documents to assist delegates in their deliberations at OWG-10: a “slightly tweaked” focus areas document; a compendium of existing issue targets on various issues; a matrix of interlinkages between issues; and working definitions of goals, targets, and indicators

The Summary and Analysis of this meeting is now available

in PDF format at http://www.iisd.ca/download/pdf/enb3209e.pdf

in HTML format at http://www.iisd.ca/vol32/enb3209e.html

A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF OWG-9

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” Andy Warhol

OWG-9 marked a turning point as delegates began the process of shifting gears from stocktaking mode to negotiating mode. The possibilities—and enormity—of the OWG’s task came into greater focus as delegates began to discuss what issues, goals and targets may be included in the final list of SDGs. On the one hand, several participants acknowledged that about 80% of the proposals for goals and targets have broad consensus among Member States. However, on the other hand, they noted that the remaining 20% represent some of the most challenging issues, including means of implementation and broader financing issues, common but differentiated responsibilities, and universality. This brief analysis of OWG-9 reviews the changes that the OWG is facing as it moves forward, and possible areas of convergence and divergence on goals and targets, based on the comments on the OWG Co-Chairs’ focus areas document.

“THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’”

Over the past year, OWG speakers have recognized that the possibility exists for the SDGs to set a new course for development. During the OWG-9 discussion on financing for sustainable development, for example, some raised the possibility to address new sources of finance, with Co-Chair Kamau suggesting that the focus should go “way beyond” traditional official development assistance. This comment, however, reminded many participants that change is never easy. Iran recalled that the decisions of those who are thinking outside the box “will be judged by inside-the-box people,” serving to remind the OWG that the latter may have a different set of concerns and may not implement the decisions that do not resonate with them. In this respect, some thought that Colombia’s proposed “M&M” indicator might help the OWG determine if they have pushed themselves hard enough. The indicator refers to whether “Ministers” will see the SDGs as something they can implement, and “Mothers” will understand the SDGs and recognize the goals’ relevance for their lives.

Throughout the OWG’s work, participants have recalled the differences between the process underway to develop the next set of global goals and the process by which the MDGs were elaborated. In the case of the MDGs, while an intergovernmental discussion led to the adoption in 2000 of the Millennium Declaration, which identified global priorities and even included a few targeted actions, the MDGs themselves were presented in a Secretary-General’s report, which resulted from inter-agency consultations. Subsequently, many have acknowledged that the initial acceptance of the MDGs was slow, due in part to the limited participation in their creation.

Determined to learn from the MDG experience, governments are taking a different approach for the post-2015 development agenda. As Pakistan noted during OWG-9, the Group is playing host to the first genuinely intergovernmental process that has been mandated to elaborate a “development process.” Another speaker highlighted that dialogues such as OWG-9’s joint meeting with the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing are important for building trust among delegates and understanding the challenges that each country will face within their respective capacities. Both this trust and understanding will be needed to help move this unique decision-making process forward and enable everyone—those “outside” and “inside” the box, as well as Ministers and Mothers—to come together.

SOME THINGS CHANGE AND SOME REMAIN THE SAME

Specific areas of convergence and divergence became clearer during OWG-9, as governments responded to the Co-Chairs’ focus areas document. For example, “Focus Area 1”—poverty eradication—received nearly unanimous support as the primary focus of the SDGs. There was also significant support for economic growth as the subject of several focus areas and/or goals, such as on industrialization and infrastructure. However, OWG-9 revealed that some developing country governments view poverty eradication and economic growth as steps on the way to sustainable development, while other governments and Major Groups stressed that a focus on economic growth over-emphasizes the traditional paradigm of development.

At the other end of the document was the much discussed “Focus Area 19”—peaceful and non-violent societies, and capable institutions. Some governments called for these issues to be separated into two separate areas/goals (one for peace, the other for governance). Others preferred a narrower focus area on rule of law, good governance and accountable institutions. And several called for removing them altogether, with the issues—the so-called “enablers” of sustainable development—addressed instead as supporting and interlinking targets, or perhaps through a preamble or narrative for the goals.

A number of speakers highlighted the missing or underdeveloped areas of the focus areas document, including food security and nutrition, agriculture, disaster risk reduction, and desertification, land degradation and drought. Some voiced support for “Focus Area 16”on oceans and seas, while others instead preferred to cluster this issue in a “sustainable management of natural ecosystems” goal. Delegates also suggested that: climate change should be incorporated in a cross-cutting manner; migration and youth should receive greater prominence in the framework; water and sanitation are key issues; and gender equality and women’s empowerment should be treated in both a stand-alone goal and as cross-cutting across all other areas. There also appeared to be general agreement on the importance of interlinkages and their elaboration in order to bring about a transformative agenda.

Strong disagreement continued to surface on references to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Echoing arguments from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, a number of speakers said these issues represent a “red line” that will hamper agreement. They stressed that “controversial language” should be avoided and the OWG should respect each country’s culture, religion, and legal system. Others adamantly favored addressing sexual and reproductive health and rights in the SDGs.

Just as challenging are discussions on two factors that could shape the entire framework: MOI and CBDR. Many developing countries called for each goal to contain concrete options for MOI. Some skepticism was expressed regarding the private sector’s role in implementation, and although many supported a stand-alone goal on strengthened global partnership, they expressed many differing definitions of just what this implies. On CBDR, Brazil asserted that the principle applies to the entire SDG framework because “Rio+20 universalized it,” expanding its scope beyond climate change. Many developed countries, however, argued that CBDR applies only to environmental degradation, and not poverty eradication or other areas of development.

During the closing session, several developing countries called for the Co-Chairs to provide draft opening paragraphs for the SDGs, to set the context in which intergovernmental cooperation would take place in the coming years. Some thought that the way this discussion plays out during future OWG sessions could set the stage to resolve the reflection of MOI and CBDR across the SDGs.

MOVING FORWARD

Amid discussion of the many pressing issues, delegates were clearly anxious to discuss “the way forward”—how the OWG will begin negotiation of specific goals and targets. Such discussions were confined to informal meetings until the final hour of the meeting on Wednesday afternoon, when the Co-Chairs offered to prepare four informational documents: an amended focus areas document; a compendium of existing targets on various issues; a matrix of interlinkages between issues; and working definitions of goals, targets, and indicators.

Using a slightly “tweaked” version of the focus areas document as the basis for the next meeting’s discussion seemed acceptable to all, although Co-Chair Kamau repeatedly reminded the delegates that the discussion should now move to specific proposals for goals and targets, rather than continued exposition of the issue areas. With just twenty negotiating days left on the calendar, the OWG appears ready for change as the time for negotiations has arrived.

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Dear Colleagues,

We are very pleased to share with you a new draft SDSN report for public consultation. Indicators for Sustainable Development Goals presents a framework of 100 indicators for post-2015, based on the 10 goals and 30 targets presented in the Action Agenda for Sustainable Development. This report is at an early stage. We seek your help with comments and creativity to improve and complete the proposed indicator framework.

The public consultation will run from 14 February to 14 March 2014. Full details are available here. Please use the comment form and send it by email to info@unsdsn.org. Please focus your comments on the proposed indicators, as the goals and targets have already undergone an extensive public consultation. We propose to keep the total number of core indicators to no more than 100, so any addition of new indicators will need to be matched by cuts elsewhere.

We encourage readers to also discuss the report on Twitter, referencing #indicators2015, although the Twitter feed is not a substitute for sending in written comments using the comment form. Let us also take this opportunity to announce a redesign of our website. We hope you will find it more informative and user friendly.

After the end of the public consultation we will make all submissions publicly available on our website, unless submissions are marked as confidential. As with the Action Agenda, we will publish a brief synthesis of the comments received (the synthesis of comments on the Action Agenda is available here).

Thank you very much for your help in improving the draft report.

Guido Schmidt-Traub

Executive Director, SDSN

http://pubs.iied.org/11503IIED.html

IIED is a company limited by a guarantee and incorporated in England. Reg. No 2188452. Registered office: 80-86 Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8NH, UK. VAT Reg. No. GB 440 4948 50. Charity No. 800066. OSCR No 039864 www.iied.org

http://www.iisd.ca/vol12/enb12592e.html

Heat stress and adaptive capacity of low-income outdoor workers and their families in the city of Da Nang, Vietnam     http://pubs.iied.org/10051IIED Community consultation for long-term climate-resilient housing in Vietnamese cities: a comparative case study between Hue and Da Nang http://pubs.iied.org/10643IIED Cost–benefit analysis of mangrove restoration in Thi Nai Lagoon, Quy Nhon City, Vietnam    http://pubs.iied.org/10644IIEDKate Wilson

 Lewis Akenji Senior Policy Fellow Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) JAPAN  akenji@iges.or.jp +81-46-826-9594
2014 Japan SDGs SCP in SDGs_Discussion paper_Akenji and Bengtsson

project was launched.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034505.html

Government Highlights Traditional System of Local Residents Sharing,
Conserving Spring Water as Common Property
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034534.html

Solar Partners and IOM Launch Solar Lantern Donation Project in Somalia
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034538.html

Ministries Revises UHI Effect Mitigation Policy
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034540.html

Toshiba Tec Co. Wins METI Minister Award in Green IT Awards 2013
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034543.html

JAMSTEC Successfully Generates Electricity from Hot Water and Seawater
from Seabed
http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034545.html

Retail Chain Stops Providing Free Plastic Shopping Bags at All Stores

http://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id034547.html

NAIROBI, 31 October 2013 – Fully biodegradable plates implanted with organic seeds in Colombia to provide food after use, a social media website to promote car-sharing in Viet Nam, certified cocoa for speciality markets, and affordable biodegradable sanitary pads made from banana waste are just some of the 34 winners of the 2013 SEED A wards, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today.  The Awards identify and support innovative social and environmental start-up enterprises, which can tackle key sustainable development challenges at community level, in developing and emerging economies.  Other Award winners include Uganda’s ‘Nuru Energy’, which via a micro-franchise scheme sells generators powered by pedals and provides reliable, clean, sustainable power to off-grid households, and ‘moWoza’ – a mobile phone application providing cross-border traders in Mozambique with fast information on prices, payments and deliveries and empowering female entrepreneurs.  As in previous years, the 2013 SEED Awards placed a special focus on Africa, with 20 awards being made to enterprises in Ethiopia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. This is part of a larger project entitled ‘Stimulating the Green Economy in Africa’, which is funded largely by the European Union, and a separate project funded by the Government of Flanders (Flanders International Cooperation Agency) to grant a further two Awards in the South African provinces of Free State, KwaZulu Natal and Limpopo.  Reflecting the growing need to encourage climate-smart enterprises at the grassroots level, a further 10 SEED Low-Carbon Awards are being made to social and environmental enterprises that focus on mitigation and adaptation to climate change. These Awards are funded mainly by the International Climate Initiative of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.    Two SEED Gender Equality Awards complete the line-up. UN Women and UNIDO are funding enterprises that are women-led or -owned and prioritize gender equality or women’s empowerment as a core objective. The Gender Equality Winners will also be supported by the SEED Associate Hogan Lovells, the international law firm.   All the 2013 SEED winners were honoured at a high-level International Awards Ceremony at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, on the day of a special SEED Symposium “Green Entrepreneurship: Local Solutions that Make a Difference” taking place in the framework of the Global South-South Development Expo.   At the same event, major Chinese electronics and white goods manufacturer HISENSE was confirmed as a corporate partner for the SEED Initiative for the next three years. The company will also support UNEP’s Resource Efficiency sub-programme.    The Award winners will receive from SEED a package of individually tailored support for their businesses, access to other supporting institutions and technical assistance, and a financial contribution of US$5,000.  The 2013 call for proposals saw applications from 85 countries, representing the collaborative efforts of partnerships between enterprises, non-governmental organizations, women and youth groups, labour organizations, public authorities, international agencies and academia.  Most of the applications were in the agricultural and rural development sectors, as well as in energy and climate change, and ecosystem management. Many entries at the same time addressed micro-enterprise development, IT applications, and education and training.   The winners were selected by the independent SEED International Jury of experts (details below).  On the occasion of the announcement the following statements were made:    Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General, UNEP Executive Director: “These micro-companies are the little acorns from which big and mighty businesses could well grow, but they are more than that. These mini-enterprises are achieving profitability, not at the expense of their environment or their communities, but by providing solutions to the social, economic and environmental challenges of our time. If proof is needed that a transition to an inclusive Green Economy is underway, then look no further than these remarkable entrepreneurs.”   Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator: “The SEED winners show us a viable path to a greener economy and highlight the power of creative local business models that can inform the discussions on the post-2015 development agenda.”    Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN Director-General: “As Chairman of the SEED Board, I greatly welcome this next cohort of SEED winners – social innovators and entrepreneurs who also place environment centre stage. We will do what we can to help them and others to grow, and call on others to join us.”  Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women Executive Director: “With their innovative entrepreneurial approaches and unfailing attention to women’s empowerment, the SEED Gender Equality Award winners are advancing sustainable development, both locally and at global level. In every region, women are coming forward with new ideas to combat poverty and improve living standards while protecting natural resources. Women’s economic empowerment and full and equal participation in decision-making are essential to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and should be prioritized in the post-2015 development agenda.”    Li Yong, UNIDO Director-General: ‘’Promoting women’s economic empowerment is an integral part of UNIDO’s work.  As half of the world’s population, women play a crucial role in economic growth, environmental sustainability and poverty reduction. This year’s SEED Gender Equality Award winners should be recognized as social innovators who are paving new roads towards not just the empowerment of women, but also towards inclusive and sustainable industrial development.  They are pioneers at the local level but make considerable impacts at the global level, shaping new opportunities for themselves, and more importantly, other women.”    The 2013 SEED Gender Equality Award winners (by country) are:    Colombia:  ·        “PROVOKAME” produces innovative 100 per cent biodegradable plates, made from natural fibres and recycled paper, which are also implanted with seeds. The enterprise trains and employs local women living in rural areas in the plate production process. The plates are distributed through supermarket chains and organic products shops. The entire process contributes not only to the reduction of pollution and sustainable waste management, but also creates job and income for women, while additionally increasing environmental awareness among the community.  Peru:  ·        “Life Out Of Plastic – L.O.O.P.” is a 100 per cent women-owned organization that designs and sells green products such as reusable bags and fleece made from rPET fibre – a textile derived from bottle recycling. L.O.O.P.’s mission is to raise awareness among coastal communities about plastic pollution using market tools such as social media to fund education campaigns, art exhibitions, guided tours for school-groups, and beach clean-up activities, all teaching the value of marine ecosystems to communities.   The 2013 SEED Low-Carbon Award winners (by country) are:   Colombia:  ·        “Un litro de luz Colombia“ promotes an alternative lighting system based on recycled plastic bottles that are filled with pure water and bleach and then fitted on roofs. This brings lighting to rural and peri-urban poor areas that are not connected to a conventional electricity distribution grid. The enterprise employs women to identify the homes in which the lighting is to be installed, targeting deprived families; women and men are employed equally for the installation.   India:  ·         “Pollinate Energy“ Establishing a micro-distribution network for appropriate and affordable green household products, this enterprise targets urban poor migrant communities in India that rely on kerosene for their daily lighting requirements. Their mission is to create job opportunities for local “Pollinators” to start their own businesses as micro-distributors that bring clean energy technology, in the form of small-scale solar lights, directly to the most needy communities.   ·        “Sustaintech India Pvt. Ltd“ markets and distributes a line of environmentally friendly fuel-efficient commercial cook stoves designs for cooking, food processing and post-harvest processing. They are extending sustainable energy technologies to lower income communities, creating positive financial, environmental and healthy impacts, and promoting climate change adaptation. ·        “Tambul Leaf Plates” promotes production of arecanut leaf plates as a livelihood option amongst rural communities in Northeast India, providing training, technical, financial and marketing assistance to the rural producers to enable them to establish their arecanut leaf plate making enterprises. Tambul Leaf Plates provides 100 per cent buy back guarantee to the rural producers and purchases the plates at a fair price. Uganda:  ·        “Awamu Biomass Energy“ embraces the innovative design, manufacture and distribution of micro-gasifier stoves with a flat-pack design making them accessible to the last mile, using renewable energy from dry organic biomass, and increasing agricultural profitability and sustainability through environmentally responsible production of fuels.   ·        “Nuru Energy“ Working with local organizations to recruit and train micro-franchise entrepreneurs, this enterprise markets an innovative and simple-to-use off-grid recharging platform that uses kinetic energy. Their pedal generator provides reliable, clean, sustainable power anytime to recharge portable LED lights as well as other low-power devices, such as radios and mobile phones.   ·        “Trees for Global Benefit“ is a cooperative carbon offsetting scheme linking small scale landholder farmers in Uganda to the voluntary carbon market, combining carbon sequestration with rural livelihood improvements through small-scale, farmer-led, agro-/forestry projects while reducing pressure on natural resources in national parks and forest reserves.   Vietnam:  ·        “Dichung.vn” An innovative start-up that has set out to create an online platform that helps reduce traffic jams and environmental pollution in urban areas of Vietnam. Their easy-to-use online network platform creates favourable conditions for car sharing and allows its users to collaborate in favour of reduced carbon emissions and mitigation of climate change.  ·        “Solar Serve” designs, manufactures, trades and installs equipment using renewable energy, such as solar devices, clean cookers and fuels. Solar Serve specifically targets poor communities and people in areas of serious deforestation, helping them to change their habits of cutting down trees for traditional firewood, so reducing air pollution and bringing practical economic benefits and healthy improvement to the population.  ·        “Southeast Asia Renewable and Adaptive Energy (SEA-RAE)“ is a consortium of academic and business partners with the common goal of providing sustainable energy services to rural areas, particularly through photovoltaic arrays and hydroenergy harvesters. They source labour locally and educate community members about operations and maintenance, thus creating resilient technical installations. 

The 2013 SEED Africa Award winners (by country) are:   Ethiopia:  · 

       “Gogle Energy Saving Stoves” is a renewable energy enterprise that produces improved cook stoves and briquettes for various end users all over Ethiopia, working in partnership with different international agencies and state institutions. This helps to reduce deforestation and contributes to the shift towards clean energy, while also providing income for local communities.   Morocco:  ·        “Au Grain de Sésame” is an arts and crafts workshop which trains disadvantaged women to design and create organic products based on an innovative technique of recycling paper. Preserving and promoting the local art and cultural heritage, Au Grain de Sésame contributes to raising awareness of environmental conservation, while encouraging the choice of eco-friendly purchasing.   ·        “High Atlas Agriculture & Artisanal” This enterprise aims to export organic farming products to generate a revenue stream that assists rural communities throughout the entire agricultural development cycle (tree nurseries, irrigation, training, organic certification, and marketing) and thus increases household incomes for rural families while preserving natural resources.  Mozambique:  ·        “moWoza” is a mobile phone marketplace platform that allows informal cross-border traders to access price-related information and an order and pre-pay inventory, and to receive delivery status notifications and access credit on their mobile phones. By empowering especially female traders to trade efficiently and transparently,moWoza improves the livelihoods of women and fosters their business activities in the communities.   Namibia:  ·        “The Dried Fish/Food Company” Working in partnership with a community organization that empowers women entrepreneurs, this enterprise manages a value-added fish and food processing facility that focuses on solar dried products. They provide day-to-day food for rural and urban communities, proactively managing food security. As women are the primary distributors of the dried fish the enterprise is also working towards reducing the economic gender gap.   South Africa:  ·         “5 Star Stoves” creates a local bio-energy value chain out of waste biomass, producing biomass pellets which are used in a updraft gasification stove to cook and heat. The stoves are assembled in the community and distributed locally via a franchising model. The enterprise thus generates income for the local community, encourages more efficient use of natural resources and also improves energy security by using local bio assets.  ·        “Farmer Eco Enterprise Development – FEED Africa” develops conservation low-carbon agriculture for emerging organic farmers, helping to empower them as entrepreneurs. They bring support in management, training, mentorship and marketing skills, and connect the farmers to markets, enabling them to join the mainstream agricultural economy and to adapt to climate change.  ·        “Muthi Futhi” is a community business which cultivates and processes indigenous medicinal plants for sale both as primary raw materials in bulk, and in the form of finished herbal products. Many of the plants cultivated are endangered in the wild due to over-harvesting, and this pioneering business is designed both to protect the biodiversity of KwaZulu-Natal and to create sustainable jobs for rural women.  ·        “Khulumani Gogos Going Green” is a small enterprise initiated by elderly women living in rural areas who form savings clubs to enable them to gain access to solar lighting and electricity. It thus supports successful small enterprise development and management in the solar energy sector, while reducing women’s vulnerability to sexual assault and facilitating access to communication technology for rural communities.  ·        “MRDP Sunwater” aims to supply solar water heating through black PVC pipe systems allowing communities and especially women and children to save time, money and trees. This heating system is well accepted in the community and easy to maintain. By reducing the need to gather firewood to heat water, MRDP Sunwater helps the community to manage their natural resources sustainably.  ·        “NABIDI Power” aims to develop and distribute lamps, radios and chargers designed to operate for days at a time without recharging. Being the first products with casings manufactured from a new bio-plastic made from sugar cane waste, their energy products help mitigate climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  ·        “The Duncan Village Secondary Recycling Cooperative” collects and recycles organic waste, processing it into valuable nutrients i.e. compost, vermi-compost, organic food, and biogas, enabling communities to capture the full value of their organic waste resources. By using best practices in food composting and urban food production, the enterprise contributes to improve community waste management.   Uganda:  ·        “Agroforestry for sustainable land use and economic empowerment“ is a land use change initiative which targets smallholder farmers through community groups, allowing them to plant mostly native trees and various commercial viable crops such as nuts, beans, maize and rice that are subsequently sold through local grocery markets. While facilitating access to markets for its members, the enterprise also contributes to forest protection and conservation.  ·        “BanaPads Social Enterprise” produces comfortable sanitary pads from natural agricultural waste materials. They are low-cost, fully biodegradable, safe and hygienic, and made locally, following international standards. The objective of this enterprise is to reduce absenteeism of schoolgirls in rural and poor communities while creating a women’s entrepreneur network through which the pads are distributed and sustainable independent micro-businesses are established.  ·        “Blessed Bee for Life” This apiculture enterprise makes hive tools and equipment available to farmers while also teaching them beekeeping and assisting with gaining market access for their honey. Women are fully integrated into the honey value chain, reducing not only extreme poverty among the rural communities but also environmental degradation.  ·        “Busia Waste to Energy-Eco-briquette Production Enterprise” seeks to provide alternatives to charcoal and firewood by collecting waste for the production of eco-briquettes. The enterprise, run by women, also trains local communities in technical aspects of solid waste management and sensitizes them to the importance of forest protection.  ·        “Cocoa Project” promotes certified organic cocoa production and strengthens the capacity of farmers to carry out effective sustainable farming practices in order to tap into speciality export markets. 
While continuously improving the farms in terms of production, productivity and quality, the enterprise contributes to sustainable agricultural and green business development.   ·        “Growing a Sustainable Future: Sustain for Life Hospital Gardens” In partnership with an international and a Ugandan NGO, two hospitals created this enterprise to harvest organic farming products that deliver nutritious food for hospital patients and staff members while training vulnerable and marginalised community members in organic farming.   ·        “GRS Commodities Ltd.”. The enterprise has developed a biogas plant which utilises  agricultural waste such as manure collected from local farmers, and other biowaste such as water hyacinth, to produce renewable energy for rural communities and off grid applications. Also in development is a rice husk gasification plant.  ·        “Pumpkin Value Addition Enterprise” By using a climate-resistant crop, this enterprise proposes an alternative to traditional food plants and gives women an opportunity to start small-scale businesses that generate healthy value-added food products. They offer women technical skills training in pumpkin value addition and also link these women entrepreneurs to the market and to financial institutions.  Tanzania:  ·        “KARIBU Solar Power” A modular solar lamp that is sold via a franchising network is the value proposition of this enterprise. By paying in small increments, which replicate the required cash flow for kerosene, KARIBU is making high quality solar lighting and mobile phone charging affordable, allowing also poorer communities to enjoy the benefits of solar lighting and energy.   ·        “Tia Nuru” This enterprise enables and empowers individuals through consultation, educational events and training in how to build sustainable living systems. This comprises cob building, compost toilets, grey-water re-use systems, and sustainable farming. In this way the enterprise reduces the environmental footprint of their customers while promoting new services to the local community and preserving local resources.  Further details about all SEED Winners can be found at   

 http://www.seedinit.org/awards/all.html?art_title=&rd_winners_year_of_participation=2013&rd_winners_field_of_work=&rd_winner_region=&rd_winners_country=&search=rd_list_winners_module&task=search  

Notes to Editors  2013 SEED International Jury 

The 2013 SEED Award winners were selected by the independent International Jury which dedicated considerable time to choosing the most promising of the applications. The members of the jury are:  ·        Helmy Abouleish: Managing Director, SEKEM Holding, Egypt.  ·        Rachid Amrani: National Programme Manager, Business Advisory Services, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Morocco.  ·        Seema Arora: Executive Director, CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development, India.  ·        Lucy Aviles: Independent Senior Advisor on Rural Development, Gender Mainstreaming and Social Impact Assessment, Bolivia / Germany  ·        Srey Bairiganjan: Head of Research and Enterprise Engagement, New Ventures India  ·        Phillip Bohwasi: Executive Director, Zimbabwe Opportunities Industrialization Center, Zimbabwe.  ·        François Bonnici: Director, Bertha Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship, University of Cape TownGraduate School of Business, South Africa.  ·        Nancy Chege: National Coordinator, UNDP Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme, Nairobi, Kenya.  ·        Julie Clarke: Programme Manager, Development Bank of Southern Africa, South Africa  ·        Thais Corral: SEED Winner 2008; Director, Adapta Sertao, Brazil.  ·        Saliem Fakir: Head of the Living Planet Unit, WWF, South Africa.  ·        Jeff Felten: Managing Director, Camco Clean Energy, Tanzania.  ·        Andrew Gamble: Partner, Hogan Lovells, UK.  ·        Leticia Greyling: Senior Lecturer, Rhodes Business School, South Africa.  ·        Douglas Kativu: Head of Global Reporting Initiative Focal Point South Africa.  ·        Nguy Thi Khan: Executive Director, Green Innovation and Development Centre, Viet Nam.  ·        Jane Kisakye: Independent Senior Advisor on Environment Conservation and Community Development, Uganda.  ·        Paul Laird: Corporate Partnerships Manager, Earthwatch, Oxford, United Kingdom.  ·        Tanya Lobel: Director, Actis , United Kingdom.  ·        Edward Mungai: CEO, Climate Innovation Center, Kenya.  ·        Bert van Nieuwenhuizen: Senior Advisor Renewable Energy East and Southern Africa, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, Kigali, Rwanda.  ·        Shrashtant Patara: Senior Vice President, Development Alternatives, India.  ·        Tamzin Ractliffe: Chief Executive Officer, Nexii, Cape Town, South Africa.  ·        Patricio Sande: President, Scientific Research Association of Mozambique.  ·        Sarah Timpson: Senior Adviser on Community-based Initiatives, UNDP, New York City, United States.  ·        Diana de la Vega: Communications Specialist, Clean Energy Programme, Colombia  ·        Gisele Yitamben: President, Association for the Support of Women Entrepreneurs, Cameroon.   The SEED Initiative  The SEED Initiative was founded in 2002 by UNEP, UNDP and IUCN to contribute towards the Millennium Development Goals and the commitments made at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development.  SEED identifies, profiles and supports innovative, locally-driven start-up enterprises that integrate social, environmental and economic benefits into their business models at the outset. Based in developing countries, these enterprises work in partnership with stakeholders to improve livelihoods, tackle poverty and marginalization, and manage natural resources sustainably.  SEED also develops learning resources for the broad community of social and environmental entrepreneurs, informs policy- and decision-makers and aims to inspire innovative, entrepreneurial approaches to sustainable development.  Partners of the SEED Initiative in addition to the Founding Partners are the governments of Germany, India, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States; the European Union; Conservation International; SEED’s corporate partner, Hisense; and UN Women.  SEED is hosted by Adelphi Research, based in Germany.  The 2013 SEED Awards in Ethiopia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda are supported by:     the European Union, which is made up of 28 Member States who have decided to gradually link together their know-how, resources and destinies. Together, during a period of enlargement of 50 years, they have built a zone of stability, democracy and sustainable development whilst maintaining cultural diversity, tolerance and individual freedoms. The European Union is committed to sharing its achievements and its values with countries and peoples beyond its borders.   The 2013 SEED Low Carbon Awards are supported by:     the International Climate Initiative (ICI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) which since 2008 has been financing climate and biodiversity projects in developing and newly industrialising countries, as well as in countries in transition. The ICI receives funding from the BMU budget as well as through the auctioning of emission allowances and thus represents an innovative mechanism to support partner countries in the area of climate and biodiversity protection, and adaptation to the impacts of climate change.   The 2013 SEED Awards in 2 South African provinces are supported by:     The Government of Flanders through Flanders International Cooperation Agency (FICA), which is active in Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa. FICA works not only with the local authorities, but also with indirect actors such as NGOs, research institutes and international organizations. In South Africa, the focus is on job creation through Small Enterprise Development, and improving food security through smallholder farming.     The 2013 SEED Gender Equality Awards are supported by:                  UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Established in July 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide, the creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda. It brings together resources, mandates and important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system for greater impact, and to become a global champion for women and                  Established in November 1966 by the United Nations General Assembly, UNIDO is the specialized agency of the United Nations that promotes industrial development for poverty reduction, inclusive globalization and environmental sustainability.