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| Morning
Plenary |
 Nitin
Desai, Secretary- General for the World Summit on Sustainable
Development,
reported on outcomes of the International Conference on Financing
for Development held in Monterrey, Mexico, noting that it resulted
in the largest increases in development assistance at any meeting.
He noted that agreement had been finalized before Monterrey that
the conference was to be a high-level meeting and not a continuation
of negotiations. He highlighted partnerships as being a valuable
means to leverage additional resources, as well as to change the
quality of implementation. He also highlighted governance and
the role of the CSD, noting that the CSD has kept sustainable
development on the policy agenda, although it has not been able
to generate sufficient pressure for successful implementation.
He also highlighted a new atmosphere of North/South interaction,
particularly since Doha, and said Johannesburg outcomes should
convince the world that successful means of implementation have
been devised.
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Klaus
Topfer, UNEP Executive Director, presented the outcomes
of the Third Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GMEF-3),
held in Cartagena, Colombia from 13-15 February 2002. He grouped
the decisions adopted into three categories: substantive programmatic
decisions such as those on international chemical management and
the global plan of action on protecting the marine environment from
land-based sources of pollution; international environmental governance;
and the GMEF contribution to WSSD, based on summary of Ministerial
views. He then outlined seven priority areas of work for UNEP, including:
how UNEP can assist WSSD in achieving tangible outcomes; monitoring
and assessment of environmental change; health and environment;
and oceans and water. |
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Oumane
Moutare (Niger) reported on the Panel of Eminent
Personalities to consider the environment-poverty nexus in the
context of the implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification
(CCD), held from 25-28 February 2002 in Agadez, Niger. Participants
considered the close relationship between sustainable development,
land degradation and elimination of poverty. He outlined the Agadez
Call, in which members of the Panel appealed to the international
community for increased support for the implementation of the
CCD. Specifically, it calls on the G-8 to make available the resources
required to fight desertification. It notes an imbalance between
the commitments made in Rio and the resources allocated to their
implementation, and called for the creation of a funding mechanism
for the CCD. Developing country governments are urged, inter
alia, to allow for the full participation of all stakeholders
involved in the fight against desertification.
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Severino
Soares Almeida (Cape Verde) reported on the Praia
Forum on the implementation of the CCD, a preparatory meeting for
the WSSD. The meeting brought together Parties to the CCD which
have finalized their national action programmes to consult on the
concrete steps to be taken in the implementation of the CCD. He
outlined the two outcomes of the meeting, documents entitled "Conclusions
of the Technical Segment of the Praia Forum", and "Ministerial
Message from Praia to WSSD." |
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| Monday
25 March: During the opening plenary session, Chair
Emil Salim (center) outlined the organization
of work for the session. He said Working Group I, to be co-chaired
by Maria Viotti (Brazil) and Kiyotaka Akasaka (Japan) would address
the first four sections of the Chairman's paper: introduction; poverty
eradication; changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and
production; and protecting and managing the natural resource base
of economic and social development. Working Group II, chaired by
Ihab Gamaleldin (Egypt) and Richard Ballhorn (Canada) will address:
sustainable development in a globalizing world; health and sustainable
development; sustainable development of SIDS; sustainable initiatives
for Africa; and means of implementation. Working Group III, chaired
by Ositadinma Anaedu (Nigeria) and Lars-Goran Engfeldt (Sweden)
will address sustainable development governance at the international,
regional and national levels.
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Chair
Emil Salim (Indonesia), in his introductory remarks,
outlined the programme of work for the third PrepCom, and emphasized
that specific steps and actions must be identified to further the
sustainable development agenda, with specific actors and timebound
measures being spelled out. He mentioned two types of outcomes expected
from the Summit. Type I outcomes will include a concrete and realistic
implementation plan. Type II outcomes will consist of partnerships,
which would not be negotiated in the PrepCom but would be agreed
by partners involved. He said Diane Quarless (Jamaica) and Jan Kara
(Czech Republic), would facilitate informal meetings on partnerships
and then report to the PrepCom on new ideas and initiatives for
partnerships. He expressed confidence that "the Bali meeting
would be an important harbor on the journey of hope towards the
WSSD." |
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Hossein Moeni Meybodi (Iran) presented the Ministerial
declaration and message from the United Nations Forum on Forests
(UNFF-2) to the
WSSD, and highlighted key points adopted by the Ministers, including
enhancing political commitment to achieve sustainable forest management
by endorsing it as a priority on the international political agenda.
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Accreditation
of NGOs as observers:
Joanne DiSano, Director, Division for Sustainable
Development, noted the relevance of the work of the Tibet Justice
Center (TJC) to the work of the WSSD but expressed concern about
its politically motivated activities, and said that these should
be taken into consideration when deciding upon the Center's accreditation.
Chair Salim proposed, and delegates agreed, to approve all requests
for accreditation with the exception of the TJC, which will be taken
up again at a later stage. He then spoke about recent cuts in meeting
services and their implications for the work of the PrepCom. He
concluded with a discussion of the Working Groups' mandates and
co-chairs. |
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Nitin
Desai and JoAnne DiSano |
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Milos
Alcalay (Venezuela), on behalf of the G-77/China, said
that Monterrey demonstrated commitment to financing development,
but it will be in Johannesburg that countries will define what type
of development they want to finance. He said during the next two
weeks, there is a need to develop a concrete plan of action which
will guide countries towards sustainable development. He stressed
the importance of desertification, noting that the President of
the Republic of Venezuela, who will preside over the G-77/China
at the WSSD, will be going to Johannesburg with a mandate to fight
for addressing desertification. He outlined the outcomes of the
Third High-level Forum on Cooperation between Africa, Latin America
and the Caribbean on Desertification, held in Caracas, Venezuela
on 19-20 February 2002. |
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Above:
Rod Holsgrove, DESA Secretariat, speaks with Kira Schmidt,
ENB on the side, and Kimo Goree, International Institute for
Sustainable Development and ENB Managing Editor. |
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Delegates
waiting for the morning Plenary to commence. |
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