3–5 September 2011 Bonn, became the host city for the 64th Annual United Nations Conference for Non-Governmental Organizations associated with the Department of Public Information (UNDPI), on the theme “Sustainable Societies; Responsive Citizens”.

The participants of the 64th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference were interdisciplinary cluster of NGOs and institutions, working in the fields of volunteerism, environment and development.

The Conference is a major stakeholder event aimed at contributing to the two volunteer-focused sessions of the UN General Assembly, scheduled to take place on 5 December 2011 in New York, to mark the 10th Anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers. Conference also aimed to inform the preparatory process towards the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro, 4–6 June 2012.

Over the three days, some 1,300 participants from civil society organizations took part in four round table discussions discussions, more than 30 workshops and side events, sharing their experiences on the ground and presenting ideas on how to advance sustainable development (SD) around the world.

On the roundtable “Role of Civil Society in a Fast-changing World: Civic Engagement and Voluntary Action for Achieving Sustainability”, which took place on the 4th of September the president of Ukrainian National Environmental NGO “MAMA-86” Anna Golubovska-Onisimova informed participants about positive experience of the partnership of NGO with other bodies and several suggestions for final Declaration. In her speech she touched such issue as public participation in the decision making, taking example of the new Strategy of State environmental policy and NEAP in Ukraine, as well as MAMA-86 participation in cleaning up the territory of Ukraine from obsolete pesticides. Anna Golubovska-Onisimova proposed, inter alia, that transition to Green economy should be built on 10-years Framework on Sustainable Consumption and Production Policy basis, which could be guided by Millennium Consumption Goals to be adopted in Rio+20. She emphasized, that without law framing the rules of public involvement, it was impossible to support dialogue with government in Ukraine. That is why NGOs should strive for legally binding outcomes from Rio+20. On the same roundtable Jeremy Wates, Secretary-General of the European Environmental Bureau spoke about urgent need, preconditions and possible options for adopting decision in Rio to start the negotiation on global multilateral agreement on Access to information, public participation and access to justice on environmental matters.

In the final Declaration, NGOs present in Bonn, proposed their vision on Rio+20 decisions concerning green economy in the context of poverty eradication, sustainable lifestyles, education and life-long learning for SD, civic engagement in sustainable development governance, institutional framework for SD.

NGOs called for strengthening existing UNEP bodies and upgrading UNEP to the status of a high-level body in the UN system. NGOs also called for the full and effective implementation of Agenda 21 and Millennium Development Goals, for the “preparation and implementation of green economy roadmaps that consider and address the commonly agreed Rio Principles, for the adoption of SD Goals in critical areas, and for the implementation of governance reforms to foster the transition to a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, by fostering civic engagement.” NGOs recommended that sufficiently resourced National Councils on SD should be in place to drive the transition to green economies and develop a national green economy roadmap for each Member State of the UN by 2017. Financial Transaction Tax was proposed for building social protection system in the least developed countries. The Framework Conventions on Corporate social responsibility and international sustainability impact assessment were proposed to be established, as well as International and Regional conventions on access to information. NGOs called on governments to ratify and implement UN Watercourses Convention, implement Free Prior Informed Concent with regards to development decisions.

In the Final declaration NGOs called on government for the period 2012–2020 to establish a set of Millennium Consumption Goals, ensuring quality of life and wellbeing of all people, promote production processes that reflect the best available eco-technologies, to ensure, that majority of the world’s goods and services are procured by governments from sustainably produced sources. Participants affirmed that individuals, families and communities are the key actors in achieving SCP, they called on nations and populations engaged in wasteful overconsumption to reduce their impacts and help increase the consumption of vital goods and services for impoverished nations.

Conference agreed on 17 aspirational Sustainable Development Goals, to be taken to Rio+20 together with concrete targets to be achieved.

NGOs also asked that all parties involved with UN conferences, on increase their efforts towards reducing the ecological footprint of these events and hereby setting a positive example.

Kiyo Akasaka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, said in his closing remarks, that while the Conference was ending, the real work on sustainability and volunteerism was just beginning. He stressed: “I know that you will work to ensure that these recommendations move beyond words on paper to action.”

More information is available on Conference site: http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/ngoconference/conference

Conference Declaration: https://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/ngoconference/op/edit/resources/final

Sustainable Consumption and Production: http://mama-86.org.ua/index.php/en/ecologization/