Subject: Re: Post-2015 session
From: Amitabh Desai <[email-masked]>
To: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, Ed Hughes <[email-masked]>, Alex Amouyel <[email-masked]>
Cc: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>, William Wetzel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 12:34:25 -0400

Perhaps we could seek to do a youth engagement session at CGIU, in the spring?

________________________________
From: Georgios Kostakos <[email-masked]>
To: Amitabh Desai; Ed Hughes; Alex Amouyel
Cc: [email-masked] <[email-masked]>
Sent: Thu Aug 22 12:19:25 2013
Subject: RE: Post-2015 session

PS: Perhaps instead of business people this year's CGI event could include an exchange between members of the two UNSG panels and youth representatives from around the world on the post-2015 development agenda? I understand that John proposed a youth high-level panel on the post-2015 to the UNSG and this could be sort of a preview.
Georgios

________________________________
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]; [email-masked]; [email-masked]
CC: [email-masked]
Subject: RE: Post-2015 session
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 12:56:05 -0400

Thank you Ami, and warm greetings to all from Brussels,

Further to the note below, we have had discussions with President Zuma of South Africa, who co-chaired the Global Sustainability Panel, and he is interested in participating in an event of this sort in September. He also welcomed the possibility of something jointly organized with CGI when it was mentioned to him.

From the brief discussion with Ami I understood that you may want to target primarily Heads of State/Government and big company CEOs. The target audience of the note below is UN negotiators, civil society and academia. They can be combined or they can be kept as separate but complementary events.

Hoping that I am not upsetting institutional sensitivities, I would also like to share with you the outcome of an event I helped organize last June in Austria with the Salzburg Global Seminar. It was chaired by Jim Bacchus who also chairs the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Governance for Sustainability. The final Salzburg Statement (entitled "Finite Planet, Infinite Potential"), program and list of participants can be seen at: www.salzburgglobal.org/go/515

I look forward to exploring options with you.
Best,

Georgios

> From: [email-masked]
> To: [email-masked]; [email-masked]
> CC: [email-masked]; [email-masked]
> Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 12:26:29 -0400
> Subject: Post-2015 session
>
> Georgios, it was good speaking with you - thanks for reaching out. Copied are John and the team at CGI, led by Ed Hughes, who together are helping brainstorm on a post-2015 discussion during CGI.
>
> Team, below is a note on a similar session that Georgios and his team are preparing for September.
>
> We discussed whether / how it makes sense to cross-pollinate or combine - and wanted to connect eveyone via this note to continue this discussion.
>
> Sincerely,
> Ami
>
>
> Concept note for a possible event in New York, on the sidelines of the 68th session of the UN General Assembly/General Debate
>
> Suggested title: Sustainability: A Guiding Vision for the Future?
>
> Suggested date: Monday, 23 September 2013, 5 - 7 pm
>
> Suggested co-organizers: CUNY Graduate Center/The Ralph Bunche Institute, Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability [and the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations]
>
> Suggested venue: CUNY Graduate Center [or Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations]
>
> Background and objectives:
> A few months before the Rio+20 Conference the UN Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Global Sustainability came up with a vision and a set of concrete proposals for taking the world in a more sustainable direction (see Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing). Many of the issues brought up in the Panel's report were reflected in the Rio+20 outcome (The Future We Want), including the need to go beyond Gross National Product (GDP) for the measurement of progress and human well-being, and to introduce Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the post-MDG/post-2015 period. Other issues are being followed up in different fora (e.g. science-policy interface under UNESCO leadership). A number of processes set in motion by Rio are expected to deliver concrete results in these areas in the coming years. Moreover, the Secretary-General's High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda submitted at the end of May 2013 its report (see A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies Through Sustainable Development) proposing five big, transformative shifts and a list of 12 illustrative SDGs. The Secretary-General is expected to submit to the 68th session of the General Assembly his own report on post-2015.
>
> The proposed event will bring together members of the two UNSG Panels, plus members of the intergovernmental processes set up by Rio+20, as well as participants from academia and civil society in order to:
>  Reinforce the messages of the two panels to ensure that they are heard in the relevant ongoing processes;
>  Highlight some of the recommendations of either of these panels that are not yet being followed-up to encourage their implementation;
>  To consider the importance of sustainability as a guiding vision for the UN’s work in development for years to come. Complete with concrete sustainability goals and policy options, this could become the unifying paradigm needed to direct action at the global and all other governance levels and increase resilience vis-à-vis the interconnected challenges facing the world.
>
> Suggested programme:
> -Introductory remarks by host/co-organizers [the co-organizers will share the tasks of introducing, moderating and closing the session]
> -The GSP vision and key recommendations [President Halonen?]]
> -The Post-2015 Panel vision and key recommendations [President of Indonesia or Liberia?]
> -The Secretary-General's approach [Amina Mohammed (Special Adviser to UNSG)?]
> -Respondents
> *Co-Facilitator of OWG on SDGs [Hungary or Kenya Ambassador or Minister?]
> *High-level Political Forum (former) Co-Facilitator? [Brazil or Italy Ambassador or Minister?]
> *A view from civil society [Beyond 2015 Executive Committee member?]
> *A view from academia/science [Tom Weiss?]
> -Closing remarks
>
> Suggested invitees:
> GSP and Post-2015 Panel members and Sherpas; member states; NGO community [through UN-NGLS?]; CUNY/Ralph Bunche IIS list; UN secretariat staff; academics [also through ACUNS?]