Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

I am a huge supporter as are most Member states of utilizing the Habitat III conference to be a major implementing agent for the SDGs, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the Sendai Disaster Risk Reduction Framework and the Paris Climate Agreement at the local and sub-national level. There is no question that the Habitat III process is way behind where Habitat II   was  at this point in 1996. Not only was there a text then that member states were happy to negotiate around by now but many many more days still left to negotiate that text. In 1996 there was still 23 days of negotiating days left for Habitat II at this time in the process. Habitat III has only nine days left for negotiations -  though there is a proposal for an additional two days at the end of this month. Clearly there will need to be additional days I would guess in total 10-15 to address the 104 page comments by member states into the 20 page original zero draft. A new text is expected by the ...

One of the conferences I engaged in in the 1990s and have fond memories of is the 1996 Habitat II Conference, which adopted the Habitat Agenda. I remember it in part because it achieved the most progressive stakeholder engagement in a UN Conference ever. I also have very fond memories of it because I made a lifelong friend in the Chair of the Conference Pakistan Ambassador Shafqat Kakakhel who went on to be Deputy Executive Director of UNEP. In Habitat II I was the coordinator of the NGO negotiating team working under the International Facilitating Committee (IFC) a Major Group platform that managed their engagement in the conference.   So this was my personal background to attending the second preparatory conference for Habitat III last week. Are there lessons to learn? I think so. Perhaps it is best to start by explaining what happened in Habitat II and you can make your own minds up. Preparatory process The preparatory process for Habitat III similar to H...