Tuesday 19 June - UN Women Event

Today UN Women (the United Nations development fund for women) held an all day side event called "The Future Women Want". We were very excited to hear from the President of UN women and former president of Chile Michelle Bachelet. Also on the first panel was Gro Harlem Bruntdland who chaired the committee writing the first UN report on sustainable development back in the early 80s.




After the opening remarks from Ms. Bachelet, Prerana Shakya spoke. Prerana is a member of our WAGGGS delegation. She is a girl scout in Nepal and talked about the need for green jobs and girls' education in her country.




It was also amazing to hear from First Lady of El Salvador Vanda Pignato. She talked about programs to help end gender based violence and gang violence.




Sadly the event flagged a bit when the floor was opened to questions. The panel members had been asked to keep their remarks brutally short to allow for maximum interaction with the audience. Unfortunately, "questions" turned out to be long lines of women waiting to give five minute monologues with no question and no reference to the panel. The esteemed panel members sat and were yelled at in multiple languages like the rest of us. At least when I left, I found the free refreshments, which include the tastiest chocolate brownies I have ever eaten.
Ally and I visited the Australian Government Stakeholder Briefing once again, enjoyed some Minties and quizzed the Australian delegation about their level of acceptance of Brazil's text. They gave us a brief recap of the previous night's events.
11.00pm Plenary due to start
2.35am Brazilian secretary announced that document was complete and would be announced to press
7.30am Document made available to official delegates
Many are criticising this text as unambitious as it mostly reaffirms commitments made in previous texts. However, Australia did identify the seven new commitments that have come out of this conference:
- Agreement to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- Recognise green economy as important tool for sustainable development
- High level forum for sustainable development
- Strengthen UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
- Measure progress beyond GDP
- 10 year framework for sustainable consumption and production
- Commitment for biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions
Back at the afternoon session of UN women, Ally and I met Penny Williams - the Australian Global Ambassador for Girls and Women.




Penny was very friendly and talked to us for quite a while. Her daughter is a Girl Guide and she told us that she has spent the last week trying to sell Guide Biscuits. She very kindly promised to put in a good word for us getting a seat at the Australian Side Event hosted by Julia Gillard tomorrow.

Location:Rio de Janeiro