New initiative launched to encourage dissemination and scaling up of successful experiences and best practices in sustainable energy and sustainable development

UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK, 18 July 2014 - During the Rio+20 Conference, Member States acknowledged lack of efforts in scaling up best practices and successful experiences as a major constraint on progress in implementing sustainable development. They committed to reinvigorating the global partnership for sustainable development and to working together with major groups and other stakeholders in addressing implementation gaps. They called upon the United Nations system, in cooperation with relevant donors and international organizations, to promote the sharing of best practices and experiences relating to the implementation of sustainable development and, on a voluntary basis, facilitate sharing of experiences, including successes, challenges and lessons learned.

To address these implementation gaps, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs launched a new initiative today designed to disseminate and scale up successful experiences and best practices in sustainable energy and sustainable development. As part of the effort to identify and recognize best practices, including their broad dissemination for replication and scaling up, an amount of $1.0 million will be provided annually to institutions and/or individuals that have demonstrated leadership and innovation in promoting sustainable development.

The identification of the recipients will be conducted through a competitive review and selection process involving an Advisory Council and a High Level Steering Committee, with participation from relevant UN system organizations.

The initiative is being carried out in collaboration with the China Energy Fund Committee (a Hong Kong-based NGO in consultative status with ECOSOC). It features a significant emphasis on capacity building, through south-south cooperation and innovative partnerships. The institutions and/or individuals receiving the $1.0 million are expected to apply the funds to furthering their best practices and to building capacity in developing countries. This commitment will be an integral part of the selection process.

Speaking at the launch event, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Wu Hongbo said that "By identifying and recognizing leadership and innovation in sustainable energy and sustainable development, we hope the institution or the individuals receiving the one million dollars will use this fund for disseminating the best practices, for their replication and scaling up."

On the use of the fund, Mr. Wu further observed that "Clearly, the initiative has a strong component on capacity building. We expect the winning institutions or individuals to identify lessons learned and underlying factors of best practices, and share the lessons learned with decision-makers and practitioners from other countries, through capacity building workshops and seminars."

At the launch event, the Secretary-General of the China Energy Fund Committee Dr. Patrick Ho expressed his appreciation for the opportunity of collaborating with the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Dr. Ho said that recognizing leadership and innovation in sustainable energy and sustainable development "has the potential of broadly publicising and disseminating what has worked and what the lessons are in implementing new and innovative ideas in sustainable energy and sustainable development. It will help bottom-up initiatives to replicate best practices on the ground."

The Division for Sustainable Development of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs will organize the review and selection process, which includes establishing necessary parameters for selecting best practices, requests for nominations, reviewing nominated recipients of the fund and facilitating capacity building workshops. The Division will also undertake an analysis of the underlying factors of successful experiences and best practices.