10 January 2011: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) have prepared a Concept Note that outlines how UN Country Teams can support approximately 60 countries in preparations leading to the 2012 UNCSD (Rio+20) event.

The Concept Note indicates that the need for such a project stems from the fact that none of the submissions in response to the UNCSD Secretariat’s solicitiation for technical inputs for the preparation of the Secretary-General’s report to be submitted to the second UNCSD Preparatory Committee meeting (PrepCom) in March 2011 were from Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

The proposed project would seek to assist approximately 60 developing countries to “prepare for and contribute effectively to the UNCSD process based on their expression of demand and their particular needs.” The project would build a multi-stakeholder approach tailored to “meet the needs, interests, experiences and level of ambition of individual countries in terms of advocacy, stakeholder engagement, capacity building, reporting and participation.” The inputs into the UNCSD would not be an end product in and of themselves, but would seek to build the capacity of relevant institutions and individuals to engage in the outcomes from UNCSD. The Concept Note indicates that the total resource requirement for the proposed project is US$2,809,820. [The Concept Note]