Date: 7 September 2011
Place: Santiago, Chile
As s an input to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), UNCRD-LAC Office actively participated together with the other UN Agencies involved in the initiative in the discussion and presentation of the final document to LAC countries entitled "Development Sustainability facing 20 years of the Earth Summit: Progress, gaps and strategic guidelines for Latin America and the Caribbean". Discussions focused in assessing progress and gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development, address new and emerging challenges, and to provide "strategic guidelines" pointing the way forward (including main messages that the respective organizations have put forth for the region). The document incorporated the themes led by UNCRD-LAC on: (i) integrated territorial development management and human security (involving inter-jurisdictional articulation: interurban and rural-urban; and (ii) regional governance and capacity building at the sub national (regional) level for sustainable development.
UNCRD-LAC's participation in the preparation of the interagency document for Rio+20 allowed UNCRD-LAC to: (i) Enhance visibility of the Office's expertise on themes of regional territorial development management and human security; (ii) Articulate the above themes on the so-called "guidelines for sustainability" to be taken into account by the countries in the elaboration of their position papers and discussions in the Summit. This opens ample opportunities to enhance the Office capacity building activities in the future; and (iii) Enhance cooperation with UN agencies with a regional mandate in LAC that share common objectives with UNCRD-LAC, such as UN/ECLAC, UN/Habitat, UNFPA and UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction).
The expected output is an interagency publication for Rio+20 , to analyze the progress achieved and deficiencies persisting since the Earth Summit was held in 1992 on the path towards sustainable development.
Participants: Approx. 100 representatives of LAC countries and UN agencies with a regional mandate
Collaborating organizations/implementing partners: UNECLAC
(Office: UNCRD Latin America and the Caribbean Office)