Friday morning was the final Major Groups presentation before the text negotiations start - we had lots of points in common, between the major groups - about participation, not losing sight of the three overarching themes for sustainable development by just focussing on poverty, and that presented a strong case. The chair seems pleased with MSD process, and it was certainly interesting having the ministers here at the start, but it remains to be seen how much of what we have said gets listened to and is now incorporated into the decisions of the commission. That's always the issue.

We had a major breakthrough in process on Friday - we managed to get Chairman Moosa to agree and confirm that we will have access to the negotiating sessions. However, as of this morning the sessions are still listed as closed - probably a mistake, but minor cause for concern as it's vital that we are able to keep track of the (rapidly changing) text in order to lobby effectively and pick up on issues.

What the major groups are, what they do, and how they are involved in the whole CSD process from hereon will be a defining issue for this week. There has been some talk of different 'types' of non-governmental organisations, those who are involved in policy (politically active, trying to influence processes such as CSD and working with decision-makers) and those who are involved in implementation. This categorisation is of course absurd, but it's worrying that the issue of participation is being brought up using this kind of language as it might lead the way for governments saying 'oh, you're a policy ngo - we don't want you here, we just want the implementers who we can work with to get things done.' There is a danger of this getting out of control, but we're all well aware of it and watching the situation closely.

Some of what is written in the chairman's summary of the multi-stakeholder dialogues isn't an accurate reflection of what was said. There's a horrific misquote of the women's major group statement saying that they are calling for "accountability and responsibility of major groups." It's something of a problem as the chairman's summary is given to all the governments and is supposed to be used by them to take the major groups' comments into account. Representatives from the major groups are going to make comments and compile them into a letter to the secretariat to try to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Juan Myar came to the SDIN NGO briefing today. He was the chair of the CSD in 2000, and is minister of environment for Columbia. He's on a panel that has just been set up by Kofi Annan (the UN secretary general) to establish recommendations for the general assembly in order to reform the system of civil society participation in the UN. This will hopefully be a great opportunity to really fundamentally change the way the UN involves NGOs and other civil society representatives, such as youth. The panel's first meeting is 2/3 June, when they're deciding how to function, and how to involve civil society representatives in the reform process. He came to the SDIN meeting to get us involved and find out our views, which is positive. I think this possibility of reform could well be one of the most important things that has happened for participation since the major group involvement was formalised in Rio, as it has the potential to cut across all areas of the UN, not just the CSD. People made a number of interesting comments:

Most of time, the views of civil society are not really reflected in the final decisions that come out of the CSD, and the credibility of UN suffers as a result. There is a huge gap between goals of civil society and governments and bridging that gap is the mandate of the panel. Mr Myar was very keen to hear the inputs of civil society representatives on how the reform takes place, asking that we contact him with our views.

The governments often seem to have a 'divide and rule' policy towards the NGOs - we certainly felt it out in Jo'burg. The point was raised that it is vital to respect the diversity of views coming from the NGO community. Sometimes, you can't make us all sit together, when there is so much diversity. For example, it's rather challenging to expect large corporate farmers and peasants sit at same table behind one statement on farmer's issues and agree on every issue. Also, we need better resources to ensure that there is a good north / south balance at events. In Jo'burg, a number of NGO's walked out on last day due to the imbalances and injustice that had taken place.

... views of civil society not reflected - we need to be able to really influence decisions. if civil society has consensus that something needs including, it should have to be. NGO's in delegation! YES! (92 in Rio, say didn't behave very well) - if inside meeting, know who to lobby, even if can't speak.

Juan doesn't want panel to just be driven by the secretariat. His recommendation is that if the representatives of civil society here submit a paper, that would be very helpful, but it also need lots of sustained pressure of civil society groups behind it. Recommendations need to be practical, but he seems very open to our views.

Tomorrow we're having meetings with the US delegation representatives, and with the UN Youth Unit. We've also been working on some original and amusing lobbying ideas... watch this space and I'll forward them once they're finalised.

Vic and Matthew

Don't forget:

If you have questions or comments to make to Matt and Vic, you can email them - they'd love to hear from you!!

Youth caucus documents

Glossary of
CSD-speak

Confused by all the strange terminology and acronyms... We hope the glossary below will help:

CSD 11 - the 11th session of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. These have taken place every year since the first earth summit in Rio. Johannesburg was number 10.

JPOI - the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation

WSSD - World Summit on Sustainable Development - which took place in Johannesburg last summer.

Rio +10 - WSSD but it refers to the fact that this summit is ten years on from the original summit in Rio.

Agenda 21 - the environmental agenda for the Twenty First century. This was created at the Rio summit and the idea was that all aspects of society should be looked at from the perspective of Agenda 21.

Stakeholder - anybody who has an interest in the issue that is being discussed. In the case of WSSD it is probably everyone on the planet.

Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue (MSHD)- this is no more no less than a meeting of all people who have an interest/stake in the issue. With reference to WSSD, this has been split into nine Major Groups such as women, youth etc. and bodies have been created to represent the needs and opinions of these particular groups.

Major Groups - the nine stakeholder groups who can make an input into the summit: Women, Youth, Farmers, Indigenous Peoples, Local Authorities, Scientists, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Trade Unions, and Business and Industry.

Type I outcomes - agreements made at the Summit in Johannesburg which are legally binding on an international level

Type II outcomes - promises made by governments, regions, businesses, and other organisations, maybe in partnership with others, to do things to achieve sustainable development - not enforcable though.

Caucus - a group of people with a common interest (eg women, youth) who meet together to organise themselves and work to further that interest.

Youth Caucus - the 'youth' Major Group - a group of youth organisations and youth representatives who we are working with in Bali and will be part of in Johannesburg.

Civil Society - all organisations, groups and individuals who are not part of governments - not politicians or civil servants.