In 1997 the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) Intersessional meeting and the CSD itself will focus on the preparations for the UN Special Session of the General Assembly which will be from the 9th to the 13th June 1997.
Feb 24 - March 7 Intersessional meeting for the CSD - now recognized as PrepCom I for the Special Session of the UN General Assembly in June. New York.

April 7 - 25 CSD meeting - PrepCom II for the Special Session of the UNGA. New York

The Special Session and the two preparation meetings will:

*     review where we have come over the last 5 years;
*     review the outcome from the CSD Intergovernmental Panel on Forests;
*     review the work programme of consumption and production patterns;
*     review the report on freshwater resources from the Stockholm Institute;
*     look at institutional reform relating to sustainable development and the CSD;
*     set the priorities for the next 5 years;
*     consider ways to strengthen follow up to the series of UN Summits;
*     addresses ways to deal with emerging problems and new priorities.

The CSD is the principal focus for international political follow up to UNCED. Its mandate is to co-ordinate the activities of other UN bodies as they relate to issues of sustainable development; to analyze progress at national, regional, and international levels; and to promote the implementation of Agenda 21. 53 countries are elected to sit on the CSD. The CSD has broken down Agenda 21 so that it can be reviewed over a three year period.

The sectoral issues of Agenda 21 reviewed in:

1994: those dealing with: health, human settlements, fresh water, toxic chemicals, and hazardous wastes;
1995: biodiversity, mountains, desertification, forests and land;
1996: all kinds of seas and atmosphere.

Countries have been asked to produce a report on their implementation of the relevant chapters to be reviewed that year, as are NGOs/Major Groups.

Cross sectoral issues are dealt with each year. These are drawn from chapters of Agenda 21 dealing with critical elements of sustainability, (issues such as consumption patterns), financial resources and mechanisms, technology co-operation and transfer, capacity building; and the roles of major groups.

Who Can Participate?

All non governmental organisations (NGOs) already in Category I, Category II or Roster status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) can participate at the CSD or the Intersessional Meetings. In addition, those groups that were accredited to the Earth Summit in 1992 and who then submitted an application form for accreditation to the CSD, and had it accepted, can go.

One of the key developments since the Earth Summit has been advancement of the term Major Groups. This tries to distinguish between what the UN identifies as NGOs. At present, trade unions, business and voluntary sector groups are all classed as NGOs. Agenda 21, the main text of the Earth Summit, recognised 9 Major Groups. These were: farmers, voluntary groups, youth, trade unions, industry, scientists, women, indigenous peoples, and local authorities. Agenda 21 has a chapter on each of these which includes responsibilities for those groups.

NGOs can make very important contributions without being accredited by submitting relevant material to their government on their concerns and wishes, or by working with NGOs which are able to participate. Copies of any submissions made to the government should also be sent to the CSD Major Groups Focal Point as well.

Your accreditation details should be faxed to the NGO Unit of DPCSD on your headed note paper no later than two weeks before the meeting you are going to. The fax number to send to is (1 212) 963 4324

Why Participate?

Since the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 the role and access of NGOs and Major Groups have increased enormously. This has come about because there is a recognition and tacit admission by governments that neither they nor the UN system have the political will, imagination or the ideas in many cases to deliver much of what needs to be done. Over 100 countries have created National Sustainable Development Councils/Round Tables made up of Major Group representatives to help them. Another term for Major Groups now more in vogue is 'stakeholders'.

National: It should be remembered that participation in the CSD is not a substitute for working at local, national or regional levels on the issues. Rather it is a very useful complement to the work done at other levels - providing information which may be useful about ongoing work as well as an important global forum for communicating concerns of constituencies at home.

If you are coming to the events in 1997 then you should be organizing meetings with other NGOs in your country and then with you Government. If you are going to meet together the NGO synthesis paper is a good source document for any discussions. This was produced by some of those NGOs at the last CSD.

International: participating in the CSD is an opportunity to have government's policies being put in front of their peer group, i.e. other countries. The need to explain the implications of their policies can be a good chance for putting pressure on a government. There will be many opportunities to influence the government to sign up to policies that perhaps they did not want to when they got on the plane to New York. It is a very efficient way of finding out what's happening on various issues relating to Sustainable Development around the world.

It is also a good way of getting information and messages out to a broad range of governments, international organisations and NGO and Major Group representatives from around the world.

The UN offers NGOs and Major Groups a unique opportunity to maintain pressure on governments and international organisations and to strengthen the goals of your organisation.

Political: One of the great things about the UN meetings is the access you have both to Ministers and top civil servants. It is equivalent to being allowed on to the floor of your parliament. You can walk up to any country desk and talk to the relevant civil servant. At the final Prepcom for the Earth Summit this access was restricted. A ticketing system was introduced which allowed thirty five NGO representatives on a first come first served basis to have access to the floor of the conference rooms during formal and informal sessions. Everyone else was allowed into the gallery section of the conference room. There is a small chance this might have to be introduced for the CSD this year if numbers are very high.

As well as the formal sessions there are informal sessions to which NGOs have access. There are also informal-informal sessions including the contact groups where the most difficult issues are being negotiated by a restricted number of government delegates. The only NGOs that used to be allowed into this were those on delegation. At the 1995 CSD not only were NGOs allowed in but participated in them.

At the 1996 Habitat II PrepCom and the previous year's Informal Drafting Groups NGOs and other Major Groups were given what amounts to negotiating rights. They were allowed to enter text amendments and have their amendments distributed by the Secretariat.

For the Habitat II Conference itself the NGOs had produced their NGO Composite Text amendments in advance and circulated them to many governments.

On the second day of the formal negotiations the governments agreed to bring out the NGO suggestions of text amendments as a UN document - A/CONF.165/INF/8. This is the first time in the history of the UN that this has happened.

It was then given to all governments. This was the only document that NGOs could make suggestions of text amendments from. A revision of two sections - Capacity Building and Commitments - was later negotiated between the NGOs. When agreement could not be reached, then both viewpoints were represented, but it was agreed not to try to take the microphone on those issues.

The NGOs used floor managers to manage the interventions and the approach was commented by many governments to be very professional.

How can NGOs Participate

1. Before you arrive

It is important to discuss the agenda of the meeting within your organisation and among others in your field who will not be able to attend. A well organised back up by other NGOs in your country can mean pressure being put on the government here as well as in New York. With some many events happening in 1997 the sharing of resources and information will be very important.

2. At the CSD

Every day government representatives meet to share what has happened and what they expect will happen that day. NGOs are also well organised. Working with other NGOs from your country, as a team, at the meetings is very useful. It will be impossible for an individual to cover everything so if there is an opportunity of working with other organisations at the meeting the work can be shared. This is vital if there are NGOs on the government delegation.

If you are the only representative from your country at the CSD then it would be very useful to work through an NGO regional block. There will be a daily diary to keep NGOs abreast of meetings.

The rules of procedure within the UN recognise that NGOs and Major Groups play an important role as representatives of significant constituencies.

Accredited NGOs may represent their constituencies in a number of ways:

(a) Sending an observer to the official sessions. All accredited NGOs are entitled to have an observer at open sessions of the CSD. These NGO observers can bring back information and analysis to their constituencies and to the wider public.

(b) Making oral statements to the CSD
The rules of procedure give accredited NGOs the right to make brief oral statements, at the discretion of the Chair and with consent of the members. Given that more accredited NGOs may wish to speak than can be heard during the relatively brief sessions, NGOs are encouraged to select a small number of speakers to make oral statements. This is best done through the NGO working groups on different topic areas. They also like to balance the speeches among NGOs representing different themes, sectors, regions and gender.

The statements are most effective if they are brief, substantive in nature and reflect the perspective of more than one organisation.

(c)Submitting written statements. The rules of procedure allow for accredited NGOs to circulate written statements: however, these are not issued as official documents, and the NGO bears the costs of translation, printing and circulation. There will be a table usually outside the official conference room where your papers can be put. Though this is a good idea it is vital that you personally hand copies of your material to the key delegations you want to influence.

Consolidated NGO statements representing a wide range of relevant constituencies carry greater weight with governments.

On most issues it is hoped that there will be list servers set up through the CSD NGO Steering Committee. This will enable initial positions to be brought together before arriving at the meetings.

The usual way of presenting information is to take the Government text and reproduce it with NGO parts in bold. It helps the delegates understand what you want added and where. Text which does not fit into the document under discussion will not usually be well received.

(d) Formal consultations. Sometimes key country blocs such as the Group of 77 (G77) or the European Union (EU) may want to meet with the NGOs. If such consultations are organised this will probably be through the NGO Steering Committee.

(e) Meeting with your government delegation. In the two week period of the CSD Intersessional and the three week CSD it is useful to have regular possibly even daily. meetings with the your government delegation. This is a way to put over your concerns as a group.

For the CSD some governments allows Major Groups to go on their delegation. This means the people who are on delegation have access to the most upto date information. To have people on delegation can be very important to ensure that the views of the Major Groups are represented in delegation meetings.

Someone on delegation for the first time can miss a lot of the useful information as they will be not used to the process. There will be a lot of people at the CSD who have been on a governmental delegation before. The CSD NGO Steering Committee will be able to help you find someone to talk to about it.

To ensure that the views of NGOs/Major Groups are represented there should be daily contact with your representatives on the government delegation.

In the negotiations there may be many occasions when the NGOs and the government representatives will want the same outcome. This then enables the government to utilise the support of their NGOs. Do not make the mistake of thinking that the civil servants are always representing the views of the governing party.y. Some may want exactly what the NGOs want and therefore it is important to have a good relationship with them.

(f) Informal contacts with delegates. Much of the work of conveying constituents' views to countries happens informally. The key places are:

*     the coffee bar - Vienna Cafe;

*     the delegates lounge - situated near the General Assembly Room this is meant to be only for delegates but ........

*     the delegates dining room - top floor of the lift;

*     the staff cafeteria;

*     the corridors;

*     in spare rooms;

*     at the back of the meeting room;

*     at the Government Missions.

(g) Targeting other governments

Your country may work in a block. For example the UK operates within the a joint EU line. Therefore the ability to persuade them to propose amendments is much more difficult. It is well worth targeting the Canadian, Australian and US governments. Also the six East European countries - Poland, Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Ukraine are worth targeting They do not operate as a group and so they can be much easier to persuade to take your views up.

If your country isn't on the CSD Bureau (the 53 countries that may up the CSD) then target countries in your region.

3. Substantive contributions

Many NGOs/Major Groups have expert or technical expertise in issues under consideration. They can therefore:

a)     propose agenda items, a right held by NGOs/Major Groups in Category I Consultative status only;

b)     submit papers or reports, NGOs/Major Groups may submit papers and reports to the CSD secretariat directly. Where relevant they will be forwarded to the UN Task Manager for that subject area;

c)     draw attention to urgent and emerging issues - a category of unspecified issues which is on the CSD Agenda every year. Particularly in the High Level segment - the part when Ministers are there. NGOs/Major Groups can use this to draw attention to problems not adequately covered in Agenda 21, either by encouraging a government to raise the issue in the High Level Segment or by issuing its own statement of concern;

d)     prioritizing issues - because the CSD will not be able to take up every issue every year, it must prioritize and focus. NGOs/Major Groups can provide the insights as to which issues they should take up;

e)     participate as outside experts - NGOs/Major Groups can create a close relationship with the UN Task Manager for a particular chapter therefore enabling them to become an ad hoc advisor;

f)     form NGO/Major Groups working groups. As the CSD starts to develop the opportunities for issue based networks to be created and evolved into the official proceedings will increase.

NGO Matters

1. CSD NGO Steering Committee

This body elected by the previous NGOs attending the previous CSD has acted for them since CSD2 and will carry on doing so until the second week of the CSD. Then there will be elections for a new Committee. The role of this Committee is at the CSD and the CSD Intersessional to:
*      organise the morning NGO briefings (9.15am);
*     the evening Government/NGO dialogues;
*     facilitate the NGO Working Groups;
*     act as the link to the CSD Bureau for dealing with problems concerning speaking rights and accreditation problems.

Michael McCoy of the US Citizens' Network is the Northern Co-chair of the CSD NGOSC and Esmeralda Brown is the Southern Co-chair. (see addresses)

The Steering Committee will work with Non Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) to organise a briefing at the Church Centre (see addresses) before the beginning of the CSDI and the CSD.

The Steering Committee have just received grants from the Ford Foundation and the Dutch Government to employ staff back up for the CSD.

The Steering Committee will tend to meet daily at the end of the day after negotiations have finished. Anyone can attend.

2. Non Government Liaison Service NGLS

Barbara Adams runs the New York part of NGLS. NGLS will have booked a room (probably Committee Room A, B or C) where they will have put computers and other materials that you may need to use. They will also be in charge of booking of rooms. If you want to organise a meeting you need to get a form from them the day before and request a room. Each day they will produce a diary of events. The form is available in the Committee Room with the computers. But if you cannot find them contact NGLS direct (see address lists on final page).

3. Other NGO Information

On 24th February and 7th April you should expect a long accreditation procedure. If there are lots of NGOs then it can take up to an hour to get your pass. This is done in the entrance to the UN. You will not be let in until 9am. You will need to take with you the following:

*     passport;

*     a copy of the letter you sent telling them you are attending and a copy of the reply if you have had one.

If you arrive a few days early it is well worth sorting out your accreditation then.

At previous CSDs there have been two very active caucuses. These are the general caucus and the women caucuses. It is very likely that these will be active again and the main caucus will start at around 9.15am in the UN Building.

There will also be regional caucus meetings. If your country is operating in a block then it is useful to organise relevant block meetings of the NGOs with that block eg the EU.

One of the important working groups at CSD2 was made up from those Major Groups represented on government delegations. They work on preparations for the high level segment of the CSD when Ministers arrive.

4. NGO Relations

Sometimes NGOs from the North fail to take account of the concerns of the Southern NGOs. Southern NGOs rightly feel limited by the lack of translation facilities (NGO meetings are usually in English), can feel that their views are not adequately represented - there are more Northern NGOs than Southern ones. This can be seen particularly when trying to agree a joint NGO position paper.

It does take longer when NGOs come together to try to negotiate an agreed position. It is much easier just to put your own paper out, but it also carries much more weight if there can be an agreed position. It's worth the extra time.

This CSD will be working under considerable financial pressure due to the financial crisis in the UN. A result of this is that evening meetings that NGOs used to have translation for will now not have translation and will cost around $60 am hour for the microphones to be left on.

5. Documentation/Press

There may be problems initially with getting access to all the documentation as it comes out. Try not to take more than one copy and if you are not interested in a particular paper leave it for someone who is. The CSD NGO Liaison Office or NGLS will provide some papers. But if there really are none around a good place to look for spares is on the press floor. There are two levels in the UN Tower which the press have rooms and where papers are put out for them.

On one of those floors the press have a cafe which is a good place to meet some of them. To photocopy outside the UN you need to go to Kinkos which is on 46th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue. They also have computers you can go in and hire. The Church Centre also has a photocopier.

6. Other Buildings and facilities

DC1 and DC2 are two adjoining buildings located on the northwest corner of 44th Street and First Avenue. Many UN program departments and some specialized agencies have offices in the buildings. For example you will find UNDP, INSTRAW, FAO and the IMF in DC1. The UNESCO, DPCSD and WHO are in DC2.

UNICEF is on 44th Street directly across from DC2.

The Dag Hammarskjold Library occupies a three story building on the south side of the UN. It is open Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm. It has photocopying facilities.

Post Office. There is a US Post Office located in the Secretariat building, through the glass doors at the base of the escalator. In addition you can purchase UN stamps in the visitor's area of the General Assembly building.

Food and drink. There are several restaurants in the UN, the Cafeteria in the Secretariat is located on the first floor, south annex, south side of the building. There is also a cafeteria located in the DC1 building on level 3 and in the UNICEF building on the ground floor.

Banking facilities. Chase Bank is situated in the Secretariat building at the south end of the fourth floor. Hours are 9.30am to 3.30pm. The bank also has a branch on the corner of First Avenue and 44th Street.

Medical Service is located in the Secretariat building room S-0557, ext 3.7090.

7. About New York

Transportation

Taxis are easily hailed on the street. Official licence cabs are painted yellow and a light on the roof of the vehicle indicates that the taxi is available for hire.

Subways are a fast means of travel; most go North to South in Manhattan. The fare is $1.50, you need to purchase a token to get on to the platform.

Buses also usually go North South on most major avenues and to travel on them you need the exact fare. This is $1.50 in coins not notes. You can use subway tokens.

7. Arriving at JFK/LaGuardia Airport

At all the New York Airports you can use the Carey Bus to get into New York. From JFK it costs about $11. The bus takes about 55 minutes and arrives at 42nd Street or 125th Street. For LaGuardia it costs about $8.50 and goes to the same stops. A taxi from JFK probably would cost $35-40, to LaGuardia it costs about $25 to $30. It is possible to take the subway; to do this you take a courtesy bus to the subway station then it costs around $3 to 42nd Street. This takes about 1 hour 30 minutes.

8. Publications

Earth Negotiations Bulletin: This is produced by a small group of NGOs. It comes out daily and summarises the debate from the formal session. It also includes information on informal and informal-informal meetings.

Earth Summit Times: This was originally set up in the Rio process but has been coming out regularly at all UN events. It is funded by various companies and foundations. It will have articles and reasonably up to date information.

ECO: This has been produced by the NGOs who have been attending the CSD. It tends to be more provocative than other publications.

NGLS Daily Diary: This will list all the meetings that are occurring. If you want to book a room for a meeting than NGLS will be co-ordinating this.

Key Addresses

Church Centre: 777 UN Plaza, 2nd Floor.

NGLS: Room 6015, 866 UN Plaza New York, NY 10017 Tel (212) 963 3125

US Citizen's Network/Northern Co-Chair of the CSD NGO Steering Committee - Mike McCoy: 73 Spring Street New York Tel (212) 431 3922

Esmeralda Brown Southern Co-Chair (1 212) 682 3633

WEDO: (Women's Environment and Development Organisation) Co-ordinates the women's caucus - 845 Third Avenue, 15th Floor New York Tel (212) 759 7982

NGO Unit in DPCSD (This is for accreditation), DC2 Room DC2-2340, 44th Street Tel (212) 963 4842 Fax (212) 963 4324

Jekyll and Hyde Club A favourite evening spot for the British in New York. It serves burgers, pizzas and other food at a good price plus 250 beers and free entertainment. It can be found on 6th Avenue around 58th Street. Be prepared!!!

UK Mission One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (855 Second Avenue) Tel (212) 745 9200

UK NGO Flats 212 East 51st Street (between 2nd and 3rd Av) Very reasonable prices $95 a studio flat (a day) and $150 a one bedroom flat (can take 3 easily) Tel (212) 688 6769 or fax (212) 355 0938 and ask for Eddie Edelman and say Felix sent you!

Sources:

* E & D File - 1992 - NGLS;

* Options for NGO Participation in the Commission on Sustainable Development - 1993 - United Nations Association-USA;

* NGO Guide to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development - 1994 - United Nations Association USA.

* CSD Web Site

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