Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD)

13th Session
United Nations Headquarters, New York NY
14 March - 1 April 2005

Background

The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was created in December 1992 to ensure effective follow-up of UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) also known as the Earth Summit; to monitor and report on implementation of the Earth Summit agreements at the local, national, regional and international levels.

As agreed at CSD-11 held in 2003, the CSD now functions on the basis of two-year "Implementation Cycles," each cycle focussing on a key thematic cluster of issues. The first year of each cycle -- the Review year -- will evaluate progress made in implementing sustainable development commitments made in Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, and relevant CSD sessions and focus on identifying obstacles and constraints. The second year -- the Policy year -- will decide on measures to speed up implementation and mobilize action to overcome obstacles and constraints, and build on lessons learned.

Conference Themes/Details

For the first Implementation Cycle (2004-2005), CSD-12 (April 2004) was the Review Session, while CSD-13 (Spring 2005) will be a Policy Session.

As the beginning of the first 2-year cycle, the CSD-12 Review Session focused on the thematic cluster of water, sanitation and human settlements. As with every cycle in the new programme of work, CSD-12 tackled this agenda using a number of cross-cutting issues, namely:

International Presentation Association Sisters of the Presentation is interested in learning how your own Presentation community addresses or is affected by these issues or in examples of your own “best practices”. IPA encourages all Presentation Sisters and Associates to examine their own patterns of consumption to identify those that are unsustainable, and to educate themselves and others in this regard. We would appreciate hearing about innovative projects in environmental education. If you have expertise or interest in water, sanitation or human settlements, and would like to be more involved in IPA’s participation in the Commission on Sustainable Development, please contact us at pvbmipa@msn.com.

For more information on Sustainable Development, visit http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/.

 

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