UN Economic and Social Development
Division for Sustainable Development

CSD-18

First Bureau Meeting
25 Sep 2009
United Nations Headquarters, New York
Note of the Meeting (Prepared by the CSD Secretariat)

Introduction

1. The first meeting of the Bureau of the 18th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-18) took place on 25 September 2009 in New York.
   
   The meeting was chaired by the Chairperson of CSD-18, H.E. Dr. Luis Alberto Ferraté Felice, (Guatemala). All Vice-Chairs attended the meeting: H.E. Mr. Hilario G. Davide (Philippines), H.E. Mr. Mohamed Al-Mabrok Alahraf (Libya), Dr. Ulf Jaeckel (Germany) and Ms. Tania Raguž (Croatia). The Secretariat (DSD/DESA) was represented by Mr. Tariq Banuri, Director, DSD/DESA, Mr. Aslam Chaudhry, Chief, Global Policy Branch, DSD/DESA, Mr. David O’Connor, Chief Policy Analysis and Networks Branch and Ms. Irena Zubcevic, DSD/DESA. In addition to above official participants, some senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Guatemala participated in the meeting to assist the chairperson.
2. The draft agenda was approved by the Bureau.

Agenda Item 1: Introduction of Bureau members and Secretariat staff

3. Minister Ferraté opened the meeting and welcomed the participants. He introduced the Bureau members and the Secretariat staff present in the meeting.

Agenda Item 2: Updates by the Secretariat

a) General briefing about the CSD process

4. Mr. Banuri briefed the Bureau about the thematic agenda that will be considered by the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in its 18th session, and provided an overview of the outcomes of last thematic cycle. He mentioned that the Bureau of CSD-17 introduced a number of innovations in its organization of work to scale-up the implementation efforts. These innovations included: inviting heads of governing bodies of the UN system organizations to the multi-stakeholders dialogue; interactive Ministerial roundtables; and a dialogue on implementation with the policy research community--leading to the establishment of a Sustainable Knowledge Development Partnership. He informed the meeting that Bureau of CSD-17 very much wanted to continue using the CSD framework to follow-up the implementation of decisions taken by the Commission. Towards this aim, Chair of CSD-17 reached out to various stakeholders for mobilizing support to advance the implementation of CSD-17 decisions.

b) Preparation of Secretary-General’s reports: status and process

5. Mr. Chaudhry explained the workflow of CSD-18 and provided an overview of the process and account of activities that would be undertaken. While briefing the meeting about the reports and other documentation to be produced to facilitate Commission’s discussions, he informed that preparation of SG reports is progressing satisfactorily. These reports are being prepared using four types of inputs: national reports submitted by the governments (guidelines for national reporting are already on the web, including the reports already received), UN system inputs including those received from the regional commissions, outcomes from regional implementation meetings (RIMs) and submissions made by the major groups. Since a lot of knowledge and material is expected to be accumulated during the course of preparing SG reports, this material will be used to prepare additional background technical papers.
6. The Secretariat will seek technical assistance of renowned experts in reviewing the background papers and other technical documentation being produced for the session. The Secretariat clarified that preparation of SG reports is purely the responsibility of the United Nations (in this case, the DSD/DESA), and their ownership also rest with the United Nations and not with the Bureau.
7. The outcome of the CSD will take the form of a “Report on the 18th session of the CSD” including Chair’s Summary, Summary of the High-Level Segment, summary of Regional Perspectives, Summary of the Preparatory Meeting for Maurirtius+5, Summary of the Dialogue with Major Groups including Research Community, Record of Partnership Fair and Record of Learning Centre. This report will be issued in June 2010. The Chair’s Summary will serve as a bridge between the 18th session (review year) and 19th session (policy year) of the CSD. The quality and richness of policy decisions to be made during the policy year will be very much determined and guided by the outcomes of review year. Thus, it is important to work towards reaching a successful outcome.

c) Other documentation and background material

8. Mr. David O’Conner explained that trends report will be issued reflecting the state of implementation but with a lot of graphics and maps which could not be reflected in the SG reports due to space limitations. For this cycle, two reports are planned: one on transport, chemicals, waste and mining; and the other covering the theme of sustainable production and consumption patterns. These reports will complement the SG reports. He called upon the Bureau members to provide examples of good practices from their respective countries and regions to include in these reports.

d) Programme of regional implementation meetings and role of the Bureau

9. Ambassador Davide stated that RIMs could serve as an important and useful function in terms of providing empirical data and evidence on the state of implementation to the CSD process, including to the SG reports. Bureau members mentioned that they would be attending RIMs of their respective regions. Minister Ferraté informed that venue for Latin America RIM has been changed and now this meeting will be hosted by Guatemala on 26-27 November 2009. Ambassador Alahraf will attend RIM being organized by ECA; and Ms Raguz and Dr. Jaeckel will attend the RIM hosted by ECE. Ambassador Davide himself will not be able to attend the RIM hosted by ESCAP, but will be represented by the Minister Eduardo Menez of the Permanent Mission of the Philippines to the United Nations in New York.

Agenda item 3: Organization of Work for CSD-18

10. Mr. Banuri informed the meeting about innovations introduced by the previous Bureau in the organization of work of CSD-17 and suggested to the present Bureau to consider these while introducing further improvements in the organization of work. Many of these innovations were guided by the need to accelerate implementation. Traditionally, implementation within the CSD framework is implicated in the decisions taken by the Commission. Once the decisions are taken, it is assumed that the governments, United Nations system organizations and other implementing partners will implement these. Current trends however suggest slow implementation. Therefore, CSD-17 Bureau considered it vital to follow-up on implementation through advocacy and outreach efforts to keep the momentum in favour of implementation.

a) Main elements of the organization work

11. While presenting draft organization of work for CSD-18 (see Annex 1), Mr. Chaudhry briefed the meeting about salient features of the session including a proposal for introducing new innovations. He stated that a ministerial dialogue with the Presidents of the governing bodies of the UN system organizations has been included in the High Level Segment (HLS). Last year, though this dialogue took place, it was not part of the official programme. Moreover, a session has been introduced on cross-regional perspectives to allow the Regional Commissions to identify agenda of common interest around which cross-regional partnerships could be formed. Also, the Secretariat will be introducing a capacity building seminar series for delegates of 2nd committee to enhance their understanding of the issues to be considered under the current thematic cluster. Finally, the meeting was informed that SIDS Day during CSD-18 will serve as a preparatory committee for Mauritius+5.
12. Mr. Banuri and Mr. O’Connor briefed the meeting about the salient features of the Sustainable Development Knowledge Partnership that was formed during the last CSD session. A key feature of this partnership is to link science and research with the policy formulation process. It is aimed at addressing capacity constraints in developing countries and promoting successful experiences in sustainable development. This partnership is open to all governments and other relevant stakeholders who are being invited to join with the objective to move forward the sustainable development agenda.
13. The meeting suggested the need to strengthen the role of partnerships as one of the main tools for implementation, and asked that organization of work should reflect participation of 3 Rio conventions and Bretton-Woods Institutions.

b) High-level segment

14. In addition to various Ministerial dialogues proposed in the organization of work, there was a brief discussion on the number of round tables and their themes. It was agreed that the Bureau members will discuss the draft organization of work with their respective regional groups including the themes and number of round tables. Based on the feedback received, the draft organization of work will be revised for Bureau’s consideration.

Agenda item 4: Other Business

a) Promoting implementation of CSD decisions

15. To enhance the effectiveness of CSD, the Bureau was mindful of the need for following-up the implementation of Commission’s decisions. Towards this aim, the Bureau discussed a number of possible measures (attached at Annex 2) and asked the Secretariat to examine the possibility of organizing a session on the implementation of CSD-17 decisions in the organization of work of CSD-18. This should however not affect full scale discussion on the thematic cluster being considered under the current cycle, and complimentarity between the review and policy years of the current cycle be maintained. The meeting briefly discussed the rationale and mechanism for engaging previous Bureau in this effort.

b) Future schedule of Bureau meetings

16. Minister Ferraté proposed to hold the second Bureau meeting in Guatemala on 25 November 2009 –one day before the start of Regional Implementation Meeting for LAC region. Next Bureau meetings are scheduled to take place in January and March (exact dates will be determined later) and then in May, a day prior to the beginning of the CSD-18 session. If possible, the Bureau may consider the possibility of organizing a meeting during the course of COP 15 meeting at Copenhagen in December.

c) Other business

17. The Bureau also discussed a number of proposals for enhancing the visibility and effectiveness of CSD-18 session. Notable among these were: (a) having a good-will Ambassador to promote the cause of Sustainable Development; (b) developing a “matrix of case studies and policy options”--as was done for some of the earlier sessions; (c) declaring some days of CSD-18 session as “green days”; and (d) including a “partnership day” in the organization of work. These proposals will be subject to further discussions in the future Bureau meetings.

Decisions:

• The Bureau members will discuss the draft organization of work with their respective regional groups and provide feedback with regard to, inter-alia, number of roundtables and their topics.
• The Bureau members will attend RIMs that will be organized in their respective regions by the Regional Commissions. Feedback received from the RIMs will be shared in the future Bureau meetings and will be used to finalize the organization of work.
• Include a session on implementing CSD-17 decisions in the revised organization of work, together with the possibility of engaging previous Bureau, but without jeopardizing the discussion on current thematic cluster.
• The Bureau members will encourage the Governments of their respective regions to join the Sustainable Development Knowledge Partnership to advance the implementation of sustainable development agenda.

Annex

• Annex 1: Draft organization of work for CSD-18
• Annex 2: Advancing the Implementation of CSD Decisions: Innovations in CSD Organization of Work