Production

UNCTAD Trade and Development Board 32nd special session

The thirty-second special session of the Trade and Development Board will start on Monday, 6 September 2021 in hybrid format. The session will open at 10 a.m. in room XVIII of the Palais des Nations, Geneva. The provisional agenda for the session, together with the secretariat’s annotations thereto, will be contained in document TD/B(S-XXXII)/1.

Nominations and participation

Registration should be completed online and is required in order to be included in the list of participants. To register, please use the following link: Thirty-second special session. Other participants (i.e. representatives of members of UNCTAD that are not members of the Board and representatives of specialized agencies, non-governmental organizations and intergovernmental bodies wishing to attend as observers) are also eligible to participate in the session as observers and should register online by the same date using the link above. Any enquiries concerning registration should be sent to the UNCTAD secretariat, Intergovernmental Support Service, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10; email: meetings@unctad.org.

Logistics

Preparations to organize the meeting through a remote simultaneous interpretation platform with the six official languages of the United Nations are at an advanced stage. The link to the formal virtual meeting will be sent to the email address used for registration one day in advance of the start of the session.

Further information and contact details

Questions on preparations for the thirty-second special session of the Trade and Development Board should be addressed to Lisanne Losier, Deputy Secretary of the Trade and Development Board, Intergovernmental Support Service, email: correspondence@unctad.org; tel.: 41 22 917 4054.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org

Recovering Tourism for Sustainable Development: Safety, resilience, and incentives

Virtual side-event on the margins of the High-level Political Forum

Tourism is one of the sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the world, impacting economies, international travel, creative industries, and the protection of nature. Recovering tourism must consider building back better and be a driving force to achieve sustainable development.

In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, SDG target 8.9 stablished to “by 2030, devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products”, and SDG target 12.b. calls to “develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products.”

Sustainable tourism calls for partnerships and commitment from Governments, the UN system, and all relevant stakeholders. The side event will provide a platform to share views and experiences on how safety, resilience and incentives can be addressed to recovering tourism for sustainable development, including through harnessing national cultural and natural assets.

Register here: unesco-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Taw2rMxHTkSoBKhfS23qPA?_x_zm_rtaid=mp1140ZXTRe0vKjPhaeqfA.1625083204505.2494613014130801cc63cbb406979426&_x_zm_rhtaid=265

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit facebook.com/NGOCoRIP.  For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org.

High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) 2021

The high-level political forum on sustainable development (HLPF) is the core United Nations platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The meeting of the HLPF in 2021 will be held from Tuesday, 6 July, to Thursday, 15 July 2021, under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council. This includes the three-day ministerial meeting of the forum from Tuesday, 13 July, to Thursday, 15 July 2021 as part of the high-level segment of the Council.

The theme will be “Sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that promotes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development: building an inclusive and effective path for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development”.

When information on registration and participation becomes available, it will be available here: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/hlpf/2021#registration

The HLPF in 2021 will discuss Sustainable Development Goals 1 on no poverty, 2 on zero hunger, 3 on good health and well-being, 8 on decent work and economic growth, 10 on reduced inequalities, 12 on responsible consumption and production, 13 on climate action, 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions, and 17 on partnerships in depth. The Forum will also consider the integrated, indivisible and interlinked nature of the Sustainable Development Goals.

In the 2021 HLPF, participants will be able to explore various aspects of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the various measures and types of international cooperation that can control the pandemic and its impacts and put the world back on track to achieve the SDGs by 2030, within the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development.

Countries will also carry out voluntary national reviews (VNRs) of their implementation of the 2030 Agenda in the 2021 HLPF. For more details, please click here.

The HLPF will adopt a Ministerial Declaration as the outcome of its session. The President of ECOSOC will also prepare a summary to capture the key messages of the discussions. For more details, please click here.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY, please visit ngocsd-ny.org. For more information on the NGO  Committee on Sustainable Development-Vienna, please visit ngocsdvienna.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org

Education for Sustainable Development and Lifestyles: Re-designing Consumption and Production

UNESCO ESD Online workshop #6

Education for Sustainable Development and Lifestyles: Re-designing Consumption and Production

Register here!

Concept/background:

Climate change, shrinking forests, declining biodiversity and world food shortages are all results of the fact that we are demanding more from nature than it can supply.

To build a more sustainable world, attitudes and behaviours must change at different levels: individual, community, national, regional and global.  In this perspective, education is particularly relevant for achieving responsible sustainable consumption and production.

But concretely, how can Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) help accelerate transformation towards more sustainable economies and societies? Discussions will focus on the following questions:

  • What is the role of education, in particular Education for Sustainable Development, to promote alternative lifestyles/livelihoods in response to consumerism?
  • How can ESD promote reflection on new lifestyles that combine well-being, quality of life, responsible production and respect for nature and other people?

Speakers:

Mr. Palmiro Ocampo, Chef and founder of the NGO Ccocori Cocina Óptima, Peru

Ms. Bridget Ringdahl, Environmental Education Project manager, Water Explorer/Global Search for Sustainable Schools, African Conservation Trust, South Africa

Mr. Yann Le Tallec, Director Government & Public Affairs, Europe, Middle East and Africa, The LEGO Group

Mr. Tom Green, Ecological economist, Climate Solutions Policy Analyst, David Suzuki Foundation, Canada

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CoNGO Notes:
For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org.

Conference on Disarmament 2021 Session Public Plenary

CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT TO HOLD FIRST PUBLIC PLENARY OF ITS 2021 SESSION ON TUESDAY, 19 JANUARY

The Conference on Disarmament, the world’s single multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, will virtually hold the first public plenary of its 2021 session on Tuesday, 19 January, during which it will hear a statement by Tatiana Valovaya, Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament and Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General to the Conference, and Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

The session will open under the Presidency of Belgium.  The Presidency of the Conference rotates among its Member States according to the English alphabetical order, with each President holding office for four working weeks.  After Belgium’s Presidency (18 January to 12 February, the following countries will also take the Presidency during 2021: Brazil (15 February to 12 March), Bulgaria (15 March to 21 May), Cameroon (24 May to 18 June), Canada (21 June to 18 August) and Chile (16 August to 10 September).  The three parts of the 2021 session of the Conference will be held from 18 January to 26 March for the first part, from 10 May to 25 June for the second part, and from 26 July to 10 September for the third part.

The first virtual plenary meeting will start at 10 a.m. on Tuesday 19 January.

In accordance with rule 27 of its Rules of Procedure, the Conference on Disarmament shall adopt its agenda for the year at the beginning of each annual session.  “In doing so, the Conference shall take into account the recommendations made to it by the United Nations General Assembly, the proposals presented by Member States of the Conference, and the decisions of the Conference.”  The Rules of Procedure of the Conference also provide that, on the basis of its agenda, the Conference, “at the beginning of its annual session, shall establish its programme of work, which will include a schedule of its activities for that session, taking also into account the recommendations, proposals and decisions referred to in rule 27.”

The Conference on Disarmament and its predecessors have negotiated such major multilateral arms limitation and disarmament agreements as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques, the Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Sea-Bed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil thereof, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

The Conference on Disarmament has not negotiated an instrument on its agenda for the past two decades.  Currently, the agenda of the Conference contains the following items: cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament; prevention of nuclear war, including all related matters; prevention of an arms race in outer space; effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons; new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons, radiological weapons; comprehensive programme of disarmament; and transparency in armaments.

Documentation related to the 2021 session of the Conference on Disarmament can be found here.  The public meetings of the Conference on Disarmament can be listened to in real time here.  They are also recorded and can be found here.

Member States of the Conference

The 65 members of the Conference are Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Slovakia, Spain, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Viet Nam and Zimbabwe.

Link: https://www.ungeneva.org/fr/news-media/meeting-summary/2021/01/conference-disarmament-hold-first-public-plenary-its-2021