Sikander Sabeer: Rio+20 Daily Blog

Friday, June 15, 2012

Rio+20 Daily Blog - Day 04

June 14, 2012. Prepcom III, Day 02. Today was a very important day to me, where after loads of hard work I got the National delegation badge - “D- Badge”, the official Sri Lankan delegation is headed by His Excellency President Mahinda Rajapakse. Being a youth activist in civil society movement it is a very difficult task to get a delegation status, but I feel due to my dedication and commitment gave me such a high profile status to be part of this delegation. The badge provides me more access to negotiations and plenary, and as well restrictions on interventions. This badge will allow me understand the “hot and burning” negotiations happening in the closed rooms which will indeed develop my capacity on negotiations.

Today was another important day to Sri Lanka where we hosted the Member State side event at Rio+20 conference. This major side event was hosted by Ministry of Environment of Sri Lanka together with
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Skills Development of Sri Lanka and National Youth Services council of Sri Lanka. In this Side Event panelists discussed on how Rio+20 will emphasize on Youth Engagement, mobilization and empowerment on UNCSD/Rio+20 and beyond process- Post 2015 MDG, as the Major Group for Children and Youth (MGCY) is the main entry-point for all children, youth and their organization into the process. This side event was one of the promotional events for 2014 UN World Youth Conference which is proposed to host in Sri Lanka, which will be a high level youth event on Youth Participation on beyond 2015 development agenda.

During the lunch time had a productive conservation with Hon. Deputy Minister Duminda Dissanayaka, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Skills Development and I shared my experience with him, we discussed about the issues youth are facing in Sri Lanka and possible solutions such as unemployment, opportunities for youth, creating a platform etc.

Attended another side event on transboundary waters, climate change and good governance organized by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Green Cross. In this context, international law has an integral role to play in ensuring that transboundary water resources are used in an equitable and sustainable manner. Proper management of these resources will contribute to economic growth that accounts for environmental and social considerations. The 1997 UN Watercourses Convention (UNWC), as a global legal framework adopted under the auspices of the UN, is an important tool for strengthening the legal architecture governing shared waters. Once in force, the convention will better enable cooperation between states that is essential to protect vital freshwater ecosystems, their functions and services. Since 2006, WWF and its partners have been working to build awareness of the convention and its principles, in an effort to strengthen international water law. Transboundary water issues have cross-cutting implications for the aims of Rio+20. This side event will focus on the UNWC as a tool to fill in gaps in the institutional framework for sustainable development, and also as a framework to address water-related impacts from climate change in the context of a green economy.

Negotiations

June 12, Prepcom Day 01 Negotiations

http://www.iisd.ca/download/pdf/enb2742e.pdf

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Me

Sikander Sabeer is a product of Isipathana College and holding a first class with distinction Bachelors of Science (BSc) degree on Biotechnology, Biochemistry and Microbiology from Spectrum Institute of Science and Technology (Sri Lanka), an outreach campus of University of Mysore (India). Presently reading for his Masters of Science (MSc) on Business Management at National School of Business Management (Sri Lanka), an outreach post-graduate institute of University of Dublin (Ireland).

Sikanders’ development work can be categorized into three avenues, namely community service and community development; youth empowerment and professional development; climate change and sustainable development. Meanwhile his development work is two phased, firstly action oriented, secondly strategic and advocacy. In the action oriented phase, he gets in to the field and implements his ideas. He works very closely with multi-stakeholders such as children, school students, youth, corporates & business firms, UN agencies, non-governmental and government organizations on diversified projects at different levels and on different capacities. With his strong grass-root level initiatives and experience, he invests equal time on advocacy, mentorship and youth policy framework, which is a unique, and a strategic bottom up approach.

Sikanders’ voluntary action oriented initiatives and his strategic thinking has given him numerous opportunities to be a guest speaker and youth facilitator; to share his experiences, best practices to motivate and inspire youth at number of National and International youth conferences. He has represented his country and fellow youth (1/4th of Sri Lankan population) at high profile youth conferences and high level UN summits/conferences, at some of the UN meetings I have served as an ‘Official Youth Delegate’ of the National Delegation team headed by HE president. Half of the world’s population is made up of young people and as a youth representative and a major stakeholder he had made several interventions on behalf of Global Youth and Sri Lankan youth at some of the UN conferences.

He has held several key positions in organizing several national and international events/programmes and he is one of the co-creators of the YOUTH is the word –Guinness World Record, where 1500 Sri Lankan youth stood to gather to form the largest human mosaic in the world.

His local, national and international initiatives on youth led community development, Climate Change; youth empowerment and youth advocacy led him to earn the most prestigious “Commonwealth Youth Awards (CYA)” for Excellence in Development Work (2012), The CYA’s celebrate and recognize extraordinary young people among one billion audiences from 54 member states of Commonwealth who are making a positive difference to the lives of others through development initiatives ranging from poverty alleviation to education and protection of the environment. This is awarded by Commonwealth Secretariat (CYP) headed by HM Queen Elizabeth II. He earned the "Global Changemaker" title of British Council Youth Empowerment Programme on 2010 for outstanding contribution for Voluntary Activities. He serves as a Youth Ambassadorial role for climate change and serves as a Youth Facilitator for climate sustainability under British Council International Climate Champion program. Apart from these major recognitions his team earned U.S. Department of States Federal Assistant Award Grant for “Green the Home” project and Global Changemakers Community Action Project (CAP) and Regional Action Project (RAP) grants for Youth Empowerment Initiatives.

Presently Sikander is serving as an Assistant Manager for Business Development and Project Officer for recycling solutions for Neptune Recyclers (Neptune Papers [Pvt.] Ltd) in Sri Lanka, a member of multinational corporate Expolanka Holdings PLC. He works very closely with multi- stakeholders, especially with school students, Industries and Corporates on recycling solutions which create an additional income from the trash while minimizing the environmental pollution.

"Do as much as voluntary activities, because volunteers Inspire in Action, they make a real change in their community, they talk less and work a lot, but never expect any personal benefits from their action, Indeed one day they will earn the rewards, that’s confirmed; Install this in your mind “I will do the best I can”

-Sikander Sabeer-