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May 7th, 2003 - 22:42:07 |
Nick Moraitis
From Catherine: division of work...
This evening Pierre and I attended a meeting with Minister Moosa (Chair of the CSD11),the discussion was focused on the issues pushed by major group and that of the governments comment on it.
To summarize the discussion... Chair Moosa on behalf of the government negotiation asked the major group on their level of participation in regards to the CSD Process focusing on the rights and authority of major group to represent their respective sectors. He was asking for clarification on how major group process the representation, position and other things related to them.
the IP responded by recognizing that yes the major group doesnt have the structure to really consult and represent the sector (for example youth caucus to claim that it represents the youth of the world), they emphasized that the major group doesnt have the financial capacity as of the moment to do such consultation.
Pierre and I asked for clarification of the word major group experts and how the governments define it, because the youth caucus concerns is that we as major group would want to maintain our own process of selecting representative of our caucuses, as what the IP also point out that major group as of the moment have their own process and mechanism of selecting their representatives.
We also asked clarification on the hearsays that the
CSD11 might extend for another week, and the Chair assures the major group that it will end this friday.
The Chair then Challenge the major group to define and work out on the major group process/structure to have a clear mandate, authority and constituency.
So in response to this issues, the youth caucus identified different things that we could work out to lead to the better structuring of the youth caucus, so we have identified this four items:
1. Youth Caucus Assessment to CSD11 Process and the Final Closing Statement 2. Youth Caucus participants assessment to the youth caucus major group.
3. Long Term Structuring of the Youth Caucus
The Youth Caucus response to the Chair challenge is the establishment/strengthening of a Multi-Stakeholder National Council for Sustainable Development with equal representation from all sectors, this way we believe we as major group could have clear constituency and accountability, responsibility and authority as well.
The second point is on Capacity Building of major groups, especially in relation to the youth caucus we proposed a Information Clearing House Mechanism (for CSD and youth caucus)where we could gather learnings, best practices, programs and projects, partnerships, opportunities, etc. We proposed that at the level of CSD they should identify who could do this, at the level of youth caucus this is a part of the long term structuring.
thanks and sorry for the long email
:)
May 7th, 2003 - 00:42:19 |
Nick Moraitis
From Catherine:
The youth caucus today had a quite hectic schedule, we have the regular youth caucus meeting at 11am, a meeting with the UN Yout Unit at 2pm and a meeting with the US Delegation at 6pm, in between those are preparations, lobbying and media stuff.
During the youth caucus meeting some of the pressing issues/updates were discussed, Mexico was proposing to delete the whole para 21 of the chairman's text (the first para 21 since there are two para 21, typo error) and the G77 was proposing that the Major Group should be on a high level segment with experts as representatives but the US, Canada, EU position is to let the major group maintain the current selection process, let the major group select their own reprsentative.
The meeting with the UN youth unit was focused on the involvement of the unit to the commission on sustainable development, how can the youth caucus be utilized as a resource for the youth unit and what are the status of the coordination of the youth unit focal point with other youth focal point in the UN system, and what are the plans of the youth unit in relation to its long term structuring?
According the the youth unit focal point as of the moment they dont have that engagement/involvement with the CSD, what they are doing is providing secretariat service in the commission on social development but this commission doesnt have major group, the division deals with a number of social group and one of those is youth (as most of us knows already)
They welcome any support (voluntary) that the youth caucus could provide to help that youth unit but at their end they as well could provide some support to youth organization such as publication support, they as well explain the UN system of getting interns and volunteers.
The youth caucus proposed to the youth unit that they should provide more service to the youth groups through info sharing mechanism or as an information clearing house, the youth unit responded quite positive and said they will keep in touch with us to develop such concept. They as well mentioned that they have always maintained their contacts with the rest the UN youth focal persons.
The US delegation meeting was focused on two overarching items, the youth caucus CSD issues and the domestic youth issues. We asked the US government of their position on the inclusion of education as one of the overaching theme, they said they do agree that education should always be part of the themes but the CSD really needs to focus into one theme to be more effective. In relation to major group participation, US mentioned that they are not proposing an addition to the number of recognized major group what they are proposing is for CSD to provide an avenue for more major group participation including other stakeholder. In regards to youth participation to the official delegation, they did not responded directly on our proposal that developed countries should provide financial assistance for official youth delegate to developing countries. The youth caucus as well asked US why they dont have an official youth delegate and they said they need first to create a transparent process for youth involvement.
On the more domestic issues, the US youth delegate proposed national youth councils for sustainable development, US responded that they are considering creating such council as part of their long term plans.
Tomorrow the youth caucus is having a 2 hours workshop on Organizing and Strengthening Youth Caucus sponsored by Jan Gustav.
:)
catherine
May 7th, 2003 - 00:13:53 |
Nick Moraitis
From Clarisse: For all those who aren't here in NY, here's a little taste of this 11:25 pm meeting of the youth caucus - at the GYAN office on E 43rd street, where we often meet. It is hot in here, it is cold outside, the day of negotiations was intolerable, and everyone is a bit dazed.
Catherine (who is doing a wonderful job as facilitator) feels tired. Michael (German youth delegate, and an amazing EU lobbyist) is feeling amused at the situation. Matt (Woodcraft Folk, UK) hasn't slept for over 40 hours, having just finished his thesis today. He says "Of course I'm here, anything is possible." Congrats Matt! Pierre just likes fried chicken. "Fried chicken is unsustainable," says Matt. Vicky (Woodcraft Folk) is checking her e-mail.
Burcak (Turkey) is asleep on a couch. Ingrid (Swedish youth delegate) has gone to pick up some documents. Pierre has accepted the challenge to say "Coffee, Kofi" 5 times, quickly. You get the picture -- we are having fun too.
On a more substantive note, the negotiations are pretty sketchy. It is still not at all obvious what will come out in the final document, which is a bit strange as technically, there is only 1 1/2 days of negotiations to go... and this is to determine what the CSD does in the next decade. There are 2 working groups; WG I got through 1 paragraph with subsections today (in 6 hours of negotiations, with a break for the G77 to coordinate - it was painful!!), and WG II discussed 2 paragraphs, on Major Group Contributions to the CSD.
Below is forwarded my quick, silly and informal rendition of the day (written for youth in Canada).
Cheers to all, we wish you were here,
Clarisse (and all the others here at CSD-11)
>===== Original Message From Clarisse Kehler Siebert
=====
Dateline: 6 May 2003
Frustration Mounts at CSD-11: Update to Youth in Canada
CSD-11, United Nations, NY -- Today at the CSD, Working Groups I & II shuffled commas,, semi-colons;; and paragraphs for nearly 6 hours, as they continued to try to achieve their purpose here: to design a framework for the next decade of CSD meetings. The text being negotiated now is a compilation of everything proposed yesterday.
Working Group I spent the whole day discussing 1 paragraph and 2 sub-sections of the paragraph (that equals 1 1/2 pages). The topic of the paragraph is "Future Oraganization of Work of the CSD".
Working Group II spent the afternoon negotiating two paragraphs (17 and 18) on "Enhancing Contributions of Major Groups." The G77 (group of developing countries + China + ...) decoded that only "high level" representatives of Major Groups (Major Groups include women, youth, Indigenous peoples, farmers, trade unions, local authorities, NGOs, scientists, business) should participate in the high-level segments at the CSD (those are the sesssions where ministers attend)." In the words of Nikki Skuce, the NGO representative on the Canadian delegation, "The G77 is very divided this CSD and although Morocco is the Chair, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and India have been speaking on behalf of the G77 as well." For Canada, Vicky Berry did a great job explaining that Major Groups can self-select their representatives.
On another note, Canadian youth have long sought to increase the role for Educators at the CSD - so that sustainable development initiatives can be better implemented. Some delegations are hoping to have "education" as one of the cross-cutting themes for future CSDs... but because today only addressed 3 paragraphs between 2 different Working Groups... we'll have to wait and see if we get there.
On a youth note, the Youth Caucus had a meeting with Joop Theunissen at the UN Youth Unit. The interesting discussion included topics like how they can help the youth caucus in the CSD process, frustrations were shared on youth participation at the UN, and the United Nations in Canada-produced "Navigating International Meetings" (available at http://www.unac.org/en/pocketbook/index.asp OU en francais a
http://www.unac.org/fr/pocketbook/index.asp) was presented to all members of the youth caucus and discussed as an example of how the Youth Unit can assist youth projects.
At 6 pm, the Youth Caucus met with the US delegation, which proved as uninformative as most other meetings we have had with this delegation in the past. I opted to attend a closed and informal meeting of select representatives of different groups - JUSCANZ (Japan, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and others), EU, G77 - hosted by Canada at the Canadian Mission.
The mood among delegates was more relaxed when they left around 8:30 pm, after consuming cookies and coffee and crackers and cheese.
And that was a day in the life of a youth delegate at CSD-11.
This update was brought to you by paragraphs 1, 17, and 18, and with the hope that tomorrow is a more productive and exciting. As we talk about "implementation" and "action," we are doing the opposite...
May 4th, 2003 - 19:09:36 |
Nick Moraitis
From Sayida: Hi everybody hereby just a quick overview of what's coming this week in NYC.
During the YC meeting this morning suggestions were made for the following themes to be discussed and dealt with this week:
- lobbying for Youth Caucus text
- preparation for US delegation meeting
- preparation for UNYU meeting
- prepatation comments on CSD11
- Establishing a clearing house for the Youth Caucus as well as the long term structure of the YC
- Media
As I am typing the lobbying text is prepared and will be distributed tomorrow morning during YCmeeting at 11 am. Whoever wants to join the lobbying team tomorrow at 8.30 am Vienna Cafe is more than welcome......
The following things are going on this week:
YCmeeting at 11 am every day conf D
Monday:
- lobbying for text will start
- at 7 pm Luis Devilla will give a short presentation on UNYU at GYAN
Tuesday:
- 2 pm meeting with UNYU
- 6 pm meeting with US delegation
Wednesday:
- Workshop by NGO ( organised by Ana but not yet confirmed, Ana if you read this please confirm asap)
- Workshop technology part II ( not yet confirmed by Sam)
Thursday:
- Mike will have a live chat at noun
Friday:
- comments of major groups on CSD 11
If there are more things going on this week please let us know asap so we can integrated those in the agenda.
The SG will probably give a new text out every night so in my opnion it might be wise to set evening meetings as well but we will have to see what the procedure is.
The agenda for the YC meeting tomorrow will be as follows:
1. report back from how other stakeholders have been reacting to the SG draft decision
2. Lobbying ( How are we going to lobby? are we going to lobby own countries or not? We taught it would be nice to set up a buddy system for the first couple of delegates where the more experienced people in lobbying( such as Carlos, Bruschak, Clariss, Catherine, Pierre,
Honza) could team up with the less experienced once. A division in countries will be made in order to avoid duplicate lobbying. Bruschak will prepare a short presentation on how to lobby effectively. A list of countries on our side or not will be prepared.
3. Announcements (clearing house en long term structure) and week agenda 4. Preparation US delegation what has happen and how can we take it further 5. Media
Well I think that's all for now.... O no wait a suggestion was made to visit a museum this week together, Carlos only saw the Metropolitain and others want to see something too so think about it and we will set a time and date for that tomorow...
See you guys tomorrow
;)
Sayida
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