Your Voice at the United Nations- Getting Ready for Take-off

Tomorrow opens at 10 but starts with accreditation, which I understand is a lengthy process. I am set with letter and passport in hand, and a map to get across Manhattan efficiently as a visitor.

Today, I attended a pre-conference with other members of the Youth Caucus, which I am a part of, to begin networking and to identify what our policy priorities are as a coalition. What became clear to me today was that being effective at the UN is all about solidarity with other groups, creating allies, and meeting others (especially those with different priorities from yours) on common ground before stirring up the waters. I suppose that is just good strategy in all of life.

It also struck me today what happens at the UN is all based on people. Policy is shaped and reshaped by the conversations and the connections that will happen in the room over the next two weeks, in addition of course to government scripts for their delegates and lobbyists. Institutions (even those as official and as large as the UN!) are as alive, breathing, erring and triumphant as humans.

Some background information, and resources for your further reading:

More information on the history and organization of the UN can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations. I will not repeat all of that myself here! I am sure I will need to reference and explain pieces of it later, but you can check that out yourself. Also, if you’d like to check out the UN website and the Convention on Sustainable Development website for more info.

The UN creates what is called “soft policy,” that is, policy that nations are not legally obliged to follow. Member nations of the UN (there are currently 192, up from 50 when it was founded in 1945) can “ratify” or endorse the policy they help to create, which means they are agreeing to implement the policy in their own countries. Some people disregard soft policy as unimportant, but it is the first and best form of international cooperation and progress we’ve found so far!

The Convention on Sustainable Development (CSD) was established by the UN in 1992 to monitor and ensure follow-up on two important documents called Agenda 21, and the Rio Declaration, and to provide policy guidance for nations to engage in sustainable development. Both Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration were created at Earth Summit (in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Agenda 21 is essentially a blueprint for sustainable development. The Rio Declaration, which focuses on the environment and development, has had major impacts on trade and decisions. So, the Commission meets to review the progress on these and create policy recommendations. Last year was a review year; this year is a policy creation year!

My fellow delegates with SustainUS and I have been working to put together policy recommendations for our coalition to lobby on. We addressed the four main themes of this Convention—air pollution, climate change, energy, and industrial development. I helped create the Industrial Development policy recommendations, and specifically formed recommendations to nations of the world around 1—encouraging asset development, 2—affordability and access to capital, 3—the need for local control and ownership of economies -- all with you, MBD community in mind!

Here were the recommendations that most directly relate to MBD and the local economic development work we do:

Position local economic control as a fundamental goal of economic policy.
To the extent possible, local economic conditions must be owned and regulated by the communities that create and benefit from them. Strong local economies provide economic opportunity for local residents while ensuring self-sufficiency and self-determination, key tenants of sustainable development. Strong local economies are more resilient to global economic turbulence, while reducing the need for carbon output by sourcing local to consumption.

Make entrepreneurship and asset ownership accessible by ensuring the affordability of capital and resources.
Eradicating extreme poverty is the first UN Millenium Development Goal, and sustainable development necessitates the eradication of poverty. Income is not the sole indicator for poverty-- poverty is informed by access to capital and the ability to acquire assets. The international community widely recognizes the efficacy of entrepreneurship both in alleviating these root issues of poverty and in solving the wider social and environmental issues facing societies. One of the most well-established and successful practices that facilitate entrepreneurship and asset ownership amongst the impoverished is microfinance, which provides access to affordable financial services and relevant technical assistance. This combination of entrepreneurship, access to affordable capital and asset-building opportunities
has been tremendously successful in eradicating poverty, as evidenced by the granting of the Nobel Peace Prize to Dr. Muhammad Yunus in 2006. It ensures that all people have the opportunity for economic self-sufficiency and the right to self-determination, as well as the ability to own and acquire meaningful capital necessary for eradicating poverty.

Give SustainUS feedback!

The SustainUS policy document in its entirety will be posted soon. I will post the link when it is available.

One last thing. There are so many definitions that we can start talking about here. I think I will do one or two each posting. If you’d like, review these definitions and either comment with your perspective or post your own to the E.I. Box to the right of this posting. All of these words have definitions in development! Here are two of the most important tonight:

Sustainability is an attempt to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments both now and into the indefinite future.

Lobbying is a concerted effort designed to achieve some result, typically from government authorities and elected officials.

With love from the Big Apple,

Caitlin