The workshop was organized to: prepare agreed positions for the regional scientific and technological community to contribute to the intergovernmental Regional Preparatory Meetings; hold a science-policy dialogue; discuss positions with other Major Groups; and identify case studies to be showcased at Rio+20 illustrating the contributions of science to sustainable development.
4 May 2011: The International Council for Science (ICSU) convened a Rio+20 Regional Workshop for Asia and the Pacific, from 16-18 April 2011, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was the first in a series of regional preparatory meetings for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) being organized by ICSU.
Over 70 participants from 20 countries attended the workshop, including representatives of business and industry, indigenous peoples’ and women’s Major Groups. The meeting aimed to: prepare agreed positions for the regional scientific and technological community to contribute to the intergovernmental Regional Preparatory Meetings; hold a science-policy dialogue; discuss positions with other Major Groups; and identify case studies to be showcased at the UNCSD illustrating the contributions of science to sustainable development.
Key outcomes of the meeting included agreements to develop specific Type II Partnership proposals to take forward to Rio+20, and that ISCU would encourage its national members to interact with their respective governments to ensure that science and technology plays a key role in the development of their national agenda for the Conference.
ICSU, together with the World Federation of Engineering Organisations, is a co-organizing partner for the Scientific and Technological Community Major Group. [IISD RS Sources]