The Food and Agriculture Cluster was formed in New York to support messages from Major Groups and Civil Society before, during and following the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development. The Cluster continues to coordinate messages for the Post Rio processes and Post 2015 Thematic Consultations on sustainable agriculture, food security and nutrition. As the first thematic discussion of the OWG will be on food security, nutrition, sustainable agriculture, land degradation, desertification, drought and water and sanitation during its third session on 22-24, the Cluster is helping to bring civil society voices into intergovernmental processes in New York at United Nations Headquarters. The Cluster looks forward to working with Member States, the UN System, Major Groups and other stakeholders to ensure that sustainable agriculture and food and nutrition security are prioritized and recognized as critical to achieving sustainable development.

1111_1198_Statement for OWG by Food and Agriculture Cluster.pdf

Women Major Group Statement,
Follow Up of Rio+20, Regional Implementation Meeting -Asia Pacific,
22-24 April 2013, Bangkok, Thailand

Thank you Chair and member states delegations.
My name is Teresita Vistro representing Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development. I’m speaking today on behalf of the Women's Major Group.
The Asia and Pacific region faces some major challenges to achieving sustainable development. In order to address these challenges, there is an urgent need for clarity on the practices of maldevelopment that must be discontinued in our region, and on transformative development alternatives that will instead positively impact on the lives of people in Asia-Pacific, including women and girls.
We affirm the statements of those governments here, that emphasize the centrality of human rights and gender equality in sustainable development and the Post 2015 development agenda. We also strongly call for more explicit mention of gender equality and women's rights in all national and regional statements, government policies and programmes as we move into these global Open Working Group process, and High Level Political Forum deliberations.
Further, the Women's Major Group demand increased government, UNESCAP and civil society attention to escalating cases of land and ocean grabbing in the region. We further call for strongest attention to the impacts of global warming, climate change, ocean acidification in the region, and globally.
Moreover, we call for an end to government policies that promote rapid and resource intensive practies such as extractive industries, forestry and illegal logging, deep sea mining, and unregulated fishing. These have led to poor men and women in Asia and the Pacific living in the most precarious environments, rendered homeless and also often forcibly evicted from their homes and land. Add to this unsafe household and industrial waste contaminating living environments, waterways and oceanic pollution and it is exceedingly clear that the region must indeed move quickly toward a new kind of sustainable development, and new state responses to poverty eradication.
The Women's Major Group reiterates that Asia and Pacific development has been built on the backs of women, and it is time to end this. Women in our region produce the world´s products at increasingly lower prices; working for below subsistence wages in unbearable conditions. Women workers are denied rights to organise and bargain. Women working as domestic workers, Asia and the Pacific´s most common occupation for women are working 18 hour days, without a day off, nor guaranteed wage. They are separated from family and routinely abused at home and abroad where they also now take on roles in an unregulated and often exploitative global care chain In homes, countries, and the region, women's rights and autonomy over our bodies and life decisions are violated, especially due to the escalating fundamentalism and the politicization of religion. Moreover, Women face sexual and gender based violence, and are forced to work in a globally dysfunctional economic system that further exploits in the name of development. The current development model has clearly failed rural, indigenous, migrant women.
These are the realities of too many women in Asia and the Pacific, and has to be addressed urgently. This is the time for us to be brave and aim for a transformative and redistributive framework that reduce inequalities of wealth, power and resources, and that exacerbates gender, ethnic, class, and many other forms of inequalities.
Concretely, the Women's Major Group recommend the following:
• We call for deep and structural changes in existing global systems of power, resources and decision making. We need new frameworks and institutions designed to be democratic, accountable to all people and particularly those most affected, based on internationally agreed human rights standards and obligations;
• The Post-2015 development agenda framework must be based on existing human rights legal norms, standards and political commitments. International human rights law, including the UDHR, CEDAW, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, ECSR, and ICCPR and their follow-up programmes must form a non-negotiable base;
• There must be clear and time-bound commitments, with targets and indicators measuring quality as well as quantity and aiming to address inter and intra-state inequalities.
• On Means of Implementation, we call for timely collection and disaggregation of data on the basis of all the grounds of discrimination and their intersectionality as essential to identify, visibilise and respond to inequalities and violations of human rights and to increase accountability. Mechanisms for data collection and analysis for monitoring progress must be transparent and inclusive of input from women’s groups; require transparency of information, including budgets, as well as of decision-making processes and mechanisms at all levels and across thematic themes, as a principle to underpin the Post-2015 development framework. We demand it not only from governments, but all other development actors;
• We call on UNESCAP, UNEP and whole UN system to reflect diverse needs of all women in their programs and practices. The UN system is accountable in fully protecting and promoting gender equality and women's rights including urging governments to implement their human rights obligations;We demand the new development framework includes dedicated gender equality goals, as well as specific targets and indicators throughout. It should be an explicit priority of governments and all major groups;
• Finally Member states, We call for your full guarantee of women’s control over resources and sustainable livelihood, the full implementation of decent work and living wage, full, equal and meaningful participation of women in all decision bodies in all levels, elimination of all forms of violence against women, and an environment of peace and security for women to fully realise their rights. Lastly, we urge government to guarantee sexual and reproductive rights and access to quality and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services to women and girls. When women from Asia and the Pacific do not have the ability to make decisions on all aspects of their sexuality and decide the number and spacing of their children, then they cannot participate wholly in any aspects of our lives.

Mr. Chair, Honorable Delegations, Major Groups; we are now have the opportunity to chart a new sustainable development course; one that the vast majority of this world wants. It is indeed one that is based on global equity, sustainability of justice, realisation of univeral human rights , gender equality and dignity for all - including all women and girls in Asia and the PacificThank you.

1111_340_WMG_RIM_AP_TessVistro.doc

The Rio+20 outcome document proposes the elaboration of a set of Sustainable Development Goals that will contribute to sustainably managing the world’s increasing resource use within the context of dwindling resource availability and prioritizes the eradication of poverty and hunger as a matter of urgency. The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) believes that the introduction of animal welfare as an integral part of sustainable development is important, as global adherence to animal welfare principles will have significant positive impacts for poverty eradication and economic development, food security, public health, climate change and the preservation of biodiversity.

1111_574_WSPA Why animals matter in achieving The Future we Want.pdf

The objective of a High Level Representative for Future Generations (HLR) is to balance the short-term nature of policy making processes and act as the UN’s principal advocate for the interests and needs of future generations. They would evaluate policy proposals for their impact on the lives of future generations, inviting a common vision and responsibility. He or she would be an individual with the leadership skills, the moral authority and vision to set an agenda in which the needs of future generations are considered alongside present interests.

1111_427_Bringing added value to the HLPF.pdf

A brief report. The 10 presentations are linked from the blog post. Most are highly informative. Others raise grave concerns.

The apparent dominant view from the sustainability sciences from #1 still seems to be that "decoupling" is a realistic objective, if we just "innovate". If asking the hard questions suggested by #9 we'd acknowledge "decoupling" is an idea to have ever growing wealth and ever shrinking resource needs as our future plan. One of many unasked questions is whether ever larger and faster changes in how we live would become unmanageable anyway... whether we had the resources or not. http://www.synapse9.com/signals/2013/03/23/sci-for-un-sd-goals/

Review of Science for UN’s SDG’s « Reading Nature's Signals

I think the great problem with the SDG's is that they are development goals, not sustainability goals.

We should reverse the priority, to have top priority go to measurable progress toward hard targets for achieving sustainability. It's quite possible scientifically, but we’d need to use “The Commons Approach” organizationally (1). The tragedy now occurring, with the effort having the wrong order of priorities is that the implicit "sustainability goal" naturally becomes to make an effort to slow the rate of growing unsustainabiliy of the economy.

That is being achieved but fails as a way for the economies to become sustainable. It may well be thought of as an important step, but if we face the truth, it’s a total failure as a plan. You see that unfortunate trade-off in most agreements and metrics, a plan to slow the rate of growing impacts…. but it's a disaster for the earth and for the future of our complex societies.

1) The UN is Urged to Adopt “The Commons Approach” at All Levels Of Government and Throughout Society, to Achieve Real Sustainable Development and MDG goals
nhttp://www.worldwewant2015.org/node/274168#comment-41782

CALL FOR DISCUSSION NOTES (Now closed): TOPICS FOR POST-2015 THEMATIC CONSULTATION ON ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY | World We Want 2015

Two large practical problems with the UN's SD Goals.
1) The SDG's focus on development with seemingly little or no focused attention to rebound effects.
2) Projects that are intended to be sustainable are also widely using ill-defined standard measures that give misleadingly low indications of both present and future impacts.

1- lack of attention to rebound effects
The UN's SDG targets have the effects all development plans have, which is to increase human pressures on natural resources. The big "rebound effect" is the usual one, that "wealth breeds demand" because people using economic success to further invest in greater economic success. It should be but doesn’t seem to be factored into any of the plans, as if "unseen impacts don't count". We know they DO count, though, and are a quite genuine threats to success.

The development stimulus in less developed countries is one of the causes of the food crisis, for example. It both adds to the globally growing demand for resources, pushing up food prices. It also connects productive small farmers with foreign markets so they no longer sell their products in their own regions. There are lots of "back fire" effects like that. They are occurring because the SDG's are framed as development plans first, rather than as sustainability plans first.

The right step for the UN is to adopt The Commons Approach. That focuses everyone's attention on their mutual and common interests, so development avoids adding to the intensity of economic competition over resources that only speculators benefit from. In the present business climate focusing primarily on development interests is leading to plans that tragically backfire.

2 – need for a large change in our measurement methods
People need better measures of the real total effects of their choices. Better measures doesn't guarantee success but protect against failure, steering you to solutions that are much more likely to work and to last.

An unusual flaw was recently found, exposing a major source of misinformation in the design of the most familiar measures of economic impacts, the LCA and Scope 3 GHG measurement methods. Those and many other common methods use "economic accounting" not "environmental systems accounting". The two approaches are *radically different* as ways of counting the same “end product” or “whole business” externalities. The familiar methods count only the “consumption for production” of technology, and ignore the “consumption for production” for the human services needed to operate the technology(!). It's just left out.

It’s a BIG omission and a major inaccuracy for the physical measure of attributable impacts on the environment. The present LCA and Scope 3 GHG metrics are commonly leaving out 80-90% of the real environmental impacts for delivering business products and GDP! Two levels of peer-reviewed analysis of the problem are available, simple & complex, plus some collected “Slides & notes”.
- simple “Shining a light on dark energy”
nhttp://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/new-metrics/measuring-total-impacts-business
- complex “System Energy Assessment (SEA)"
nhttp://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/3/10/1908/
- collected “Slides & notes”
nhttp://www.synapse9.com/SEA/

It will take a significant effort to understand this new information on how to accurately measure and attribute the impacts of business operations and products, and then integrate it into the various CSR and Sustainability Dashboard models. Given the scale of the error it would help correct it would also seem sure to have significant value, for redirecting our efforts toward more feasible solutions.

Shining Light on “Dark Energy”: Measuring the Total Impacts of Business | Sustainable Brands
The common practice of counting impacts as “zero” for lack of information, creating a very large blind spot in our perception of the world, can be hard to avoid. It can be hard to even think about what one is leaving uncounted. We found a way to define “uncounted” in relation to global totals that needed to be accounted for.

Stakeholder Forum and partners have launched the Sustainable Development Goals e-Inventory, a new online tool to crowdsource proposals on global goals for the post-2015 period.

The SDGs e-Inventory provides all stakeholders with a platform to outline their vision for post-2015 global goals.

It aims to help stakeholders (including governments and intergovernmental organisations) become better informed about the wide range of proposals, expectations and evidence-based arguments on SDGs and other global goals being proposed for the post-2015 development framework.

It will also provide capacity building resources to help stakeholders fill knowledge gaps around the intergovernmental process, develop their own proposals, build alliances, and develop advocacy strategies.

The e-Inventory will provide stakeholders with the data to undertake analysis to identify trends, commonalities and knowledge/evidence gaps. Stakeholder Forum will also conduct and disseminate regular analysis to inform the intergovernmental process on SDGs.

Overall, the e-Inventory hopes to improve the likelihood of achieving a SDGs framework which fully integrates the three dimensions of sustainable development.

To find out more visit http://www.SDGseInventory.org

1111_444_e-inventory announcement.pdf

Sustainable livestock production, of which animal welfare is an integral part, is an example of a comprehensive approach to development and an effective way of achieving the desired objectives of food security, social stability and environmental sustainability as well as promoting job creation and equitable economic growth. Over one billion of the poorest people on the planet depend on their animals as their main source of livelihood and food security. In other words, their animals are their main productive asset and this should be considered by the Open Working Group on the elaboration of the SDGs.

It seems critical that we realize the need for a commons approach and address our true common interests. A profound tragedy of the commons is developing as every country's great desire for growth results in ever more intense competition over our many kinds of limited and shrinking resources. We're not caring for the earth but fighting over it. Already we see how it creates the world food crisis and keeps us from responding to climate change, among numerous other terrible consequences.

I represent the Commons Cluster, and the sub-group Commons Action for the UN http://www.commonsactionfortheunitednations.org. See our Jan 15 proposal
"Urging the UN adopt a “commons approach” at all levels of government and throughout society". http://www.worldwewant2015.org/node/274168#comment-41782

Commons Action » Commons Cluster for the United Nations