The morning plenary session was cancelled this morning, so my first meeting was the Australian Government stakeholder briefing.
We were given a brief summary of where the text was agreed to as of the handover last night, and most of Australia's strong issues had been preserved. The head of the Australian delegation mentioned how touching it was that there was a round of applause when non-formal education was included at last night's plenary. She acknowledged the voice of youth, and the negotiator who spoke up at that meeting spotted my uniform and pointed at me. Afterwards, he came to thank me for our input. The Australian Government briefings always have baskets of Minties and Fantales.
We met with a sub-group of the Major Group for Children and Youth, which was working on the International Framework for Sustainable Development (IFSD). We were discussing what our next move should be, given the success on the non-formal education. In the revised text, many delegations are pushing for all public participation in these events (i.e. us, all NGOs,and the official youth delegates) to be stopped. It was a long and technical conversation about whether to lobby for one paragraph or the whole concept. We never really got anywhere with it unfortunately.
It is now after midnight (again!) after we had a mid-way group debrief that went for hours. I am crawling into my uncomfortable bed. I will try to get better monkey photos tomorrow.
Location:Rio de Janeiro
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