The Good Shepherd Statement to the Commission for Social Development is now published in the 6 official languages of the United Nations .

N1357408 Statement Spanish CSocD RGS 2014                                        N1357404 Statement Chinese CSocD RGS 2014                                  N1357407 Statement Russian CSocD RGS 2014                                      N1357403 Statement Arabic CSocD RSG 2014                              N1357404 Statement Chineese CSocD RGS 2014                            N1357405 Statement English CSocD RGS 2014

The Priority theme of the Commission in 2014 is:                                   “Promoting empowerment of people in achieving poverty eradication, social integration and full employment and decent work for all“.

The Emerging issues: the social drivers of sustainable development.

Issues concerning special groups – Persons with Disabilities, Youth, Aging and Family will also be addressed.  For more information and the reports prepared for the Commission can be read HERE

Our statement references the work done in the Democratic Republic of Congo with a focus on empowerment of the local people.  The statement is identifying systems and structures of power that actually keep people in poverty and deny them access to decent work.

“Empowerment happens when individuals and organized groups are able to imagine their world differently and to realize that vision by changing the relations of power that have kept them in poverty, restricted their voice and deprived them of their autonomy.”  Read Duncan Greens background paper ”The role of the State in empowering poor and excluded groups and individuals” .   We are looking at the centrality of “power” to empowerment.  The statement ends with a question ‘have Governments the political will and determination to enter into dialogue with citizens in “power with” and “power to” making the structural changes to institutions and policies that promote the empowerment of people?

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