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Women's Statement Rio+20 Prepcom

Women statement on strengthening global governance for sustainable development, 18 May 2010

15.06.2010 |Sascha Gabizon

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The Women major group, co-chaired by WECF, VAM and BIC presented their statement on the need and ways of strengthening global governance for sustainable development, 18 May 2010. The statement was delivered by Daniela Paria for the women's major group.

The statement can be downloaded here

SESSION 3:
Institutional framework for sustainable development
Thank you Mr. Co-chair, I speak on behalf of the women’s major group.
We support the NGO, Labor and Indigenous peoples statements. All statements this morning said that Sustainable Development is our aim, and Green economy is a path to that. But the global institutions that were designed for this have not fulfilled their mission. Global governance is fragmented at the UN level. This global governance failure leads to a loss of trust, with people at a local level.

We need a strengthened architecture for sustainable development and environmental global governance. Institutions alone cannot be the solution. Solutions that work must include the people. Women as agents of change at every level of society play an essential role in the process of sustainable
development. We need cooperation between governments, pro-active entrepreneurs, civil society, women, indigenous peoples and community populations to constitute the global architecture urgently needed for sustainability and development of mother earth and all that she inhabits.

We therefore recommend:

An equitable and inclusive international governance structure, for sustainable development and environment. This new structure needs to be built on the human rights approach, including environmental rights. A good example might be the Access and Benefit Sharing protocol which will be decided on at the CBD COP in Nagoya this year.
This new structure needs stronger public participation mechanisms. For example, the Strategic Approach for Chemicals Management has a more active engagement of civil society. This new structure needs to promote diversity, gender and a regional balance. This new structure needs to address the necessary reform of the failing financial institutions, such as the Bretton Woods institutions.
This new structure will also need a financial mechanism to function. For example, it could be funded partly by the Financial Transaction Tax. Its mechanism needs to be inclusive and transparent, It should enable people to take personal responsibility for a shift towards equitable consumption and production patterns.

It should assure utilization of the best practices, especially indigenous practices, whilst protecting communities’ rights and prior informed consent.
It should assure coupling of green technology, media awareness and creative methods for engaging citizens And finally, should assist in implementation of responsible solutions at the local, sub-national and regional levels
Thank you

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Statement by Sandra Nelson Zongo for the Women's Major Group

Session 1
Assessing the progress to-date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development
Womens Group Intervention can be found here

Thank you Chair,
Rio has brought real progress, one of them being that women were seen as catalysts for sustainable development and recognized as one of the 9 major groups.
We have seen that global governance of sustainable development, since Rio, has often been too weak in the face of global trade negotiations, which often achieved the opposite effect. Developing countries have been forced to sell out their forests, their national resources, with little and/or no gain on poverty reduction and development.

We need to agree on stronger global governance structures for sustainable development! At the national level, women have not been given sufficient access to decision making processes, nor have they been given sufficient access to financial instruments for sustainable development. We see that we need to strengthen women involvement in rio+20.
We propose to apply similar rules of procedures for major groups as in the Saicm process, where major groups have equal speaking rights. We see a need for opening up funding programmes such as the GEF, to women groups, to allow full participation in implementation of the Rio outcomes.

The Women's Major group is ready and fully committed to work with governments and stake holders to make rio+20 a success.
Thank you Chair

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