2022 Asia-Pacific People's Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) and APFSD

[Villaney Remengesau]

Dear Colleagues:

The Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) will be convened for the ninth time as a multi-stakeholder intergovernmental forum for follow-up and review on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on 28 to 31 March 2022. The theme of this year is "Building back better from COVID-19 while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Asia and the Pacific".

The ninth APFSD will focus on the following SDGs: SDG 4 (Quality Education); SDG 5 (Gender Equality); SDG 14 (Life Below Water); SDG 15 (Life on Land); and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). 

ESCAP will work with the Asia-Pacific Regional CSO Engagement Mechanism (APRCEM) and other partners to bring the views of these organizations to the APFSD. 

Below are the APFSD and APFSD-related opportunities for stakeholders to engage:

• (19-21 March 2022) Preparatory Youth Forum (virtual and in-person)
• (22-26 March 2022) Preparatory People's Forum for major groups and other stakeholders (virtual) 
• (28-31 March 2022) APFSD main plenary sessions and roundtable breakout discussions (virtual and in-person, Bangkok)
• Associated pre-events
• Side events

In preparation for the engagement in the annual Asia Pacific Forum for Sustainable Development (APFSD), the Asia Pacific People’s Forum on Sustainable Development (People's Forum, APPFSD), organized by the Asia Pacific Regional CSO Engagement Mechanism (APRCEM), provides an inclusive space for discussion and sharing among civil society organizations (CSOs) and peoples’ movements in the region on their positions on key sustainable development issues. The APPFSD carves its space against a backdrop of shrinking civic spaces, widened inequalities, and digital divide brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Forum aims to serve as a platform that harnesses the collective voice of the region's people towards transformative and genuine development that serves the needs of the most marginalized. 

This year’s Forum, to be held in hybrid format from 22-26 March 2022, will still highlight APRCEM's Political Unity of  “Solidarity and System Change are the Only Antidotes to COVID-19” and will discuss the regional progress of the SDGs and the Agenda 2030 from the constituency’s perspective; challenging the framework of its implementation and sharpening its analysis through the lens of Development Justice.

Objectives of the People's Forum

1. Foster sharing and learning from the variety of experiences of organisations and constituencies and enhance capacity of civil society participants on sustainable development at the national, regional and global levels and on the opportunities and modalities for engaging these processes, including identifying and dealing with key systemic issues/barriers to the achievement of sustainable development from Development Justice perspectives;

2. Build a deeper understanding of Development Justice and its position on sustainable development as a comprehensive whole with strong inter-linkages across its various dimensions and components; therefore, to also link the work of various other CSO campaigns, peoples’ movements, grassroot constituencies, scientific and academic communities across national borders;

3. Conduct dialogues and build critical analyses on the structure and content of the APFSD and HLPF with its theme “Building back better from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” formulate joint positions, as well as strategize interventions at the APFSD, HLPF, UN General Assembly, FfD and other processes related to 2030 Agenda, as well as other relevant processes in tackling systemic barriers in achieving Development Justice;

4. Collectively build positions and recommendations to be forwarded to the process and member states on peoples’ demands for Development Justice vis-a-vis commitments to Agenda 2030;

5. Reflect on the work and structure of Asia Pacific Regional CSO Engagement Mechanism and agree on joint actions and follow up to civil society positions adopted to strengthen and support each other's ideas, plans, and actions across national borders, as well as continue fostering solidarity among movements, advocates and civil society groups in the Asia Pacific and with other global regions. 

Please note this is the structure of our 4-day virtual People's Forum:

Day 1 - 3 hours plenary discussions starting 1PM BKK

The sessions on Day 1 will present the regional people’s realities during COVID-19 (based on the APRCEM demand statement released in 2020), and how systemic barriers are hampering the achievement of the SDGs including progress and setbacks, and the linkages between different processes towards Agenda 2030.

We'll be speaking on Day 1, Plenary 1, Panel 2. Achieving People’s Agenda and Development Justice Amidst COVID-19 People’s Demands/Resistances. This panel will discuss the grounded realities on the impact of COVID-19 to diverse constituencies in the region, as well as stories of resistances and initiatives, and present people’s development demands. (Need to identify a speaker to represent our Disability Constituency in this panel.)

Day 2 - 3 hours plenary and breakout discussion starting 1PM BKK

The sessions on Day 2 will unpack the five goals under review and present CSO perspectives on the VNR.

We'll have an opportunity to make an intervention on day 2. It is still yet to be confirmed whether it will be presentations of the goals or having in breakout sessions as well as the presentation and discussion from the VNR reporting countries. We can intervene in the presentations of the abovementioned goals. An open forum is to be followed with an agreed discussion and preparation for HLPF. (Need to identify the SDG session to make an intervention and who will represent us to speak. SDG 4 (Quality Education); SDG 5 (Gender Equality); SDG 14 (Life Below Water); SDG 15 (Life on Land); and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).)  

Day 3 - self-organized workshops from 9AM to 5PM with 1.5 hours slot each, so on average 1 participant will attend to almost 4.5 hrs of workshop hours for the whole day

The self-organized workshops for this year’s People’s Forum would like to unpack systemic barriers and harness people’s realities and resistance, highlight initiatives and community solutions to the COVID-19 crisis, as well as reframe Agenda 2030 using Development Justice lens through people’s analysis and recommendations.

Peoples’ Workshop Theme 1.0: People's’ Realities and Achieving Agenda 2030: Unpacking the goals under review and current systemic barriers in the time of COVID-19

Peoples’ Workshop Theme 2.0: Demanding Accountability and Actions

Peoples’ Workshop Theme 3.0: Harnessing the Power of Peoples’ Movements for a Fairer, Just and Equitable Asia Pacific

Day 4 - 2 hours parallel meetings in the morning for subregions and constituencies, 4 hours plenary session in the afternoon

The last day of the People’s Forum would like to provide space for the constituencies and sub-regional groups to convene and reflect and plan ahead for the APFSD. The last day also re-affirms the regional CSO positions on Development Justice through approval of the CSO statement, and discusses strategies and ways forward for APFSD and beyond. CSOs and movements can also express their demands through AP-ROR.

This is dedicated time for the sub-regions and constituencies to meet as a group to discuss, prepare and finalize their collective positions for APFSD. This includes updating and/or review of recommendations and outcomes from the sub-regional forums held in 2021. Also, we'll present a CSO Statement and have an orientation to APFSD. Let's not forget to participate in the AP-ROR (Asia Pacific Regional Online Rally) (Need to identify who will represent us to present our overall statement. Do we want to present our key message or present our creative dance at the AP-ROR.)

Therefore, please find below our key message and statement presented by Akram at the 2021 APFSD. Thanks to Akram who presented this message at 2 minutes and the support from members.

Persons with disabilities are drastically affected and left behind even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Prior to this, we constantly faced barriers to equally participate in society. The pandemic has rapidly accelerated multiple layers of barriers, due to a lack of accessible, critical, and timely information to guide us in taking necessary precautions to seek immediate help in cases of emergencies. Lack of access to education opportunities contributes to the vulnerability to the crisis due to lack of understanding of medical terms used in public advisories, furthering gaps to proactively take action. Majority of us are unemployed, poor, live-in densely populated areas with extreme living conditions. This escalates our exposure and raises risks.

Also, kindly find attached the following documents from the 2021 APFSD and People's Forum for references and for the drafting of our new statement.

2021 Disability Constituency Statement

2021 Disability Constituency Intervention and Recommendation

I apologize for the lengthy email. But, I trust this will lead and guide us in our preparations and participation for this year's APFSD and People's Forum.

Thank you and looking forward to your support and partnership.

Warmly,

Villaney

[Deepti Karan weiss]

Dear Co Chair Lany,

Acknowledging receipt of your email. Duly noted.

With much appreciation,

Deepti

[iqbal...@gmail.com]

Thank you madam chair,

This is will noted .

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Capacity Building Working Group, APRCEM" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to capacity-building-...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/capacity-building-aprcem/CAOdrt6UO1D1iYWXQvomvHhwZYFvDU_DZ64FSufdJz4W-yd3fTg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Danishkadah]

Dear Villaney

Thanks for sharing this and the nice facilitation.

DAY 1

(Need to identify a speaker to represent our Disability Constituency in this panel.)

I think this can be decided after the selection, so we will know who is going to participate in BKK and then we can nominate one of the selected participant.

Online representation is risky especially in AP countries due to electricity and Internet breakdown, so someone who will get selected from our constituency can be nominated for this slot. 

DAY 2: About selected goals, I think everyone who gets selected (online / onsite) can intervene on Day 2, right? 

Or do we need a collective brief Intervention from the perspective of persons with disabilities?

thank you

Muhammad Akram
Founder & President

[Villaney Remengesau]

Dear Colleagues:

I wish to provide you with updates on the following. 

2022 Peoples' Forum

As we have a low number of participants of persons with disabilities and their OPDs as well as other CSOs from the Pacific, APRCEM will open again/extend the registration for this year's Peoples' Forum. The registration will open from Monday, March 7 to Wednesday, March 9 so keep on the lookout for it. I will also send you the link tomorrow, Monday, March 7 once I have it. This is an opportunity for those who didn't submit their nomination for the 2022 APFSD to please register for the Peoples' Forum. Also, do feel free to share widely with your networks and contacts to invite more participants to our Peoples' Forum.  

Again, this year's Peoples' Forum will be held virtually from 22-26 March 2022. 

2022 APFSD

The 2022 APFSD will be held in a virtual format and in-person. Thank you to those who submitted their timely registration to ESCAP to participate in this year's APFSD. Please be informed that due to very limited ESCAP funding for the APRCEM representatives and will fund only three participants to participate in the main part of the event. Both APRN and APWLD have strict funding requirements as well as limited funding. The APRCEM RCC had three meetings last week to ensure that the list of onsite participants for the APFSD has a fair representation of subregions and constituencies before it's submitted to ESCAP. The APRCEM RCC will meet again on Monday, March 7 to finalize the list of participants to attend the APFSD in a virtual format and submit it to ESCAP as well. ESCAP will probably revert to you, both onsite and virtual participants, with confirmation of invitation for APFSD and forum details late next week. Kindly be advised that you can participate in this year's APFSD if you submitted your timely registration to ESCAP and go thru the agreed process by ESCAP and APRCEM. 

Once more, this year's APFSD main plenary sessions and roundtable breakout discussions will be held in a virtual format and in-person from 28-31 March 2022. 

As said earlier that if you didn't register for APFSD, you can still participate in the Peoples' Forum which the registration will reopen tomorrow, March 7 to March 9.   

That's all I have for updates. I will keep you posted in the coming days.

Regards,

Villaney

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Asia Pacific Disability Constituency, APRCEM" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to asia-pacific-disability-con...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/asia-pacific-disability-constituency-aprcem/CAOdrt6UO1D1iYWXQvomvHhwZYFvDU_DZ64FSufdJz4W-yd3fTg%40mail.gmail.com.