Developing thinking around an international knowledge sharing platform to support policy and action in countries, hosting for example, toolkits. Do we need a roadmap?
– Cameron Allen (Associate expert – Green Economy, UN DESA)
– Farooq Ullah (Head of Policy and Advocacy, Stakeholder Forum)
– Chair: Kirsty Schneeberger (Global Transition 2012 coordinator)
Cameron Allen
The Secretary General of the UNCSD, Mr Sha has said that Rio +20 must be a workshop rather than a talk shop and it must deliver means of implementation and greater co-ordination, including through knowledge sharing. The zero draft suggests a knowledge sharing platform to enable countries to design and implement green economy policies; and Member States see value in knowledge sharing and lessons learned, in particular the EU, Canada, China, Israel, and Japan. This is also importantly linked to capacity building.
Knowledge Sharing Platform could Include a menu of policy options, toolkits etc; but we also need to consider its objectives, governance, integration.
Some core aims and objectives could be:
1 Mechanism for promoting connections networks and partnerships
2 Brokering mechanism – match people looking for knowledge and who can supply it.
3 Online data platform and GE toolbox case studies
4 Expert focal points or hubs on sector and cross sector
5 Financing facility for developing countries
Farooq Ullah
There are many, many initiatives and good practices already supporting the transition to the new economy, and to ensure all these efforts are as effective as possible, working together and not working against each other is absolutely vital to our success. In particular, the issue of alignment must be addressed:
Vertical alignment and implement-ability of each policy that comes out of Rio +20, supported by the knowledge of what is already being done on the ground and how success is being achieved already. This is particularly relevant when considering the notion of the green economy, and in fact a clear message from the last day and a half is that rather than considering a global green economy we can conceptualise it as a patchwork of regional economies. As such, national, regional, and local policies play a critical role in delivering sustainable development.
Rio+20 vision:
- Environmental ceiling and social protection floor
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Sustainable Development strategies
- Green economies
- Governance
Horizontal alignment redefining the Sustainable Development approach will require us to list/map the initiatives to see how all the initiatives tie in together. This joining of the dots will identify gaps in eg sustainable consumption and production and unsustainable consumption patterns. What is the link to business and if SE influence. Human behaviour
The three pillars approach is quickly going out of date. Instead we should see the three strands of sustainable development as overlapping circles or taking a ‘nested’ approach; which will help us to address the issues in a more systemic way.
Particular areas of emphasis include:
- Bio centric vs people centric
Are these contradictory approaches
- Principles values and behaviours
Values of socialism, mechanics of capitalism
- Information
Basis of education, empowering
- What happens on Monday: SF event at rio
-Not lose momentum
– Sharing knowledge platforms and clustering around some of the key thematic areas
– Identify key players to take forward eg on line pledges
– Government one developed one developing to lead ea h task force coalitions of willing
– Report to UnGA in 2013 on progress and work out how to scale up initiatives
Cameron Allen, Associate Expert on the Green Economy, UNDESA discusses options for a green economy knowledge-sharing platform