16 August 2011: The latest issue of the newsletter from the Secretariat of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), “Rio+20: Making It Happen,” features the recently concluded International Year of Youth.

The issue provides highlights of the High-level Meeting on Youth convened by the UN General Assembly in July 2011, at which UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said young people “can and must play a central role in bringing dynamic new ideas, fresh thinking and energy to the Rio+20 process.” The High-level Meeting included three side events on sustainable development and youth preparation for Rio+20, and its official outcome document listed the commitment to sustainable development as a priority.

The newsletter notes that the Inter-Agency Network for Youth Development, a UN contact group, regularly brings together youth focal points from across the UN system and will continue to engage their agencies toward supporting youth in the lead-up to the UNCSD. In addition, the Children and Youth major group organizing committee, Rio+Twenties, plays a catalytic role in promoting youth preparatory events in support of Rio+20 all over the world, according to the newsletter.

The newsletter also announces two upcoming intergovernmental meetings: a pre-launch seminar for the UN Office on Sustainable Development (UNOSD), the newly established office in Incheon, Republic of Korea; and the Delhi Dialogue on Green Economy and Inclusive Growth, which will focus on how a green economy could reinforce States’ poverty eradication and social development agenda, by enhancing food security and energy security for the poor. [Publication: Rio+20: Making it Happen, Vol. 2, Issue 15]