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GEN's activities at UN level in 2001:
February 2001:
Ecovillage Training with UNITAR: 30 participants from the following countries: Costa Rica, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Russia, Ghana, Germany, South Africa, Japan, England, Canada, Italy, Belarus, Mexico, Poland, Netherlands, Armenia and USA. Most of the participants were community and ecovillage leaders earnestly committed to establishing sustainable lifestyles in their regions. The program was designed under the UN impulse towards the promotion of basic principles of sustainable economic and social development .
During 2001:
GEN in partnership with the Ecovillage Training Center in the United States hosted participants from Ghana, Venezuela, Australia, Chile, Mexico, Italy, Palestine, New Zealand, Canada, Sri Lanka, Finland, Ireland and the USA for continued training along the lines of the UNITAR program.
September 2001: A delegation of ten members from 7 countries represented GEN in the 54th Annual DPI/NGO Conference at the UN Headquarters, New York. Theme of the Conference: “NGOs Today: Diversity of the Volunteer Experience”. GEN in association with The Spiritual Caucus and The Values Caucus, sponsored a midday NGO workshop on “Volunteering: The Path of Joyful Service” to explore how volunteering expands resources and increases synergy when one takes a service-oriented approach. (As the workshop was scheduled for September 11 it was restructured into two days of inspirational gatherings to respond to the crisis at hand).
September 2001:
GEN circulated a proposal for constructing a Midrand EcoCity to address poverty alleviation through local economic development in connection with Rio+10.
Sep-Oct 2001: UNEP- UN Environment Program through its Executive Director, Klaus Topfer, and UNESCO through its Director-General, Koichiro Matsuura institutionally endorsed GEN’s International Conference entitled “Restore the Earth” to be held in Scotland.
October 2001:
GEN hosted the Ambassador from Chile at a Values Caucus event in NY. The Chilean Ambassador asked GEN to give him some suggestions as to how he and his mission could meet and communicate more regularly with NGOs and learn from each other. GEN sent him a modest proposal to accomplish this.
October 2001: GEN created an ECOSOC discussion list on the internet to permit input and colloquy among those who had an interest in advising the UN in this context.
Oct ober 2001: GEN attended a UNITAR meeting in Paris to discuss Agenda 21 priorities post-the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). GEN also attended UNITARUNCHS meeting held at headquarters of Vivendi Environnement, to discuss CIFAL programme on training of local authorities on
Agenda 21 topics.
December 2001:
GEN co-sponsored a UN Year of the Child event at the Rainbow Cafe in Nimbin, Australia.
December 2001:
In preparation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, GEN participated in the organization of six Regional Pre-Summit Workshops for local authorities, a project lead by UNITAR through its CIFAL program, the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), and the World Federation of United Cities (UTO). GEN was invited as a partner in the organization of the pre-summit workshops to focus on training of local authorities in the fields of environment, decentralized cooperation and sustainable development. GEN was represented by Max Lindegger in Durban, John Talbott in Lyon, and by May East and Michael Shaw in Curitiba. These seminars brought together many hundred urban development practitioners from more than 30 countries. Delegates included mayors; high level municipal technical and administrative staff; national government entities; associations of local authorities; UN HABITAT, UNITAR, UNDP and the World Bank (MELISSA) Programme; Regional Bodies, such as Municipal Development Program (PDM); International NGOs; and private companies such as Vivendi Environnement.
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