IFSD put into Practice: Setting up a Sustainable Development Council

At the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the UN institutions that deal with sustainable development are to be restructured. This offers a unique opportunity to implement long overdue reforms. These proposed reforms should follow the objective to improve the visibility and key priority of sustainable development in the UN system. An important building block towards these reforms might be the establishment of a Sustainable Development Council (SDC), replacing the politically weak UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). The UNCSD outcome document should recommend that the UN General Assembly decides to adopt a resolution establishing such a council as its subsidiary organ. Moreover, the new council’s mandate, membership, and institutional design need to be negotiated.

This side event will tackle these questions, including ideas for effective decision-making structures, enhanced participation, a peer review mechanism, and innovative financing mechanisms.

Program

• Marianne Beisheim, German Institute for Security and International Affairs (SWP)

• Fatima Berardinelli, Centro Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais (CEBRI)

• Nils Simon, German Institute for Security and International Affairs (SWP)

• Jan-Gustav Strandenaes, Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future

• Renata H. Dalaqua, Centro Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais (CEBRI)

• Lalanath de Silva, World Resources Institute