The Side Event was organised during the Third Regional Implementation Meeting (RIM) on Sustainable Development, which took place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 28-29 January 2008. The RIM served as the preparatory meeting of the UNECE to the forthcoming 16th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) which focused on evaluation of the progress achieved and obstacles and constraints remaining in the following thematic areas: agriculture; rural development; land; drought; desertification and Africa.
Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN), together with the African Women Leaders in Agriculture and the Environment (AWLAE) and The GRATIS Foundation (Ghana), were selected as the organizing partners for the Women Major Group by the UN CSD Secretariat and Bureau for the forthcoming CSD 16 and 17.
This Side Event is the fifth and last event organised by WOCAN at the RIMs (two side event were organised in Africa and two in Asia) prior to the CSD Session in May 2008. The outcome of the side events, the participation of the Women Major Groups at the RIMs, as well as the preparation of the Discussion Paper for the Women Major Group, will serve as the major background in the advocacy strategy of WOCAN and the Women Major Group leading to CSD 16 & 17.
