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UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Incheon, Republic of Korea DRAFT CONCEPT NOTE AN INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON STRENGTHENING PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION CAPACITIES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN POST RIO CONTEXT

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Background and Rationale

Chapter 8 of Agenda 21 calls on countries to adopt national strategies for sustainable development (NSDS) that should build upon and harmonize the various sectoral economic, social and environmental policies and plans that are operating in the country. In 2002, the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) urged States not only to take immediate steps to make progress in the formulation and elaboration of national strategies for sustainable development but also to begin their implementation by 2005. The outcome document for Rio+20 again acknowledges the role of national sustainable development strategies, and highlights the important role that green economy policies can play in the elaboration of these strategies, as well as the importance of knowledge exchange and capacity building in this regard. For example: 

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Paragraph 98 encourages “regional, national, sub-national and local authorities as appropriate to develop and utilize sustainable development strategies as key instruments for guiding decision-making and implementation of sustainable development at all levels” and in this regard recognizes “that integrated social, economic, and environmental data and information, as well as effective analysis and assessment of implementation, is important to decision-making processes”. Paragraph 59 views “the implementation of green economy policies by countries that seek to apply them for the transition towards sustainable development as a common undertaking” and recognizes that “each country can choose an appropriate approach in accordance with national sustainable development plans, strategies and priorities”. Paragraph 67 underscores “the importance of governments taking a leadership role in developing policies and strategies” and notes “the efforts of those countries, including developing countries, that have already initiated processes to prepare national green economy strategies and policies in support of sustainable development”. Paragraph 64 acknowledges that the “involvement of all stakeholders and their partnerships, networking and experience-sharing at all levels could help countries to learn from one another in identifying appropriate

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sustainable development policies, including green economy policies” and welcomes “the voluntary exchange of experiences as well as capacitybuilding in the different areas of sustainable development”. Paragraph 68 invites “relevant stakeholders, including the United Nations regional commissions, United Nations organizations and bodies, other relevant intergovernmental and regional organizations, international financial institutions and major groups involved in sustainable development, according to their respective mandates, to support developing countries upon request to achieve sustainable development, including through, inter alia, green economy policies in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, in particular least developed countries”.

Available evidence on the implementation of NSDS points out that countries are at different stages of implementation—some are more advanced than others. By and large developing countries are confronted with the planning and implementation challenges of different scale and magnitude. Existing practice in developing countries is to prepare and follow different planning frameworks and documents, such as NSDS, National Five-Year or Annual Development Plans, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) etc.—all with the same objective though methodologies and underlying principles and requirement differ. Reconciling these documents in line with the sustainability criteria poses another important challenge. The country reports prepared as part of the preparatory process for the Rio+20 Conference highlight some of the implementation challenges. These include, for example, lack of integration of the three pillars of sustainable development in the national policy framework, weak institutional coordination mechanisms, limited planning and implementation capacities, among others. In a given country, planning for development takes place at different levels—local level, state level, national level etc. In most cases, priorities, capacities and perceptions differ at each level. This poses the challenge of horizontal and vertical integration of development priorities into NSDS or national action plans, especially in systems following a top-down approach for decision making. To varying degrees, a range of international organizations, networks and bilateral donors have provided technical assistance to developing countries in strengthening planning processes for sustainable development. This has included support for the elaboration of national sustainable development strategies, including in recent years national low-emission development strategies and national green growth or green economy strategies. Against this background, the United Nations Office for Sustainable Development is organizing an International Workshop on strengthening planning and implementation capacities for sustainable development in post-Rio context. Its purpose is to assess the strengths and weaknesses on on-going capacity building efforts, and to examine how this assistance could be further strengthened and streamlined in post Rio+20 context, especially if green economy policies are to be used as a tool to make transition towards sustainable development. These changing circumstances coupled with emergence of new sustainable development issues and challenges require further elaboration of guidelines and training material for capacity building of developing countries.

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Main Objectives

The overarching objective of this workshop is to strengthen the planning and implementation capacities of developing countries including institutional governance for advancing sustainable development at national and local levels. The immediate objectives include the following. 1. Taking stock of lessons learned and experiences gained in developing and implementing NSDS at national and local levels; and capacities required for both development and implementation of NSDS as well as for overcoming the implementation challenges. 2. Gauging the efficacy and suitability of existing knowledge and policy frameworks for strengthening the national level planning processes, especially if NSDS are to incorporate green economy policies to support the transition to sustainable development. 3. Examining the possibility of reviving and restructuring National Sustainable Development Councils/Committees (NSDCs) to support the implementation of post-Rio+20 agenda. 4. Creating opportunities for building knowledge sharing partnerships (SouthSouth and North-South) to enrich the planning processes and to make informed decisions about mainstreaming sustainable development agenda into national development priorities. 5. Reconciling different planning processes (and documents produced under these processes) in line with the sustainability principles. 6. Initiating a process for establishing and strengthening communities of practice who could lead the national and local level process for scaling up of successful experiences and models. III.

Methodology

The workshop will be divided into different sessions broadly organized in line with the objectives spelled out above. By and large, the workshop will follow the model of a multi-stakeholder dialogue aiming at: creating opportunities for building partnerships; reconciling top-down and bottom-up perspectives on sustainable development; and connecting the dots between cross-sectoral agendas and stakeholders. The workshop will consist of several plenary and working group sessions—all covering different aspects of the programme. Prior to the workshop, an on-line process will be launched to seek contributions from different stakeholders in terms of short think pieces related to different issues will be sought. These will be consolidated, presented and used during the course of the meeting. The first day will focus on review and assessment of the current situation with regard to progress made in developing and implementing NSDS covering: different methodologies in use, lessons learned and experiences gained, and deficiencies in

-4existing approaches and models. Several case studies will be presented to arrive at evidence based conclusions. Two working groups will look into critical capacity gaps and institutional challenges. Background papers will be prepared to facilitate the discussions in each working group. Day 2 will focus on elaborating the NSDS in a post Rio+20 context with emphasis on exploring the nexus between NSDS and green economy as well as the knowledge requirements to support this new generation of NSDS. On the institutional front, potential for renewing National Sustainable Development Councils/Committees (NSDCs) will be examined—what will it take to revive and sustain these? The main thrust of the discussions during day 3 will be on defining key elements of the scaling up strategy as a means to accelerate implementation. Two working groups will specifically look into how best to create an enabling environment for scaling up and to ensure horizontal and vertical integration. During the entire workshop, much time will be devoted to exchange of views and sharing of ideas in the form of an interactive dialogue, rather than lecturing. Following this workshop, the work will continue on three fronts. First, resource materials presented in this workshop, including its results and recommendations, will be packaged into training material and made available to stakeholders through the sustainable development knowledge portal currently being developed at UNOSD. Second, an initiative will be launched in a few selected pilot countries for strengthening the planning processes for sustainable development, including scaling up of successful models and practices. Third, results of this project will be shared in several intergovernmental for a such as CSD 20 and UNEP Governing Council meeting to mobilize support for work in pilot countries. A tentative programme for the workshop is attached at Annex 1 which will be subject to further revision and update in due course. All resource materials (such as papers, presentations, implementation toolkits) to be used in different sessions of the workshop will be shared with the participants in advance and placed on the UNOSD and DSD/DESA websites. IV.

Participants

The workshop will bring together a total of 70-80 participants representing Governments of developed and developing countries, civil society groups, United Nations and other international organizations, academic institutions, independent policy think tanks and sustainable development networks. V.

Date, Venue and Language

The workshop will take place from 14 to 16 November 2012 at the Best Western Premier Songdo Park Hotel, Songdo-Dong, Incheon, Republic of Korea. The working hours of the meeting will be as follows: 9:30 to13:00 hrs. and 14:30 to 18:00 hrs. English will be the official language of the meeting. See Information Note for Participants. VI.

Expected Outputs and Follow-up

Expected outputs of the workshop will include the following:

-5 A detailed meeting report covering proceedings of the meeting;  A summary of key recommendations including guidelines for strengthening the national planning processes;  A strategy for scaling up of successful practices, and  A summary of the different NSDS capacity building programs of different organization and how this work might be better coordinated. VII.

Potential Partners

The United Nations Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD) will take the lead in organizing this meeting including its programmatic aspects with technical and administrative support from the Division for Sustainable Development and Capacity Building Office of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea. Collaboration and partnership with other international organizations is being worked out. VIII.       

Timeline for Next Steps Concept note finalized and posted on website: Invitations extended to participants (Governments): Deadline for receiving nominations from Governments: Invitations extended to resource persons and other stakeholders: Finalization of programme/Agenda: Logistical arrangements finalized: Organization of workshop:

20 Aug 30 Aug 27 Sep 01 Sep 15 Oct 25 Oct 14-16 Nov

-6ANNEX 1: TENTATIVE PROGRAMME/AGENDA AN INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON STRENGTHENING PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION CAPACITIES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN POST RIO+20 CONTEXT DAY 1 14 November, Wednesday Review of Current Situation

DAY 2 15 November, Thursday Elaboration of NSDS in Post Rio Context

Opening Session - Welcome remarks by organizers/hosts - Keynote speech by an eminent expert _________________________________ Session 1: Current Status: Development and Implementation of NSDS - Approaches and methodologies (evolution of NSDs practice over the years; problems/challenges and how these have been overcome etc.) - Overall assessment: lessons learned/experiences gained - Implementation challenges and deficiencies in existing planning systems - Impact assessment: evidence from case studies Lunch Break

Session 3: NSDS and Green Economy - green economy policies as a tool for making the transition towards sustainable development - Presentation of 3-4 country case studies (models of good examples) - Stakeholders engagement and participation

Session 2: Breakout Sessions

Session 4: Building and Sharing Knowledge - Knowledge requirements for capacity building in NSDS and green economy policies - Efficacy of existing implementation toolkits and training material - Role of knowledge sharing platforms in capacity building - Sharing information on training courses and toolkits (case studies)

Time 9:30-13:00hrs Morning Session

Coffee/Tea Break 11:15-11:30hrs

13:00 - 14:30hrs 14:30-18:00hrs Afternoon Session

Coffee/Tea Break 16:15-16:30hrs

Working Group 1: Assessment of critical capacity gaps Working Group 2: Institutional challenges and constraints, including recommendations to overcome these challenges

DAY 3 16 November, Friday Accelerating Implementation Session 5: Scaling up of Successful Practices - Challenges and constraints in scaling up - Role of different implementing partners - Nurturing sustainability leaders - Promoting partnerships ___________________________________ Session 6: Breakout Sessions - Working Group 3:Creating enabling environment for scaling up - Working Group 4: Institutional framework for ensuring horizontal and vertical integration

Lunch Break

Lunch Break

Finalization of working group reports ___________________________________ Closing Session - Presentation of working group reports - Next steps: follow up actions - Closing remarks by organizers/hosts