Redefining Sustainable Development Governance & Increasing Transparency, Public Participation & Accountability

Download the Invitation (PDF, 1 page, 257 Kb)

• How can sustainable development governance be improved?
• How should nations implement Principle 10?
• Should Rio 2012 push forward and support regional conventions on access?
• Are Latin America and the Caribbean ready for a regional convention of their own?

Although most conversations about Rio 2012 focus on calls to reform international institutions such as UNEP and CSD, the state of environmental governance at the regional and national levels is of equal if not greater importance.

A number of papers from the Sustainable Development Governance Network presented at the Governance conference on the 6th and the outcomes from this will be presented focusing at the area of sustainable development governance.

20 years after Rio, in many countries, there is still no legal foundation to provide citizens with information or a means to hold their governments accountable. There are still too few institutions that can defend citizens’ rights to justice. Progress on access rights at Rio 2012 will have to go beyond reforming international institutions and focus on galvanizing change at the national and regional levels. There are some broad options for sustainable development governance that Rio+20 should discuss.

This side event will explore ideas on reforming regional and national level environmental governance, including:

• The adoption of regional conventions that create an enforceable Principle 10 and lessons learned from the UNECE Aarhus Convention
• A focus on Latin America and the Caribbean as a region ready to galvanise these reforms through the Rio 2012 process.
• A report from the IEG, Sustainable Development Governance and Rio+20 Conference
• An overview of Sustainable Development Governance options

Chair: Henrietta Elizabeth Thompson, Executive Coordinator, United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (invited)

Speakers:

• Jeremy Wates, Incoming Secretary General - European Environmental Bureau
• Joseph Foti, Senior Associate, World Resources Institute
• Representative from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) (invited)
• Derek Osborn, President of Stakeholder Forum
• Jan-Gustav Strandenaes, consultant to SF on ISDG