Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

Guest blog: Lenni Montiel: Senior UN Development Leader (Ret.) | Former UN Assistant Secretary-General |UNDP Resident Representative | Governance, Public Policy & Multilateral Diplomacy | Leadership Advisor & Trainer | Chevening Scholar. Lenni writes on LinkedIn about the UN and international development.  Originally published here. I've watched technically perfect agreements collapse within months. The problem was never the paperwork. I've seen informal understandings survive decades of political turbulence. International cooperation is built on agreements. It succeeds through relationships. After years working with governments, development organizations, and communities as a UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, I learned that cooperation follows the same pattern. The formal agreement is just the beginning. What determines success happens after the signatures. 👉 Trust compounds or erodes through hundreds of small interactions. A delayed response t...

Guest blog:  Lenni Montiel:  Senior UN Development Leader (Ret.) | Former UN Assistant Secretary-General |UNDP Resident Representative | Governance, Public Policy & Multilateral Diplomacy | Leadership Advisor & Trainer | Chevening Scholar.   Lenni writes  on  LinkedIn about the  UN a nd international development. Originally published here. U N80 started as a conversation about efficiency It has become a conversation about power. After following the process closely, I believe the most important lessons emerging from the first phase of UN80 are not about any individual proposal. They are about how reform actually happens in the United Nations. I've seen this pattern before in General Assembly and ECOSOC debates over the years. We saw similar dynamics during Rio+20 for instance. The moment ownership becomes the question, the conversation changes. Here are 11 lessons emerging so far: 1️⃣ Yes to reform, but not on faith alone. Many Member States su...

 UN- Press Release originally published here. UN Nairobi/Julius Mwelu   Secretary-General António Guterres (centre) with other officials at the inauguration of new office buildings at the UN Office in Nairobi and groundbreaking of the conference facility. The United Nations on Monday launched a major expansion of its Nairobi headquarters, with Secretary-General António Guterres and Kenyan President William Ruto marking what officials described as a significant milestone for the Organization’s presence in Africa. he ceremony included the inauguration of new office buildings and the groundbreaking of a new conference facility at the UN Office at Nairobi ( UNON ), which will substantially expand the Organization’s footprint in Africa. Approved by the UN General Assembly, the $340 million project is the largest investment undertaken by the UN Secretariat in Africa in its 80-year history, strengthening Nairobi’s role as a global centre for diplomacy and multilateral cooperation. “...

February 25th Registration CLOSES for UNEA4   https://reg.unog.ch/event/26962/ March 5-8 th 50 th UN Statistics Commission    https://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/ Oversees the SDG Indicators – the formal review will be in 2020 11-22 UN Commission on Status for Women   http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw62-2018 7-15 United Nations Environment Assembly 4 – time table here   http://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/27235/UNEA-4%20Leaders%20Passport.pdf?sequence=5 7 th -8 th Major Groups Forum and Committee of Permanent reps meeting 9-10 Science Policy and Business Forum 11-15 UNEA4 http://web.unep.org/environmentassembly/ April 1-5 Commission on Population and Development  http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/commission/sessions/2019/index.shtml 11 UN Partnership Forum   https://www.un...