The High-level Panel on Global Sustainability has released a report, Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A future worth choosing. Containing 56 recommendations, the report is aimed at guiding world leaders on a path to an ever-green revolution; a permanent transition to living sustainably.
The panel acknowledges that the current global development model is unsustainable. “We can no longer assume that our collective actions will not trigger tipping points as environmental thresholds are breached, risking irreversible damage to both ecosystems and human communities.”
One of my favorite things the panel urgently recommended is the need to create "…a new nexus between food, water and energy rather than treating them in different 'silos.' All three need to be fully integrated, not treated separately if we are to deal with the global food security crisis."
My other favorite conclusion the panel drove home is that “…empowering women and ensuring a greater role for them in the economy is critical for sustainable development."
Organizations such as ActionAid have already identified that women are more often than not the key to creating and sustaining healthy communities. In a developing country context such as some African countries this is blatantly obvious. Women are the ‘everything’, meaning they are some of the most capable and busy people I’ve met. They farm, build, educate, raise their own and extended families and of course, cook, clean and keep their communities in order.
Supporting women equates to supporting whole communities to have a better quality of life.
The report will feed into the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil, June 2012. Key themes will include creating a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. Let's hope the promising insights and recommendations from the report can find their way off the paper and into people’s lives.
