This year just might produce a vision of a global system in which "development" is seen in terms of achievements in environmental and social justice as well as economic growth. The World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) to be held in August in Johannesburg creates an opportunity for "a coalition for responsible prosperity", according to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Many hope that Europe, as one of the two most powerful players at the event, will play a key role in that coalition.
Sustainable development was defined in 1987 by Gro Harlem Brundtland, now the Secretary General of the World Health Organization, as "a development satisfying the needs of the current generation without compromising the possibilities of future generations to satisfy their needs".
The concept was invented because economic growth was not bringing the desired social and environmental development. The dissatisfaction led to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992, where the links between environment and development were brought to the fore for the first time.
Unfortunately, the visionary action plan developed at Rio, and known as Agenda 21, was never implemented. Although many local authorities and civil society groups have taken up the ideas and converted them into projects, the change needed in national and global perspectives and action has not happened. This is despite the fact that the traditional development model is clearly not working. Today, more than ever, multiple hardships stop most of the world’s population from achieving healthy and sustainable lives. While world trade in goods and services has doubled over the last decade, the benefits have not been shared fairly. As MEP Glenys Kinnock told the World Trade Organization meeting in Doha, Qatar in November last year, "I am here to remind people that ’Integration into the world economy’ may not be the best route to sustainable development."
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan also sees the need for a change of direction in trade policy as crucial to making progress in sustainable development. Speaking in London in February, he said that Doha’s promise of a "development round" of trade negotiations must be built upon if there is to be success at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.
He called for "a break from business as usual" and hinted that the wealthy countries’ unfair agricultural policies were a case in point. He said that "unfair subsidies currently given to producers in rich countries were making it impossible for developing countries to compete" and that these tariffs were doing great damage to the rich countries themselves, "by perpetuating unsustainable practices in farming, transport and energy use."
Fairer trade, sharing responsibilities
Kofi Annan wants to see "a coalition of responsible prosperity" emerging at the Johannesburg meeting. All three partners - governments, corporations and civil society groups - would be assigned responsibilities in defining priorities, implementation and monitoring.
"Responsible prosperity" would require a real commitment to sustainable development, including some major changes in economic and trade policy, the financing of development and issues of governance.
Europe has recently taken important steps in some of these areas. For example, the EU is now monitoring social and environmental indicators of progress as part of its "EU Strategy for Sustainable Development". It has also reaffirmed its commitment to reach the UN (and Agenda 21) target for official development assistance of 0.7% of GDP.
A recent event provides an example of the growing role assigned to civil society in European governance. As a parallel event taking place during the European Council meeting in Barcelona in March 2002, major civil society groups were addressed by European Commission President Romano Prodi. The meeting was organised by the Platform of European Social NGOs and the European Environment Bureau, and attended by EPHA, specifically to address issues of sustainable development.
Prior to the meeting, the EU released its Communication in preparation for the Summit, which defines the "substantial issues" to be addressed at the Johannesburg meeting as "protection of the natural resource base, poverty eradication, sustainable globalisation, and the need for good governance and participation nationally and internationally".
Europe is a crucial partner in the debate. It brings together not only the wealthy countries of Western Europe but also the Candidate Countries of Central and Eastern Europe plus Malta and Cyprus. It also acts as a counterweight to the United States, which is likely to take a less positive stand.
European civil society has been quick to take advantage of encouraging signs shown by the European Union. They have proposed a "Global Deal" which urges European Union heads of state and governments and the President of the European Commission "to take a lead in the development of a tripartite programme in support of the World Summit on Sustainable Development."
A Global Deal
The objective of the proposed "pro-poor, pro-peace, pro-planet" programme would be to design a multi-stakeholder implementation framework of the WSSD outcome. The priority would be on the Southern Agenda, equity and participating process. Echoing 11 September, the statement appeals to the industrialised world with a reminder that everything is at risk from the instability and conflict associated with desperate poverty. The Global Deal says: "The single most important threat to sustainable development globally is poverty and the widening gap between the rich and the desperately poor. This is not only a threat to poor nations but also to wealthy nations as the instability, conflict, disease and environmental degradation associated with poverty threaten the overall socio-economic status of our planet."
Health priorities
Although the authors of the Global Deal see disease as a major threat to sustainable development, the programme does not prioritise health as such. Rather its key action areas are those of poverty eradication, agriculture and food security, human development, trade market access, financing for development, marine and coastal environments, and issues of governance - all of which are major contributing to health.
One of the signatories to the Global Deal is Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF), an EPHA member and key player in European civil society’s preparation for Johannesburg. In March 2002, 120 women from 30 countries met to develop WECF’s statement on sustainable development. It focuses on the need to promote the right to a healthy environment as well as for peace, poverty eradication, safe drinking water for all, and sustainable production and consumption, if sustainable development is to be achieved.
Environmental health issues are specifically addressed in "Prescription for Johannesburg" developed by NGOs in the US, and supported and promoted in Europe by the Geneva-based International Society of Doctors for the Environment (ISDE). The statement notes the rising rates of asthma, diabetes, lead poisoning, pesticide poisoning and diarrhoeal disease around the world and calls on the Summit to identify and prioritise efforts to further integrate environmental and health concerns and solutions in all countries.
"Prescription for Johannesburg" also calls on the Summit to implement the commitments already made. For example, it asks that "precaution", as set forth in Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration, be addressed and proposes that all governments commit to ratifying the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. The group of public health and other public interest groups who produced this statement provide a reminder of the importance of environmental factors in determining health. It quotes the World Health Organization as saying that poor environmental quality is responsible for 25% of all preventable ill-health in the world today.
Governance
Civil society in general sees governance as a key issue. Groups such as WECF, ISDE and EPHA recognise their role and responsibility at the World Summit and afterwards. They also highlight the need for corporate responsibility, and for European leaders to make real commitments and concessions. Referring to the forthcoming Summit in his speech in London, Kofi Annan said that "in an era of great wealth, it must show how wealth can be shared by all those living, and preserved for those who come after." Let’s hope Europe can play its full part in ensuring Kofi Annan’s vision of a "coalition of responsible prosperity".
It’s worth noting!
The industrialised world is continuing to use far more than its fair share of resources. Just 15% of the world’s population, who live in high-income countries, account for 56% of all the world’s consumption, while the poorest 40%, in developing countries, account for only 11% of consumption.
Source: Report of UN Secretary-General, December 2001
WSSD events ahead
Two key preparatory committee meetings for the World Summit on Sustainable Development have already taken place.
PrepCom3 (25 March - 5 April) takes place in New York, US.
PrepCom4 (27 May - 7 June) takes place in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is ministerial level and includes multi-stakeholder discussions.
WSSD, Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August - 4 September 2002 includes the attendance of heads of government, ministers, business and civil society.
Putting human faces on sustainable development
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says that although sustainable development may be the new conventional wisdom, many people have still not grasped its meaning. He therefore gives some examples to put a human face on sustainable development and to show that the concept is far from abstract.
"One of them might be that of a woman in a rural district - it could be in India, or almost any African country - who, year by year, finds she has to go further and further in search of water and fuel.
Her back aches from the long journey carrying a heavy load, but her heart aches even more from the fear that failure will expose herself and her children to hunger, thirst and disease. How much longer can her way of life be sustained?
Another face might be that of a son or cousin of that woman who, precisely because that rural way of life was no longer sustainable for a growing population, is now living in an urban slum or shantytown. He has no work - or rather, he lacks the training and resources needed to start work, though his community desperately needs the contribution he could make.
What is worse, although he himself does not know it, he is infected with HIV, and has passed it on to his wife. How much longer can this way of life be sustained?"
Source: "From Doha to Johannesburg by way of Monterrey: how development can be achieved and sustained in the 21st century", a lecture by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan given in London in February 2002.
References:
"From Doha to Johannesburg by way of Monterrey: how development can be achieved and sustained in the 21st century", a lecture by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan given in London in February 2002.
