PRESS BRIEFING ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

At a Headquarter's press briefing Friday afternoon, 6 February, the Director of the Regional Office for Africa of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Maria de Amorim, said "it was difficult to talk of sustainable development without sustainable peace". Conflict could jeopardize a country's attempt to attain sustainable development. Even the critical issue of water resources had to be addressed and riparian countries had to be assisted to ensure that water did not become a potential source of conflict in the African continent, she added.

Ms. de Amorim was one of seven participants in the briefing, held to describe the results of the second consultative meeting of regional institutions on sustainable development designed to support the work programme of the Commission on Sustainable Development and assess the role of regional institutions in implementing Agenda 21, the programme of action adopted by the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The meeting, organized by the Division for Sustainable Development of the Department for Economic and Social Affairs, was held at Headquarters from 4 to 6 February.

Also at the briefing were: Kenneth Ruffing, Officer-in-Charge of the Division for Sustainable Development; Lowell Flanders, Chief of Institutions, National Information and Major Groups Branch, also of the Division; Kazi F. Jalal, Chief of the Office of Environment and Social Development of the Asian Development Bank; Alicia Barcena, Chief Technical Adviser for Regional Environment Programmes at the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), with responsibility for Latin America and the Caribbean; Makram Gerges, Regional Director for UNEP's West Asia Office; and Robert Hull, Head of Environment Policy Coordination, Environment Action Programmes of the European Commission.

Another priority for Africa, said Ms. de Amorim, which had been addressed by the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, was the urgency of eliminating poverty, which was the main root of environmental degradation. In that connection, it was important to implement Agenda 21 at the national, subregional and regional levels in Africa. At the national level, countries had to translate Agenda 21 into national priorities and to find the resources to implement the activities identified. Subregional organizations should develop subregional plans to strengthen national activities and to assist countries to better understand the objectives of Agenda 21, she said.

Mr. Flanders, of the Division for Sustainable Development, said the consultative meeting was held in response to the decision by the General Assembly's June 1997 special session to review the implementation of Agenda 21. It had focused on the following main areas of concern: major trends, difficulties and innovative practices in regional cooperation, regional

priorities for sustainable development in relation to the work programme of the Commission on Sustainable Development (1998-2000), and means of exchanging national experiences and best practices and the role of regional institutions in such a process. Participants included regional intergovernmental organizations, such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Organization of African Unity (OAU), United Nations regional economic commissions, the regional offices of UNEP and a wide range of subregional organizations, as well as personnel from UNDP regional bureaus and the World Bank.

The Chairman of the consultative meeting, Dr. Jalal of the Asian Development Bank, said proposals had focused on the need for regional institutions to better promote sustainable development. In the Asia-Pacific region, the priority for sustainable development was economic development -- a concept which included the integration of environmental and social policies into economic sector policies.

He said the challenges of the region included poverty reduction, population control and planning, better consumer prices, and development of natural resources. It was also important to ensure that all the stakeholders were fully consulted and participated in the process of sustainable development. At the same time, enforcement of national and international environmental regulations was becoming more and more important. Regional development banks were playing a greater role in promoting sustainable development. For example, the Asian Development Bank now had a policy in which at least 50 per cent of its annual projects and at least 40 per cent of its lending must promote projects that were environmentally and socially sustainable -- such as microcredit projects to support farmers and women in villages.

Ms. Barcena, of the UNDP Regional Environment Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean, said the meeting was intended to determine how to link the regional processes promoting sustainable development with the global processes. Providing details of progress made by a number of Latin American regional bodies, she emphasized the collaborative approach taken by a number of regional bodies in combining the delivery of their services to individual countries. The meeting had proposed that the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) should become a major regional focal point for the work of the Commission on Sustainable Development. Mentioning other regional efforts, she said globalization was forcing the United Nations system to improve its services. She noted the importance of the media in sensitizing the public on the sustainable development objectives.

Mr. Gerges, Regional Director of UNEP's West Asia Office, said the priority areas for the Arab region were: fresh water resources; the development and management of coastal and marine resources; land degradation and combating desertification and industrial pollution; protection of

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biodiversity; and such cross-cutting issues as education, public awareness and an environmental information data base. Some success had been achieved in those areas, he said.

He stressed that regional initiatives should provide impetus for national action and reflect the priorities and needs of the countries of the region. The value of regional institutions lay in their very strong links to regional governments, experts and other policy makers and non-governmental organizations. One example was the development of the Arab regional information network for sustainable development, he said.

Mr. Hull, of the European Commission, said the meeting had strengthened the possibilities for cooperation among regional institutions within Europe and between Europe and the rest of the world. Citing examples of regional projects in Europe, he said cooperation in that region was based largely on legislation and action. Also important were recent changes resulting from a European treaty that would put sustainable development at the core of European policy-making. Developments in western Europe would have an impact on the rest of Europe, including the 10 countries that were candidates for accession to the Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.

A correspondent asked if resources could be mobilized on a sufficient scale to promote sustainable development. Further, how did regional cooperation work -- as in the area of water resources? Mr. Gerges, of UNEP's West Asia Office, responding on the issue of water resources, said that through regional cooperation, experts had been brought together to help the region's governments focus on non-conventional water resources that had not been fully utilized, such as water from agricultural run-off, industry and rain. The UNEP and ESCAP had held a number of activities on water resources and would follow up with a source book on the available technology of water resources. They would try to help governments acquire appropriate and affordable technology. Transfer of technology was also an important issue, as was sensitizing the public on the efficient use of water resources.

Regarding additional resources, Ms. Barcena, of UNDP's Regional Environment Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean, said UNDP in Latin America had been successful in combining core and non-core resources in offering technical assistance. It was important to devise a means of providing "value-added" to a country's investment. For example, energy efficient practices could save financial resources, which could then be used in other sectors for social development. It was important to look for innovative ways to finance sustainable development.

Mr. Jalal, of the Asian Development Bank, said that the estimated amount for implementing Agenda 21 globally was about $625 billion per year. Since such resources were not available, policy reform was needed. For example, proposals had been made to withdraw subsidies on energy and water, saving

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hundreds of billions of dollars a year internationally. In addition, domestic resources must be mobilized, particularly in the developing countries. There was a huge gap in the financing requirements for sustainable development in Asia.

Mr. Hull, of the European Commission, added that the more interesting challenge was how to use existing resources to facilitate the process of sustainable development. The European Union was looking more closely at how the funding of specific programmes could be adapted slightly to facilitate the sustainable development process and also how development assistance could integrate sustainable development.

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