ICSU-UNESCO Regional Science and Technology workshops

Five regional workshops (for Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, the Arab States, and Europe) were organised prior to the intergovernmental Rio+20 Regional Preparatory Meetings.

Natural scientists, social scientists and engineers from across each region participated, along with high level policy-makers and representatives of other groups. This gave each region's scientific and technological community the opportunity to prepare joint positions and concerted inputs for the regional preparatory processes, and to discuss their views with policy-makers and other key actors.

The results of the workshops are being presented at the Rio+20 Regional Preparatory Meetings. In this way, region-specific scientific knowledge, issues and concerns can be integrated into the Rio+20 conference.

The regional workshops were organised by ICSU and UNESCO, except the Europe workshop which was organised by the European Group of ICSU National Members, in cooperation with ICSU and UNESCO. All workshops were held in cooperation with the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and other regional stakeholders.