AfricaBio

Issue 3 – July 2002

This Newsletter is intended as a forum for information exchange and dialogue in the build-up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). Forthcoming newsletters will focus on major issues on the agenda of the nine major groups involved and other relevant issues as they arise.

• What are the Nine Major Groups saying?
• More on the Science Forum
• Biodiversity & Biotechnology Competition Update
• Outcomes of the AfricaBio WSSD Communicators Workshop
• Useful links

What are the Nine Major Groups saying?

Part of PrepCom IV in Bali, Indonesia (27 May - 7 June 2002) was a two-day multi-stakeholder dialogue involving all nine major groups. This gave each group an opportunity to highlight their priorities and to exchange perspectives on key issues of the action plan, including sustainable development governance, capacity building, and partnerships.

Many of the groups are highlighting the same issues, including peace and conflict resolution, capacity building and education and protection of the environment through the sustainable use of biological resources. The need for partnerships are also emphasized by all the groups and are seen as a way of ensuring full participation and representation in the decision making process.

The dialogue statements for each group are available from: www.johannesburgsummit.org/html/major_groups/majorgroup_prep4papers.html

Women

The vision of women is of a future built on principles of peace and solidarity; equity and shared power; environmental integrity; social justice and respect for human rights, cultural and biological diversity. Key issues include:

• Peace;
• globalization for sustainability - including the increase of women in decision making positions (by 30%), ensuring trade and investment policies are transparent and involve all stakeholders, and establishment of a convention on corporate accountability to reduce corruption;
• access and control of resources – through implementing all protocols and treaties for protecting the environment;
• environmental security and health – increase access to basic health-care, ensure access to safe drinking water and access to information and affordable drugs in keeping with the UN Millennium goals;
• governance for sustainable development – good governance including all major groups and stakeholders at all levels of decision making and better balance of global power;
• capacity building – to ensure education on sustainable development and enable literacy for all (including the women and girls comprising the 65% of the worlds illiterate) and to narrow the gender gap in education by 2005; and
• partnerships for sustainable development – between major groups and stakeholders enabling equal participation for all.

For more information on the perspectives of this group see the website of the Association for Women in Development (AWID): www.awid.org and the MADRE website, an international human rights organization demanding human rights for women and their families: www.madre.org.

Youth & Children

The main area of concern is in the lack of commitment and concrete actions towards sustainable development and the meaningful involvement of youth in decision making. Key areas for partnerships include:

• education – to rectify the minimal implementation of chapter 36 of Agenda 21 – basic education for children and youth must be guaranteed by 2010;
• youth participation in decision making – especially at the local level;
• employment and poverty reduction – seek partnerships to increase employment opportunities and sustainable livelihoods and promotion of entrepreneurship;
• sustainable production and consumption – implement consumer awareness programmes to reduce excessive consumption;
• freshwater – educate the youth in being water wise; and
• health – ensure effective sexual health education and mechanisms to ensure behavioural change amongst youth in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

See the International Youth Foundation website for more information about this major group: www.iyfnet.org and www.unicef.org.

Indigenous People

Commitments and priorities of this group include the recognition of indigenous peoples and respect for their territories and self determination as a basis needed to strengthen partnerships and governance for sustainable development. Partnerships with relevant indigenous peoples groups and fora are necessary to ensure their full involvement at all stages and all levels of the sustainable development decision making process. Other priorities of this group include the whole range of issues being tackled at the WSSD such as peace and conflict resolution, food security, water, energy, pollution, health, desertification and climate, and ensuring that the viewpoints and rights of indigenous people are considered and included in resolving these issues. Education, S&T and communications are also highlighted, including capacity building.

More information on indigenous people is available from the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Centre

www.itpcentre.org.

NGO’s

The priority of the NGO group is that the WSSD must result in a new framework for action to generate political will and to provide the tools to overcome the current implementation crisis. Links must be forged between trade, investment, finance and sustainable development and negative social, environmental and development trends countered. Outcomes of the WSSD should include: a political declaration committed to poverty eradication and sustainable development which recognizes a balance between the three pillars and a realignment of power between and within States; and a concrete plan of action with clear targets, time frames, resources etc.

Global deal concept: this is a catalyst for political will between governments at the highest level aiming at accelerating the RIO and Millennium Summit goals. It should also bridge the North-South differences on key issues, including equity, rights, limits, democracy and ethics.

Other outcomes of the WSSD should include:

• renewing the North-South partnership that began at Rio;
• a rights based approach, securing the access of poor and vulnerable groups to financial and natural resources (including land rights and tenure);
• democracy, popular participation and institutional capacity building – good governance at all levels, to counteract the weakened role of the state;
• international institutions for sustainable development – to ensure a more balanced global power structure and internationally oriented civil society;
• stakeholders and partnerships – although there is concern that promoting partnerships could result in governments evading meaningful commitment to the WSSD;
• corporate accountability and regulation – frameworks to combat corruption at all levels and to ensure that the corporate wealth is used appropriately for sustainable development and human rights;
• sustainable consumption and production – a binding international agreement on liability should be negotiated making producers (countries) liable for environmental effects of their released products (green taxes etc);
• trade and sustainable development – the focus must be on making trade a tool that serves sustainable development, incorporating social and environmental concerns; and
• financing sustainable development – specifically better financing for development through improved and increased development assistance targeting poverty reduction and sustainable development.

For more information, go to the Civil Society Secretariat website: www.worldsummit.org.za.

Local Authorities

Priorities and recommendations for action of this group include:

• the role of local governments and good local governance for sustainable development;
• poverty eradication, including raising awareness of local governments and their commitment to international targets and agreements through strengthening capacities within communities to address rural/urban poverty and to promote local and community based participation in the planning and decision making process;
• capacity building;
• global strategies for the future, which include strengthening local government, inter-governmental and intra-governmental cooperation, fostering international solidarity, building a new culture of sustainability and speeding up the transition to a sustainable world.

Partnerships of local government with other major groups are highlighted along with the need to meet international agreements and commitments on sustainable development at the local level (e.g. climate protection, sustainable water use, sustainable patterns of consumption and use etc). For more information go to the website of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives www.iclei.org or the World Association of Cities and Local Authorities Association www.iula.org.

Workers & Trade Unions

This group proposes an expanded role for trade unions through partnerships with other major groups, governments and international agencies. General aims needed for the WSSD to succeed include: implementation of the Rio Declaration; full integration of the three pillars of sustainable development; focus on employment and dignified work as a means of promoting equality and eradicating poverty; and recognition of all stakeholders in the decision making process. Suggested partnerships include employment and equity alliances to resolve poverty, equity and access issues; work-based partnerships for sustainable development based on collective best-practice models for action relating to work and production; capacity building partnerships (including R&D and education/training) for effective change; public policy and action partnerships to expand multi-stakeholder activity at all levels; and rights partnerships which is the rights-based approach of the Rio Declaration. A number of specific actions are also proposed, highlighting the role of trade unions role in attaining sustainable development.

Trade unions are represented by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) and International Trade Secretariats (ITS). For more information go to: www.icftu.org.

Business & Industry

Business organizations around the world are coming together under a common theme of “Business Action for Sustainable Development” (www.basd-action.net). Priority areas highlighted by the dialogue of business and industry include the need to develop concrete actions and deliverable results rather than processes and procedures. This must involve partnerships amongst stakeholders, especially public-private and tri-sector partnerships, to ensure combined efforts, strengths and capabilities rather than working in isolation. It is hoped that such partnerships can be linked to Agenda 21 and the Millennium development goals. For such partnerships to be successful, they must also include an appreciation of the three pillars of sustainable development (economic progress, environmental protection and social responsibility); demonstrate measurable results/impacts and be transferable and repeatable elsewhere.

Scientific & Technological Communities

S&T communities believe their contribution to sustainable development can be improved by: more policy relevant science; broad-based, participatory approaches to bridge divides between stakeholders; and promoting gender equality in science to eliminate barriers and to ensure full representation. A new contract is also needed between S&T and society and this new contract should involve:

• improving education and capacity building, specific to S&T, at all levels. The three core components of increased capacity include: skilled individuals, efficient institutions and active networks;
• bridging the North-South divide in S&T capacity – and building strong S&T capacity worldwide, but especially in developing countries;
• clean technologies and sustainable production and consumption patterns – new, clean technologies must be developed which support sustainable productions systems and consumption patterns as well as improved international sharing and local adaptation of these and traditional technologies;
• governance for sustainable development – governance at all levels must incorporate the best available S&T knowledge and the link strengthened between the S&T community and decision makers;
• long-term perspectives and data needs – this should include a long-term monitoring system for collecting reliable scientific and socio-economic data to be provided by the S&T community; and
• augmenting financial resources for S&T for sustainable development. Levels of investment in S&T are too low in both developed and developing countries and must be increased. Strategic public-private partnerships are also a part of this.

Several new partnership initiatives geared towards implementing specific recommendations in Agenda 21 were also announced.

More information is available from International Council of Science (ICSU) - www.icsu.org; Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) - www.twas.org, InterAcademy Panel (IAP) - www.iap.org; and the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) www.wfeo-cee.org.

Farmers

Since agriculture is so directly linked to Agenda 21, this is a major priority area and farmers propose an increase in resources for rural development and sustainable agriculture to stop the resource drain. Sustainable development must not been seen as an imposition or demand of society upon farmers, but as something that also sustains their wellbeing and income. The need for a participatory decision making process involving stakeholders at all levels is emphasized, which requires effective stakeholder partnerships. Farmers must be considered as equals in these partnerships, and woman farmers in particular need access to rights and entitlements, and access to local markets must be improved. The need for partnerships is also highlighted in the area of food security including access to land and natural resources; governance, including the development of policy frameworks to support sustainable development; capacity building promoting the involvement of farmers in the stakeholder process; technical assistance in implementing sustainable development through basic agricultural techniques and disseminating information; research and development through increased public funding and the incorporation of indigenous knowledge; and the role of international organizations in providing a capacity building trust-fund in each region, providing institutional frameworks promoting partnerships and a resolution on peace and stability within and between the major groups.

More information on the viewpoints of farmers is available from the websites of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) at www.ifap.org and the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) at www.egfar.org.

More on the Science Forum

As announced in the previous issue of this Newsletter, the Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development is being held at the Ubuntu Village, Johannesburg, 26 August – 4 September (www.scienceforum.co.za). A complementary event, aimed at giving the broader South African scientific community access to the topic of science and sustainability as well as creating an opportunity to participate in the debate, is being held at the CSIR Conference Centre in Pretoria from 26 - 30 August 2002 and is promoted as the “Science at the Summit Conference”. The South African Government, under the guardianship of DACST looks forward to welcoming international and local presenters and attendees to the Conference. To find out more about the Science at the Summit and to register on-line, go to: www.scienceforum.co.za/pretoria.

Biodiversity & Biotechnology Competition Update

Back in May, a schools competition on Biodiversity and Biotechnology was announced to schools in Gauteng. The aim of the competition is to get learners (grade 9-11) to investigate and debate the relationship between biodiversity and biotechnology and to discover the benefits and risks. Learners are also encouraged to find out how biotechnology can be used to exploit and conserve biodiversity, who benefits, what are the advantages and disadvantages and who is involved. Results of this debate are to be presented in the format of a scientific poster.

The closing date of this competition open to schools in Gauteng, has been extended to 16 August and finalist posters will be displayed at the WSSD Ubuntu exhibition and winners selected by a high ranking panel of judges. Prizes include computer equipment for the top two winners and their schools valued at a total of R50 000. More information on the competition, including resources and entry forms, are available from ww.africabio.com, www.fest.org.za, www.ipgri.cgiar.org.

The competition will serve as an educational tool for the school children in the locality of the WSSD and also highlight issues relating to the conservation of biodiversity and its sustainable use through biotechnological innovation. This is a collaborative effort involving the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), AfricaBio – the biotechnology stakeholders association, and the Foundation for Education, Science and Technology (FEST), which is an agency of the Governmental Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (DACST). The competition will complement the public awareness activities of the three partners and strengthen the link between preserving natural resources and using them for the benefit of humankind. This is also an activity recommended by the UN Secretariat to ensure meaningful action and renewed commitment to sustainable development. The competition has the full backing and support of the South African Minister of Education, Prof Asmal, who stated that the competition will “teach learners to gain socially acceptable values…such as the protection of our environment for sustainable learners” and will go a long way towards getting schools practically involved in scientific research in general, and agriculture in particular, which is an important aspect of poverty reduction and sustainable development”.

Outcomes of World Summit on Sustainable Development

Communicators Workshop

A recent workshop was held in Pretoria involving over 60 participants consisting of scientists, regulators, farmers, NGOs - including consumer organisations, and teachers from sub-saharan Africa to prepare for the WSSD. The aims were:

· to review the status of biotechnology in relation to Agenda 21 and other issues for the WSSD;

· to develop an effective communication and education strategy for the WSSD with stakeholders especially with scientists, farmers and consumers; and

· to consolidate African stakeholders’ biotechnology communication messages;

In the context of WSSD, biotechnology is viewed to address enabling the development, for example better health, enhanced food security through sustainable agricultural practices, more efficient industrial processes, transforming raw materials, support for sustainable methods and afforestation, reforestation and detoxification of hazardous wastes.

The delegates at the workshop highlighted the need for biotechnology in Africa and how this can actually be realised. Concerns of biotechnology were also addressed and effective communication strategies for biotechnology were also discussed. The conclusion of the workshop was: To use biotechnology for sustainable development, Africa needs to speak for Africa.

Recommendations of the Workshop included:

• a call for governments, donors, philanthropic orgs, etc, to help Africa realise these aspirations;
• call for multinational companies with proprietary technologies to share their technologies;
• Africa should develop its own products;
• Africa should drive the science of biotechnology to the frontier by embarking on major strategic projects at national level; and
• Africa needs to engage in partnerships in a win-win situation.

Useful links:

UN WSSD – www.johannesburgsummit.org

Global Forum - www.worldsummit.org.za

Business Forum - www.basd-action.net

Local Government Session - www.iclei.org/iclei.htm
JOWSCO Website - www.joburgsummit2002.com

AfricaBio - www.africabio.com