ENB:08:28
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NGO INFLUENCE:
Throughout the process there has been steady
participation and influence by NGOs. The active group of NGOs,
while international, was predominantly from the islands themselves.
The few Northern-based international NGOs played a support role
while their island counterparts took the lead. During the PrepCom,
NGOs were critical of AOSIS for not taking up their concerns. At
the end of the resumed session in March, NGOs issued a set of
specific amendments to the draft Programme of Action. AOSIS
reviewed these amendments and during the Conference proposed that
many of them be included in the text. Issues that bear the mark of
NGO input include Chapter III on waste management; Chapter XIV on
human resource development; and language on partnerships with
women, youth, indigenous people and other major groups that appears
throughout the text. During the Conference itself, many NGOs were
included on both island and non-island delegations. Others worked
the floor in both the Main Committee and the Barbados Declaration
contact group to good effect. Without NGO input, many believe that
the Programme of Action and the Barbados Declaration would have
been less people-centered.
Within the NGO community, the new partnership between island NGOs
and others reinforced many of the lessons learned during the UNCED
process, namely that the most effective role of Northern NGOs is
information dissemination, support and advocacy directed at their
own governments. Despite organizational and financial problems, the
NGO Islands Forum proved to be a source of great energy and unity
within the NGO community and offered a place to strategize and
develop the means for future inter-regional cooperation between
NGOs. NGOs also were the driving force behind the SUSTECH '94
exhibition of sustainable technologies for island development and
the Village of Hope, which became the interface between the
Conference, the issues and the people of Barbados. Without the
efforts of NGOs, the Conference might have been seen solely as an
exercise in diplomatic rhetoric rather than an event that may
benefit small islands and their people.
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