At the Commission on Sustainable Development

The GPPN was pleased to be at the forefront of advocacy efforts on water at CSD-17, and is currently conducting an analysis on the number of its recommendations that were included in the final text.

 

Consulting stakeholders on water as a cross-cutting issue for CSD-17

The GPPN conducted a multi-stakeholder consultation programme on water as a cross-cutting issue for CSD-17, and used the outcomes from this process as the basis of its advocacy. The key messages document outlining the consultation outcomes and providing policy recommendations can be downloaded here:

• Water as a Cross-cutting Issue for CSD-17 – Policy Recommendations for Decision-makers

Advocacy and Text Amendments

Ministerial Roundtable Statements

This year three thematic Ministerial Roundtables took place at the CSD focusing on the following areas:

• Responding to the Food Crisis through Sustainable Development

• Realizing a Sustainable Green Revolution in Africa

• Integrated Management of Land and Water Resources for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development

Please click on each of the Roundtable titles to access a summary of the Roundtable.

The GPPN was in a good position to provide recommendations for the Roundtable focussing on Integrated Management of Land and Water Resources. However, as the GPPN is an issue-specific network that represents and engages with a range of Major Groups, it was not able to take a seat at the table, as it does not represent one Major Group specifically. However, the GPPN worked with the Indigenous Peoples as the assigned Major Groups representatives for the Roundtable to integrate some of our recommendations into their statement. You can access the statement of the Indigenous Peoples here.

The GPPN together with the Freshwater Caucus also put together a statement for the Roundtable that was distributed to delegates ahead of the Roundtable for their consideration. In addition, a statement to all GPPN government contacts was sent by email for their consideration. The statement is available below and in the sidebar:

• GPPN and Freshwater Caucus statement for Ministerial Roundtable on Integrated Management of Land and Water Resources

In order to translate the above policy recommendations into concise proposals that would be useful for negotiators, the GPPN put together a series of proposed text amendments for each of the thematic areas, identifying where they could be inserted in the Chairs Draft Negotiating Text. This document was circulated to negotiators ahead of CSD17.

• GPPN Proposed Text Amendments

Building on these proposed text amendments, during the course of the negotiations the GPPN worked closely with the Freshwater Caucus to put together advocacy materials, chairing daily meetings of the caucus and co-ordinating communication between caucus members.  Together with the Freshwater caucus the GPPN put together a ‘two-pager’ of key priorities for the negotiations, which built heavily on the policy recommendations of the GPPN and also sought to highlight issues identified as a priority by those present. To download the document please click below:

• Freshwater Caucus Two Pager on Priority Issues

The Freshwater Caucus is an issue-specific movement bringing together stakeholders with water interests at the CSD. It is open to individuals and organisations from across the Major Groups, as well as interested governments and UN agencies.

During the negotiations, as the negotiating text was amended day-by-day, the GPPN worked closely with the Freshwater Caucus at the CSD to respond to changes in the text and draft refined text amendments. The text amendments were targeted at each of the two Working Groups. Working Group 1, focusing on Agriculture and Rural Development, and Working Group 2, focusing on Land, Drought and Desertification.

• Freshwater Caucus Text Amendments for Working Group 1 on Agriculture and Rural Development

• Freshwater Caucus Text Amendments for Working Group 2 on Land, Drought and Desertification

 

Side Event on Water as a Cross-cutting Issue for CSD17

The GPPN co-ordinated an extremely successful side event on Water as a Cross-cutting issue for CSD17 on Tuesday 5^th May in Conference Room C, with the following presenters:

• Sergio Zelaya, UNCCD Secretariat (Download Power Point)

• Shiney Varghese, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) (Download Power Point)

• Hannah Stoddart, Global Public Policy Network on Water Management (Download Power Point)

• Ger Bergkamp, General Secretary, World Water Council (Download Power Point)

The side event was attended by over 60 people, and discussions were rich and diverse, covering water as a cross-cutting issue for agriculture, rural development, land, drought and desertification, and also exploring areas as diverse as trade and climate change.

Outreach Issues

The GPPN also wrote, fielded and edited water-related articles for Stakeholder Forum’s Outreach Issues newsletter at CSD17. The articles are listed below, and can be accessed by clicking on the links and thumbnails.