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Working
Group III: Sustainable Development Governance
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Iran (left) asked about the role and status
of ECOSOC in the question of sustainable development governance.
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Turkey took issue with the term "governance."
He said that sustainable development governance is not a common
nor a very clear term, and preferred using the more widely accepted
term of "good governance for sustainable development."
He said that more emphasis should be given to local governance,
given the successes of implementing Agenda 21 at the local level |
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Nauru, on behalf of the Pacific Islands Forum,
said domestic governance is essential and it is every citizen's
right to ensure that resources are managed effectively. He said
that relevant institutions and capacity are lacking, and stressed
the importance of regional cooperation. He highlighted a number
of proposals such as re-establishing taxation regimes, addressing
new security threats, active engagement of civil society, and making
sure that the development assistance system is efficient, transparent
and fully accountable. He called for principles of cooperation rather
than sponsoring additional conditionalities. |
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The US described vision for the CSD in the post-WSSD
era: that it should engage in textual negotiations only once every
five years, and spend the other four years on implementation and
partnerships. He noted the proliferation of sustainable development-related
meetings, and called for more focus on national efforts. He called
for the recognition of thematically-based structures - such as
those on the preservation of the world's coral - that find themselves
somewhere between the global and regional levels.
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Co-Chair
Lars-Goran Engfeldt (Sweden)
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In response to Iran's query, Patricio
Civili, Assistant Secretary General for DESA, said that
he could not conceive of the evolution of ECOSOC's role without
a strong focus on sustainable development. He cited the ECOSOC
high-level segment as one of the factors that contributed successfully
to the Monterrey Conference, as it brings together the Bretton
Woods institutions and the UN. He also said partnerships have
become an important part of ECOSOC's work, but that they will
have to be framed in the CSD, and that ECOSOC can give political
impetus to the SDG process.
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Tuvalu called for more focus domestically and
at the local level. He said if the appropriate assistance does not
reach people at the national level, than regional and international
efforts will have been wasted. He highlighted specific initiatives
and the strengthening of ongoing activities, such as UNDP's Capacity
21 project and UN volunteers, which are focusing on capacity building
at the national level. He also called for reference to good governance
in the introduction to the Chairman's Paper. |
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Bolivia expressed concern about the general direction
in which the discussion seemed to be headed, saying that it was
based on the assumption that there exists systems for sustainable
development governance. He said that old systems had not been
evaluated yet, and feared that present discussions might result
in "business as usual" outcomes. He noted the lack of
any proposals for a global forum on sustainable development, as
once envisioned at UNCED.
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Norway requested that more information be made available
on the implications of the creation of a new mechanism for inter-agency
coordination. Noting the coherence between the development of
national strategies for sustainable development and those of poverty
reduction, he suggested that they also be integrated, as appropriate.
He also stressed the need for the paragraph on local government
to be strengthened.
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South Africa said the debate should speak to the issue
of the poverty eradication. He said the common objective is to
achieve a rules-based process for decision making, and said the
role of the CSD should be enhanced and the CSD should be adequately
financed. He also said ECOSOC should play a stronger and more
focused management role, including with the Bretton Woods institutions
and the WTO, to the extent that they have implications for sustainable
development.
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