Rio+20 is an unprecedented opportunity to look ahead to the world we want in 20 years. At the Rio+20 Conference, world leaders, along with thousands of participants from the private sector, NGOs and other groups, will come together to shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet.

Civil society is invited to take part in the preparation for the Conference. The UN has actually repeated the invitation on eight occasions.  That means that all of us -  adults, youth and children –  can learn about the issues involved and even give our opinion on-line. This is an exciting opportunity to be part of the Global Community creating a really sustainable future for the coming generations.

There are web pages for all.  Just “google” Rio+20 and you will find lots of information.

www.futurewewant.org  This page has a section where you can  write your contribution.

www.roadtorioplus20.org  is for young people.

www.un.org/es/sustainablefuture/conversation.asp is for Spanish contributions

Ban Ki- moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, has said that “Rio+20 will be one of the most important global meetings on sustainable development in our time.”

UN Photo/Evan Schneider

Without serious, concrete intervention by year’s end to stop Israel’s policies and strategies to systematically and deliberately destroy the two-State solution, prospects for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians would be ruined, a top Palestinian peace negotiator told the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

“The implications of such a situation are drastic, not just for Palestinians, but for the whole region and for the whole world,” said Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, recently (March 27) briefed the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and latest developments in the political process.

Passionists International is concerned to promotes justice for both Israeli and Palestinian people, living securely side by side in peace. PI has been actively engaged with the NGO Working Group on Israel –Palestine.

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi (Palestine)
Media Commissioner of the Arab League, and Secretary-General, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy.

Dr. Ashrawi has recently become the Minister of Information for the Arab League, and is an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. She has an M.A. from the American University of Beirut and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia.

Dr. Ashrawi is the founder and Secretary General of the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She was the Spokesperson of the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Process from 1991-1993. She is a professor at Birzeit University, where she has been chair of the English Department and Dean of the Faculty of Arts.

Dr. Ashrawi’s books include “This Side of Peace: A Personal Account” (1995) and anthologies of poetry, fiction, and literary criticism. She serves on the international advisory boards of the Council on Foreign Relations (Washington, D.C.), UNRISD, and others, and is on the Board of Trustees of the Carter Center.

Representatives of Civil Society

In the name of the members of the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, I thank you Mr. President for the chance to add some thoughts on the topic of financing sustainable development.

As we face an ongoing financial and economic crisis, the deepening crises of climate change, and ever-widening inequality; as we look to Rio +20, it is time to learn from the past. We must move into the future in a more integrated and coherent fashion. In 2002, two big Development Conferences of the United Nations happened within a few months of each other – the Financing for Development conference in Monterrey, Mexico and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. But those most actively involved in preparing for the 2 meetings seemed largely ignorant of the other process. We cannot afford to perpetuate false distinctions and separationsIn preparing for Rio +20, the global community must urgently take a fresh look at the entire system of financing for development and redirect it to a clearer focus on sustainable development. We need to look at the institutions that are entrusted with the FfD agenda.  An expanded institutional framework that includes intermediary and local NGOs (by providing them access and investing in their capacities) will be absolutely critical if the goal of sustainable development is to be taken seriously. Such institutions (at all levels) will need a different set of performance metrics to gauge their ability to deliver on their developmental goals rather than focus only on financial accounting,

The transition to a green economy may provide impetus to finally bring all the pieces together, to integrate the three pillars of a sustainable world that goes beyond mere rhetoric.  Financing sustainable development calls for levels of cooperation between us never seen before. We must move beyond an environment vs. development divide.

Irrespective of whatever other differences one may or may not have with international financial institutions (IFIs), it becomes increasingly clear they operate at a very different scale from where the problem happens and where change is likely to happen.

The hurdle is less an ideological one, than one of capacity. Those responsible for financing development are more comfortable as managers of money than facilitators of development. So the means (financing) is decoupled from the end (sustainable development), not only in how claims are made for financing but how the institutional efficacy is accounted for. This has contributed to the deepening crisis of legitimacy of development finance The institutions best suited to raise large amounts of international finance are least suited to disbursing these resources at the level and in a manner that gives sustainable development on the ground, in the village as well as in the urban setting the best chance of really happening.

None of the institutional players – the UN system as a whole, the BWI, IFIs , the G20 -  can hope to achieve the sort of development that speaks to the threefold demand – environmental, economic and human/social – without effective partnership that can bring the financing resources to the places where most impact and most change can be achieved. So NGOs and the private sector must be constantly involved in the chain that delivers these resources.

Participants at the Meeting of ECOSOC, World Bank, IMF, WTO and UNCTAD March 12

Reactions to the financial crisis suggest that the problem is not lack of capital. There is big money out there!  The problem is that most of the people who hold the cash are not interested in long term investment to build strong and effective enterprises. A significant proportion of trades made each day in the financial markets are made by high-speed computers in securities that are only held for a fraction of a second.  That is not the sort of investing that is likely to create jobs that offer decent employment and build sustainable economies. As the majority of financing will come from private sources, much more debate is needed on regulation. Without significant regulation of the financial markets, it’s unlikely that a new paradigm of productive investment will become possible.

Some points we wish to emphasize:

• Failure to meet ODA commitments by most developed countries is a continuing scandal. This underlines the need for a renewal of the multilateralism, upon which the United Nations is built, that reaches beyond sectional interests to search for common solutions that serve the needs of all countries.
• With Mexico chairing the G20, it is important that a Financial Transactions Tax as an innovative source to finance sustainable development, so strongly promoted by France, be not pushed aside.
• Resources from taxation are vital for countries trying to advance their national development. It is past time for an intergovernmental body, housed within the UN, to promote greater communication and international cooperation in tax matters.
• Heiner Flassbeck suggests that UNCTAD be given control for setting stock prices for agricultural raw materials. Only producers, traders and users of these materials could work the futures markets. This would remove from speculation those commodities that people need to survive. It would halt the dangerous financialization of food markets.

Analysis, cooperation and delivery pitched to the most appropriate local level of life and need: these are the things that will give us a fighting chance of meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

Kevin Dance, Passionists International and Chair of NGO Committee on Financing for Development.

Related articles

• “The reform of the international monetary and financial system and its implications for development”(passionistsinternational.org)

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Photo Credit: UN Women/Ryan Brown

The Commission on the Status of Women, Feb. 26 to March 2, has just finished at the United Nations. For two weeks, nations gather to search for ways to improve the rights of women and girls around the world. The theme of this year’s 56th session was the empowering of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication. Among issues discussed were the importance of equal land rights for women, and removing impediments to markets for trade, as well as greater access to education. During this time, the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, as well as the Working Group on Girls, in which Passionists International has taken an active role, lobbied the UN Member States to make sure the advancement of women and girls was clearly included in the Commission’s Outcome Document.

The Working Group on Girls is composed of more than 80 international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that work to institutionalize the rights of girls in the United Nations by promoting the human rights of the girl-child in all areas and stages of her life; by advancing the inclusion and status of girls; and by helping girls to develop their full potential as women. The Working Group on Girls tries to incorporate the perspective of girls under the age of 18 into the deliberations at the United Nations.

The Working Group on Girls wanted girls from around the world to participate in the UN advocacy process from Feb. 26 to March 2. They came and enthusiastically attended the Working Group on Girls Youth Orientation for the 56th Commission on the Status of Women. In the orientation to the Commission’s work, these young women were exposed to a wide variety of issues that affect women and girls throughout the world: gender equality, harmful effects of forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and empowering them as entrepreneurs in rural economies. Women farmers play a major role in poor and developing countries.

Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile and presently Executive Director of UN Women, and Leymah Gbowee, the Liberian peace activist and Nobel Peace Prize-winner, gave the girls educational lectures. There were also workshops on social media, advocacy, and other topics to better equip them for their work.

A statement was prepared and drafted during the two weeks of the Commission as the CSW 56 Girls’ Statement. This gathered the concerns of girls on the theme of the Commission.  The statement was read to diplomats attending the Commission by a Girl Representative of the Working Group on Girls. In addition, more than 40 girls from around the world made additions to the outcome statement from the Commission to more accurately express the needs of girls. This was sent to each government that is part of the Commission.

For more information on the Working Group on Girls, visit www.girlsrights.org.

Last week we had a fascinating event “Poverty and Climate Change: Lives in the Balance.” We were reminded that climate change affects all aspects of development – environmental, social and economic. The two greatest challenges facing our generation are how to lift up people trapped in poverty and how to stabilize Earth’s climate. Climate change is a fact. There is no way to stop it. What we can, and must do, is adapt to it and make every effort to lessen the disastrous effects it has and will continue to have on the world’s most vulnerable populations.

As always, women and children make up a majority of people living in poverty. Rural women are the backbone of agriculture in the developing world. They save the seeds, plant, harvest and market the produce. It is estimated that they are responsible for approximately one-half of the world’s food supply. But the traditional weather patterns they have come to rely on have been disastrously altered.

Stories from different countries underlined the disastrous impact of climate change. Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur from the Democratic Republic of Congo said they could always rely on a nine-month rainy season, followed by three dry months. Now the rainfall is uncertain; harvesting is unpredictable. “In Kenya, each year the rains would arrive in November… but, no more.” The Ambassador of the Maldives, a nation of 1,190 coral islands in the Indian Ocean, said climate change threatens his nation’s existence. The Maldives depend upon imported food. As climate change impacts food production, and prices begin to soar, the food security of the Maldivians will be at risk.

Last year the Pontifical Justice and Peace Council issued a statement urging major economic reform entitled “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority.” One of its recommendations calls for the taxing of financial transactions. “Such taxation would be very useful in promoting global development and sustainability according to the principles of social justice and solidarity.”

The NGO Committee for Social Development, with civil society organizations worldwide, is advocating for a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). This would be a small tax (e.g. 0.05 percent) on all financial market transactions. When we ordinary mortals make a purchase, we pay a tax on the amount. Meanwhile, billions of dollars are bought and sold each and every day in the world’s financial centres and stock exchanges. These are completely tax-free and make the rich ever-richer. It’s time to end the free ride for the speculators!

Many economists see a Financial Transaction Tax as an innovative source of financing for development, and a practical way to help developing countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals, eradicate poverty, protect the environment and shape development that can be sustained. It would also help to reduce the destabilizing effects of downturns in the financial markets, reduce speculative trading and the wild fluctuations of asset prices in stock markets as well as in commodity prices. Over the long term, a Financial Transaction Tax could become a steady, predictable funding stream for poverty eradication.

Another potential source of funding is a reduction in current levels of military spending. In the wake of the global financial and economic crisis of 2008-2009, public spending on social development shrank, but military spending increased. To achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals it would cost US$329 billion each year – a mere 20 percent spent of the world’s spending on military each year.

In 1967, Pope Paul VI suggested that a portion of global military budgets be channeled into a global humanitarian fund for development. He told us that “development is the new name for peace.” Imagine what the world would be like today if his advice had been heeded? There can be no serious commitment to poverty eradication without addressing this issue.

The outcome document currently under negotiation by the countries that make up the Commission for Social Development makes no mention of reducing military budgets, nor does it consider any concrete proposals to finance efforts aimed at poverty eradication. The one mention of climate change in the document is strongly opposed by the United States.

I offer you a very simple way to join your voice to ours in our advocacy efforts. I encourage you to sign the online petition for the Social Protection Floor Campaign, and pass it on to your friends and associates. For more information on the Social Protection Floor, click here.

“We’re facing a planetary emergency” says Owen Gaffney of International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme

The frequent news reports with pictures of people whose lives are torn apart make it hard to avoid the reality. Deadly and violent weather – floods, earthquakes, mudslides, forest fires, hurricanes  and the sinister rising of sea levels  force us to take the warnings seriously, rather than dismiss or play them down as in the recent past.

Elimar Pinheiro do Nascimento, director of the University of Brasilia Sustainable Development Centre, states: “Democratic regimes don’t appear to be capable of adequately addressing the issue of climate change, because of the short-term political dynamic, since environmental problems take decades to solve. Democracy is about freedom, and protecting the environment is about survival.”

Our democratically elected governments cannot see beyond their own noses, or not beyond the next time they must face their electors. So where does that leave us?

In financial crises, specialist economists shape the decisions that governments make.  Central banks can adopt often unpopular monetary measures, even despite pressure from national governments. But in this deeper crisis which threatens the future of our entire planet, we don’t see environmentalists and climate experts called in to advise on what action should be taken.

If we are to have a future we will need statespersons, not bureaucrats. But dare we hope for leaders to emerge who are able to withstand the pressure from corporate driven political decisions, to ensure our survival?

We must find new mechanisms to create policies with a long-term focus to solve our environmental problems.

Prior to Rio+20, the world’s scientific community will give a comprehensive “state of the planet” assessment at the “Planet Under Pressure” conference in London Mar. 26-29. Nearly 3,000 experts from around the world will provide a report card on the health and threats to the Earth and make recommendations on what must be done to avoid disaster.

One of the first things a maturing human community must do is solve its international governance problems. Thirty leading experts on international governance are unanimous regarding the failure of the current United Nations approach of one country, one vote and the requirement of consensus before taking action or making significant decisions.  ”One country can hold the entire world hostage.”

The Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer is considered the world’s most successful environmental treaty. It doesn’t use the traditional U.N. system. Decisions are made only when the majority of both the industrialised and developing nations agree. The U.N. climate negotiations need such a decision making process.

Maurice Strong who led the Rio 1992 Earth Summit had this to say: “We must rise above the lesser concerns that preempt our attention and respond to the reality that the future of human life on Earth depends on what we do, or fail to do in this generation. What we have come to accept as normal is not normal…

We must deal with this as the most dangerous security issue humanity has ever faced, with the very conditions necessary to life on Earth at risk.

Rio+20 will require a degree of cooperation beyond anything we have yet experienced at a time when competition and conflict over scare resources is escalating….The decisions and policies which determine our impacts on sustainability are primarily motivated by economic and financial considerations. The importance of the actions to be taken at Rio + 20 requires that they be firmly rooted in our deepest moral and ethical principles. – UN General Assembly Rio +20 Event, New York, October 25th, 2011.

The world has seen major changes since 1992. Today more and more people think of themselves as ‘global or planetary citizens’. With knowledge comes responsibility. Remember, there is a voice that is stronger than the power of money or the force of corporations! That is the voice of truth and moral decency.
Rio + 20 will need all the prayer and our best efforts if it is to succeed in avoiding disaster for the earth and all who call the Earth “home”.  

It’s time to speak up and let our governments know what we expect of them to prevent the threat of global disaster.  Tell them not to play politics in Rio. Tell them to remember that we have only one planet and we are all involved! It’s time for us to speak up!

Passionists International hopes to have a significant presence in Rio.

Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.

Kevin Dance, C.P.