Informal1 RIO+20 Issues Brief on Innovation Produced by the Rio+20 Issues Cluster on Innovation, March 2012

Innovation for Sustainable Development (vers. 28 March 2012)

List of Contents:

- Definitions - Scales of Innovation and Dynamic Sustainable Development - Global Change/Grand Challenges and Innovation Systems - The “Complexity gap” and the Danger of X-events - Broadening of the Innovation Paradigm - Paradigms, Behavior, Norms and Values of Societies - Reference to “Innovation” in Agenda 21 - What has Changed since 1992 in Innovation Systems Terms? - Innovation and the Rio+20 Preparatory Process - Innovation and Participation Issues in the Online Consultation - Major Groups’ and Cluster Members’ Perspectives and Activities - The Rio+20 Issues Cluster on Innovation and the ‘15/15/15 UN

Civil Society Resource Mobilization Partnership’ initiative - Linking Rio+20 Outcomes with other UN Innovation Efforts - Annex: 15/15/15 Strategy and Action Plan

"We can't solve problems by using

the same kind of thinking we used

when we created them."

Albert Einstein

Definitions

Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society. Innovation differs from invention in that innovation refers to the use of a new idea or method, whereas invention refers more directly to the creation of the idea or method itself.

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Innovation refers to a process of introducing a new product, process, service or organizational form into the marketplace and the social sphere. It occurs mostly in firms that respond to expected market opportunities by combining different types of knowledge, capabilities, skills and resources. .. At the same time, innovation is a systemic phenomenon by nature as it results from continuing interaction between different actors and organisations.

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Scales of Innovation in the Context of ‘Dynamic Sustainable Development’ and ‘Complex Adaptive Systems’4

Innovation within a complex society occurs on many scales. At the smaller scale, we see incremental innovations, small refinements that occur relatively continuously. At a larger scale, there are radical innovations, very significant shifts in existent technologies and social structures. These are not predictable and may happen at any time. Lastly, there are systematic innovations that create entire new fields (Pereira, 1994). They cannot be predicted, and their occurrence radically reshapes society. These innovations can be thought of as “gateway events” and they can lead to rapid change (Rihani, 2000). Such sudden shifts can provide new technologies to protect ecosystems, can shift use from one resource base to another, and can also increase our impact on ecosystems in new and unexpected ways. We desperately need to sharpen our a priori understanding of what effect an innovation might have.

Rio+20 can be regarded as a window of opportunity for radical systemic multilevel SD governance innovations oriented towards

strengthening adaptive capacity and resilience to potential disruptive systematic change that might occur in future in the context of global ecosystems degradation.

1 The purpose of Rio+20 Issues Briefs is to provide a channel for policymakers and other interested stakeholders to discuss and review issues relevant to the objective

and themes of the conference. UNCSD Secretariat - together with partners - has prepared a series of official Rio+20 Issues Briefs http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/rio20issuesbriefs.html. The present Issues brief on “Innovation for Sustainable Development” is an informal/unofficial issues brief produced by Rio+20 Issues Cluster on Innovation http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&nr=866&type=230&menu=39 aiming at strengthening the knowledge base of the Rio+20 preparatory process through inclusion of innovative civil society perspectives and to inspire new thinking regarding the potentials of Innovation for Rio+20. An important part of the issues brief are quotes from relevant scientific articles and other sources presented in boxes with links to the sources for further reading. The 15/15/15 action proposals presented in Annex III are based on the work of International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges (IAAI) www.glocha.info (fyi: Innovation4Rio+20 Issues cluster facilitator Miroslav Polzer is also secretary general of IAAI). This part of the issues brief (Annex III) has to be regarded as a specific Innovation4Rio+20 action plan of one of the organizations participating in the issues cluster and not as a proposal of all cluster members. Background info on “Rio+20 ISSUE CLUSTERS”: The Major Group NGOs Organizing Partners have identified a number of key NGO networks, and asked representatives central to these networks to help set up thematic clusters for the purpose of arriving at common policy positions and lobbying strategies. The thematic facilitators have been asked to commit to maintaining an email list for their cluster and to facilitate electronic communications as well as coordinate meetings of their cluster at the UN if so desired. The immediate aim of the Issues Clusters is to derive a common position for each thematic cluster to advocate in the Rio process with a common voice.

2 Quote from Wikipedia found on homepage of NASA Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation http://www.nasa.gov/offices/COECI/index.html 3 Cristiano Cagnin, Effie Amanatidou, Michael Keenan, Orienting Innovation Systems towards Grand Challenges and the Roles that FTA Can Play, European Commission -

Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, Seville 2011, p 4 http://foresight.jrc.ec.europa.eu/fta_2011/documents/download/PAPERS/THEME%201/Anchor%20paper%201.doc

4 Lenore Newman, Uncertainty, Innovation, and Dynamic Sustainable Development, in: Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy, Fall 2005 | Volume 1 | Issue 2, p 25, http://sspp.proquest.com/static_content/vol1iss2/0501-001.newman.pdf

Global Change/Grand Challenges and Requirements to Innovation Systems and Governance5

In spite of the uncertainty and lack of complete understanding permeating grand challenges, it is often accepted that these can lead to a great deal of disruption to societies and economies over the coming decades. Moreover, they are boundary-spanning in several respects, requiring, for example,

Interdisciplinarity that transcends the boundaries of traditional epistemic communities. Addressing grand challenges will require the pooling of different knowledge bases and, in particular, closer collaboration between the ‘hard’ and social sciences and humanities.

Cross-departmental coordination and coherence beyond the traditional silos that characterise policy making. Grand challenges require multi-agency responses and it is important that these are coherent if they are to be effective.

Multi-level governance approaches that acknowledge the principle of subsidiarity while ensuring coherence between global, regional (e.g. European), national, and sub-national agendas and activities to address grand challenges.

Technology convergence or fusion that opens up new possibilities to manage, mitigate or even eliminate some of the causes and harmful symptoms associated with grand challenges.

Cross-sectoral collaboration between various industries with the complementary assets to address grand challenges.

Longer-term time horizons to be introduced more explicitly into shorter-term policy agendas and business planning practices.

Dealing with grand societal challenges is presently a major focus of research and innovation policies at the EU level. Innovation is considered one of the best means for successfully tackling major societal challenges.

Innovation itself needs to be oriented along more sustainable pathways that enable positive transformations of socio-technical systems and lessen the conditions for adverse developments to occur.

Innovation as horizontal thematic priority of Rio+20 – a precondition for effective IFSD for all thematic priorities of Rio+20 Quality criteria for Rio+20 Re-Design of Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development (IFSD) from Innovation system

perspective: Interdisciplinarity, pooling of different Knowledge bases, Cross-departmental coordination and coherence, Multi-agency responses, Multi-level governance, Technology convergence or fusion, Cross-sectoral collaboration between various industries, Longer-term horizons in policy agendas and business cycles

Functions of Innovation Systems6

Six ‘high-level’ functions of innovation systems can be identified:

1. Facilitate experimentation and learning – safeguarding ‘variety’ in the innovation system is key given the uncertainties that follow from new combinations of knowledge, applications and markets. Entrepreneurial experimentation reduces uncertainty through a continuous probing into new technologies and applications that allows many forms of social learning to take place.

2. Knowledge development – this is considered to be the most basic function of innovation systems without which nothing else would happen. It has traditionally been associated with R&D, but there are different types of knowledge besides S&T knowledge, including production, design, and market knowledge. Subsequently, the source and locations of knowledge development are wide-ranging, and include R&D activities in the public and private sectors and design and production in firms.

3. Knowledge diffusion – given the distributed nature of knowledge production, knowledge diffusion is an essential function of innovation systems. Diffusion may be mediated through networks – for example, between industry and academia or between firms in a business cluster – but also commonly occurs through more market-based mechanisms, such as users-producer interactions and supply chains. Standards, design protocols, production manuals, etc. are further mechanisms.

4. Guide direction of search and selection – given that resources are finite, it is important for innovation systems to be able to guide actors in selecting options for investment. A number of mechanisms contribute to this guiding function, including various visions and expectations, regulations and policies, and the activities of lead users. As such, guidance can be considered an interactive and cumulative process of ideas-exchange between technology producers, users and many other actors.

5. Market formation – markets often do not exist or are weakly developed, particularly for radical innovations. The innovation system therefore needs to create ‘spaces’, for example, through procurement policies, standards or regulations that nurture demand for innovations.

6. Develop and mobilise resources – an important function of innovation systems concerns the development and mobilisation of human resources, financial capital and complementary assets (e.g. infrastructures). These can be developed in a number of settings: for example, human resources are developed not only in colleges and universities but also in firms. The mobilisation of resources has important consequences for knowledge development activities.

United Nations system as central global response mechanism to global challenges needs to be re-designed in order to deliver

basic innovation systems function: facilitation of experimentation, knowledge development, knowledge diffusion, guiding search and selection of options for global collaborative action, facilitate formation of green markets, develop and mobilize resources, etc.

5 Cristiano Cagnin, Effie Amanatidou, Michael Keenan, Orienting Innovation Systems towards Grand Challenges and the Roles that FTA Can Play, European Commission -

Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, Seville 2011, p 3

http://foresight.jrc.ec.europa.eu/fta_2011/documents/download/PAPERS/THEME%201/Anchor%20paper%201.doc 6 ibid, p 6

The political context for multilateralism on sustainable development is difficult7

The UNFCCC climate process has so far failed to make a major breakthrough on reducing global emissions. The 2011 G20 made limited progress on tackling food security and resource scarcity, despite French ambitions. The 2011 Commission on Sustainable Development broke up without an outcome despite a largely uncontentious agenda. These difficulties reflect a larger trend in multilateralism, with many politicians struggling to find the political space to rise above narrow national interests – in contexts from the Doha trade round to sovereign debt in the Eurozone. Continuing strong global economic headwinds would make these trends likely to continue and perhaps intensify.

The Need for Complex Solutions

To meet the complex challenges of the world today, responses will need to be equally complex. Urgent calls for innovative solutions have become increasingly frequent as people begin to recognize both the need to change fundamental patterns of human relationships with each other and their environment, and the catastrophic ramifications of inaction and ill‐informed decisions. Yet, progressing from the stage of identifying that need to a stage of action is often stalled, largely due to the incapacity to move innovations and knowledge between disciplines, ‘thought worlds’ and contexts, and an inability to mobilize action across the boundaries and scales that define a social system.

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Widening “complexity gap” between the government and its citizens and the danger of x-events (disruptions of societal systems)9

The Law of Requisite Variety (Complexity) states that in order to fully regulate/control a system, the complexity of the regulating system has to be at least as great as the complexity of the system to be controlled. If the gap is too big (in either direction) there’ll be trouble, almost always in the form of an X-event (extreme event). So, if the complexity gap between the stagnant level of government complexity and the growing level of general-public complexity becomes too great to be sustained, events like the ouster of the Mubarak and Qaddafi regimes will occur.

Over the next couple of years, a good guess is that as people lose confidence in the ability of their governments to solve the financial crises and experience other social stresses that widen the government - public complexity gap, they’ll break out into violent protests and/or assaults on those they see as responsible for their misery - government officials and bankers, most definitely, but also perhaps immigrants, ethnic and religious minorities, landlords, and corporate managers and bosses.

Ineffectiveness of multilateral SD systems is dangerous: if United Nations system does not improve its effectiveness at Rio+20 to

deliver sustainable development, there are potentials for global social unrest

The Need for a Broadening of the Innovation Paradigm – Understanding Social Innovation

“.. the contours of a new innovation paradigm with increasing significance of social innovation are becoming visible. The tracks of international research on innovation demonstrate that the technology-oriented paradigm – shaped by the industrial society – does not cover the broad range of innovations indispensable in the transition from an industrial to a knowledge and services based society: Such fundamental societal changes require a paradigm shift of the innovation system. .. Alongside companies, universities and research institutes, citizens and customers become relevant actors of innovation processes. .. Based on these trends innovation becomes a general social phenomenon and increasingly influences all walks of life.

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Broadening the space for potential positive outcomes with a Rio+20 focus on social innovation/governance Innovation

Graph: Concurrence of different forms of innovation with social change

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7 Alex Evans and David Steven, Sustainable Development Goals – a useful outcome from Rio+20?, The NYU Center on International Cooperation (CIC) Briefing, January

2012, p. 3, www.cic.nyu.edu 8 Michele Lee Moore & Frances Westley, Surmountable Chasms: The Role of Cross Scale Interactions in Social Innovation, Working Paper No. 001, March 2009, page 6 ,

http://www.sig.uwaterloo.ca/documents/Michele-LeeMoore_VOct2809.pdf 9 John Casti, Complexity & Revolution, in: Options magazine, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis IIASA, winter 2011/2012 issue, p 26

http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/INF/OPT/Winter11/opt11w.pdf 10

Vienna Declaration of the ‘Challenge Social Innovation’ Conference, September 2011, p 1 http://www.socialinnovation2011.eu/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Vienna-Declaration_final_10Nov2011.pdf

11 Josef Hochgerner, Innovation Processes in the Dynamics of Social Change, published in Jiři Loudin, Klaus Schuch (ed.), 2009: Innovation Cultures. Challenge and Learning Strategy. Prague: Filosofia; pp. 17-45

Broadening the space for SD Action – Changes of Paradigms, Behavior, Norms and Values of Societies

Grand challenges cannot be effectively dealt with through technological innovations alone. They require broader changes in human perceptions and behaviour, as well as social innovations promoting non-technological solutions. The challenge is for business, governments and societies to align and evolve into this new direction identifying alternative solutions and moving away from the current state of affairs. Changes in soft institutions are likely to be particularly critical in determining progress in finding viable paths towards tackling grand challenges and any consequent change in paradigms that these may entail. This is especially relevant for certain challenges like those related to environment and natural resources. Finding a solution to the problem of scarce energy resources for example, requires not only surpassing long-established vested interests in certain resources but also a change in the behaviour, norms and values of societies.

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Reference to “Innovation” in Agenda 21:

Innovation played an important role in the Outcome document of United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 1992 – the Agenda 21

13. The quotes from Agenda 21 referring to innovation presented in Annex I of this issues brief demonstrate

that the aspect of innovation has been covered at UNCED in a way that meets the criteria of modern innovation systems research. This means that the call for Innovation as thematic priority for Rio+20 is not that innovative and can be regarded basically as an effort to build on the legacy of UNCED Rio 1992 which can be referred to somehow as having been the first global innovation summit.

What has Changed since 1992 in Innovation Systems Terms?

International cooperation is now everybody’s business14

International cooperation is now everybody’s business.

The efforts of all stakeholders are required to adapt the international system to our more interdependent world.

The international system requires a sustained process of innovation and institutional deepening that capitalizes on the full range of available modes and means of cooperation to make progress where it is most needed and feasible.

Bringing Rio+20 to the People on the Street: Young Protesters at Rio+20 The Future We Want Rally, 16 December 2011, UN HQ, NY

Harnessing the Potentials of Modern Information and Communication Technologies/Social media15

The emergence of digital collaborative platforms, Web-based applications, and social networks is dramatically changing the way many organizations are operating. New innovation models and the resulting changes in social interaction are altering nearly every dimension of human and organizational behaviour. The result is an increased need to redesign the strategic approach used to deliver services, promote activities and execute advocacy campaigns in a way that integrates this technology as a fundamental part of an institution’s core activities.

Innovation in Rio+20 Preparatory Process

In the UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/64/23616

which is the basis for Rio+20 conference there is no explicit mention of ‘innovation’, but the fact that “participation” and contribution of “ideas and proposals” of relevant stakeholders are called for in the resolution is from the innovation systems perspective very positive for Rio+20.

The General Assembly,

21. Encourages the active participation of all major groups, as identified in Agenda 21 and further elaborated in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and decisions taken at the eleventh session of the Commission, at all stages of the preparatory process, in accordance with the rules and procedures of the Commission as well as its established practices related to the participation and engagement of major groups;

12 European Commission - Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, Orienting Innovation Systems towards Grand Challenges and the Roles that FTA Can Play, Seville

2011 http://foresight.jrc.ec.europa.eu/fta_2011/documents/download/PAPERS/THEME%201/Anchor%20paper%201.doc 13 United Nations Conference on Environment & Development, AGENDA 21, Rio de Janerio, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992,

http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/Agenda21.pdf 14

Richard Samans, Klaus Schwab, Mark Malloch-Brown (eds.), Global Redesign - Strengthening International Cooperation in a More Interdependent World, World Economic Forum, 2010, p 37, http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-redesign-initiative

15 ibid p 25 16

http://www.uncsd2012.org/files/OD/ARES64236E.pdf

22. Invites relevant stakeholders, including organizations and bodies of the United Nations, international financial institutions and major groups involved in the area of sustainable development, to provide ideas and proposals reflecting their experiences and lessons learned as a contribution to the preparatory process;

“Innovation for Sustainable Development” has been explicitly introduced in December 2011 as Rio+20 thematic priority by Brazilian government, to be dealt with at so called “Thematic days” before the official Rio+20 conference.

17 According to recent logistical

information of Rio+20 secretariat18

there are going to be established Nine expert panels by the Government of Brazil with the participation of the civil society which will hold ‘Dialogues on Sustainable Development’ 16 –19 June in Rio de Janeiro. One of them is on “Sustainable energy for all and innovation“. Outcomes from the Dialogues will be reported to the High‐level round tables during the Conference by the representatives of the Dialogues on Sustainable Development. A strong innovation focus in Rio+20 preparatory process has been demonstrated also by US government, which organized its official national preparatory conference “USRio+2.0 Conference - Bridging Connection Technologies and Sustainable Development” February 2 – 4 2012 at Center for Social Innovation/Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.

USRio+2.0 Conference Takeaways:19

Discover innovative technologies that can address major global issues in health, the environment, agriculture and sustainable economic growth

Understand the opportunities and attributes of the innovation culture

Explore the role of governments and civil society in fostering broader innovation Who attended:

Members of the NGOs community using connection technologies to create new ways to communicate, mobilize, coordinate, educate

International policy makers interested in bringing an innovation culture to their countries in support of development goals

Technology professionals interested or actively involved in leveraging their IP to better the lives of millions at home and in the developing world

Participation and Innovation Issues in Online Consultation to the Compilation Document the Zero Draft of the Outcome Document

First it needs to be noted that UNCSD/Rio+20 preparatory process’ highly participatory design (online consultation regarding outcome document, minutes of all preparatory meetings online, innovative resource mobilization, …) meets many of the above mentioned quality criteria for a modern global governance innovation system (Interdisciplinarity, pooling of different Knowledge bases, Cross-departmental coordination and coherence, Multi-agency responses, Multi-level governance, use of Social media, Cross-sectoral collaboration between various industries, experiments with innovative resource mobilization, etc.). A central element of this multi-level and multi-agent participation and knowledge pooling has been the Online Consultation for the Compilation Document to the Zero Draft of the Outcome Document

20. A search for the term "innovation" in the compilation

document shows that there are 993 occurrences in 240 submissions21

. This strong indication for a need to regard “innovation” (in both its technological and non-technological dimensions) as a thematic priority of Rio+20 is even further amplified by the fact that the search for "participation" comes up with 1,616 occurrences in 340 submissions.

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see foot note on page 2 of ‘Rio+20 Participants info’ http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/content/documents/350Information%20note%206%20Jan.pdf 18 Briefing on Preparatory Process by Nikhil Seth, Director, DSD/DESA, Head of the Office of the UNCSD Secretariat, March 15 2012

http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20///content/documents/477Briefing%20-%20logistics.pdf 19

http://csi.gsb.stanford.edu/rio20-conference 20 http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?menu=115 21 http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?type=12&page=view&nr=285&menu=20&str=innovation&x=44&y=14&style=exact 22

http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?type=12&page=view&nr=285&menu=20&str=participation&x=39&y=21&style=exact

In terms of global Sustainable Development innovation system design the submissions of

The STEPS Centre on Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability

Advisory Group on International Environmental Governance (governance innovations!)

International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges (IAAI) (social innovation, 15/15/15 global civil society Rio+20 resource mobilization aim etc.)

International Council for Science (innovations regarding knowledge base for global governance) and

Earth Charter (value systems and ethics innovations)

are highlighted here exemplary.

Some Exemplary Major Groups’ and Cluster Members’ Perspectives and Activities Business and Industry: An important network representing corporate sector in the Rio+20 preparatory process is the so called UN Global Compact. The United Nations Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.

23 UN

Global Compact will host in cooperation with the Rio+20 Secretariat, the UN System and the Global Compact Local Network Brazil, the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum: Innovation & Collaboration for the Future We Want from 15-18 June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro.

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Despite the laudable efforts of UN Global Compact, the role of Business and Industry in “Green Economy in the context of Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development” obviously needs critical reflection. It is very important to scrutinize the predominant global economic model – the liberal market economy - and related economic theory in order to reconcile global economic activities with sustainable development principles.

Most economic development and growth strategies encouraged rapid accumulation of physical, financial and human capital, but at the expense of excessive depletion and degradation of natural capital, which includes the endowment of natural resources and ecosystems. By depleting the world’s stock of natural wealth – often irreversibly – this pattern of development and growth has had detrimental impacts on the wellbeing of current generations and presents tremendous risks and challenges for the future. The recent multiple crises are symptomatic of this pattern.25

Rio+20 can offer a window of opportunity for systemic measures effectively addressing market failures like externalities (e.g. overconsumption of natural resources as there is no price attached to them) and under-provision of public goods (like e.g. education for sustainable development). Rio+20 preparatory process should not be afraid to listen to and get inspired for these systems re-design efforts by critical organizations/movements like the World Social Forum, Occupy Wall Street and Global Commons alliances.

A Tour of Commons Activism Around the World26

.. why people from so many backgrounds are embracing the commons. First of all, it is a way for people to assert the integrity of their existing communities, or to try to reclaim that integrity. The commons also provides a way to assert a moral relationship to certain resources and people that are endangered by market forces. It’s a way of saying, “That _________ (water, air, software code, cultural tradition) belongs to me. It is part of my life and identity.”

Many people are embracing the commons, too, because it provides a powerful critique of neoliberal capitalism. But it is much more than that. It is a pro-active set of alternatives that work. And therefore it provides a positive, constructive scaffolding for practical alternatives to the prevailing market economy and corrupt political process. But the commons is still more than this. It is not just a policy critique or political philosophy, but equally a distinctive worldview, language and social ethic.

All of this means that the commons can give us a vision of a new world. And in this respect, the commons is really about building a new vocabulary. For example, what neoliberal capitalism generally calls “progress,” we would call “enclosure.” People are starting to understand that market forces do not necessarily represent progress, but rather dispossession and destruction. So-called economic development is more about environmental destruction than “progress.”

Innovation4Rio+20 Issues Cluster maintains strong links with the Rio+20 Issues cluster on “Commons” and its facilitator Lisinka Ulatowska as it appears that framing of critical sustainable development resources as “global commons” holds great potentials for an effective global transition to sustainable development. There is an urgent need for identifying and protecting those sustainable development resources that shall be handed over by present generation to future generations and the concept of global commons can probably help in this respect. An business and industry related innovation dimension that has been highlighted by Innovation4Rio+20 cluster member Aashish Khullar is “social entrepreneurship” and the tremendous innovation activities of global citizens’ networks like e.g. Ashoka

Rather than leaving societal needs for the government or business sectors to address, social entrepreneurs are creating innovative solutions, delivering extraordinary results, and improving the lives of millions of people.27

23 http://www.unglobalcompact.org/ 24 http://csf.compact4rio.org/events/rio-20-corporate-sustainability-forum/event-summary-251b87a2deaa4e56a3e00ca1d66e5bfd.aspx 25

United Nations Environment Program, Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication, 2011 p 14 http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/Portals/88/documents/ger/ger_final_dec_2011/Green%20EconomyReport_Final_Dec2011.pdf

26 David Bollier, A Tour of Commons Activism Around the World, http://www.onthecommons.org/tour-commons-activism-around-world 27

https://www.ashoka.org/about

Children and Youth Major Group Children and Youth refers in its submission to the Outcome document and on its homepage http://uncsdchildrenyouth.org/ only implicitly to innovation aspects of Rio+20 by highlighting the term “new” and “participation” several times.

Some thoughts on the link between “Innovation” and “Youth” issues for Rio+20 have been elaborated by Innovation4Rio Issues Cluster member Mr. Jean Paul Brice Affana at the Informal Strategy Meeting “Innovation and Youth as Thematic Priorities for Rio+20” 23 January 2012 (video documentation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-tjC7ZbNWI&feature=youtu.be ). Mr. Affana is also global coordinator of Rio+20 Global Youth Music Contest http://www.glocha.info/index.php/glocha-initiatives/gcsw which connects the Innovation4Rio+20 Issues cluster on innovation with the creative energy and enthusiasm of a global network of about 100 people in more than 50 countries around the world.

Rio+20 Global Youth Music Contest encourages children and youth to express their hopes, concerns and thoughts on future of our earth

by using music. The award for the winning submissions is an invitation to attend Rio+20 conference and to perform there.

More than 250 videos from 40 countries were received for from children up to 15 years and youth up to 30 years.

Now it is on all of us to listen to these messages of global youth on : www.global-rockstar.net

Hear what youth have to say, learn from them, express appreciation by voting for the most inspiring videos and let us all work towards

making Rio+20 conference a big success !

Innovation4Rio+20 Issues Cluster members Sofia Garcia and Nathan Forster of Alas de Rio are also working in the field of youth participation in Rio+20 based on innovative use of social media:

Alas de Rio Project Vision:28

The global mobilization of the youth generation in the lead-up to the Rio+20 Earth Summit is an essential foundation to the actions that will emerge from Rio+20. Through the utilization of innovative social media and internet communications platforms, youth who are actively engaged in their communities can use web-based communication tools to connect with their national and local governments within the framework of the United Nations. The voice of today’s youth is critical, since it is precisely this generation that will be global leaders by the mid-21st century charged with, and empowered to manage and implement holistic approaches to sustainable social, environmental, and economic development.

Important innovative perspectives related to youth, civic engagement, values and education for sustainable development can be derived from Earth Charter

29 and the Innovation4Rio+20 Issues Cluster has received inspiring contribution from Nora Mahmoud and

Douglas Williamson who manage youth and social media activities at Earth Charter International secretariat in Costa Rica. Innovation4Rio+20 Issues Cluster member Aleksandar Simić is designated UN Goodwill ambassador of UNAoC - an UN initiative/program with great potentials for the social dimension of sustainable development. United Nations Alliance of Civilizations www.unaoc.org is running several very innovative programs on intercultural dialogue and understanding like e.g. the Intercultural Dialogue Innovation Award or the Plural+ Video contest. The UNAoC programs in the field of (youth) civic engagement have great potentials to support Rio+20 outcomes and Rio+20 initiatives like e.g. the “Rio+20 voluntary commitments”, therefore Innovation4Rio+20 cluster plans to maintain strong links with UNAoC in order to harness synergy potentials.

Farmers and Indigenous Peoples

Significance of Indigenous Innovations30

Approximately 80% of the world’s population, relies on Indigenous Knowledge for either medicine or food (Nakata, 2002). The theme of utilizing indigenous knowledge to create appropriate solutions occurs repeatedly throughout developmental literature. The indigenous communities have always been innovative, but not mainly for commercial reasons (Puffer 1995). These innovations have been in the areas of farming, traditional healing, making of domestic equipments and so on, all of which were and are environmentally friendly (Sopazi and Andrew 2005). Farmers innovate due to necessity, changing conditions and curiosity, doing informal experiments on new ideas either from their own – and/or learned from other farmers, researchers, extensionists and/or other information sources like the mass media (Reij and Water-Bayer 2005). For the last 10,000 years farmers have exchanged ideas, technologies, seeds, and innovations among themselves (Rai and Shrestha 2006). Indigenous innovations can help find the best solutions for local problems. By utilizing the indigenous knowledge and existing resources available, and in turn also generating new employment opportunities, indigenous innovations help foster selfconfidence and self-respect amongst the community. This eventually leads to economic growth and social change in the community. Indigenous innovations encourage local self-reliance, decentralization of decision-making and fair access to natural resources. As these solutions emerge from the local context, they will be more likely to be accepted by the community. Fostering ‘innovation attitude’ amongst the community through appropriate hand holding, encouragements and promotion of indigenous innovations will create positive a attitude towards life and its challenges. This will help safeguard the community morale. This will also capacitate the innovators and the community against external threats that may be in the form of changing socio economic environment, introduction of new products and technologies, or even natural disasters (Puffer 1995), (Rai and Shrestha 2006).

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http://alasderio.org/?page_id=54 29 http://www.earthcharterinaction.org 30 Shashank Mehta, Ravi Mokashi-Punekar, Exploring Indigenous Innovations: Ascertaining the Scope for Design Interventions for their Successful Commercialization

Ahmedabad, India, p.4 http://www.shashankmehta.com/Research%20Papers%20pdfs/Exploring%20Indigenous%20Innovations%20-%20Ascertaining.pdf

Indigenous peoples perspectives have been brought to Innovation4Rio+20 Innovation team by Oscar Santillan, Ecuadorian Quechwa Sound Healer at the Informal Strategy Development Workshop “Innovation and Youth as Thematic Priorities for Rio+20” 23

rd of

January 2012; a very important message of this intervention (the video can be watched at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGnULTwQmSw&feature=youtu.be) has been highlighting the importance of spirituality and harmony with Mother Earth, a dimension that is extensively being dealt with by Cluster member Mrs. Sharon Hamilton-Getz, who is also chair of the Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns CSVCG

Local Authorities

ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability’s submission to the Rio+20 zero draft31

We need to redesign existing urban areas and systems, we need to build new ones that generate substantial amounts of their own resources within the urban region, in particular their energy, food, and even water. …..

ICLEI believes that if the UN wants to fully live up to the spirit of its Charter, not only to “maintain international peace and security” (Article 1.1), but also to “achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character” (Article 1.3), it needs to move – in its functionality – beyond the definition of “United Nations” and to becoming the “United Actors”.

“New types of transnational cooperation among local public authorities (e.g. cities) are becoming important and many such authorities have taken significant action towards addressing the causes and consequences of global environmental risks. Governments must provide a political mandate that recognizes their diverse contexts and guides practical action on the ground as well as supporting collaboration and developing local capacity and financial resources.”

32

Innovation4Rio+20 Issues Cluster will elaborate – in the context of 15/15/15 initiative (see info below) - over coming months some detailed concepts for a global network of “Global Challenges Centers” which will serve as points of crystallization for local Multistakeholder partnerships for knowledge based sustainable development connected globally with a shared vision and a common documentation system and social media network. First Concept development efforts have been launched by IAAI at UN DPI NGO conference 2011 in Bonn http://www.glocha.info/index.php/latest-news/149-bonn-2 and developed further in the context of Southeast European countries http://www.glocha.info/index.php/latest-news/167-sarajevo-workshop. These efforts shall be linked in future Innovation4Rio Cluster member Mr. James Hanusa is working with the City of San Francisco on coordinating efforts of municipal government agencies and civic organizations in the city to develop and Arts & Innovation zone. In Rio the Innovation4Rio+20 Issues Cluster is planning to work on these issues in the context of a SD Learning event “Local level multistakeholder partnerships for knowledge based SD”

33.

NGOs

Exemplary NGO perspectives on Rio+20 and Innovation34

Despite widespread cynicism about Rio's ability to deliver anything of substance, there is an energetic groundswell of activity among activists, practitioners, NGOs and academics who want Rio+20 to deliver a workable agreement that puts sustainable development and poverty reduction at the heart of global politics.

A new type of politics fit for these turbulent times, when catastrophe threatens with increasingly alarming regularity, should have science, technology and innovation at its core.

Science and technology can work more directly for social justice, poverty alleviation and the environment, helping to build a just and equitable green economy at a global level. But different forms of innovation that address sustainable development challenges at local, national and global levels need to be encouraged.

Not just the type of science and innovation that happens within governments, big business and scientific institutions, but within civil society – both in the form of organised public-interest groups and, more important, spontaneous citizen-led movements. This is where real change often happens.

Consensus at Rio on a global framework supporting innovation for sustainable development would be a major breakthrough.

An important conceptual innovation in the context of Rio+20 would be that Civil Society admits to be part of the problem, too and need to re-organize in order to deliver effectively the functions it is supposed to deliver in the global challenges response innovation system.

31

http://local2012.iclei.org/fileadmin/files/ICLEI_Submission_for_Rio_20_Zero_Draft_20111031_01.pdf 32 The Earth System Governance Project, Transforming governance and institutions for a planet under pressure - Revitalizing the institutional framework for global

sustainability: Key Insights from social science research; p6 http://earthsystemgovernance.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/Policy-Brief-3_Institutional-Framework.pdf

33 http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=700&nr=91&menu=23 34 Julia Day, It's time for sustainable development, The Guardian, 3 January 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/jan/03/time-for-

sustainable-development-at-rio?newsfeed=true

The Future We Want Requires Innovations of Civil Society Organizations and Formation of Global Citizens’ Movements35

A shift toward a Great Transition future will require complex learning processes and fundamental innovations. Due to their narrow and short-term focus, national politics, international negotiations and mainstream businesses cannot alone deliver this fundamental change of direction. Therefore, CSOs should get more actively involved in catalyzing bottom-up innovation initiatives as well as supporting and linking change agents who otherwise remain isolated in their communities and organizations. For example, larger environmental and development NGOs could support and partner with bottom-up initiatives, working to link change agents who otherwise would remain isolated in their communities and organizations, thus helping to cross-fertilize solutions and build movement connectivity.

In the decades following the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, strengthening of grassroots political movements has played a subordinate role to policy advocacy and partnership with governmental agencies and business.[6] Yet, during a time of deepening crises, a Great Transition can only succeed with the awakening of a new social actor: a vast and coherent movement of global citizens is the critical historical agent now missing from the global stage. A global citizens movement (GCM) engaging masses of people, “nurturing values of human solidarity, ecological resilience and quality of life” would “embrace diverse perspectives and existing movements as separate expressions of a common project”.[7]

Scientific and Technological Community

The Central Role of Knowledge in SD36

Human activity is generating fundamental changes to global ecological systems, which are being pushed to their limits in terms of their capacity to support life as we know it. Two key challenges have arisen as a result: the first is to understand the causes and effects of these changes, the second is to effect a transition to a sustainable societal system. Much has been done to address the first challenge, but less to address the second. Human society as a whole has yet to learn how to manage itself in ways that do not threaten the global ecological systems upon which it depends. Since the need for sustainable development was first recognized internationally in the early 1980s, knowledge has been seen increasingly as crucial to achieving its goals. Both the technical progress of the digital revolutions and the increased economic importance of intangible goods in ‘the knowledge society’ fostered the vision of developing countries leap-frogging whole stages of economic development. This, however, has not been achieved as yet. Similarly, initiatives based on knowledge (e.g. knowledge of more sustainable energy options) offer substantial potential for transitions towards more sustainable societies. These need to be up-scaled and integrated into societal and cultural innovation systems. (page 8)

The Knowledge Triangle

Important event I: Planet Under Pressure Conference 26-29 March 2012, London - http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/ Important event II: Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development 11-15 June 2012

http://www.icsu.org/rio20/science-and-technology-forum Important reading: Rio+20 Issues Brief Science and Technology for Sustainable Development

37

Innovation4Rio+20 Issues cluster member Gregory Julian highlighted the great innovation potentials of Model United Nations

38 and

announced that Pace University is working with Rio+20 secretariat on organizing a Rio+20 MUN in spring 2012. Great innovation potentials for achieving UN goals rest also with United Nations Academic Impact initiative http://academicimpact.org/ which is a global initiative that aligns institutions of higher education with the United Nations in actively supporting ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, literacy, sustainability and conflict resolution.

39

An important issue in building the knowledge base for SD is the challenge of building bridges between UN practitioners and academics. A very important organization which has exactly this mission is the Academic Council on the United Nations System www.acuns.org. Innovation4Rio+20 Issues cluster member Michael Platzer has organized in recent years several conferences on this

35 Michael Narberhaus, Orion Kriegman, Pamela Pezzati, Paul Raskin, Civil Society Organizations: Time for Systemic Strategies, Great Transition Initiative, Visions and

Pathways for a Hopeful Future, October 2011, p4, http://www.gtinitiative.org/documents/IssuePerspectives/GTI-Perspectives-Civil_Society_Organizations.pdf 36 Ilan Chabay et al., Knowledge, Learning, and Societal Change: Finding Paths to a Sustainable Future - Science Plan for a cross-cutting core project of the International

Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), September 4, 2011, http://proclimweb.scnat.ch/portal/ressources/2070.pdf 37 http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/content/documents/278Rio2012%20Issues%20brief%2012%20Science%20and%20Technology%20final.pdf 38 Model United Nations (also Model UN or MUN) is an academic simulation of the United Nations that aims to educate participants about current events, topics in

international relations, diplomacy and the United Nations agenda. The participants role-play as diplomats representing a nation or NGO in a simulated session of an organ (committee) of the United Nations, such as the Security Council or the General Assembly. Participants research a country, take on roles as diplomats, investigate international issues, debate, deliberate, consult, and then develop solutions to world problems. (source: Wikipedia)

39 Note: International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges (IAAI) is member of UNAI, too

topic, the most recent one having been “UN Agencies Connecting with Academics and Civil Society 2012 Conference”, January 11 - 13, 2012, at UN Vienna International Center.

40

Another key issue in Science, Technology and Development related to Sustainable development is Foresight and Technology assessment. Innovation4Rio+20 Issues cluster member Jerome C. Glenn is director of the Global Futures Studies network Millennium project which looks at some of these issues (and many more):

We need a global collective intelligence system to track S&T advances, forecast consequences, and document a range of views so that politicians and the public can understand the potential consequences of new S&T. Challenge 14 will have been addressed seriously when the funding of R&D for societal needs reaches parity with funding for weapons and when an international science and technology organization is established that routinely connects world S&T knowledge for use in R&D priority setting and legislation.41

Issues cluster member Sara Farley of Global Knowledge Initiative (http://globalknowledgeinitiative.org/) highlighted in her input the importance of global collaboration in innovation for SD and the need to build innovation capacity in Africa.

42

Cluster member Zoran Aralica brought to the discussion some very valuable innovation systems theory deliberations as well as some ideas regarding setting up in Southeast Europe some elements of a multilevel governance sustainable development innovation systems in a regional cooperation effort.

43

Cluster member Robert Pollard of Information habitat

44 highlighted the importance of Education for Sustainable Development and

the use of social media and open source software in global sustainable development efforts.

Cluster member Sebastiao Mendonça Ferreira contributed to the discussions the conceptual innovation of “knowledge commons”45

Women

WEDO (Women's Environment & Development Organization) on the Road to Rio+20

WEDO will continue to advocate and fine-tune our messages and expectation in the coming months. Following are some concrete ideas that form our vision now:

–> And to look past Rio, we want innovative policy that when implemented on the ground can impact lived realities as well as respond to women’s innovation, needs and abilities.

46

Workers and Trade Unions ‘Workers and trade unions’ consolidated contribution to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development’

47 innovation

related comments focused on innovative sources of funding for public goods. In the context of Workers and Trade Unions’ issues related to Rio+20 and Innovation there can be found many interesting initiatives around the world on Innovative approaches to informal work, social inclusion etc.

40

http://www.acuns.org/about_us/vienna_liaison_office 41 http://www.millennium-project.org/millennium/Global_Challenges/chall-14.html 42

http://www.glocha.info/attachments/article/189/FARLEY_GlobalKnowledgeInitiative_UN%20Rio20%20InnovationNYC.pdf 43 http://www.glocha.info/attachments/article/189/ZoranAralica_InnovationtowardsRI020_clusterinput.pdf 44 http://habitat.igc.org/ 45

Sebastiao Darlan Mendonça Ferreira, Evolution and Future of the Knowledge Commons: Emerging Opportunities and Challenges for Less Developed Societies, (Draft to be published in Knowledge Management for Development Journal)

46 http://www.wedo.org/newsletter-archive/wedo-on-the-road-to-rio 47

http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/rio_20_ituccontribution.pdf

The Rio+20 Issues Cluster on Innovation and 15/15/15 UN Civil Society Resource Mobilization Partnership In order to support the Brazilian initiative to highlight Innovation as thematic priority of Rio+20, International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges (IAAI), Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) and The Spiritual Council for Global Concerns Working Group of (CSVCG) organized an Informal Strategy Development Workshop “Thematic Priority ‘Innovation and Youth’ – Key to Success at Rio+20?!” 23rd of January 2012 at UN Church center (a video documentation of the event can be found at http://www.glocha.info/index.php/latest-news/182-innovandyouthstrategywsny). An important dimension of the event has been to highlight the interconnections between youth participation in Rio+20 and innovation as well as the need for innovative forms of youth participation in global governance like e.g. the “Rio+20 Global Youth Music Contest” http://www.glocha.info/index.php/glocha-initiatives/gcsw. One of the results of the Informal Strategy Development Workshop has been the invitation by Major Group NGOs to form a Rio+20 Issue Cluster on Innovation.

48

The Issues Clusters are an initiative of Rio+20 Major Group ‘NGOs’ Organizing Partners, who have identified a number of key NGO networks, and asked representatives central to these networks to help set up thematic clusters for the purpose of arriving at common policy positions and lobbying strategies. The thematic facilitators, have been asked to commit to maintaining an email list for their cluster and to facilitate electronic communications as well as coordinate meetings of their cluster at the UN if so desired. The immediate aim of the clusters is to derive a common position for each thematic cluster to advocate in the Rio process with a common voice.

Issues Cluster Meeting at Austrian PM, 19 March 201249

Side Event “Rio+20: A Global Innovation Summit? 19 March 2012

Rio+20 Issues Cluster on Innovation submitted a cluster submission to the Zero Draft of Rio+20 Outcome document: http://www.glocha.info/attachments/article/186/TheFutureWeWant_ZeroDraftoftheOutcomeDocument_AmmendmentsinnovationClustervers01.pdf (Innovation4Rio cluster comments/amendments highlighted in red, see Annex II with a list of all comments).

A key element of the submission is the ‘global citizen participation’ and ‘resource mobilization’ aspect of designing at Rio+20 a United Nations led global innovation system for sustainable development.

The Issues Cluster on Innovation proposes a ‘15/15/15 UN Civil Society Resource Mobilization Partnership Formula’ which says that global civil society on the one hand commits at Rio+20 to mobilize 15 billion Euros and 15 million volunteers by the year 2015 for UN led sustainable development efforts and on the other hand requests new forms of participation in global SD governance. The comments of Rio+20 Innovation Cluster related to sections III-V of the Outcome document have been included in the official Major Groups comments document for Rio+20 Outcome Document (Zero Draft) as comments on behalf of 'Major Group NGO' http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/content/documents/465Zerodraft%20-%20FINAL%20VERSION%20-%20March%2005.pdf.

48 www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&nr=866&type=230&menu=38 49

http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=13&nr=622&menu=27

Linking Rio+20 Outcomes with other UN Innovation efforts

Global Sustainability Panel50

13. That is why the Panel argues that the international community needs what some have called “a new political economy” for sustainable development. This means, for example: radically improving the interface between environmental science and policy; recognizing that in certain environmental domains, such as climate change, there is “market failure”, which requires both regulation and what the economists would recognize as the pricing of “environmental externalities”, while making explicit the economic, social and environmental costs of action and inaction; recognizing the importance of innovation, new technologies, international cooperation and investments responding to these problems and generating further prosperity; recognizing that an approach should be agreed to quantify the economic cost of sustained social exclusion — for example, the cost of excluding women from the workforce; recognizing that private markets alone may be incapable of generating at the scale necessary to bring about a proper response to the food security crisis; and requiring international agencies, national Governments and private corporations to report on their annual sustainable development performance against agreed sustainability measures. We must also recognize that this is a core challenge for politics itself. Unless the political process is equally capable of embracing the sustainable development paradigm, there can be no progress. Climate change calls for the world to embark on sustained processes of economic, social and institutional innovation and renewal; to address new challenges to international peace and security; and to face up to fundamental questions about fairness in the distribution of responsibility and risk. (p20)

Linking Envisaged Rio+20 Sustainable Development Goals Plans with the Planning of Post-Millennium Development Goals Regime The current global development framework, the Millennium Development Goals, expire in 2015. Beyond 2015 is a global campaign aiming to

influence the creation of a post 2015 development framework. 51

.. If policymakers do decide at Rio that they want SDGs to become a more ambitious and comprehensive set of Goals from 2015 onwards, then the draft Rio+20 outcome document is surely right to suggest that these should be agreed by 2015 – not at Rio itself. The question of what follows the MDGs after 2015 is complex, politically sensitive, and involves multiple constituencies with diverse interests. It is essential that enough time is taken to build shared awareness between these constituencies and secure buy-in to the emerging post-2015 agenda – not just among the development and environment policy communities, but also among publics, media, the private sector, heads of government and other players in the broader political context (most of whom remain largely disengaged from, or even unaware of, the post-2015 discussion). Any set of post-2015 Goals that fails to secure enough support among these actors will be stillborn.52

UN Partnership Facility and other priorities of UN Secretary general Ban Ki-moon for his second term in office53

I. Harnessing the Full Power of Partnership across the Range of UN Activities 1. Scale up UN capacity to engage in transformative multi-stakeholder partnerships with the private sector, civil society, philanthropists and

academia across a broader range of issue areas by creating a new UN Partnership Facility, which will catalyse commitments and promote accountability.

2. Consolidate functions to create a coherent capacity for partnering consisting of the Global Compact and the UN Partnership Facility and coordinate system-wide partnership efforts.

3. Enhance UN capacity to engage with traditional and new constituencies using the full range of outreach tools, including social media. II. Strengthening the United Nations 1. Ensure the more effective delivery of mandates and do more within recognized resource constraints through innovation and change management

initiatives, including by facilitating a review of the current budget process. 2. Build a modern workforce supported by a global Secretariat that shares financial, human and physical resources, knowledge and information

technology more effectively, including through the robust implementation of the Umoja initiative. 3. Make the United Nations more open, flexible and accountable, including by adopting a results-based planning, accountability and management

system, streamlining budgeting and implementing a system-wide risk management approach. 4. Launch a second generation of "Delivering as one", which will focus on managing and monitoring for results, ensuring increased accountability and

improved outcomes. 5. Enhance the safety and security of UN staff.

The Sustainable Energy for All Initiative

54

The United Nations Secretary-General recently launched a pioneering new initiative, “Sustainable Energy for All,” to mobilize urgent global action.

The Initiative brings all sectors of society to the table: business, governments, investors, community groups and academia. The United Nations is the ideal institution to convene this broad swathes of actors and forge common cause in support of three inter-linked objectives:

Ensure universal access to modern energy services.

Double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency.

Double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.

50 United Nations Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (2012). Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A future worth choosing. New York: United Nations 51 http://beyond2015.org/ 52

Alex Evans and David Steven, Sustainable Development Goals – a useful outcome from Rio+20?, The NYU Center on International Cooperation (CIC) Briefing, January 2012, p. 5, http://www.cic.nyu.edu/staff/docs/alx_evans/cic_evans_steven_rio20_report.pdf

53 http://www.un.org/sg/priorities/enablers.shtml 54

http://www.sustainableenergyforall.org/about

The Republic of Kazakhstan has come up in the context of “Sustainable Energy for All” and Rio+20 with an innovative science based and action oriented initiative called ‘Global Energy- Ecological Strategy of Sustainable Development in the 21st Century (GEES)’ and ‘Green Bridge’ Programme which shall trigger in the context of Rio+20 global governance innovations and innovative multi-stakeholder partnerships in the field of Sustainable energy for all. The initiative has been presented at the Innovation4Rio+20 cluster preparatory meeting 23

rd of January 2012 and is being therefore highlighted here as an interesting example of member states led

global governance innovation initiative in the context of Rio+20.

Proposal of the Republic of Kazakhstan for RIO +20 - “Time for Radical Strategic Decisions”55

4) The Programme envisages straight, practical and effective measures for sharing experience and expanding access to green investments and innovations for all interested countries and organizations.

5) Unlike other programmes the Partnership Programme envisages equitable participation in its governance of not only government but also of business, international, non-governmental and research organizations.

6) The Programme rests on the linkage with real economy sectors and business projects, which may result in multiplicative and mutually beneficial effects and enable all partners to implement the instruments which they elaborated earlier.

7) The Programme brings forward radically new mechanisms for the conservation and rehabilitation of globally significant ecosystems with such mechanisms based on green business interested in supporting ecosystem services.

With reference to the institutional reforms proposed by countries and international organizations Kazakhstan supports the need to enhance environmental management systems at the global, regional and national levels.

Kazakhstan also supports more systemic and concerted activities of the UN system’s international organizations, including of the secretariats of the UN, the UNEP conventions and other organizations and programmes.

Contact:

Miroslav Polzer Secretary General, International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges IAAI Facilitator of Rio+20 Issues Cluster "Innovation" Tel.: +43 (0) 664 4203648 (mob/Austria) & +1 646 831 1085 (mob/US only active part time) www.glocha.info; polzer@glocha.info; skype: miropolzer; twitter: @glocha_mp; www.facebook.com/mpolzer Address: Dunajska 104, SI-1000 Ljubljana/Slovenia & Neuer Platz 10, At 9020 Klagenfurt/Austria

55

http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/content/documents/54NationalsubmissionofKazakhstantoRio20.pdf p 5

Annex I: Quotes from Agenda 21 related to “Innovation” 56

3.7. Sustainable development must be achieved at every level of society. Peoples' organizations, women's groups and non-governmental organizations are important sources of innovation and action at the local level and have a strong interest and proven ability to promote sustainable livelihoods. Governments, in cooperation with appropriate international and non-governmental organizations, should support a community-driven approach to sustainability (p 15) Assess the relationship between production and consumption, environment, technological adaptation and innovation, economic growth and development, and demographic factors; (p19) Recognizing that countries will develop their own priorities in accordance with their needs and national and, where appropriate, regional plans, policies and programmes, the following objectives are proposed: a. To disseminate information on effective legal and regulatory innovations in the field of environment and development, including appropriate instruments and

compliance incentives, with a view to encouraging their wider use and adoption at the national, state, provincial and local level; (p68) Within a supportive international and national economic context and given the necessary legal and regulatory framework, economic and market -oriented approaches can in many cases enhance capacity to deal with the issues of environment and development. This would be achieved by providing costeffective solutions, applying integrated pollution prevention control, promoting technological innovation and influencing environmental behaviour, as well as providing financial resources to meet sustainable development objectives. (p70) Assessment and systematic observation activities involve major research efforts, statistical modelling and technological innovation. These have been internalized into the management–related activities. The activities in turn will improve the technological and scientific content of assessment and periodical evaluations. Some of the specific scientific and technological components included under these activities are (p103) 14.19. Governments at the appropriate level, and with the support of the relevant international and regional organizations, should collect, analyse, and disseminate information on human resources, the role of Governments, local communities and non-governmental organizations in social innovation and strategies for rural development (p129) 14.28. Governments at the appropriate level, with the support of the relevant international and regional organizations, should: a. Analyse the effects of technical innovations and incentives on farm-household income and well-being; (p132) Subject to national legislation, take action to respect, record, protect and promote the wider application of the knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles for the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of biological resources, with a view to the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising, and promote mechanisms to involve those communities, including women, in the conservation and management of ecosystems (p150) Cooperation on issues related to conservation of, access to and exchange of germ plasm; rights associated with intellectual property and informal innovations, including farmers' and breeders' rights; access to the benefits of biotechnology; and bio-safety; (p156) (c) Human resource development 18.89. The developmental work and innovation depend for their success on good academic training and staff motivation. International projects can help by enumerating alternatives, but each country needs to establish and implement the necessary policies and to develop its own expertise in the scientific and engineering challenges to be faced, as well as a body of dedicated individuals who are able to interpret the complex issues concerned for those required to make policy decisions. Such specialized personnel need to be trained, hired and retained in service, so that they may serve their countries in these tasks (p 224) b. Governments, according to their possibilities and with the help of multilateral cooperation, should provide economic or regulatory incentives, where appropriate, to stimulate industrial innovation towards cleaner production methods, to encourage industry to invest in preventive and/or recycling technologies so as to ensure environmentally sound management of all hazardous wastes, including recyclable wastes, and to encourage waste minimization investments (p 243) e. Governments of developed countries should promote the transfer of environmentally sound technologies and know-how on clean technologies and low-waste production to developing countries in conformity with chapter 34, which will bring about changes to sustain innovation. Governments should cooperate with industry to develop guidelines and codes of conduct, where appropriate, leading to cleaner production through sectoral trade industry associations; (p 243) ii. Increasing the efficiency of indigenous people's resource management systems, for example, by promoting the adaptation and dissemination of suitable technological innovations (p 281) 30.2. Through more efficient production processes, preventive strategies, cleaner production technologies and procedures throughout the product life cycle, hence minimizing or avoiding wastes, the policies and operations of business and industry, including transnational corporations, can play a major role in reducing impacts on resource use and the environment. Technological innovations, development, applications, transfer and the more comprehensive aspects of partnership and cooperation are to a very large extent within the province of business and industry. (p 289) 30.17. Entrepreneurship is one of the most important driving forces for innovations, increasing market efficiencies and responding to challenges and opportunities. Small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, in particular, play a very important role in the social and economic development of a country. Often, they are the major means for rural development, increasing off-farm employment and providing the transitional means for improving the livelihoods of women. Responsible entrepreneurship can play a major role in improving the efficiency of resource use, reducing risks and hazards, minimizing wastes and safeguarding environmental qualities. (p291) 34.11. Proprietary technology is available through commercial channels, and international business is an important vehicle for technology transfer. Tapping this pool of knowledge and recombining it with local innovations to generate alternative technologies should be pursued. At the same time that concepts and modalities for assured access to environmentally sound technologies, including state-of-the- art technologies, in particular by developing countries, continued to be explored, enhanced access to environmentally sound technologies should be promoted, facilitated and financed as appropriate, while providing fair incentives to innovators (p306) 35.3. Scientific knowledge should be applied to articulate and support the goals of sustainable development, through scientific assessments of current conditions and future prospects for the Earth system. Such assessments, based on existing and emerging innovations within the sciences, should be used in the decision-making process and in the interactive processes between the sciences and policymaking. There needs to be an increased output from the sciences in order to enhance understanding and facilitate interaction between science and society. An increase in the scientific capacity and capability to achieve these goals will also be required, particularly in developing countries. Of crucial importance is the need for scientists in developing countries to participate fully in international scientific research programmes dealing with the global problems of environment and development so as to allow all countries to participate on equal footing in negotiations on global environmental and developmental issues. In the face of threats of irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific understanding should not be an excuse for postponing actions which are justified in their own right. The precautionary approach could provide a basis for policies relating to complex systems that are not yet fully understood and whose consequences of disturbances cannot yet be predicted. (p 311) 35.24. Such means include increasing and strengthening regional multidisciplinary research and training networks and centres making optimal use of existing facilities and associated sustainable development and technology support systems in developing regions. Promote and use the potential of independent initiatives and indigenous innovations and entrepreneurship (p319)

56 United Nations Conference on Environment & Development, AGENDA 21, Rio de Janerio, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992,

http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/Agenda21.pdf

Annex II – Rio+20 Issues Cluster on Innovation submission to the Zero Draft of Rio+20 Outcome document (Comments to sections III-V (highlighted yellow) have been communicated to the official process as statements of Major Group NGOs 29th of February 201257)

1. We, the heads of State and Government, having met at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 20-22 June 2012, resolve to work together in partnership with global citizens from all around the world for a prosperous, secure and sustainable future for our people and our planet.

2. We reaffirm our determination to free humanity from hunger and want through the eradication of all forms of poverty and strive for societies which are just, equitable and inclusive, for economic stability and prosperity that benefits all.

5. We urge bold and decisive action on the objective and themes for the conference. We renew our commitment to sustainable development and express our determination to pursue the green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. We further affirm our resolve to strengthen and innovate the institutional framework for sustainable development. Taken together our actions should fill the implementation gaps and achieve greater integration among the three pillars of sustainable development – the economic, the social and the environmental.

11. We acknowledge, however, that there have also been setbacks because of multiple interrelated crises – financial, economic and volatile energy and food prices. Food insecurity, climate change and biodiversity loss have adversely affected development gains. New scientific evidence points to the gravity of the threats we face. New and emerging challenges include the further intensification of earlier problems calling for more urgent responses. We are deeply concerned that around 1.4 billion people still live in extreme poverty and one sixth of the world’s population is undernourished, pandemics and epidemics are omnipresent threats. Unsustainable development has increased the stress on the earth's limited natural resources and on the carrying capacity of ecosystems. Our planet supports seven billion people expected to reach nine billion by 2050. We acknowledge also that there is a huge mismatch between the dimensions of global challenges and the available resources (financial means, knowledge, human resources, ..) that are available to UN system if nurtured only by member states.

13. We nevertheless observe that, despite efforts by Governments and non-State actors in all countries, sustainable development remains a distant goal and there remain major barriers and systemic gaps in the implementation of internationally agreed commitments. In order to increase coherence and effectiveness of multi-stakeholder sustainable governance, ambitious integrative institutional re-design (with a focus on knowledge, communication and innovation) on all-levels need to be started to end up with an effective and flexible global challenges response mechanism. C. Engaging major groups

17. We underscore that a fundamental prerequisite for the achievement of sustainable development is broad public participation in decision-making. Sustainable development requires major groups – women, children and youth, indigenous peoples, non-governmental organisations, local authorities, workers and trade unions, business and industry, the scientific and technological community, and farmers – to play a meaningful role at all levels. It is important to enable all members of civil society to be actively engaged in sustainable development by incorporating their specific knowledge and practical know-how into national and local policy making. In this regard, we also acknowledge the role of national parliaments in furthering sustainable development. We are determined to lay at Rio+20 the foundation for giving global civil society (and especially youth) more space in global governance. This determination shall be manifested also by giving space for a Global Challenges Center at UN Headquarter in New York which will provide civil society (and local governments) with premises for meetings, major groups secretariats, easily accessible UN system outreach activities to creative industries, volunteers, etc. (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSvDLP10u60&feature=related ) D. Framework for action

22. We commit to improving governance and capacity at all levels – global, regional, national and local – to promote integrated decision making, to fill the implementation gap and promote coherence across institutions.

23. We commit ourselves to reinvigorating the global partnership for sustainable development. We recognize that States must work together cooperatively and join with all stakeholders to address the common sustainable development challenges we face. We welcome the 15/15/15 UN Civil Society formula (global civil society mobilizing 15 billion €, 15 million volunteers for UN led global sustainable development efforts by 2015) proposed by IAAI http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=510&nr=105&menu=20 as a systemic sustainable development governance innovation that broadens the broadens the ‘Framework for Action”. ------------ B. Toolkits and experience sharing

33. We support the creation of [an international – Women / NGOs / Indigenous Peoples - Delete] [a UN-based – Women / NGOs] [, multilingual – NGOs] knowledge-sharing platform [s at all various levels – Indigenous Peoples] to facilitate countries’ [green – NGOs – Delete] [sustainable – NGOs] [facilitate – by involving scientific expertise and feed-back of non-state actors – NGOs] economy [economic – Indigenous Peoples] policy design and implementation, including:

34. We request the UN Secretary-General, in consultation with international organizations, relevant entities of the UN system [, including the regional commissions – NGOs] and others, to [establish – Indigenous Peoples – Delete] [enable – Indigenous Peoples] such a platform [, in close cooperation with stakeholders- NGOs] [, through a participatory process allowing ownership by all stakeholders – NGOs] [and to establish a review process to determine the linkage of such platform with already existing institutions - NGOs] [Funding and expertise for such a platform can be mobilized through above ,mentioned 15/15/15 UN – Civil Society partnership formula - NGOs]. C. Framework for action

43 [h quat) To support the formation of a “Global Forum on Innovative Resource Mobilization for Education and Science” in the context of 15/15/15 UN-Civil Society Formula which will nurture – in close collaboration with UNESCO, its regional offices and national commissions - global research networks on global challenges, UN Academic Impact initiative, Global University Network for Innovation, International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change research initiative "Knowledge, Learning, and Societal Change: Finding paths to a sustainable future" etc.), (formal and informal) Education for Sustainable Development efforts on all levels, etc with the needed financial and human resources for their important work. – NGOs]

51 alt. We resolve to establish a UN specialized agency for the environment with universal membership of its Governing Council, based on UNEP, with a revised and strengthened mandate, supported by stable, adequate and predictable financial contributions and operating on an equal footing with other UN specialized agencies. This agency, based in Nairobi, would cooperate closely with other specialized agencies. [and would integrate the effective participation of civil society at all levels of decision making, on the basis of the nine major groups. – NGOs] [A special added value of such UN specialized agency for the environment could be its innovative design which would enable integration of civil society resources (funding,

57

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knowledge, volunteering, etc.) for global environment protection efforts, providing the basis for governance innovations of UN system also in other fields. – NGOs] Cities

[72 bis. We welcome the setting up of a global network of Global Challenges centers as points of crystallization for multi-stakeholder partnerships on global commons growth which are linked up with UN system through a shared vision and a global documentation system. An integrated, multi-sectoral community based approach to sustainable rural development is also needed. We call on the UN to establish a global network of grassroots support organizations, resource and service centers, and training programs to develop local capacity building and assist villages and rural communities in eradicating poverty and meeting basic human needs. We note that sustainable development requires full use of data on demographic trends and population dynamics, including population growth, density, migration, urbanization and ageing. – NGOs]

101. We [agree – Children & Youth - Delete] [commit – Children & Youth] to promote education [, training and research – NGOs/Children & Youth] for sustainable development beyond the end of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in 2014, [through the implementation of relevant strategies and tools – Children & Youth] to educate a new generation of students in the values, key disciplines and holistic, cross-disciplinary approaches essential to promoting sustainable development [, including with respect to climate change We encourage the proponents of 15/15/15 UN Civil Society partnership to design the initiative in such a way that adequate resources will be channeled to Education for Sustainable Development on all levels. – NGOs]. [We call upon academic ranking, accreditation institutions and governments to integrate sustainable development education, training and research activities as a new criterion in their evaluations of the performance of Higher Education Institution. – Children & Youth] [We agree that education is indispensable to ensuring environmental and social justice and requires that governments enterprises, mass media including TIC’s prioritize and guarantee the right to education for young people and adults, and especially the fundamental right to basic education without discrimination, providing these key rights the legal status they deserve, and to allocate the resources required for their full implementation. – Women]

116. [We reaffirm the key role of - NGOs – Delete] [the private sector – Women/ NGOs – Delete] [all – Indigenous People] [major groups – Women/Indigenous People] [in promoting sustainable development – NGOs – Delete] [based on the framework of diverse green economies, - Indigenous People] [including through multi-stakeholder partnerships – NGOs – Delete]. Public policy should create a stable investment climate and regulatory framework conducive to [long-term investment and – NGOs – Delete] [public-private collaborations to further positive social and environmental impacts. - Business & Industry] [socially and environmentally responsible behaviour by business and industry. - Business & Industry – Delete / NGOs] [, as well as for the meaningful participation of all major groups in sustainable development. We trust that global solidarity and philanthropy are strong arguments for innovative mobilization of financial and other kinds of resources as means of implementation of Rio+20 outcomes and support therefore the 15/15/15 Un – Civil Society partnership formula of IAAI – NGOs] [Additionally, we call for specific investments in irrigation, rainwater harvesting and natural systems to increase climate resiliency as well as increasing overseas development assistance (ODA) focused on agriculture. – Children & Youth] Science and Technology

119. We recognize [the importance of – Women/ NGOs – Delete] [that – NGOs/ Women] strengthening the scientific, [engineering, - Scientific & Technological] technological and innovation capacities of countries [to promote – Women/ NGOs– Delete] [can contribute to – Women/ NGOs] sustainable development [, including the recognition of traditional knowledge, innovations and practices. – Indigenous People] [, and in particular to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is equally important however to ensure that the development and transfer of technology does not pose threats to the environment, health, livelihoods and cultures of communities. We thus call for effective technology assessment mechanisms, appropriate enabling environments, and enhanced means of transferring and scaling up appropriate technologies to developing countries – NGOs]. [It is equally important however to ensure that the development and transfer of technology does not pose threats to the environment, health, livelihoods and cultures of local communities. – Women] [In this regard, we stress the – Women/NGOs – Delete] [We – Women] [need – NGOs – Delete] [for – Women/NGOs – Delete] [effective – NGOs – Delete] [technology assessment –Women] [mechanisms, enhanced means – NGOs - Delete] [of transferring appropriate technologies to developing countries, and – Women], [appropriate enabling environments, - NGOs – Delete] [enhanced actions to facilitate – Business & Industry] [and the – Women/NGOs – Delete] [removal of obstacles to – Business & Industry / Women/NGOs – Delete] [the scaling up of the development and transfer of technology to developing countries – Women/NGOs - Delete] [as well as local innovation and development capacity – Business & Industry]. [We recognize the need for global sustainable development to develop into flexible and adaptive innovation systems that can cope with disruptive change and other stress factors. It is equally important however to ensure that the development and transfer of technologies does not pose threats to the environment, health, livelihoods and cultures of local communities. We need effective technology assessment mechanisms and, enhanced means of transferring appropriate technologies to developing countries. - NGOs] Capacity building

121. We reaffirm the need for providing support to existing regional and sub-regional [basin-wide and local participatory – Children & Youth] structures and mechanisms in developing countries and encouraging their creation, where needed, with the aim of facilitating cooperation and the exchange of information, including capacity building, exchange of experiences and expertise to advance the implementation of the decisions at regional and sub regional [and basin-wide – Children & Youth] levels. [We hope that 15/15/15 UN-Civl Society Partnership initiative and Global Forum on Innovative Resource Mobilization for Science and Education will support governmental and international efforts in this field. – NGOs] Registry/compendium of commitments

[128. We [welcome – Women/ NGOs – Delete] [note – Women] the [voluntary – NGOs/Children & Youth – Delete] commitments made at Rio+20 [, and all legally-binding commitments such as international human rights obligations and multilateral environmental agreements, - NGOs] and invite the Secretary-General to compile [them – NGOs – Delete] [these – NGOs] in a registry/compendium [that will serve – NGOs – Delete] [a modest framework for – Women] [as an – NGOs – Delete] [for – NGOs] accountability [purposes – NGOs] [framework – NGOs – Delete] [and provide a mechanism for public access to information on such voluntary and binding commitments. Efforts will be made to link on conceptual level (by framing all sustainable development resources as ‘global commons’) and with a common global documentation system sustainable development efforts of International organizations, national and local public authorities, corporations (in the context of Corporate social responsibility), civil society organizations, global citizens. Participating entities and individuals will be invited to endorse a Charter on Shared Social Responsibility for Global Commons and will be invited to report/register on an annual basis their sustainable development efforts. – NGOs] [by providing a mechanism for public access to information on international commitments for sustainable development – Women] [accessible to all members of civil society – Children & Youth] NGOs – para delete (Non-agreement between NGOs)].

Annex III – IAAI/GloCha 15/15/15 Concept Development Activities and Action Plan58

This annex to the Informal Rio+20 Issues brief “Innovation for Sustainable Development” shall help to strengthen the outcome and action oriented dimension of Rio+20 by highlighting the above (page 11) presented 15/15/15 UN Civil Society Resource Mobilization Partnership formula and its implementation and Rio+20 SD action potentials.

‘15/15/15 UN Civil Society Resource Mobilization Partnership Formula’:

Global civil society on the one hand commits at Rio+20 to mobilize 15 billion Euros and 15 million volunteers by the year 2015 for UN led sustainable development efforts and on the other hand requests new forms of participation in global SD governance.

Past Concept Development Activities:

Conference „Imagining the Worst: Foresight, Ethics, and Extreme Climate Scenarios” (in cooperation with UNESCO), 1-3 March 2011, Bled/Slovenia

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Round table discussion on “Engaging Global Citizens in Sustainable Development Governance: Human Rights and Human Responsibilities”

60 and Paper presentation of Miroslav Polzer on “Multilevel Climate Change/SD Governance from an Innovation

System perspective”61

at Annual meeting of Academic Council on the United Nations System ACUNS, June 3rd 2011, Waterloo/Ontario (Canada)

Rio+20 Global Youth Music Contest presentation at UN High Level Meeting on Youth, 25 July 2011, New York62

IAAI Workshop "Rio+20 – A Window of Opportunity for a Multi-Stakeholder Partnership on Global Commons Growth" at 64th UN DPI NGO conference “Sustainable Societies; Responsive Citizens” Bonn/Germany, 5 September, 2011

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International Conference Knowledge, Youth and Global Commons - Orienting Knowledge Systems and Inter-Generational Relations towards Sustainable Development and Rio+20; 15 - 16 Sep 2011, Klagenfurt (Austria)

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International Workshop: Mobilize Diaspora 4SD - Mobilization of Intellectual and Financial Resources from Diaspora for Knowledge Based Sustainable Development in Southeast Europe (concept development for Global Challenges Centers), 12.10.2011, Sarajevo/Bosnia and Herzegovina

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People Power & Rio+20 Mobilizing Civil Society for Sustainable Development and Strong United Nations - IAAI Submission to the Compilation Document for the Rio+20 Zero Draft Outcome document, 30 October 2011

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Side Event on “Mobilizing Civil Society for Sustainable Development and Rio+20 & The Special Role of Youth” at Second Intersessional Meeting, 15 December 2011, New York

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Informal Strategy Development Workshop “Thematic Priority ‘Innovation and Youth’ – Key to Success at Rio+20?!”, 23 Jan 2012, New York

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Rio+20 Issues Cluster on Innovation & 15/15/15 UN - Civil Society Partnership Formula: Workshop and Side Event at Rio+20 Third Intersessional, 19 Mar 2012, New York

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Rio+20 Arts and Media Partnership Workshop70

23rd of March 2012, New York Next Steps

16th

calendar week, April 2012 “15/15/15 Group of Friends” Information event at Global Philanthropy Forum in Washington (linking with The Giving Pledge, presenting the idea of a “Global Forum on Innovative Resource Mobilization for Education and Science”, to be confirmed)

16th

calendar week, April 2012 “15/15/15 Group of Friends” Information event in New York (UN Member States, Celebrities, Media partners, Scientists and Concerned Global Citizens/Youth)

23 April Launch of campaign “15/15/15 Voluntary Commitments”

Rio+20 Voluntary Commitments71

Rio+20 is a conference about implementation, and an important part of that is making and delivering commitments. All participants at Rio+20 are therefore encouraged to make voluntary commitments to deliver concrete results for sustainable development.

Commitments are invited from various stakeholders – businesses, other Major Group organizations, associations, academic institutions, philanthropic organizations, UN entities, and partnerships involving more than one stakeholder. These will be compiled into an online compendium of commitments on the Rio+20 website.

Organizers of side events at Rio+20 are also strongly encouraged to register commitments that result from outcomes of their side events.

58 The 15/15/15 action proposals presented in Annex III are based on the work of International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global

Challenges (IAAI) www.glocha.info (fyi: Innovation4Rio+20 Issues cluster facilitator Miroslav Polzer is also secretary general of IAAI). This part of the issues brief has to be regarded as a specific Innovation4Rio+20 action plan of one of the organizations participating in the issues cluster and not as a proposal of all cluster members.

59 http://www.participate.si/globaldialogue-ccfuturesandethics/index.php

60 http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&nr=126&type=230&menu=39

61 http://www.glocha.info/images/stories/news2011/acuns2011/acunspresentationpolzer.pdf 62 http://www.glocha.info/index.php/latest-news/137-rio-2012-youth-song 63

http://www.glocha.info/index.php/latest-news/149-bonn-2 64 www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=13&nr=372&menu=27 65

http://www.glocha.info/index.php/latest-news/167-sarajevo-workshop 66 http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/content/documents/105IAAI_Input_CompilationdocumentRio20vers3_Oct30.pdf 67 http://www.glocha.info/index.php/latest-news/174-joint-event-of-iaai-at-rio20-intersessional-in-ny 68

http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&nr=506&type=13&menu=23 69 http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&nr=622&type=13&menu=23 70 http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&nr=653&type=13&menu=23 71

http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?menu=153

23 April 2012, Side event “Rio+20 Issues Cluster on Innovation & 15/15/15 UN - Civil Society Partnership Formula” 6:15-7:45, Venue: Conference Room 7, UN HQ, NLB, New York

April/May/June 2012, Partnering with Peace Movements and Spiritual/Faith based NGOs:

Idea: “Rio+20 Prayers and Commitments for Peace and Sustainable Development” (one person/child writes down his/her “Rio+20 Prayer and/or Commitment for Peace and Sustainable Development”, signs it with his/her handprint, speaks with another person about the issues and Rio+20, asks this person for co-signing the commitment with handprint and to carry on the momentum by putting together and sharing with another person an own commitment -> chain reaction; the digital photo or video of the commitment shared globally via 15/15/15 Voluntary commitment information and documentation system and social media and the original handed over to mayor or head of local community with request to provide an enabling environment for local Multistakeholder partnerships on SD and volunteering with the suggestion to do this in the form of establishing a Global Challenges center.

Partnering with Bodhivastu World Peace Mandala project72

creating a global peace monument north of New York highlighting the spiritual dimensions of global cooperation on SD and peace.

Spring 2012, Further steps regarding establishing a network of Global Challenges Centers in Southeast Europe, Belgrade, Zagreb,

Sarajevo, Tirana, Skopje, Pristina

June 2012 in Rio; Rio SD learning event GloCha centers “Local level multistakeholder partnerships for knowledge based SD”73

June 2012 in Rio, Launch of Global Forum on Innovative Resource Mobilization for Education and Science

June 2012 in Rio, 15/15/15 Group of Friends event (side event proposal)

16 –19 June (one evening), Rio de Janeiro – Rio+20 Global Youth Music Contest/15/15/15 Cultural Program/Concert in the Context of Rio+20 “Sustainable energy for all and innovation“ ‘Dialogues on Sustainable Development’ presenting winners of Rio+20 Global Youth Music Contest www.global-rockstar.net, celebrities/popstars (link with official event to be confirmed) – Launch of next round of GYMC linked to 15/15/15 and the role youth can play in implementing Rio+20 outcomes, civic engagement, community led social development, philanthropy etc. or whole day concert

Later this year - Concerts, 15/15/15 Group of friends events and fundraising, around the world

ongoing - Development of the 15/15/15 documentation system in cooperation with universities, UNV (to be conformed) and technology partners …

in due time, architectural competition for the design of a Global Challenges Center at UN Headquarter in New York which will provide civil society (and local governments) premises for meetings, major groups secretariats, easily accessible UN system outreach activities to creative industries, volunteers, etc. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSvDLP10u60&feature=related)

Info about IAAI: “International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges IAAI” www.glocha.info - is a not-for profit private association, which has been established under Austrian law of associations by an international group of scientists, science managers and futures studies experts in April 2007. IAAI seat is in Klagenfurt/Austria. IAAI main objective is to explore and promote systemic innovation regarding resource mobilization of global civil society for effective global governance in support of the work of United Nation System.

Contact: Miroslav Polzer Secretary General, International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges IAAI Tel.: +43 (0) 664 4203648 (mob/Austria) & +1 646 831 1085 (mob/US only active part time) www.glocha.info; polzer@glocha.info; skype: miropolzer; twitter: @glocha_mp; www.facebook.com/mpolzer Address: Dunajska 104, SI-1000 Ljubljana/Slovenia & Neuer Platz 10, At 9020 Klagenfurt/Austria

72 http://www.bodhivastu.org 73

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