Annual Workshop 2019

The Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) together hosted the Second Regional Workshop “Empowering People for a Sustainable Future” on 25-26 March 2019 to provide an in-depth understanding on the role of empowerment and a human rights based approach on public participation to accelerate the implementation of environment related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

 This workshop brought together 162 participants (59% female) from international and local NGOs, governments, businesses, media, research organizations, and UN agencies. Based on an evaluation, participants were overall highly satisfied with the opportunity provided to share experiences and exchange knowledge with other participants. The workshop helped develop a shared understanding on benefits of public participation and empowerment as means to strengthen implementation of the SDGs, especially environment and climate -related goals and targets.

Important points raised and discussed during the workshop included:

• The SDGs must be built on human rights standards and human rights principles of participation, non-discrimination and accountability.
• We need to urgently accelerate our collective action to save our planet and to be able to protect our children and future generations from the threats of environmental degradation and climate change.
• There is a clear added value of multi-stakeholder approaches, where actors from different disciplines work together and jointly discuss solutions to address existing challenges.
• The importance of diversity and pluralism e.g. engaging and listening to the voices of young people and children, people of all genders, minorities, indigenous peoples, persons with disability are key elements of sustainable development and critical for leaving no one behind.
• The right to access information is necessary for empowerment and engagement in sustainable development and contributes to greater accountability.
• Gender equality is one of the cornerstones of development and a precondition to secure sustainable results and not leave anyone behind.
• It is important to involve civil society, private sector, academic and research institutions, multi-lateral organizations and governments when discussing both challenges and solutions.
• Participation relates to process and shared power, but is also a right in itself.

You can download and read the reports from the workshops at the bottom of the page.

The themes of the previous years' workshops were:

• 2019: Empowering people for a sustainable future
• 2018: Building Resilience through Participation
• 2017: Co-Creation for Transformation: Effective Delivery on SDGs through Enhanced Cross-Sectorial Interaction.
• 2016: Understanding Human Behavior and Ensuring Human Rights and Gender Equality in the Response to Climate Change
• 2015: Partners in Rights - Promoting Regional Environmental Sustainability and Human Rights through Innovative Relationships between Businesses, Civil Society and Governments
• 2014: Interaction between Environmental Sustainability and a Human Rights-Based Approach
• 2013: Anti-Corruption
• 2012: Gender-Mainstreaming