NEW YORK (December 5, 2013)–From December 5-6, the Communitas Coalition for Sustainable Cities & Regions is hosting a two-day “Experts’ Workshop on Sustainable Cities & Human Settlements in the SDGs”. The aim of the workshop is to enable governments to discuss informally with experts, Major Groups and stakeholders and the UN system on the issue of sustainable urbanization in the future SDGs framework and UN development agenda. Through the workshop, the Coalition seeks to feed into the thematic discussions at the January 2014 session of the Sustainable Development Goals Open Working Group (SDGs OWG).

As a part of the advisory group on the topic of growth and prosperity for the workshop, WEDO Program Director Eleanor Blomstrom joined a panel on “Growth, prosperity & jobs for all within planetary boundaries with a focus on youth & women”. She emphasized the issues of growth through a human rights framework. Eleanor also touched on and the need to challenge the current ideas of growth and prosperity and the need to further define “green economies” and “green growth” or find alternative language.

WEDO also contributed to the first draft of the Coalition’s Issue Paper on the subject, which can be downloaded here.