The United Nations Commision for Social Development will hold its meeting in New York and Club de Madrid and the UN Division for Social Policy and Development (UNDESA) have organized this side event to highlight the importance of creating the conditions which enables people to be active citizens and play a full part in its development.
The Commission for Social Development is focused on “Promoting empowerment of people in achieving poverty eradication, social integration and full employment and decent work for all” in its current policy cycle. This side event highlights the importance of creating the conditions within society which enable people to be active citizens and play a full part in its development. If people are denied those opportunities, not only will the development of society, the state and its citizens suffer, but history shows that lack of empowerment leads to tension and unrest, as demonstrated recently during the Arab Spring. The Club de Madrid has pioneered the concept of a Shared Society in which every resident feels at home and identified the key enabling conditions which facilitate the achievement of key societal goals. The Shared Societies Project demonstrates that empowerment enhances the potential for public engagement, social, political and economic progress.
Greater awareness of ecological challenges has not led to greater commitment or capacity to solve them, mainly because of the dominance of vested interests in the debate. The Rio+20 conference in June 2012 was not able to achieve the ambitious goal anticipated, but did establish a process to develop a way forward. The target date for the Millennium Development Goals is 2015 and already the UN, individual states and other agencies are seeing the value of setting such targets and the search is on to find consensus on a new set of goals for the next decade. While this is an ambitious agenda, the organisers believe the concepts of Empowerment and Shared Societies can contribute to its fulfilment.
These will be the panelist of this “A Shared Society is an Enabling Society: Creating the conditions for political social and ecomic empowerment” (7th February 2013. 1PM to 3PM)
- Kim Campbell: was the 19th and first female Prime Minister of Canada in 1993. She is a member of the Club de Madrid and served as Secretary General from 2004 – 2006. She also held the cabinet portfolios of Minister of State for Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Justice and Attorney General, National Defence and Veterans’ Affairs
- Daniela Bas: A politologist specialized in international politics, human rights and social development, Ms. Bas has most recently served as Senior Consultant designated by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as expert on human rights. She has also worked on anti-discrimination issues at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. Ms. Bas has worked for the UN as a Professional Officer in social development and human rights. She has also held a number of other assignments including as Special Adviser on “Fundamental Rights” for the former Vice President of the European Commission.
- Amina J. Mohammed: is the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning. Ms. Mohammed was previously Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on the Millennium Development Goals. In 2005 she was charged with the coordination of the debt relief funds ($1 billion per annum) towards the achievement of Millennium Development Goals in Nigeria.
- Ibrahim Mothana: is a 24-year old writer, activist and social entrepreneur from Yemen. His commentary has been featured in numerous publications including the New York Times, CNN, and Aljazeera English. Ibrahim is a co-founder of Watan Party and Yemen Enlightenment Debat
- Ebrahim Rasool: is the South African Ambassador to the United States and a former Premier of Western Cape Province. Previously he served as a Member of Parliament in the National Assembly and as Special Advisor to the State President of the Republic of South Africa and Premier. Mr. Ebrahim is also the founder of the World for All Foundation.
Moderator:
- Sarah Cook: is the director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. Previously, she was a Research Fellow Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, UK. Sarah’s research has focused on the social and economic transformation of China.
