IPSA brings together Civil Society actors and Government agencies. For over 15 years, IPSA has achieved policy outcomes which have improved the lives of people in both developing and developed countries.

2008 Focus

The 16th Session of the
UN Commission on Sustainable Development
New York City 5-16 May 2008

Official themes:
Agriculture
Rural Development
Land
Drought
Desertification
Water
Sanitation
Africa

Major Group Participation:
Women
Children and Youth
Indigenous People
NGOs
Local Authorities
Workers and Trade Unions
Business and Industry
Scientific and Technological Communities
Farmers

Help Homegrown Advocacy Take the Global Stage.

2008 is the first year of a two-year cycle in which the United Nations reviews progress and sets its policies on sustainable development. Agriculture is one of the major themes before the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

U.N. policy decisions shape events and policy outcomes on federal, state, and local levels here in North America. As part of its charter, the CSD requests input and participation from a broad network of NGOs and civil society groups.

Organizers worldwide are making sure that regional efforts to reclaim diversity and integrity in food and farming systems are at the forefront of CSD 16-17.

We invite you and your organization to collaborate with us as we organize events and outreach for 2008.

New Yorkers and residents of the Northeast region have a unique role to play. As citizens and organizations of the host city and region, we can offer CSD participants living examples of sustainable development at work in North America. When these issues last came to New York in 2000, there were far fewer examples of innovative food systems projects than there are today.

Examples of events are involvement in the UN proceedings, tours of relevant local and regional food systems projects, teach-ins and networking with leaders of food and farming movements from around the world. One opportunity is a training workshop hosted at The New School next Spring (link to catalog).

We will be unveiling two related initiatives in early 2008:

Sustainable Food Monitor: Focused coverage of CSD developments and links to international resources as well as the history of how the CSD has evolved since its origins in the 1992 Earth Summit.

Regions Feeding Cities: An on-line network dedicated to shining a spotlight on how people are using regional food strategies to address poverty, hunger, health, economic, environmental and climate change challenges. New York and the US Northeast will be one region featured and linked to regions active on similar issues around the world.

If you are interested in participating in either of these initiatives, please contact us.