A Partnerships Forum will be organized at Rio+20. The Forum will consist of highly dynamic and interactive sessions to highlight the significant contributions of partnerships to the implementation of sustainable development.
Please see the schedule of sessions below.
The Partnerships Forum will be held from 20-22 June 2012 at at RioCentro ? Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Venue: Pavilion T (Major Groups Pavilion) - Room T-3.
Click on the name of the sessions to learn more.
Day 1, Wed 20 June
Delivering Sustainable Development at the Entrepreneurial and Grassroots level: challenges, lessons learned and opportunities
UNDESA and the SEED initiative
Entrepreneurial and grassroots level enterprises will continue to play an important role in implementing sustainable development as they incorporate social and environmental considerations into their business models. Utilizing roundtables and an ideas marketplace, Session 1 will act as a key consultation that would respond to the needs of entrepreneurs and grassroots initiatives wishing to enhance their contribution to the Rio+20 outcome.
This session will examine the role and elements of a new mechanism for budding entrepreneurs and grassroots partnerships to provide better coordinated support at the global, regional and national levels. A platform for social and environmental entrepreneurial partnerships to report on progress towards their goals and for showcasing outstanding contributions will also be explored. New and existing partnerships involving and supporting small, micro, and medium-sized enterprises will be launched and strengthened.
Partnerships for the integration of food and nutrition security, health and gender equality
UNDESA and Public Health Institute
Inter-linkages between critical issues
The issues of food and nutrition security, health, gender equality, environmental degradation and climate change are closely interrelated. Climate change and environmental degradation undermine the full enjoyment of human rights and have a direct impact on the health and the food and nutrition security of millions of people - particularly women and their children-, and on their ability to move out of poverty. At the same time, women's empowerment, engagement and transformational leadership are critical to build resilience to climate change and embark on sustainable development pathways that ensure global health, food and nutrition security and lead to higher incomes. Likewise rights based approaches with an emphasis on participation, transparency and accountability play a role in making development more inclusive and equitable. Unfortunately, these critical issues are often addressed through siloed approaches which reduce their effectiveness and impact.
Day 2, Thu 21 June
Partnerships for advancing Gender Equality and Sustainability
UNDESA, IUCN and UNEP
Progress on gender equality has been made in some areas, but the potential for women to engage in and contribute to sustainable development more effectively as leaders, participants and agents of change has not been fully realized. In Session 3, the value of partnerships in mainstreaming gender in critical thematic issues at Rio+20 will be showcased, and a forum for participants to network with existing partnerships on gender and sustainable development, create synergies between partnerships and learn from each other's experiences, as well as explore replicability and scaling up opportunities will be provided.
Through a highly dynamic and interactive Gender/Partnerships Marketplace, the session will aim to produce concrete recommendations on gender-sensitive goals and indicators to be considered as inputs to the Rio+20 agreements on the proposed SDGs and as a contribution to the post-2015 development agenda. Additionally, a Knowledge Platform/Learning Circle/Community of practice on gender and sustainable development is intended to be discussed.
Speed Brokering for Partnerships: scaling-up and replicating best practices in sustainable development
UNDESA and REEEP
This dynamic session will provide a unique opportunity for speed networking for 72 senior-level participants. The session will focus on three thematic clusters: energy, sustainable cities, and water. Financiers, governments, international organizations, major groups representatives, and key leaders will be able to forge strategic contacts with sustainable development partnerships and other stakeholders. Partnerships will be provided with potential avenues for scaling-up and replicating their initiatives.
This is a pre-registered event.
Day 3, Fri 22 June
Partnerships contributing to the Future we want
UNDESA
Nearly ten years after WSSD, partnerships remain an indelible part of the landscape of development in action, and one of the most common channels for increasing involvement of relevant stakeholders in implementing sustainable development. Rio+20 should be viewed as a unprecedented opportunity to advance a new vision of international cooperation based on collective and concrete actions for addressing gaps in implementation while taking into account new and emerging challenges. The international community may be ready for new models of collaboration and to advance partnerships to the next level of utilization and recognition in implementing sustainable development.
This session will offer the opportunity for a forward-looking reflection, concrete guidance, and visionary perspectives on how partnerships can be best positioned to facilitate and expedite the implementation of agreements at Rio+20 as well as contribute to the post-2015 development agenda. Key figures in the development sphere will provide their vision on the future followed by an interactive session between panellists and participants/partnerships which will allow for sharing experiences, best practices and tangible guidance to better enable partnerships to serve as a catalyst to materialize sustainable development for the future global agenda. This session will offer the opportunity for Governments, partnerships and other stakeholders to share with the audience intentions to launch new initiatives and/or collaborations.
