African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN)

Details

Image downloaded from AMCEN siteweb

AMCEN

Regional Multi-Stakeholder Consultations for Africa in Preparation for African Ministerial Conference on the Environment
9 to 10 November 2019, South Africa

Background

The seventeenth regular session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) will take place from 11 to 15 of November 2019 in South Africa. The Conference will be held under the theme: "Taking action for Environmental Sustainability and Prosperity in Africa ".

The Regional Multi-stakeholder consultations will be held from 9 to 10 November. The consultations aim to engage civil society organisations and other stakeholders to contribute effectively in the AMCEN Conference. The engagement of multi-stakeholder organisations in the Conference is based on:

1. The need to reinforce the visibility and impact of the UN Environment Assembly in the context of the follow-up of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the global and regional levels, including the High-Level Political Forum and the Regional Forums on Sustainable Development convened by the UN Regional Commissions.
2. The need to harmonize the regional environmental agenda, through the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), with the global agenda through UN Environment Assembly (UNEA).
3. The need to include Major Groups and Stakeholders (MGS) and non-state actors in decision-making processes and the implementation of AMCEN and UNEA decisions.
4. The mandate set out in the Rio + 20 Conference in 2012, where governments highlighted that the engagement of civil society in the UN Environment Assembly and its decisionmaking process is an important factor that will ensure relevance and success of the global environmental Assembly.

1. Participants and target audience

The regional consultations will bring together Major Groups and Stakeholders (MGS) accredited to UNEP, non-accredited regional MGS partners including representatives of businesses and youth.

2. Purpose and Objectives of the Meeting

The scope of the two-day consultations is for the African Major Groups and Stakeholders to prepare their inputs for the next session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) and discuss the outcomes of the fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly. The outcome of the meeting will be a regional statement by the Major Groups which will constitute, among other things, recommendations on the UN Secretary General’s Special Summit on Climate Change. Several issues were discussed which could form the objectives of the meeting:

• AMCEN 2019 should focus more on action and reflection on decisions from previous AMCENs, especially following on the UN SG call on actin (3 key actions) by governments in the upcoming September Summit.
• Many policies exist but the gap is in implementation and there are no resources either to support implementation; how do we strengthen implementation in these processes?
• How do MGS hold government accountable? Do they have the structures, credibility, capacity and legitimacy to do so?
• What mechanisms should be put in place for reporting by MGS?
• How do we mobilize and strengthen NSAs including the private sector?
• Given the shrinking space of the CSOs, we need to mobilize the youth as a disruptive group to energize the movement on environment/climate action.

3. Expected Outcomes:

• Key messages to the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) with focus on the implementation of the policies that have been agreed upon.
• Key messages from the African Major Groups and Stakeholders to contribute to the regional statement for AMCEN which will also serve as Information Document to the Assembly. This Information

Document will be part of the official background information.

4. Agenda of the meeting (to be developed by the Steering Committee)