March 2012: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has highlighted its projects on sustainable development in the run-up to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), including a chlorofluorocarbon (CFC)-elimination project in Brazil, a Danube River restoration project in the Danube River Basin and the Black Sea, a sustainable livelihoods project focused on reducing overfishing in Zambia, and a local partners approach to helping Gaza fisherman become self-reliant.

In the press release, UNDP describes the aims and objectives of sustainable development, an issue that will be explored in detail at Rio+20, when governments, the private sector and civil society will gather to debate how to build a sustainable future. It identifies the overarching goals of sustainable development as: eradicating poverty; preventing conflict; empowering women and girls; building responsible governing institutions; and improving lives, while respecting the environment. UNDP outlines its “holistic, integrated approach” to sustainable development, encompassing its social, economic and environmental dimensions, and then describes some of its current projects on sustainable development. It concludes by encouraging people to get involved in the Rio+20 process, including through social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, and calls for input on the meaning of sustainable development, asking “what is the future YOU want?” [UNDP Press Release]