TOWARDS THE WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

World Summit Paper #1; South African Civil Society Caucus: Indaba

In an attempt to initiate a civil society debate and response to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the South African NGO Caucus on the World Summit for Sustainable Development and the Heinrich Böll Foundation have produced this discussion paper to provide information on the key milestones of the last 30 years. The paper provides an introduction to the issues, institutions and international processes with which civil society organisations need to engage in the build up to the 2002 Summit.

The paper covers the historical global governance milestones, tracing major events from 1972 through to the 2002 event. The document goes beyond just providing information. Numerous important questions are posed to guide civil society organisations in developing strategies to engage with the 2002 Summit. It is hoped that civil society organisations will use these question, develop others, and begin working together to ensure a meaningful and representative contribution towards influencing the outcomes of the 2002 Summit. The document has several annexes, which include information of southern concerns in relation to global environmental governance, recent NGO meetings on 2002, an overview of some of the UNGA decisions on 2002, a list of useful 2002 web sites, and finally information on the South African NGO Caucus on the World Summit for Sustainable Development and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

[ pdf; 31 pages ]