WESTERN ASIA / ARAB AND MIDDLE EAST

This section gives an overview about some of the World Summit activities of the Henrich Boell Foundation in the Arab and Middle East Region.

Development and Environmental Impacts in the Arab Society in Israel

Roundtable 

Roundtable, August 18, Nazareth, Israel -- Examining Economic Development and Environmental Impacts in the Arab Society; Roundtable in joint collaboration of the Mossawa Centre, Haifa and the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Tel Aviv. This seminar will help the Arab community to clarify the importance of the World Summit for Sustainable Development as a platform for the Arab minority in Israel to present issues of the problematic economic development in relation and direct linkage to the difficult environmental situation. MORE

Arabic World Summit Sourcebook

Publication 

Publication -- The large amount of information and material available about the World Summit in English is not useful for many non-English speakers. Relevant material has now been compiled and translated into Arabic, in order to distribute it amongst civil society activists from different Arab countries. It's purpose is to facilitate the national debates on the major challenges towards WSSD 2002 and to provide activists with further reading and Internet resources. The Manual is now for download. MORE

Shadow Report Sustainable Development in Israel

Publication 

With suport from the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Israeli Environmental NGO's have produced a shadow report pursuant to the report produced by the government of Israel on the progress made on its commitments according to Agenda 21. The initiative is led by Friends of the Earth Middle East and Life and Environment, an Umbrella Organization for the Environmental NGOs in Israel. The Israel Report is now for download. MORE

The Status of Environment in Jordan

Publication 

Agenda 21 Review: The Heinrich Boell Foundation has published a report on "The Status of Environment in Jordan": The report was prepared by Al Urdun Al Jadid Research Center which is a policy oriented research center concerned with environmental policies on the national, regional and international level.

Informative Roundtables

Workshops 

June-August 2002 -- The Heinrich Boell Foundation organises in co-operaion with local organisations several roundtables in the region, e.g. in Palestine, Jordan and Egypt. Focus of these roundtables lies on reviweing Agenda 21 implementation, waste and freshwater management, poverty reduction and civil society expectations and challenges for the World Summit. MORE

Arab Media and Sustainable Development

Seminar 

June 30 - July 2, 2002 -- Cairo, Egypt: A regional seminar will encourage better and more informed participation of Arab journalists in the WSSD 2002. Journalist will be encouraged to prepare articles and reports to monitor and evaluate the performance of governments and NGOs towards the conference. They will get more information about the preparation process, what to expect in Johannesburg and how to gain momentum to work after the conference and to promote sustainable development concepts in the Arab region. MORE

HBF WSSD Capacity Building Programme

Capacity Building 

In order to strengthen the role of civil society, a special WSSD capacity building programme of the Heinrich Boell Foundation is targeting activists in environmental and developmental NGOs. The programme comprises training courses for Civil Society activists in different parts of the world and internships in Brussels and Washington for selected people from these training courses. MORE

Promoting the Euro-Med Sustainable Development Strategy

WSSD Challenges 

In the context of the preparations for Johannesburg, the European Commission, DG Environment, will elaborate an European-Mediterranean Sustainable Development Strategy. The "Euromed SDS" will be adopted by the Euromed Ministers of Environment in Athens, July 2002. It will be submitted to the WSSD as part of the EU contribution. To make sure that the Euromed SDS fully includes key sustainability concerns and objectives, and to promote effective implementation of the Strategy after its adoption in Greece, hbf will be taking part in the following activities in close co-operation with WWF and other Mediterranean NGOs. MORE