Beyond the Negotiations

Dams are the answer; sorry, what was the question?

COA Admin March 24, 2012 0 Comments

Ken Cline If I hear the term “water- energy-food nexus” again I might scream. Yes they are related but the connections are not ecological ones; they are a mantra of convenience. More accurately, they are placed together as an excuse to maintain the status quo in terms of large dams. I listen to the head of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) talk about how they are...

The Future We Really Want: The Why, and What

COA Admin March 23, 2012 0 Comments

By: The Informal-informals Team Earth in Brackets has critically examined the history of sustainable development negotiations, outcome documents, and implementation, and has found it to be, with the exception of small gains made in the implementation of Agenda 21, uninspiring. Current institutions under the UN lack the coherence, jurisdiction and consistency to fully address issues of...

Photo coverage of Earth in Brackets at a Informal Informal side event

COA Admin March 21, 2012 0 Comments

Julian Velez got a seat as an impromptu interpreter for Jadder Mendoza, Centro para la Autonomía y Desarrollo para los Pueblos Indígenas (CADPI) at Key Messages of Indigenous Peoples side event. There was no employed interpreter at the side event who would translate the discussion from english into spanish, which gave less chance for the key speakers who were not fluent in english to actively...

Relaxation at the World Water Forum

COA Admin March 20, 2012 0 Comments

by Janoah Bailin Not all of the sessions at the WWF are riveting. Such as one of the more tedious presentations on Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), an all-encompassing process for approaching water that stresses: planning from a watershed level as opposed to arbitrary political boundaries, a recognition of multiple values of and uses for water, and matching various water qualities to...

The (Lack of) Formal Youth Involvement in the Informal-Informals

aodell March 20, 2012 0 Comments

By Anna Odell Even after spending a term studying sustainable development, the United Nations process, and the Rio+20 conference in depth, when people asked me what exactly I was doing in New York at the informal-informals, I responded with the truth: I had no idea. I could say that I was going to the United Nations negotiations and that I was going to be working with youth from across the world,...