Present at the creation. Participatory process. Open and transparent decision making processes.
The Earth Negotiations Bulletin and all of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Reporting Services' knowledge management projects provide balanced, timely and independent reports of multilateral negotiations on environment and sustainable development. IISD RS products seek to make information available regarding negotiation processes and decision making efforts with the objective of increasing the transparency and facilitating the opportunity for interested and affected groups to contribute to relevant activities. We believe that greater transparency can result in more accountability in policy making. We also support a “level playing field of information” in UN negotiations, and greater access to information on the policies and practices adopted internationally. Our information resources also monitor the level of participation in a decision making process, as was the case this past week when our reporting team at the June 2011 Bonn Climate Change Conference (http://www.iisd.ca/climate/sb34/) wrote the following:
Many informal groups decided to open their doors to observers on issues, such as legal options under the AWG-LCA and NAPs under the SBI….Emerging from the discussions, an NGO observer said, “We feel it is important to be involved in the discussions that will craft the key features of REDD+, as these features will probably affect us.”
Knowledge about the outcome of an event, when the next meeting will take place and what the agenda will include helps facilitate participation in decision making. It also raises the level of ownership of its implementation. This issue of Linkages Update brings you our fortnightly summary of recent, key sustainable development events, resources, next steps and upcoming meetings, to keep you involved.