Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

The time is very near for Craig Daniel's last outing as James Bond. When Ian Fleming wrote the original Commander James Bond in 1953 who would have guessed that we would still be seeing actors playing him. For many people just like Dr Who your Bond is probably related to when you first watched a film. For me the best Bond was Sean Connery perhaps only just beating the two that are not in the photo above Peter Sellers and David Niven both who stared in the original making of Casino Royal. The film rights had been bought in 1960 of Fleming's first Bond movie by Charles Feldman and he was unable to come an agreement with Eon productions and so produced it himself winning Burt Bacharach an Academy nomination for the 'Look of Love' Back to the point of this blog which is who would/could be the next James Bond? Here is my top ten suggestions not in any order. Christopher Eccleston would be an interesting choice he has played Dr Who and John Lennon and would bring a ...

UN at 70: Tea Party discussion on:What has the UN ever done for us? (A parody of Life of Brain‘s “What have the  Romans  ever done for us?”) Imagine a group of Tea Party activists sitting in a bar. Dylan The UN they are everywhere Jacob I think I saw a black helicopter the other day Dylan Yes……..and have you seen those black drones too ---- Jacob The UN has black drones? Dylan All right, Jacob. Don't labour the point. And what have the UN ever given us? Ian Well there is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 that has ensured human rights for loads of people Dylan Oh yeah, yeah they gave us that. Yeah. That's true. Masked Activist: Then they set safety standards for sea and air travel.  You remember how bad it was before the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) contributed to making air travel the safest mode of transportation Jacob Oh yes... that was very good, Dylan you re...

There has just been a two day meeting organized on Major Groups and Other Stakeholders (MGoS) Workshop on Governance, Transparency and Accountability with the hope of an outcome of: “Building on the governance discussions from the previous sessions, recommendations on how the future engagement of MGoS in the HLPF may be best structured to fulfill the provisions of 67/290 to the fullest extent possible will be considered. Recommendations for the establishment of autonomous coordination mechanisms among MGoS engagement at the HLPF will also be considered.” I listened in and participated when I thought I could make a useful contribution. What became clear was that people misunderstand concepts that they use, or use them wrongly or possibly don’t understand the consequences of using them. A little history Traditionally as far as the UN is concerned everyone one who is not government is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).  Outside the UN over the last twenty five...

I did promise some thoughts on the Follow Up section of the zero draft . These are initial comments which I have put in bold I have used the text from the establishment of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development for 11bis but replaced Agenda 21 with the SDGs. This intersessional workign group on MOI which existed from 1993-2002 was a success and might be the best way of monitoring the MOI aspects of the SDGs and those elements in the FfD process that apply to them. Integrating the MOI discussing and in particular financing with the HLPF will eb critical to its success. If the finance process is happening somewhere else then the chances for implementation of the SDGs will diminish. I have added a paragraph (para 5bis)  in on corporate reporting to bring it in line with the Secretary General Panel of Eminent Peoples recommendation on this. What is being proposed here is already being ...

It is clear to me that one of the indicators of outcomes from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) being universal is that there will have to be some serious changes in the Minions. Am I the only one who has noticed that nearly all the Minions are men. This will have to change as GOAL 5 of the SDGs explains that all countries need to "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls" With  in particular these associated relevant targets: 5.1 end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere 5.4 recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies, and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate 5.5 ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life By 2030 there will nee...

Nikhil Seth The UN Secretary General has announced that he has appointed Nikhil Seth as Executive Director of UNITAR. For many of us Nikhil has played a critical role as Director of the Division on Sustainable Development overseeing both Rio+20 negotiations and the Sustainable Development Goals and Post 2015 Summit preparations. I've known Nikhil from the 1992 when he represented India and the subsequently as thee Special Adviser to Under Secretary General Nitin Desai. Always a great supporter of stakeholder’s engagement in whatever post he had. In the mid-1990s Nitin somehow got a room in DC1 or 2 for what then was the CSD NGO Steering Committee. From 1997 to 2001 Nikhil was our wing-man when conference services came to try and take our room back....good times. Also good times for stakeholder engagement in the political process of sustainable development. I still believe that the stakeholder dialogues introduced for the 1997 Rio+5 Review and which ran until 2002 were the best...