ENB:04:55
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NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE:
The North-South divide that had been
growing throughout the 13 months of negotiations manifested itself
in numerous ways. The African countries came to the negotiating
table with great expectations. They had hoped that this Convention
would provide new and additional financial resources and technical
assistance to deal with the causes and effects of desertification
and drought. Other non-African developing countries came to the
negotiating table with varying agendas to ensure recognition of
assistance for their countries' desertification problems, to ensure
that the agreements reached at the Earth Summit were honored, and
to ensure that they will not be obligated in any way to assist the
Africans. The OECD countries came to the table with the firmly-held
position that new and additional resources would not be forthcoming
and, instead, called for existing resources to be used more
efficiently. The difference of perceptions on the purpose of this
Convention and the provision of financial resources did not
facilitate the negotiating process.