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GOVERNMENTAL OFFICIALS/ REPRESENTATIVES
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UN OFFICIALS AND STAFF
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NGOs AND MAJOR GROUP EXPERTS
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Henrique Cavalcanti |
Barbara Adams |
Pamela Chasek |
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Evans King |
Zehra Aydin |
Cliff Curtis |
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Bedrich Moldan |
Arthur Dahl |
Felix Dodds |
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Ambassador Razali Ismail |
Nitin Desai |
Inji Islam
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Chris Tompkins |
Lars Hyttinen |
Juni Kalaw |
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Jukka Uosukainen |
Frits Schlingemann |
Chee Yoke Ling |
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Herman Verheij |
Andrey Vasilyev |
Simone Lovera-Bilderbeek |
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Joke Waller-Hunter |
Ibrahim Magdi |
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Michael McCoy |
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Margaret Owina |
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Peter Padbury |
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Carole Saint-Laurent |
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Erszebet Schmuck |
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Tineke van der Schoor
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Note: Two questionnaires were used in the interview procees, the long version reproduced below, and an abbreviated version. Due to time limitations, the abbreviated version was used for the majority of interviews. Abbreviated version questions are asterisked.
The International NGO Task Group on Legal and Institutional Matters (INTGLIM) - in cooperation and consultation with the CSD NGO Steering Committee - is preparing a survey on issues and proposals pertinent to the 1997 Special Session of the General Assembly, which will review the progress since UNCED, including questions concerning Agenda 21, the future of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) and other aspects of United Nations and global institutional implementation of sustainable development goals. Our goal is to present the results of the survey to governments, UN officials and NGOs in advance of the 1997 Special Session. The questionnaire emerges from consultations with a wide variety of governmental, non-governmental, and UN representatives. Some questions appear in more than one category where relevant.
II. General Assessment
Questions concerning overall successes and failures of the UNCED and CSD processes
*IIa. What is your general assessment of the overall successes and failures of the CSD and UNCED processes?
*IIb. Is/should sustainable development be an overarching principle and not a sector confined to the environment and pollution sectors?
IIbi. In light of the answer to b, does the term sustainable development need to be more specifically defined?
IIc. Has the CSD ensured the vitality, maintained, and extended the impact of UNCED and Agenda 21?
*IId. What are/should be the overall goals for the Special Session?
III. UN-related Institutional Issues
*IIIa. What changes, if any, would there be between the CSD and ECOSOC?
IIIb. Should the CSD report through ECOSOC or directly to the Second Committee of the GA?
*IIIc. Should the CSD become a functional commission or committee of the GA?
*IIId. Are there any proposals in the GA High Level Open-Ended Working Groups and other GA or ECOSOC deliberations which would substantively impact the CSD?
*IIIe. What should be the scope and limits to the CSD's mandate to coordinate the implementation of Agenda 21 in the UN system and work on sustainable development in all other UN bodies, agencies and programs?
*IIIf. How can the CSD better integrate its work with that of other conferences to improve efficiency and avoid duplication?
*IIIg. Should the Bretton Woods Institutions and the WTO be linked more directly to the CSD?
*IIIh. What should be the relationship between the CSD and UNEP and GEF?
*IIIi. Should UNEP be upgraded to an agency or global environmental authority?
IV. Decision-making Issues
IVa. Should the CSD report through ECOSOC or directly to the Second Committee?
*IVb. Should the CSD consider utilizing innovative decision-making mechanisms, such as weighted voting, in any aspects of its work?
*IVc. Should regional intergovernmental organizations be given special status at the CSD?
V. CSD: Miscellaneous Specific Questions
Va. Has the CSD/Agenda 21 pattern, with an agreed action plan and a consultative body of limited duration to implement it, been more successful than open-ended UN bodies?
Vb. Could/should the CSD's standing in the UN Secretariat be strenghtened? If so, how?
Vc. Has the task manager system for preparing inputs to the CSD and coordinating the implementation of Agenda 21 Chapters been effective?
Vd. How do you feel the term sustainable development is interpreted? Does the term need to be more specified or defined during the Special Session?
Ve. What is your opinion of efforts to combine the work and follow-up to other conferences, such as the Social Summit, with the CSD?
Vf. How can the involvement of economic and financial ministries in the CSD be increased?
VI. Questions about the CSD and Links to National and Regional Processes
*VIa. What changes, if any, should be made in the national reporting to the CSD?
VIai. Should/could the national reporting process and decision-making be successfully restructured, in order to become more useful and interesting?
VIaii. Can the national reporting process be improved using indicators of sustainable development?
VIaiii. Should national/regional commissions for sustainable development or similar bodies consider issues and report on the same thematic schedule as the CSD?
*VIb. Should, in the next stage of the CSD, there be a major effort to promote local and national Agenda 21 processes?; if so, what should be the role of the CSD in this?
VIc. Should there be more formal national/regional meetings preparatory to the CSD?
VId. Should discussion of national/regional issues and action be a separate agenda item of the CSD?
*VIe. Should regional intergovernmental organizations be given a special status at the CSD?
VII. NGOs, Major Groups, Civil Society, TNC Input
*VIIa. What are the overall successes and/or disappointments of the contributions made by NGOs, major groups and civil society organizations in the follow up to UNCED?
VIIb. Are you aware of the many activities NGOs have undertaken (such as the creation of a CSD NGO Steering Committee, the organization of many sectoral and regional caucuses, NGO plenaries and NGO-government dialogues, NGO attendance and participation in intersessional meetings, etc.) in the last five years to help the Agenda 21 process? If so, do you feel that NGO participation has contributed critically to the work of the CSD?
VIIc. Should NGOs continue to be allowed to make limited input during open meetings of the CSD plenaries and working groups?
VIId. Should there be changes in the concept or categories of major groups?
*VIIe. What should be the modalities of participation and roles of representatives of transnational corporations in the CSD?
VIIf. Pluses and minuses of NGOs on government delegations?
VIII. CSD's Future
*VIIIa. How should the work of the CSD be structured during its next (five year) phase?
VIIIai. Should the future work of the CSD be structured in the form of a multi-year program of work?
VIIIaii. Is the present allocation of themes appropriate?
IX. Other Comments