International Conference
Knowledge, Youth and Global Commons -
Orienting Knowledge Systems and Inter-Generational Relations towards Sustainable Development and Rio+20
Date: 15. & 16. September 2011
Venue: Maria Loretto Palace, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee (Austria)
Organizers: Austrian Science and Research Liaison Office Ljubljana www.aso.zsi.at International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges www.glocha.info Academic Council on the United Nations System – Vienna Liaison office www.acuns.org
General Information "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (source: World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). Brundtland Report: Our common future. 1987)
Aiming for ‘sustainable development’ which would meet the needs of present generations without compromising the needs of future generations – this has been the promise of the heads of states and other global political leaders who gathered at Rio Earth summit in 1992. Where do we stand 20 years later? Progressing climate change and dead-locked post-Kyoto negotiations, biodiversity loss, ongoing extreme poverty in many places of the world, escalating sovereign debt crisis and resulting cuts in public investment in education, social welfare .. in times where the number of billionaires according to Forbes grew 20 % in one year alone etc. are indicators that humanity is far away from fulfilling the Rio 1992 summit promise and that something is systemically/radically wrong in the way we manage global wealth.
The population group most exposed to the non-delivery of global sustainable development governance are global youth and future generations in general. For sustainable development concept to function, it is crucial that global resources management decisively maps and safeguards crucial sustainable development resources, tame market economy forces and correct market failures where they lead to destruction/overconsumption of natural resources and mobilize innovative multi-stakeholder partnerships for global public goods/global commons like provision of sustainable development related knowledge and human capacity worldwide. United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012 seems to be the one big window of opportunity for global community to take stock of the “State of the future”, its many challenges and systemic risks for ecosystems degradation and governance failure and to forge – with substantial global governance innovations a strong global problem solving alliance which provides a multilevel and multiactor governance framework for coherent collaborative action which would involve every global citizen. At the ‘Knowledge, Youth and Global Commons’ conference youth from around the world will have a voice to contribute to the process of UNCSD preparation. A special focus of the conference will be on ‘knowledge’ as the key global sustainable development governance coordination element. Another specific focus of the conference will be the IAAI proposal to frame all those resources that are needed by present and future generations for sustainable development as ‘global commons’ and to launch in the context of Rio 2012 a multi-stakeholder partnership (and a related documentation and assessment system) for global commons growth based on a shared social responsibility for such global commons. This would provide a new institutional framework for civic engagement and multilevel governance and help strengthen the knowledge base for global governance.
Draft Agenda (as of September 13 2011)
Thursday, 15.09 Day 1 of the conference (Focus on Global Perspectives on Sustainable Development Resources Management, Highlighting the Systemic Role of Knowledge and Youth) 10.00 – 10.45 Session 1 - Introduction: Youth Perspectives - our VIPs (Chair: Jessica White, Vienna-Salzburg & Jakob Ogris, Klagenfurt)
Ning Zuomei, China Green Student Forum Ivana Vujovic, Youth Cultural Center Juventas, Montenegro Anna Scheithauer, ACUNS Vienna Liaison (Academic Council on the UN System), Vienna Nadim Rifai, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar – Qatar Foundation Constanza Gomez Mont, PIDES- Plataforma Integral de Desarrollo Sustentable PIDES, Mexico Anam Gill, Forgotten Diaries, Interactive Resource Centre, Pakistan Albert Willy, Vanuatu National Youth Council, Ni-Vanuatu (South Pacific) Biljana Apostolova, Macedonia Billy Batware, ACUNS Vienna Liaison Office & United for Education and Development Hilary Bowman, Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Australia Elaine Ella Bella Constantinides, Educational Officer of Miss Earth South Africa & United Nations Youth Ambassador for the UN Environmental Programme, South Africa Suresh More, Zest Youth Movement India; Youth delegate to UN General Assembly Sept. 2011, India Stacey Wilenkin, representative of Russian ENGO sector www.ecowiki.ru Marcio Nery, YMCA Sao Paulo, Brazil Nihad Penava, Freelance Journalist, Bosnia and Herzegovina Nadja Polzer, Youth branch of Community of Carinthian Slovenes SKS, Austria Ayla van Kessel, Thumbs Up, The Netherlands Llewelyn Jones, Made From Scratch, UK
10.45-12.15
Session 2: Market Failures, Governance Failures, Intergenerational Relations and the Rio +20 Window of Opportunity (Chair: Francesca Giannotti, Geneva)
Boris Pleskovič (former vice chair of the World Bank Research Committee) The Role of Knowledge and Science for Sustainable Development Beppe Lovoi, UNCSD secretariat, New York UNCSD Rio+20 as a window of opportunity for global sustainable development governance innovations Nora Mahmoud (The Earth Charter Initiative – Values and Principles for a Sustainable World) Rio+20 and the Issue of Building the Ethical Foundation for a Sustainable World Ivana Savid (Major groups “Children and Youth” UN Conference on Sustainable Development, CIVICUS Youth Assembly) Sustainable development, Trans-Generational Justice and the Role of the UN System Jean Paul Brice Affana (African Youth Initiative on Climate Change, UNFCCC Youth Focal point & Rio 2012 YSWC coordinator) Global Youth Claiming Sustainable Development Resources - the Rio2012 Youth Song World Cup 12.15 - 13.30 lunch
13.30 - 15.00
Session 2: Mapping and Mobilizing Knowledge Resources for Sustainable Development (Chair: Michael Platzer, ACUNS Vienna Liaison Office)
Sebastiao Mendonça Ferreira (research fellow at the MIT Community Innovators Lab & member of Knowledge Management for Development network KM4Dev) Global Perspectives on the ‘Knowledge Commons’ Concept – Can Sustainable Development related Knowledge be Framed as Global Commons? Priti Rajagopalan, Indian Youth Climate Network, National institute of Technology, India Knowledge for Sustainable Development – Youth Perspectives Slavko Kulid, (Institute on World Problems) Sustainable Development Resources in Southeast European Countries Franz Rauch, (The Institute of Instructional and School Development (IUS) of the Klagenfurt University) (tbc) Education for Sustainable Development Miroslav Polzer (ASO Ljubljana & IAAI) Global Commons Innovations for Sustainable Development and the planned Global Challenges Center Network in SEE 15.00-15.30
Coffee break
15.30 - 17.30
Session 3: How to measure the contribution of science and education to Sustainable Development & Potentials of the 'knowledge commons' concept? Chair: Gašper Hrastelj (Slovenian National Commission for UNESCO – to be confirmed)
Ilan Chabay (chair of the 'Knowledge, Learning and Societal Change' project of International Human Dimensions Programme IHDP, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden)
Models, Media, and Metrics: improving how we learn for sustainability Sara Farley, Global Knowledge Initiative, Washington Breakthroughs in measuring science, technology and innovation in the context of collaborative knowledge networks Zoran Aralica (Institute of Economics, Zagreb) Knowledge and Sustainable Development metrics in the context of WBC regional STI strategy development process
Davor Šoštaric (Institute of Information Science, Maribor) Integrating SD related STI governance innovations in Southeast Europe into (existing) science information systems
18.00 - 18.45
Launch of GloCha Center Klagenfurt-Ljubljana Andrea Wulz, City of Klagenfurt Anneliese Stoklaska, Ministry of Science and Research, Republic of Austria Francesca Giannotti, IAAI Michael Platzer, Academic Council on the UN System Blaž Golob, Center for eGovernance Development in SEE and Vice president of IAAI Youth choir DANICA, St. Primus am Turnersee/Šentprimož
18.45 - 19.30
Launch of Rio+12 Global Youth Song Contest
20.00 -
Reception
Friday, 16.09 - Day 2 of the conference (Focus on "Research, Innovation and learning for Sustainable Development in SEE") 09.00-10.00
Session 4: The Challenge - Integrating Global Challenges in local, national, regional and global innovation systems
Peter Volasko, Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Slovenia Global Challenges and European Research Area governance (Ljubljana Process) Discussion 10.00 - 10.30
Coffee break
10.30-12.30
Session 5: Towards GloCha Centers network in SEE Discussion of ideas/plans for project initiatives and event initiatives with Representatives of ministries of science, universities and local authorities/municipalities and youth organizations (from Southeast European countries, Carinthia/Austria, Slovenia and beyond) about future cooperation potentials ..)
Event and project initiatives -
Sarajevo workshop Mobilize Diaspora4SD (12 October 2011) see www.aso.zsi.at for more info Knowledge as global commons event @ Delhi SustDev Summit 2012, TERI (2-4 February 2012) http://dsds.teriin.org/2012/ NY workshop ‚GlobalCommons, Knowledge and Ethics' connected with UNCSD prep session 26 March 2012 Global Forum on Philanthropy Innovations and Research and Education Funding @ Rio+20 universities conf. 6/12 http://www.haw-hamburg.de/wssd-2012.html Project "Measuring the contribution of Research and Education to Sust Dev" (with links to UN AI, UNESCO STIGAP, KLSC-IHDP) (to be submitted for funding to foundations by the end of 2011) project Global Challenges Centers network in SEE (to be submitted for funding to Open Society Institute) GloBalkCan Youth – Promoting Global Citizenship and Future Orientation in Southeast Europe (is already part of UN AoC SEE Action Plan, http://www.investsciencesee.info/ccandun/images/stories/PRES/weiss.pdf) Outlining a Global Challenges Open University
12.30 - 13.00
Closing Session
13.00h
End of conference
There is no registration fee! Registration form is available here: http://www.aso.zsi.at/aktuelles/3852.html The conference will be video recorded and will be made available as video-on-demand soon Venue: The conference will take place at Schloss Maria Loretto – a recently refurbished castle owned by city of Klagenfurt which is located at lake WÜrthersee at one of the most beautiful spots in Carinthia http://www.carinthia.at/en.aspx/Articles/View/313 only a few minutes walk away from Klagenfurt University.
Background Info: ASO Ljubljana and IAAI GloCha Centers network Main organizer of the ‘Knowledge, Youth and Global Commons’ conference , “Austrian Science and Research Liaison Office Ljubljana” (www.aso.zsi.at ), is an institution funded by Austrian and Slovenian ministries of science which has the task to promote international scientific cooperation between Austria, Slovenia and Southeast European countries on the territory of Former Yugoslavia. Since 2008 cooperation with ‘Academic Council on the United Nations System’ www.acuns.org Vienna office (head. Michael Platzer) on promotion of UN studies and global governance studies in Southeast Europe has been one of the most important thematic fields of activity of ASO Ljubljana. Highlights in this cooperation have been -
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the ACUNS/ASIL 2008 Summer Workshop: „Building the Knowledge Base for Global Governance“ (Ljubljana, 22. 07. - 03. 08. 2008, http://www.aso.zsi.at/sl/veranstaltung/2995.html ), the “CEE/SEE Regional colloquium on innovative techniques of teaching about the United Nations System: Can the UN be taught?" http://www.aso.zsi.at/sl/veranstaltung/3038.html which took place at Diplomatic Academy of Vienna November 22, 2008 (the proceedings can be downloaded for free on ASO homepage http://www.aso.zsi.at/sl/publikation/3331.html?_lang=en, the international conference “Teaching Climate Change and the UN System”, 16 & 17 May 2010, Belgrade, http://www.investsciencesee.info/ccandun/, cooperation on issues of regional cooperation at ACUNS AM 2010 in Vienna http://www.aso.zsi.at/aktuelles/3542.html and cooperation at the event “Connecting Academics and UN Practitioners - A Unique Encounter at the UN Vienna”, 28 February and 1 March 2011, http://www.unstudies.org/content/conference-program.
End of 2011 ASO Ljubljana will be closed and the networks and momentum from above mentioned events and initiatives will be taken over by IAAI “Global Challenges (GloCha) Center Klagenfurt-Ljubljana” which will be launched 15 September 2011 at the ‘Knowledge, Youth and Global Commons’ conference. Head of ASO Ljubljana Miroslav Polzer is also secretary general of IAAI and designated head of GloCha center Klagenfurt-Ljubljana. IAAI - International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges Vienna/Ljubljana is a not-for profit private association established in April 2007 under Austrian law of associations by an international group of scientists and science managers. IAAI main objective is to promote Systemic Innovation regarding Resource Mobilization of Global Civil Society for Effective Global Governance in Support of the Work of the United Nations System. The way how IAAI plans to achieve this goal is by becoming the node of a decentrally operating network of Global Challenges Centers which will focus on mobilization of intellectual and financial resources of global civil society for addressing global challenges (like sustainable development, climate change adaptation, cultural and religious dialogue, etc.) in partnership with other stakeholders (especially local communities, youth organizations and universities) connected by a Charter on shared social responsibility for global commons, shared financial management principles and a standardized collaborative global commons growth reporting/documentation system. IAAI is member of UN Academic Impact initiative http://academicimpact.org
The conference is being funded by Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research, Slovenian Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology and the City of Klagenfurt am Wörthersee Contact: Miroslav Polzer head of Austrian Science Office Ljubljana www.aso.zsi.at which is part of Centre for Social Innovation, Vienna – and Secretary general of International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges www.glocha.info, member of Academic Council on the UN System www.acuns.org Address: Dunajska 104, SI 1000 Ljubljana/Slovenia, tel.: +43 664 4203648, email: polzer@zsi.at