Sustainable consumption and production requires a fundamental rethinking of the way societies produce, use and dispose products and services. The resource-intensive consumption and production patterns of the industrialised countries cannot be replicated worldwide; it would require the natural resources of three planets. We have only ONE Planet!

The Marrakech Process responds to the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation which calls to develop a 10-year framework of programmes (10YFP) to accelerate the shift towards sustainable consumption and production (SCP), to promote social and economic development within the carrying capacity of ecosystems by de-linking economic growth from environmental degradation. The proposal for a 10YFP will be reviewed at the CSD during the 2010/11 cycle.

In elaborating the proposal for a 10YFP, the Marrakech Process 1) has created a global multi-stakeholder process to obtain the inputs and feedback from all regions and stakeholders, and 2) is supporting the:

• Development and implementation of regional and national strategies/initiatives on SCP
  
  
• Development of tools and methodologies to promote SCP
  
  
• Implementation of concrete demonstration projects at international, regional and national levels
  
  
• Building mechanisms for cooperation to support the implementation of SCP projects/initiatives (e.g. Marrakech Task Forces, NGO and Business forums and dialogues)

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) are the leading agencies of this global process, with an active participation of national governments, development agencies, private sector, civil society and other stakeholders. See our UNEP-UNDESA joint website.

The Marrakech Process Mechanisms

The Marrakech Process is a dynamic platform. It includes various mechanisms to promote SCP and to develop the 10YFP. To learn about each one, click on the box-dialogues below:

Some concrete outcomes of the Marrakech Process:

The Marrakech Process has made progress and achieved important outcomes, some of them are:

• Development and endorsement of regional strategies on SCP in Africa and Latin America. Europe is currently developing its SCP action plan.
  
• Establishment of the Asia Pacific Help Desk on SCP
  
• Establishment of seven Marrakech Task Forces that have built North-South cooperation and are key implementation mechanisms
  
• Guidelines for National Programmes SCP and five demonstration projects on National Action Plans on SCP (Mauritius, Indonesia, Tanzania, Egypt and Mozambique)
  
• Launching of the UNEP's Online Clearinghouse for National SCP Programmes
  
• Manual on communicating sustainability (English, French, Spanish), and capacity building in Brazil and China
  
• Tool-kit on Sustainable Public Procurement and a demonstration project in Argentina
  
• Establishment of 4 Global Sustainable Products Networks (GSPN)
  
• Implementing a project on Eco-labelling for Africa (PDF - 510 KB)
  
• A Communication Campaign on Sustainable Holidays, including the launch of the Green Passport
  
• Outline of the 10YFP (PDF - 1,3 MB) has been developed

Phases of the Marrakech Process

Knowing that SCP has different meanings and present different challenges in each region of the world, the Marrakech Process has taken a participative and bottom-up approach. The development of the 10 Year Framework of Programmes on SCP (10YFP) has therefore five phases:

• Phase 1: Organising regional consultations in all regions to promote awareness and identify priorities and needs for SCP (through regional expert meetings and national roundtables)
  
  
• Phase 2: Building regional strategies and implementation mechanisms with regional and national ownership
  
  
• Phase 3: Implementing concrete projects and programmes at the regional, national and local levels for developing and/or improving SCP tools and methodologies.
  
  
• Phase 4: Monitoring and evaluating progress, exchanging information, and building international cooperation and coordination
  
  
• Phase 5: Developing a proposal for the 10YFP, which will be reviewed at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD18/19) during the biennium 2010/11. The 10YFP will take into consideration all the outcomes of the fours phases listed above.

To know more about the Marrakech Process, see the briefing note: English (PDF - 668 KB) French (PDF - 774 KB) Spanish (PDF - 775 KB)

For more information, contact Adriana Zacarias Farah.