Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

Subject: Healthy and Sustainable Living MOOC 2014 September 1 October 5, 2014 Greetings, In today’s times of environmental, economic and social unrest, more and more people are considering the need to shift to a healthy and sustainable way of living that supports personal, community and ecosystem health, addressing the need to think and act differently in the near and long term. Through an informative set of sessions hosted by the world’s foremost futurists and pioneers in thinking about sustainability, you will learn how you can get involved in the sustainable transformation, personally, locally and globally. Join Healthy and Sustainable Living MOOC (HSLMOOC14), a free 5week online course that seeks wide participation from across the globe from those concerned with creating a sustainable future. The MOOC is a collaborative project between WizIQ, Integrating Technology for Active Lifelong Learning (IT4ALL) and the Masters of Arts in Sustainability Studies (MASS) program at R...

The UN has video  Panel on  Resource Nexus: Food, Water and Sanitation, Energy Food, water and sanitation, and energy are the “resource nexus” at the core of sustainable development and the overarching goal of poverty eradication. The resource nexus is intimately linked with sustainable consumption and production patterns. This relationship, when mismanaged, aggravates resource scarcity and can lead to conflict. This session will explore how to achieve equitable access to food, water and sanitation, and sustainable energy, and address the growing rural-urban divide. Watch the video here:  

The Resource Nexus: Food, Water and Sanitation, Energy THURSDAY, 28 August, 10:00 AM, TRUSTEESHIP COUNCIL CHAMBER Food, water and sanitation, and energy are the “resource nexus” at the core of sustainable development and the overarching goal of poverty eradication. The resource nexus is intimately linked with sustainable consumption and production patterns. This relationship, when mismanaged, aggravates resource scarcity and can lead to conflict. This session will explore how to achieve equitable access to food, water and sanitation, and sustainable energy, and address the growing rural-urban divide. Speakers: Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi   the  Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations . Until his latest appointment, Mr. Cardi served as Deputy Secretary General in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome since 2010.  Before that he was Deputy Chief of Mission at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C., from 2007 to 2010.  In ...

Access to information is essential for civil society to be able to effectively participate in sustainable development. The High Level Panel and the Open Working Group have both proposed that the Sustainable Development Goals include a target on access to information but there is still resistance from many states. This workshop will examine the importance of access to information in providing accountability in the implementation of the goals and discuss possible targets and indicators to ensure the effective right of access. Participants will build consensus on a proposed target for access to information and be better informed about possible challenges and solutions. Workshop: Opening Up Development Access to information and public participation in sustainable development Wednesday, 27 August 2014; 3:00 – 4:15 Language Room 8, North Lawn Building 2nd Floor Moderator: Panellists: David Banisar, Senior Legal Counsel, ARTICLE 19 Ambassador Maria Leissner, Community of Democ...

To those of you who have taken an interest in my comments on the UN Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Finance - these are what I think the report should have had in it and which are the contribution i have made to the UN DPI NGO Declaration Draft. Financing for Sustainable Development By 2020 Governments to amend  the Santiago Principles on Sovereign Wealth Funds to include sustainable development criteria. By 2020 Governments to require that the Credit Rating Agencies should have sustainable development criteria built into their ratings. By 2025 Governments to set up an International Credit Rating Agency (ICRA) under the World Bank as an alternative to private rating services and this should be built on sustainable development criteria that take consideration of future generation’s needs as well as present ones. By 2020 Governments to set up Green Banks to enable national support  for environmental investment on a large scale, especially capit...

How to influence UN processes – a workshop by Felix Dodds Workshop at the UN DPI NGO Conference MUST RSVP to felix@felixdodds.net 28 th of August 1-3pm Venue: The Ford Foundation 320 East 43rd Street (Between 1 st and 2 nd Avenue, in the Lower Level Board Room So you want to influence governments and have an impact on UN Processes. I will be conducting a workshop on the 28 th of August (1-3pm) to help you acquire those skills. I have written two books on How to Lobby at Intergovernmental meetings and been active at the UN since 1990.                                                                                               ...

Outreach magazine at the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States INVITATION FOR ARTICLES Stakeholder Forum will be publishing eight editions of   Outreach  to coincide with the Third International Conference on SIDS and the preceding Major Groups and Other Stakeholders Forum, Renewable Energy Forum and Private Sector Forum (29 th August – 5 th September 2014) and invites all stakeholders to contribute material to be included in the magazine. The content of the daily editions will be based on the themes listed below. These themes have been selected to align with those of the pre-Conference Forums and the multi-stakeholder partnership dialogues taking place during the Conference. Some suggested topics for articles are provided as a guide below, along with the deadlines for content and publishing dates. Please also bear in mind that the overarching theme for the Conference is ‘the sustainable development of Small Island Devel...

I had been dreading this for the last few weeks particular when a couple of members let me know what was and wasn’t in the report. So today I got up went to my favourite local cafe order a couple of strong coffees and read the report . For those who do not read this blog often I would share with you that I have had serious concerns about the way this committee’s work was going from before the zero draft. I have blogged on it a number of times and also put forward a set of 21 areas I would hope would be covered in the report. A warning to young readers this blog contains an unhappy and disappointed Felix. Unhappy because of what the report could have been and disappointed because it means the work still will have to be done for next year. The cupboard of ideas is bare... Stakeholder engagement All of this could have been so different. Stakeholders were excluded from the meetings unlike the SDG OWG or other Intergovernmental Committees on different issues of sustainabl...