MAJOR GROUPS AT THE WORLD SUMMIT
During the preparations but also at the UNCED
itself, the so-called major group concept was developed, which as "Section
III: Strengthening the role of major groups" is part of the Agenda
21. As major groups, the Agenda lists Youth, Women, Indigenous Peoples,
Non-Government Organisations, Local Authorities, Trade Unions, Business,
Scientific and Technical Communities as well as Farmers.
Chapter 22 particularly deals with
strengthening the role of non-governmental organisations as parties for
sustainable development. It also recognises the vital role NGOs play in
the shaping and implementation of Agenda 21.
Indeed the chapter calls upon governments and international bodies to
promote and allow the participation of NGOs in the conception, establishment
and evaluation of official mechanism and formal proceedings assigned to
review the implementation of Agenda 21.
The Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD)
has established Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues related to its annual sessions.
Its purpose is to generate action-oriented dialogue between governments
and major groups on a specific economic sector, and to identify future
policies and actions that increase the positive impact of this economic
sector on sustainable development objectives. These Multi
Stakeholder Dialogues are also part of the process in the run-up to
the WSSD. To prepare the dialogues, the nine major civil society groups
identified in Agenda 21 have been asked to
contribute two sets of papers: one for PrepCom
II assessing the Agenda 21 process
and one for PrepCom IV that will discuss
future actions.
For environmental and development NGOs Johannesburg provides programmatic
and strategic opportunities. Since the NGO community has grown, differentiated
and specialized itself during the last decade, the WSSD is now opening
the door to combine all the different processes and discussions under
one programmatic umbrella. This new approach can be used to achieve the
new challenges of globalisation, the further development of international
economic and financial institutions and players within the framework of
the anti globalisation movement.
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