WORLD SUMMIT TRAVEL GUIDE

This section intends to increase understanding of the whole process around the World Summit on Sustainable Development ("WSSD"). It describes the history of sustainable development, highlights the challenges during the run up and the summit itself, and outlines analysises of the summit outcome.

The World Summit is over

The World Summit on Sustainable Development ended on September 4. Governments regarded the Summit a success in many of the sometimes very contentious areas, while most civil society groups were much less enthusiastic about the results, as little has been achieved in terms of concrete timeframes, targets and funding to implement the Agenda 21, the key outcome document of the Rio Earth Summit 1992. Governments merely added a few more targets to the already long list of internationally agreed development goals without clarifying how these goals should be achieved and how to finance them. Instead, the summit called for more involvement of the private sector in so-called "public-private-partnerships". It has to be noted, though, that the outcome documents more explicitly acknowledged the links between poverty alleviation and environmental protection than the Rio texts. Reactions are particularly mixed regarding trade-related aspects of the Plan of Implementation and its impact on upcoming WTO negotiations, with a few even noting a strong signal to negotiators at the WTO to integrate sustainable development considerations in the negotiations.

What is being referred to as the World Summit was actually a huge happening of countless events, pre-conferences and workshops in and around Johannesburg, South Africa. The three main hubs of activity were the official UN summit, where delegations and governments met to deliberate on the poltical declaration, the plan of implementation and the partnerhip agreements; the Global Peoples Forum and other events such as the Peoples Earth Summit, where Civil Society gathered to exchange ideas, develop common perspectives and positions and make their concerns heard all over the world; and the Ubuntu Village, where governments and businesses exposed best practice examples in a colourful exhibition on sustainable development and held workshops and conferences.

What the World Summit was about

Johannesburg, South Africa, August/September 2002 -- After a ten year cycle since the historic UN Conference on Environment an Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro 1992, the UN held another conference these days to address sustainable development. The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), unofficially known as Rio+10, was a UN summit gathering at the highest level. World governments, UN agencies, Civil Society organisations, multilateral financial institutions and business gathered to assess global change since the UNCED. The official agenda of the World Summit was to review the achievements that have been made since the Rio Summit. Governments intended to debate what participating countries have done so far to implement the Rio action plan "Agenda 21", if they had ratified the conventions e.g. to prevent biodiversity loss and what obstacles had been encountered; and if they had adopted national sustainable development strategies as was agreed they would by 2002. Governments also intended to investigate new factors that have emerged since UNCED and what mid-course corrections need to be made.

While many developing countries (often referred to as G77/China) wanted to emphasise the intensification of the development problems and poverty by demanding more financial aid in support of the implementation process of sustainability, the USA, and to a lesser degree the EU and Japan focused on the development opportunities that present themselves as a result of economic growth, the development of new technologies and the mobilisation of capital.

"Preserving the environment and pursuing the development of the South" -- what had been identified in Rio as the common responsibility of the South and the North and the hope that the world's nations could cope with those central problems in a joint effort was still valid at the time of the summit. A lot had been worded since Rio, but not much had changed. The challenges were still there, the situation had worsened. However, the World Summit provided opportunities for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to reintegrate environment and development and to reinvigorate government's commitment to develop a sustainable conceptual framework for the next century.

The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), an institutional outcome of UNCED, was charged with the preparations for the summit in Johannesburg. The decision to hold another global summit was taken at the annual CSD meeting in 2000, and since then a preparatory process on all levels had been conducted that finally resulted in the World Summit itself.

How the world prepared

Very briefly, the run up to the WSSD had been divided into global, regional and national preparations. The national preparations consist of national reviews in implementing Agenda 21, developing national key areas for the agenda of the WSSD and particularly developing national sustainability strategies. These processes are still in full wing. On a regional level, high-level ministerial meetings have taken place in all regions, such as Africa, Europe & North America, Asia & Pacific etc. Four global meetings of the "Preparatory Committee" (PrepComm) prepared the summit on an international level. The first PrepComm discussed the modalities for the preparatory process as well as the Summit itself. The second meeting intended to look at issues such as the implementation of Agenda 21. PrepComm II resulted in the first version of the Chairman's Paper, identifying key topics for the World Summit. The third meeting negotiated this text, ending in a deadlock of brackets and disagreements. The fourth meeting re-negotiated the text with, however, little success regarding the more contentious issues such as trade and finance.

The parallel process for the International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) had taken as much attention as the preparation for the WSSD, in particular as many developing countries and the NGO community see the outcome of this conference crucial for the WSSD itself. Briefly: if the aftermath of the FfD conference does not make a change in issues of poverty reduction, development aid and foreign debts, there is little to be expected from the outcomes of the World Summit.