0:06Skip to 0 minutes and 6 seconds HILARY HOMANS: Last week, we looked at how

early definitions of development were linked in Britain with colonialism. We also

explored a range of different definitions of development and ways of seeing and how
these influence perceptions. This week, we'll go a step further and look briefly at key
dates and issues in the past 60 years of development, discuss the concept of sustainable
development, and say why we think that a human rights approach is critical. We will
also review the Millennium Development Goals, often called MDGs, and learn from
influential leaders about their views of the MDGs and progress made. Finally, we'll
explore whether development has been implemented as a top-down concept imposed by
the global north as suggested by Henrietta Moore.
1:02Skip to 1 minute and 2 seconds We start by looking at development from the 1940s
through to the end of the 1990s when for the first time a global development agenda
was developed and agreed. During this period, there were various tensions between the
previous colonial powers and the newly independent states in sub-Saharan Africa and
also tensions between different models of development proposed by economists, human
rights advocates, and development experts. We will now look at these tensions on a
decade by decade basis. Let us begin with the 1940s. As a result of the Second World
War, the 1940s heralded a host of new international institutions, shown in red on the
timeline.
1:52Skip to 1 minute and 52 seconds These agencies were created to manage global
finances, address hunger and malnutrition, especially in children, and promote health
and well-being. Support for reconstruction in Europe was agreed in the Marshall Plan.
In 1948, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights was agreed, and
this was ratified to promote global peace and harmony through acknowledging the equal
and inalienable rights of all people, a point that we will refer to throughout the course.
The modern Commonwealth was formally reconstituted as a multicultural association
by the London Declaration in 1949, which established all member states, including

those newly independent states such as Ceylon, India, and Pakistan, as free and equal
partners. As of 2015, there are 53 states that are members of the Commonwealth.
2:53Skip to 2 minutes and 53 seconds There was a clear shift in the way that
development was viewed after the Second World War. Former colonial powers such as
France and the United Kingdom became for the first time recipients of aid under the
Marshall Plan developed for European reconstruction. During the period 1948 to 1951,
the United Kingdom received $3,297 million and France, $2,296 million under the
Marshall Plan. The figure shows other European countries that received aid under the
plan, with the size of the bar depicting the sum received. During the 1950s, the main
focus in the United Kingdom was on internal development and reconstruction rather
than international development.
3:48Skip to 3 minutes and 48 seconds As Britain transferred power to its old colonies,
which generally joined the new Commonwealth, the problem for Britain became how to
maintain influence in, and hence serve, the new aspirations of the Commonwealth
countries. This became challenging in the 1960s, with 25 former colonies in subSaharan Africa becoming independent, which called for a new way of working together.
Even more international development organisations, shown in red on the timeline, were
created in the 1960s with a focus on economic development (Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development), human development (United Nations Development
Programme), and the United Nations agency for what was then called population
"control" due to concerns over high fertility in many developing countries.
4:44Skip to 4 minutes and 44 seconds Economic growth underpinned the United
Kingdom's approach to poverty alleviation in the 1960 White Paper, whilst the 1965
White Paper recognised a moral duty to focus on international development in terms of
the national interest. Poverty eradication and moral responsibility are themes that we
will come to later in the course. During the same period, several African leaders began
to implement their own development programmes. One example was the approach

adopted by President Julius Nyerere from Tanzania, who advocated for homegrown
social and economic development policies based on cooperative economics, which
ploughed profits back into the enterprises that generated them. This was part of the
Ujamaa concept, based on family principles. It included "villagisation" which was based
on collective ownership of local production.
5:42Skip to 5 minutes and 42 seconds The scheme was an attempt to free Tanzanians
from dependence on European powers. However, the oil crisis in the 1970s and the lack
of foreign direct investment were among the factors which contributed to the demise of
Ujamaa. The economic paradigm of development began to be challenged in the late
1970s and the early 1980s with the development experts calling for a basic-needs
approach to development to be adopted. This approach was participatory and recognised
the role of civil society working with communities in a holistic manner to reduce
poverty improve access to education, health, services, water, and sanitation.
6:28Skip to 6 minutes and 28 seconds There was also growing awareness of the
importance of the environment in influencing development and the need to focus on the
specific vulnerability of refugees and women with three United Nations' agencies,
shown in red on the timeline, established to address these shortcomings. There were
also a series of global conferences to address these issues, as well as issues of
population and food security. These are shown in yellow on the timeline. Towards the
end of the decade, in 1978, there was an international conference on primary health
care. This resulted in a comprehensive and multi-conceptual programme to achieve
Health for All by the year 2000. We will return to this later, as there are some parallels
with the proposed post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda.
7:21Skip to 7 minutes and 21 seconds Throughout the 1980s, greater attention was paid
to women in two international conferences, one in Copenhagen in Denmark and one in
Nairobi in Kenya. In terms of human rights, the United Nations Declaration on the
Right of Development was agreed after much deliberation in 1986. Although, as you

will see later, this was not an entirely smooth process and reflected dominant northern
voices and concerns. In the early 1980s, the International Monetary Fund and the World
Bank began to put in place Structural Adjustment Programmes, often known as SAPs,
which led to many low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa introducing user fees for
education and health services.
8:09Skip to 8 minutes and 9 seconds These policies further impoverished people on low
incomes and deterred them from obtaining essential health care and sending their
children to school. According to the World Health Organisation, these programmes
affected "both the supply of health services by insisting on cuts in health spending and
the demand for health services by reducing household income, thus leaving people with
less money for health". There's also evidence that these policies slowed down
improvements in, or worsened, the health status of people in countries implementing
them. The results reported include poorer nutritional status of children, increased
incidence of infectious diseases, and higher infant and maternal mortality rates.
8:58Skip to 8 minutes and 58 seconds The focus on basic needs continued throughout
the 1980s and saw the publication of two important texts, the first by Robert Chambers
in 1983, entitled Rural Development, Putting the Last First and later in 1988 Ben
Wisner's Power and Need in Africa. Wisner drew attention to environmental
sustainability, women's empowerment, and social justice and called for a radical basicneeds approach, whilst Chambers challenged top-down approaches by advocating that
development should be bottom up and focus on rural communities and households
living in poverty. This perspective is endorsed by economist, Paul Collier, in his 2007
book, The Bottom Billion, Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be
Done About It.
9:49Skip to 9 minutes and 49 seconds Issues of sustainable development began to be
articulated within the context of environmental concerns, and the term "sustainable
development" was defined at the 1987 World Commission on Environment and

Development, commonly known as Our Common Future. You will discuss this
definition later in the course. The 1990s were a time of reassessing development
progress and moving away from equating poverty only with income, a point we will
elaborate on later. It was also in 1990 that the first Human Development Report was
published. This was to assess human welfare in different countries and was based on a
Human Development Index, commonly known is HDI, which was developed by
Mahbub ul Haq, a Pakistani economist.
10:39Skip to 10 minutes and 39 seconds He developed a system to measure human
development through a composite indicator of life expectancy, quality of health, level of
literacy, and stand of living. Most low scoring countries on the Human Development
Index are in sub-Saharan Africa. The Human Development Index classifies countries for
which data are available into four categories, very high human development, high
human development, medium human development, and low human development. In the
next step, you will have the opportunity to look at which countries in sub-Saharan
Africa fall into each of these categories. The 1990s also saw the creation of the World
Trade Organisation and the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS, known as
UNAIDS, which is incidentally the only disease related agency in the United Nations.
11:36Skip to 11 minutes and 36 seconds The 1990 also saw the introduction of a system
of common country assessments, shown in green on the timeline. These were introduced
to embed donor support for development into national development planning,
supposedly so that national governments would be in the driving seat in terms of
determining the priorities and the agenda. We will pick up on these issues later when we
hear from representatives of national governments about the planning process.
Sixty years of development
In this video Hilary Homans introduces Week 2 during which you will:
consider key dates and developments in the last 60 years of development

 discuss the concept of sustainable development and explore why a human rights
approach is critical
learn about the Millennium Development Goals and progress towards these
explore whether development has been implemented as a top down concept
imposed by the global north.
Following an introduction to Week 2 the video provides an overview of the historical
development of policy on development and introduces some of the organisations
involved in policy development.
University of Aberdeen
United Nations definition of sustainable development
Official definition of sustainable development
The official definition of sustainable development was agreed in 1987 at the World
Commission on Environment and Development (WCED).
This definition is:
Sustainable development is a process of change in which the exploitation of resources,
the direction of investment, the orientation of technological development, and
institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to
meet human needs and aspirations. (WCED, 1987:46)
A more succinct definition is: development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This has come
to be known as the Brundtland definition after the then Norwegian Prime Minister Gro
Harlem Brundtland who chaired the Commission.

In 1992 this definition was further expanded at the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development to show the inter-relationship between social and
economic development and environmental protection. As the figure shows, human
beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development or as African Union
position statement on the post-2015 development agenda says, sustainable development
should be people-centred.

Other terms you may come across include international development which lacks a
universally accepted definition and is often used in a holistic and multi-disciplinary
context of human development to refer to improvement of livelihoods and greater
quality of life for humans. For bilateral donors such as the UK Department for
International Development (DfID) it includes governance, healthcare, education,
disaster preparedness, infrastructure, economics, human rights, environment and issues
associated with these. According to DfID sustainable development:
includes any development that is, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, prudent
having regard to the likelihood of its generating lasting benefits for the population of the
country or countries in relation to which it is provided.
Sustainable development is therefore distinct from disaster relief and humanitarian
aid which also seek to alleviate some of the problems associated with a lack of

development, they are most often short term fixes they are not necessarily long term
solutions.
The European Commission uses the Brundtland definition saying that it implies:
a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. It offers a vision
of progress that integrates immediate and longer-term objectives, local and global
action, and regards social, economic and environmental issues as inseparable and
interdependent components of human progress.
0:06Skip to 0 minutes and 6 secondsAs many of the responses have brought out,
sustainable development is about having policies that enable development to continue
into the long-term future-- not just for our children and grandchildren, but for future
generations. This means that for most people, we need to protect the environment.
Because if the environment isn't protected, it will undermine the basis for future
development. Now, what wasn't really recognised is that sustainability in itself is neither
good nor bad. It all depends on what we want to sustain and how we do it. So
sustainable development, if it's to be good, we need to have a clear idea about what the
values are that we wish to sustain in development. What are these?
0:54Skip to 0 minutes and 54 seconds Clearly, the conditions in which human beings-all human beings-- can flourish now and into the future. But arguably, this does not
mean the conditions for a life of affluence current enjoyed by the very rich in the world.
That, I would say, is actually impossible. Consider climate change if nothing else.
Relentless economic growth, then, is for all, I think, problematic. On the other hand, in
sub-Saharan Africa, economic growth in important-- not least to enable people living in
poverty to improve their lives. I would add that sustainability is not only about
development itself. Not mentioned is the fact that we share this world with others. And
ideally, we ought to be concerned about sustaining the life conditions on both humans
and non-humans.

1:46Skip to 1 minute and 46 seconds That aside, we will now turn our attention to
whether or not people do have a right to development.
A philosophers view of sustainable development
In this video Nigel Dower adds a further philosophical dimension and asks you to
consider the values that underpin the concept of sustainable development.
0:07Skip to 0 minutes and 7 secondsLast week, we reviewed six decades of
development, and we looked at the extent to which a human rights approach was
embedded in the Millennium Development Goals. We also looked at examples of
progress and challenges encountered at country level with examples from Kenya and
Rwanda. We also explored the extent to which development was a top-down
phenomenon, and we looked at some initiatives for a bottom-up approach-- coming, not
only from country level, but also through the African Union where they're trying to
embed their programmes on the needs of people and to adopt a participatory approach.
This week, we will look at some of the modes of measuring development and also the
robustness of the data that is used.
1:06Skip to 1 minute and 6 seconds Let's just begin, though, by returning to the question
of what is meant by a fact or the truth. We will explore the potential tension between
lived or subjective experience versus logical information, which can be counted or
quantified. This is discussed by the French philosopher Michel Foucault, who
researched that "'literary fiction' such as narratives, stories, epics, tragedies, and
comedies were once accepted as essential truths about human dilemmas and
understandings of the world in the same way as 'scientific' texts." Some African authors
have described different aspects of development in a form that is often more accessible
than government statistics and political tracts. As Chenjerai Hove writes, "Politicians
believe in the constituency of physical borders and numbers.

2:05Skip to 2 minutes and 5 secondsThe more voters, the happier the politician. The
more people the politician can address in a rally, the more powerful he feels." Whilst
writers "live in a different world which is not justified by quantitative things," they have
a "place in the world in order that the world's spaces are not only for those who have
money and political power, but those who know how to distribute the power of the
imagination so that the small spaces of our lives can also have meaning." This week,
we'll begin by reading some text on poverty, and we do this to help us understand the
concept but also to look at the complexity of using poverty as a measure for
development.
2:54Skip to 2 minutes and 54 seconds We will then look at the different types of data
that are available to use to measure poverty and other aspects of human development.
We will conclude by looking the adequacy of these data and also looking at some of the
political and ethical issues involved in using these data.
Recap for Week 2 and overview for Week 3
In this video Hilary Homans provides a recap of Week 2 and introduces Week 3 which:
explores the concept of poverty and the complexity of using poverty as a measure
for development
looks at the different types of data available to measure poverty and other aspects
of human development
considers the adequacy of data and some of the political and ethical issues
involved in their use.
Since the videos and articles for this week were made there have been updates in the
data available on poverty with the publication of the Millennium Goals Report 2015 in
July. For the latest data see:

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2015_MDG_Report/pdf/MDG%202015%20rev
%20(July%201).pdf

3.2
Different dimensions of poverty
As stated earlier the overarching Millennium Development Goal 1 is to eradicate
poverty. Additional campaigns such as the Make Poverty History campaign created in
2005 in the UK also had this goal (Make Poverty History, n.d). Lets spend a few
minutes understanding poverty and its complexity before we move on to different ways
of measuring it.
Poverty is not a new phenomenon and as the following extract from a film script show
people have different perceptions of what it is. The exchange is between a young
woman from England who has travelled to the Hebrides in Scotland and a local Scottish
man. She sees poverty and destitution in the local community, but he sees the richness
of the community and strong social networks.
Why is everyone so poor around here?
What do you mean?
Well no-one has any money.
But that does not mean they are poor.
Abridged from the 1945 film I know where Im going referring to people on a Scottish
Hebridean island.
Poverty is often described as a negative state that threatens life and denies livelihood
opportunities. Towards the end of the 19th century poverty became associated with a
lack of income through the pioneering work of Charles Booth and Seebohn Rowntree in
the United Kingdom. Booth tried to provide an objective measure of poverty (a level of
income) that was independent of any moral or emotional assumptions. His work was

advanced by Rowntree, a Quaker and son of a wealthy cocoa manufacturer, who

collected detailed data on families in York (England) in 1899 in an attempt to establish a
minimum wage essential for maintaining health and capacity to work. His work led to
the establishment of the concept of a poverty line a measure of income below which it
is not possible to meet nutritional requirements and maintain physical efficiency
(Holden, 2013).
Absolute poverty
Absolute poverty is an acute condition that offers people little opportunity to control
the destiny of their own lives and makes them vulnerable to death in the most extreme
cases. It may also involve a denial of opportunities which cross cultures, sub-cultures
and gender. Aspects of human rights, dignity, security and participation in political
processes have been integrated into the definition of poverty agreed at the UN World
Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995:
Poverty has various manifestations, including lack of income and productive resources
sufficient to ensure sustainable livelihoods; hunger and malnutrition; ill health; limited
or lack of access to education and other basic services; increased morbidity and
mortality from illness; homelessness and inadequate housing; unsafe environments; and
social discrimination and exclusion. It is also characterized by a lack of participation in
decision-making and in civil, social and cultural life. It occurs in all countries: as mass
poverty in many developing countries, pockets of poverty amid wealth in developed
countries, loss of livelihoods as a result of economic recession, sudden poverty as a
result of disaster or conflict, the poverty of low-wage workers, and the utter destitution
of people who fall outside family support systems, social institutions and safety nets..
(United Nations, 1995 Para 19) .
Women bear a disproportionate burden of poverty, and children growing up in poverty
are often permanently disadvantaged. Other groups vulnerable to poverty are: older
people, people with disabilities, indigenous people, refugees and internally displaced

persons. Poverty may prevent people from accessing essential services and people
living in poverty are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of disasters and
conflicts.
An example of poverty and malnutrition as a result of war is described by Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie in her powerful novel Half of a Yellow Sun about the Biafran war in
Nigeria. The extract below describes the views of two western journalists who have
come to Biafra to report on the situation. Richard who has been working in Biafra for a
number of years and is more familiar with the context accompanies them. He is taken
aback that the reporters ask to see real Biafrans although the children he shows them
have not eaten properly for two years and having survived by eating rodents and leaves.
He (first reporter) walked over to the children and gave them some sweets and took
photographs of them and they clamoured around him and begged for more. Once, he
said, Thats a lovely smile! and after he left them, the children went back to their
roasting rats.
The redheaded (second reporter) walked across quickly, the camera around his neck
swinging as he moved. I want to see the real Biafrans he said.
The real Biafrans? Richard asked.
I mean, look at them. They cant have eaten a meal in two years. I dont see how they
can still talk about the cause and Biafra and Ojuwku.
Do you usually decide what answers you will believe before you do an interview?
Richard asked mildly.
I (first reporter) want to go to another refugee camp.
They are eating everything, the plump one (second reporter) said, shaking his head.
Every green leaf has become a vegetable.

Relative poverty
Whilst absolute poverty is understood as occurring when people lack the resources to
support a minimum of physical health and efficiency, relative poverty is determined by
what is culturally defined as being poor, usually against the normal living standard of
societies. Relative poverty includes lack of access to cultural goods, entertainment,
recreation and quality health care and education. It is about equity: the extent to which
people are materially wealthier compared to each other and also the opportunities they
have to improve their lives (Holden, 2013: 18).
Chronic poverty
According to the Chronic Poverty Research Centre based at Manchester University,
chronic poverty is an income poverty or multi-dimensional poverty that is experienced
for many years (usually more than five years), often for a whole life time and/or is
passed from one generation to the next (Hulme and Shepherd, 2011: 2).
Discuss
Can you think of any examples of poverty from your own country? If so, please
share them.
Do they differ from what has been described here? If so, please say how they
differ.
University of Aberdeen

3.3
Causes, distribution, measuring and eradicating poverty
The most common causes of chronic poverty are combinations of poor work
opportunities, insecurity and poor health, social discrimination, limited citizenship and
spatial disadvantages (Shepherd, 2011). Pieterse and Van Donk (2002) consider that
poverty is caused by a combination of social, economic, spatial, environmental and
political factors. Due to the multiplicity of these factors and their spatial dynamics,
individuals and households may move in and out of poverty depending on the changing
dynamic of their lives and the political and economic situation. Poverty is therefore
much more than a lack of income. It is dynamic and changing with urbanisation and
rural deprivation.
Spatial distribution of people living in poverty
Identifying the number of people living in poverty and where they live is essential to
develop policies and strategies for poverty alleviation and reduction. Yet after six
decades of development strategies, few if any of the international agencies know the
exact number of poor people in the world (Holden, 2013: 23).
According to the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), who
conducted the most comprehensive survey there has ever been of rural poverty,
approximately 75% of the worlds poorest people live in rural areas (p.23). Many of the
poorest of the rural people live in geographically remote regions and on marginal lands.
Using the latest available data of the spatial distribution of the worlds absolute poor,
defined by having an income of less than US$1.25 a day in 2005, poverty is most
prevalent in Least Developed Countries (LCDs) located in East Asia, South Asia and
sub-Saharan Africa (p.24). The image below shows how rural poverty (highest levels
shown in darker green) is more marked in areas surrounding three cities of South Africa,
whilst the city centres and suburbs are more affluent.

Darker green indicate higher levels of poverty - Click to enlarge

Whilst population rates are declining in the developed countries of the world, they are
increasing in the Least Developed Countries, where the population of the worlds
poorest 48 countries is expected to double by 2050, raising key economic and social
challenges for the future.
Measuring poverty
Income is the indicator used in the MDGs to measure poverty. The poverty line was set
at US$1 per day (from 2000 until 2008) and US$1.25 per day (based on purchasing
power parity) thereafter. Other measures of poverty include peoples access to resources
including health and education, freedom of expression and subsequent opportunities for
personal development, creativity and well-being.

Multidimensional measure of poverty

It is now clear that poverty (like development) is multidimensional and therefore
requires a multidimensional approach to measure it. The Oxford Poverty and Human
Development Initiative have developed a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which
complements monetary measures of poverty by considering overlapping deprivations
suffered by people at the same time. The index identifies the same deprivations as the
HDI (Human Development Index) namely education, health and standard of living. The
MPI is able to show the number of people who are multi-dimensionally poor and the
number of deprivations poor households suffer from. According to Multidimensional
Poverty Index the almost 1.5 billion people in the 91 countries surveyed found that more
than a third of them were living in multidimensional poverty. This exceeds the estimated
1.2 billion people in those countries who live on $1.25 a day or less. And close to 800
million people are vulnerable to fall into poverty if setbacks occur financial, natural or
otherwise (UNDP, 2015).
Poverty eradication in sub-Saharan Africa
As we saw last week, the eradication of poverty was the over-arching goal within the
Millennium Development Goals. However, the target of halving poverty not only
ignores the human rights principle of universality, but it also assumes that all countries
were at the same starting point when the targets were set. In 1990 (the reference year for
the Millennium Development Goals) Africa was not at the same poverty level as other
regions: 57 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa were at that time living below US$
1.25 a day compared to 12 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 6 per cent
in the Middle East and North Africa. Most countries that have made substantial progress
towards reducing poverty had more favourable starting conditions (strong economy,
good policies and institutions) around 1990. Moreover, poor countries have further to go
in halving extreme poverty because of pre-existing high poverty levels and most
conflict and post-conflict countries are located in sub-Saharan Africa. They are often

characterised by weak growth and an inadequate policy environment for accelerating

the reduction of poverty and hunger (UNECA et al, 2014).
Despite these initial unfavourable conditions and the adverse effects of food, fuel,
financial and Eurozone crises, poverty rates in sub-Saharan Africa have continued to
decline. The proportion of people living on less than US$ 1.25 a day decreased from
56.5 per cent in 1990 to 48.5 per cent in 2010. This is attributed to rapid growth rates in
the past decade, improved governance and the implementation of social protection
programmes in some countries. The regional policy environment is also supportive and
the main goal of the African Union Common African Position (CAP) is to eradicate
poverty by making growth inclusive and people-centred, enhancing the productive
capacity of Africans to sustainably manage and leverage their natural resources in an
environment of peace and security (African Union, 2014).
University of Aberdeen
View 90 comments
0:06Skip to 0 minutes and 6 secondsAttempts to find various ways to measure poverty
are important. Such data provide the evidence base for policy-making, but underlying
the desire for measurement is a deeper question about what makes extreme poverty the
evil that it is. Now, it may be that part of this is less easy to capture in quantitative data.
What I mean is this-- that disease, hunger, and child and maternal mortality more
measurable than, say, whether a person has some sense of control over his or her life or
a sense of meaningful participation in the life of his or her community.
0:41Skip to 0 minutes and 41 seconds Amartya Sen-- a Nobel Prize-winning Indian
philosopher/economist-- makes much of the idea of a person exercising agency in his or
her life rather than being and perceiving himself or herself to be passively suffering or,
when aid comes, becoming dependent on that aid. Measuring lack of agency is rather
more difficult, but it is actually important for that is partly what makes the evil of

poverty the evil it is. Well-being is an important issue when we consider development.
As I've said earlier, development is about improvement for human beings, so we need to
have some account of what well-being is. Some people think that this means happiness,
satisfying one's desires and preferences, being able to make choices, and so on.
1:31Skip to 1 minute and 31 secondsBut others give more detailed accounts. These
might be in terms of dimensions to well-being-- productive activities or meaningful
work, rich personal relations with family and friends, health, enjoyments, knowledge,
communal and political participation, and so on. All can agree that hunger, disease, lack
of secure shelter, and violence undermine the possibility of well-being, but well-being
itself is much more than this-- than the lack of these things and is much more
contestable. Well-being. I believe it's a sense by which your basic needs are catered for,
you maintain a sense of human dignity, and you have a general sense of humanity and
humaneness. I think that's well-being-- being in a state where you're pretty much
comfortable.
2:24Skip to 2 minutes and 24 seconds It doesn't mean you're rich or you will not
struggle, but you're OK with the challenges that you face.
A philosophers view of poverty and well-being
In this video Nigel Dower is joined by Melba Wasunna (Head of the School of
Extractive Industries at Strathmore University in Kenya). Nigel explores philosophical
questions challenges in measuring poverty and they both talk about the importance of
the concept of well-being to human development.
0:06Skip to 0 minutes and 6 secondsWhat progress is being made more generally in
Sub-Saharan Africa? Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa have taken practical steps to
promote education for all. Some of the actions have included phasing out of user fees in
primary education, expanding infrastructure for the provision of primary education,
increased budgetary allocation to the primary education sector. There has been an

increase in net primary enrollment. The gender gap is now narrowing. And there is
parity in some countries. As the graph shows, in 1991, 53% of primary-age children
were in school in Sub-Saharan Africa. And by 2013, this had increased to 78%. Boys
enrollment increased from 58% to 81% and girls from 48% to 75%. However, there is
significant variation by country, as the graph also shows.
1:14Skip to 1 minute and 14 seconds Gender equality in primary school enrollment has
narrowed so that by 2010 there were nine girls enrolled to every 10 boys, compared
with eight girls to every 10 boys in 1991. By 2010, over two-thirds of Sub-Saharan
African countries had gender parity. But Ivory Coast, for example, had only 71 girls
enrolled for every 100 boys. And Nigeria 84 girls for every 100 boys. By comparison,
Botswana had 112 girls enrolled for every 100 boys and Rwanda 104 girls for every 100
boys. Despite this progress, in 2012 58 million children of primary-school age were out
of school. More than half, 33 million, live in Sub-Saharan Africa. And 56% of these
were girls.
2:15Skip to 2 minutes and 15 seconds Armed conflict was the main reason in the region
for keeping children out of school. Children living with disabilities are also much less
likely to go to school than other children. Even if children go to school, they do not
necessarily learn. In 2012, the Brookings Institute estimated that only 55% of children
in Sub-Saharan Africa were in school and learning. 13% never go to school. And 32%
are in school but not learning. Education inequalities are also a concern, with children
from poor homes being significantly less likely to learn than those from wealthier ones.
There are also inequalities between children living in urban and rural areas and between
boys and girls. But the gender gap is closing, as I have already explained.
3:15Skip to 3 minutes and 15 seconds As the graph shows, primary school completion
rates have increased across Sub-Saharan Africa, but not to the same extent as
enrollment. The gender gap has also closed, with nine girls completing in 2010 for
every 10 boys, compared with eight in 1990. As for enrollment, there are variations

between countries in terms of completion and gender parity. At the Sub-Saharan Africa
Regional Ministerial Conference on Education Post-2015, which was held in Kigali,
Rwanda, in February 2015, three main challenges for achieving education for all were
identified in Sub-Saharan Africa. These were low enrollment rates of girls compared to
boys in school; severe lack of youth skills necessary for employment; high dropout
rates, with 42% of African school children leaving school early.
4:22Skip to 4 minutes and 22 seconds However, as I have pointed out, poverty and
disability are the main things that keep children out of school. The African Union also
pays attention to the importance of equity, gender parity, and creating an enabling
learning environment. The school curriculum should include basic rights and
responsibilities of citizens, age-appropriate sexual and reproductive health education,
and the development of entrepreneurial skills to respond to labour market demands.
Regional progress in education
Pamela Abbott follows up on the issue of education through discussing progress
towards Education For All in sub-Saharan Africa. She describes differences which exist
between selected countries in terms of primary school enrolment and gender parity and
some of the reasons why children fail to attend school. Pamela makes the important
point that even if children go to school, they do not necessarily learn and refers to
regional initiatives to improve the situation.
Education case studies
An assessment of progress in Africa toward the Millennium Development Goals (2014)
notes that compared with the rest of the world, sub-Saharan Africa achieved
spectacular leaps in primary education during the period 1990 to 2011: a 24 per cent
increase compared with 17 per cent in North Africa. However, sub-Saharan Africa
continues to have the lowest education completion rates in the world.

This led the authors of the progress report to call for an unprecedented national and
international mobilisation to assure equitable access to basic education in countries such
as, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Liberia and Nigeria that are not likely to
achieve universal primary education. There is also need to improve the quality of
instruction and training for vulnerable youth as children who do not complete basic
education are less likely to obtain a rewarding job or income-generating opportunities,
and are more likely to become involved in illegal or informal activities. The review
identifies four priorities:
1. Speed up private sector investment in education
2. Enhance science, technology and innovation (STI) to extend access and improve
quality education
3. Increase access to quality early childhood care and development
4. Upgrade educational management and planning capacities (UNECA, AU, AfDB
and UNDP, 2014).
Malawi
Over the last 15 years, Malawi has made tremendous progress towards Millennium
Development Goal 2.

Matund
uzi School, Girls Education Support Initiative, Malawi 2012. By Erik Torner (Image 1: https://www.flickr.com/photos/eriktorner/)(Image 2:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/imsbildarkiv/) licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Over the years net enrolment in primary school has increased. By 2010 it was 83 per
cent and there were slightly more girls in school than boys. Three-quarters (76 per cent)
of pupils who started Grade 1 and had reached Grade 5 by 2010 and the literacy rate for
youth aged 15 to 24 years was 84 per cent. Although progress has been made, there are
three challenges which are still slowing down progress towards achievement of the goal.
These are:
High pupil-teacher ratios
Mobility constraints
Inclusive education.
1. Pupil-Teacher ratios
Pupil-teacher ratios affect the delivery of quality education and the Malawian
government has a vision of reducing the teacher-pupil ratio to 1:40. The graph shows

changes in pupil-teacher and pupil-qualified teacher ratios from 2009 to 2013. It is clear
that there is a shortage of qualified teachers and that some pupils are taught by
unqualified teachers.
Pupil-Teacher Ratio in all Primary Schools in Malawi, 2009-2013

Source: Government of Malawi (2013). Education Management Information System.

Department of Education Planning Ministry of Education Science and Technology,
Lilongwe.
This has an impact on the quality of teaching and learning. As a result of a shortage of
teachers, the numbers of pupils per class vary between 95 and 69 and these large
numbers compromise the quality of teaching and learning. In such large classes it is
difficult for teachers to use effective inclusive teaching approaches to benefit all
students.
Due to the compromised quality of teaching, many pupils end up repeating a class and
may drop-out of school altogether.
2. Mobility Constraints
Some of the mobility constraints relate to the time and costs incurred in getting to
school. Many schools are in sparsely populated rural areas and may be a long distance
from pupils homes and young children may not be able to cope with walking long
distances. Rough terrain, crossing rivers and streams, and harassment can deter children

from attending school if they are not escorted by adults. This means that they often
enrol in school later as older pupils (Porter et al, 2009).
In urban areas, crossing busy roads is a hazard as most pupils go to and return from
school unaccompanied by an adult. Road safety practices and awareness will need to
take root among pupils and drivers for child safety to be fully guaranteed.
3. Inclusive Education
Teaching and learning have not been meaningfully adapted to the personalised needs of
children with disabilities. Socio-cultural factors may prevent children with disabilities
from going to school, or once there their progress may be slow. Inclusive education
requires that increased attention be paid to children with disabilities, as well as other
marginalised or vulnerable children.
There are no simple solutions to address the challenges in delivering quality
education. In order for the primary education sector to play a meaningful role in
contributing to sustainable development, there needs to be determined efforts by
government and stakeholders to address the major challenges affecting delivery. These
include:
Develop a firm legal framework for compulsory schooling and create
mechanisms to enforce school attendance;
Provide an appropriate infrastructure for education, (e.g. classrooms, water,
sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities;
Develop robust, inclusive and accessible pre-primary centres and primary schools
in rural areas to end social exclusion based on disability or cultural practices;

 Increase funding to the primary education sector for training of teachers and for
teaching and learning materials. This would help improve the quality of
education.
Rwanda
Rwanda like Malawi is achieving very high rates of school attendance; less than two per
cent of children never attend primary school and around 90 per cent of children spend
six or more years in school. Yet just over 50 per cent of 19 year olds have passed the
primary school leaving examination. The key factors affecting this poor pass rate are
late school enrolment, large classes, demoralised teachers, the hidden costs of attending
school even though it is fee free and the use of didactic teaching methods.
The change in 2009 from teaching in French to English from the 4th grade onwards
placed an additional burden on teachers and students with the majority of primary
school teachers having only a basic command of English.
The Government is also concerned to ensure that children leave school with the skills
and competency to enable them to find productive employment and to this end is now
investing heavily in Technical and Vocational Education (TVET). However, this means
that resources are being moved from primary level to TVET level.
In 2012 the UK Independent Commission for Aid Impact argued that increased
enrolment in education had been at the expense of quality in Rwanda, as well as
Ethiopia and Tanzania.
Kenya: Case study of socially excluded Maasai girls
The example from Enkiteng Lepa School (translated into English means The Cow
School) is important as it looks at the cultural context. Girls were not being educated
because the Maasai tradition was to marry off girls at an early age and to receive cows
in the form of dowry. Hellen Nkuraiya (who is herself a Maasai) therefore worked with
traditional beliefs to show that educating girls could have benefits in terms of their

future earning potential. Notice the reference in the film to milk as a source of
knowledge.

In addition to providing education about the local environment, the school addresses
social and cultural issues such as, poverty and the need to avoid early marriage and
child birth. Moreover, whilst the girls are in school they are protected against the
harmful traditional practice of female genital mutilation which would have been
performed on them had they been at home. The video in the next step shows you a short
clip of the school, its vision and the activities they undertake.
University of Aberdeen
*
Introduction
Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed and Wilfred Mlay
Sustainable Development in Africa in the 1990s and Beyond: Meeting the Challenge
Sadig Rasheed

Population

Dynamics

and

the

Environment

Wilfred Mlay

Adjustment Programmes and the Environment in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some

Exploratory Results
Ali Abdel Gadir Ali
The Response of Non-Governmental Organization to the Ecological Crisis in the South
with Special Reference to Eastern Africa
M.

A.

Mohamed

Salih
*

Poverty Alleviation and Food Security in Tanzania: An Environmental Perspective

S.

M.

Kapunda
*

Drought and Famine in Eastern Sudan The Socio-Cultural Dimension

ldris

Salim

EI

Hassan
*

Soil Erosion and Conservation Techniques for Sustainable Crop Production in

Zimbabwe

F.

Tagwira
*

The Promotion of Small Farms in Swaziland: A Sound Agrarian Policy, Friendly to

the

Environment
S. N. A. Mensah
The Impact of Agricultural Technology on Sustainable Land Resource Utilization in

Africa: The Case of Semi-Arid Tanzania

William

Rugumamu
*

Sustainability

of

Forests

in

Mary

Kenya:

Emerging

Issues

Omosa
*

Agricultural Extension Policy in Malawi: Past Experiences and Future Directions

M.

A.

Nambote
*

The

Impact
Gear

of

the

1991/92
M.

Drought

in

Kajoba

Zambia

*
Restoring the Land: Environment and Change in a Non-Racial, Democratic South
Africa
Dominic

Milazi
*

Index

Abstract:
Press Ltd. Compilation of papers selected from those presented at OSSREA's forthtriennial congress, held under the theme of the linkages between development and
environmental sustainability. After an introductory chapter that highlights general issues
related to the link between the environment and development in Africa, the first three
chapters address environment-development interrelationships at a macro level, notably
major socio-economic trends seen in Africa during the 1970's and 1980's and their
negative environmental impact, extent to which population dynamics are responsible for
environmental degradation, and impact of Structural Adjustment Policies on
environmental degradation. Subsequent chapters present specific and local studies on
response of non-governmental organizations to the ecological crisis, food security and
environmental degradation, contribution of socio-cultural factors to famine and drought,
human and physical factors that accelerate soil erosion, farm size-land productivity
issues in agricultural development, technology transfer and environmental conservation,
sustainability of forest resources, agricultural extension, impacts of drought, and
consequences of apartheid land policies on rural underdevelopment and environmental
degradation. The papers are titled: "Sustainable development in Africa in the 1990s and
beyond: Meeting the challenge", "Population dynamics and the environment",
"Adjustment programmes and the environment in sub- Saharan Africa: Some
exploratory results", "The response of non-governmental organizations to the ecological

crisis in the South with special reference to East Africa", "Poverty alleviation and' food
security in Tanzania: An environmental perspective", "Drought ~d famine in eastern
Sudan: The socio-cultural dimension", "Soil erosion and conservation techniques for
sustainable crop production in Zimbabwe", "The promotion of small farms in
Swaziland: A sound agrarian policy, friendly to the environment", "The impact of
agricultural technology on sustainable land resource utilization in Africa: The case of
semi-arid Tanzania", "Sustainability of forests in Kenya: Emerging issues",
"Agricultural extension policy in Malawi: Past experience and future directions", "The
impact of the 1991/92 drought in Zambia", and "Restoring the land: Environment and
change in a non-racial, democratic South Africa".
Publisher: Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan Press New York: St. Martins Press in
association with OSSREA

Sustainable Development: A Case for Education

by Allison Anderson and Morgan Strecker
Over the last quarter of a century, the world economy has quadrupled, benefiting
hundreds of millions of people and lifting millions out of poverty in an accelerated
process of globalization, including production, consumption, trade, and investment, as
well as an expansion in the number of countries reaching middle-income status. 1 In
contrast, 60% of the world's major ecosystem goods and services that underpin
livelihoods have been degraded or used unsustainably.2
In addition, not all have benefited equally and many have benefited little or not at all
from this process. The growing economic shift into middle-income countries (MICS)
hides the reality that MICS are home to three-quarters of the world's poor people. 3
Indeed, the economic growth of recent decades has been accomplished through
increasing consumption and production patterns, drawing down on natural resources
and allowing for widespread ecosystem degradation and widening inequity gaps.
Compounding this situation is climate change, which threatens to undo and even
reverse the progress made toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). Climate change poses one of the most serious challenges to achieving
sustainable development. As a key causative factor, climate change has already changed
the magnitude and frequency of some extreme weather, increasing the length,
frequency, and intensity of heat waves, flooding, droughts, intense tropical cyclones,
rising sea levels, and loss of biodiversity.4 These hazards increase vulnerability to
disasters and result in widespread human, material, economic, and environmental
losses.5 These impacts will increase in the future and are exacerbated for poor people
and countries with limited resources for adaptation.6 The effects of climate-related
changes are severely undermining food security, efforts to eradicate poverty, and other
existing pressures on these societies. Over the long term, these effects, combined with
factors such as population pressure, are likely to lead to environmental degradation and

loss of biodiversity, and to exacerbate existing socioeconomic tensions and create new
ones. This will have implications for migration, stability, and security at local, national,
regional, and global levels.7
Therefore, the challenge facing humanity is to sustain the process of poverty eradication
and development while shifting gears so as to avoid greater damage to our environment,
including from climate change. Developed countries must preserve development
achievements while focusing more on sustainable development and shrinking
environmental impacts. Developing countries must continue to raise their people's
living standards and eradicate poverty while containing increases in their ecological
footprints. Both must adapt to the impacts of the damage already done. This is a shared
challenge with a goal of shared prosperity and sustainable development.
There is a clear education agenda in this process in terms of providing a foundation for
the shift in the global demand away from resource- and energy-intensive commodities
and toward green products, the production of such commodities, and in sustainable
lifestyles. While this change will not happen overnight, the education sector has a
critical role to play in imparting the knowledge and skills that lead to behavior change
for sustainable development. Specifically, education can enable individuals and
communities to make informed decisions and take action for climate compatible
sustainable development. For this shift to take place, the international community must
champion a learning for sustainable development agenda that is focused on learning not
only basic literacy and numeracy but also the relevant knowledge and skills to equip
individuals for green growth and sustainable consumption and lifestyles.
This article makes a case for and defines an agenda for learning for sustainable
development. It highlights promising practices in formal and nonformal education
contexts that have the potential to change consumption patterns and lifestyles. The
article concludes by making recommendations for policymakers working on sustainable
development and poverty alleviation beyond the United Nations Conference on

Sustainable Development 2012 (Rio + 20) to the post-2015 agenda.

The Case for a Learning for Sustainable Development Agenda
The United Nations Secretary General's High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability
recently wrote that sustainable development is not a destination, but a dynamic process
of adaptation, learning and action. It is about recognizing, understanding and acting on
interconnectionsabove all, those between the economy, society and the natural
environment.8 Similarly, addressing the climate challenge requires individuals and
institutions to be able to assess and understand climate change, design and implement
adequate policies, and, most important of all, take action toward low-carbon, climateresilient, and sustainable growth. Therefore, climate change education is an integral part
of learning for sustainable development (see box at right).
To achieve sustainable development, which is development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,
individuals need to adopt sustainable lifestyles. Everyday, millions of choices are made
by individuals, businesses, and governmentsall of which influence society and impact
the planet. These choices connect and differentiate individuals evolving within a global
society of seven billion people (see box below). Unsustainable collective choices have
led to major environmental crises, from climate change to resource scarcity, while
failing to improve people's well-being. However, sustainable lifestyles, enabled by both
efficient infrastructure and individual actions, play a key role in minimizing the use of
natural resources, emissions, wastes, and pollution while supporting equitable
socioeconomic development and progress for all. This requires rethinking ways of
living, purchasing, and consuming, altering the organization of daily life, of
socialization, exchange, education, and the building of identities. Equally important is
understanding the interlinkages between the three pillars of sustainable development
economic growth, social development, and environmental protectionand the

consequences of choices.
It is also critical to understand the ways in which these three pillars of sustainable
development are dependent upon education. In our knowledge-based world, economic
development and poverty reduction depend upon an educated and skilled workforce.
For instance, in developing countries, one additional year of education adds about 10%
to a person's earnings.9 However, it is the cognitive or learning skills of a population,
and not simply the number of years in school, that is correlated to individual earning
and economic growth.10 Social development is also dependent on education to empower
learners and to maximize their capacities, resources, and opportunities to fully
participate in society.11 Education is critical to environmental protection through
teaching and learning environmental stewardship. This includes environmental and
climate change education, which promotes new attitudes and skills for environmental
protection and diversity and also helps people change consumption and production
patterns. Access to quality, relevant education that empowers all, including the
marginalized, to utilize environmental resources sustainably is essential to equitable
social development and is a necessary foundation for sustainable development.
On another level, a strong case can be made for a learning for sustainable
development agenda based on current gaps in young people's understanding of their
own role. In 2009, UNEP and UNESCO launched the first global in-depth qualitative
and projective Global Survey on Sustainable Lifestyles (GSSL). The overall objective
was to listen to young adultsvoicesmore than 8,000 people from 20 different
countriesto reach a better understanding of their everyday life, expectations, and
visions for the future with regards to sustainability.12 The results reveal a great need for
better information on global challenges and the ways in which these challenge relate to
lifestyles and individual actions. While the majority of respondents stated that poverty
and environmental degradation were the most important global challenges, they also
demonstrated a lack of understanding about the ways in which individual actions and
benefits are linked with collective actions and benefits. Many reported being well

informed about global challenges such as climate change, but demonstrated a striking
lack of information about local-level issues related to global challenges. 13 While
environmental damage and degradation were cited as among the worst elements within
a vision of the future, sustainability was still not considered as a factor for progress.
Hence, the benefits of integrated environmental, economic, and social development
need to be better communicated, particularly in terms of how they relate to
sustainability within one's individual lifestyle. Education provides a unique opportunity
to inform and empower young peopleand all peopleto create their own sustainable
lifestyles and communities.14
Defining a Learning for Sustainable Development Agenda
Conceptualizing the role education can play in creating sustainable and resilient futures
has been an ongoing debate over three decades. In 1992, governments adopted Agenda
21 at the first Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, committing to reorient education
programs and systems toward sustainable development. In 2005, the United Nations
Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) was launched to strengthen
government commitments to embed sustainable development into all education
systems, strategies and public awareness by 2014. Despite these advances, the role of
education continues to be seen as secondary to other priority issues such as the green
economy, natural disasters, climate change, and energy. However, given the world's
limited natural resources, rising population, and the looming challenge of climate
change, sustainable development cannot be attained without education that equips
learners with the skills needed to live healthy, safe, and productive lives in the 21st
century, while also safeguarding the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs (see box below).
What is missing is a holistic, compelling, and pragmatic vision of what a sustainable
society consists of and how it can be translated at the national, local, and individual
level. Governments have a key role to play by creating the appropriate frameworks and

infrastructures to enable citizens to change. Information and education are essential, as

is the full participation of civil society in shaping innovative solutions for sustainable
lifestyles and development.
Education must be made climate compatible and linked to sustainable development in
order to meet the needs of the 21st century and beyond. Education for Sustainable
Development (ESD) is an approach to teaching and learning based on the ideals and
principles that underlie sustainability. As such, ESD promotes multi-stakeholder social
learning; emphasizes the empowerment of communities and citizens; engages with key
issues such as human rights, poverty reduction, sustainable livelihoods, climate change,
and gender equality in an integral way; and encourages changes in behavior that will
create a more sustainable future.15 However, education within the context of the United
Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable Development, as it exists today,
continues to struggle as an international policy priority, in part due to lack of funding
but also due to a lack of evidence-based policymaking brought on by its own failure to
integrate assessment, monitoring, and evaluation into the agenda.
If the international community is to set an achievable strategy for sustainable
development, the following five priorities of learning for sustainable development must
be championed:
1. Support quality early childhood development and learning opportunities for girls
and boys.
2. Ensure that basic literacy and numeracy are learned in school.
3. Enable young people to make the transition to and complete relevant postprimary
education.
4. Equip young people with relevant skills for 21st-century lives and livelihoods.

5. Make learning spaces safe, climate compatible and sustainable.

Achieving quality education for all remains a pivotal goal for global development.
While there has been considerable progress in increasing primary school enrollment
around the world over the last decade, children too often leave primary and even
secondary school without acquiring the basic knowledge, skills, and competencies
needed to grow into healthy adults and lead safe, productive, and sustainable lives. In
short, there is a global learning crisis underfoot, which affects children and youth who
are out of school with limited learning opportunities and also those who are in school
but not learning the skills needed for their future. Marginalized groups like girls from
poor, rural households and children and youth living in conflict-affected areas are
particularly missing out.
The Brookings Institution Center for Universal Education's Global Compact on
Learning has identified the following three priority areas and concrete strategies, which,
if given the international community's collective attention, would help to improve
educational opportunities and outcomes for and build the resilience of children and
youth:
1. Support quality early childhood development and learning opportunities for girls
and boys. High-quality early childhood development activities have long been
shown to have a lasting impact on learning. These activitieswhich include
health, nutrition, and stimulationcan also lead to cost-saving efficiencies in
primary school by increasing overall retention, reducing attrition, and raising
primary school completion rates. Returns are often greatest for children from the
most disadvantaged backgrounds. Across countries, access to preprimary
programs is highly uneven; within countries, attendance patterns typically show
that children from the poorest and most marginalized households are least likely
to attend preprimary school.

Ensuring that all girls and boys, particularly the most marginalized, start school
at an appropriate age has been and can be accomplished through public policies
on early childhood development; availability of high-quality early childhood
development opportunities; financial incentives such as cash transfers; public
campaigns about the importance of school readiness; and tracking that
encourages age-appropriate school enrollment. Developing and supporting
multigrade and multi-age teaching approaches is also important.16
2. Ensure that basic literacy and numeracy are learned in school. Literacy and
numeracy skills are foundational skills for all future learning. It is crucial to learn
these skills early because failing to learn to read is associated with falling further
behind each year or dropping out altogether. This link is particularly important
for low-income girls and conflict-affected young people who remain the most
educationally marginalized. Children whose mother tongue differs from the
language of instruction are further disadvantaged in acquiring these foundational
skills.
Strategies to ensure basic literacy and numeracy include prioritizing these skills
in the curriculum, through mother tongue-based multilingual education where
appropriate, in the lower primary grades. This can be accomplished by
maximizing the amount of time spent on learning, including addressing teacher
absenteeism, providing training to teachers in effective methods of reading
instruction and numeracy, providing appropriate-level reading materials to
children and communities, creating a culture of literacy and learning, and
implementing a comprehensive local language policy.17
3. Enable young people to transition to and complete relevant post-primary
education. Despite considerable evidence of the many social and economic
returns from secondary school, too few girls and boys continue beyond primary
school. For those who do, many are not learning the skills they need for their

future lives and livelihoods.

Enabling girls and boys to transition and complete postprimary educational
opportunities requires the provision of well-targeted, appropriately structured
subsidies for educationally marginalized groups; safe learning environments; and
girl-friendly school policies. Furthermore, cultivating community support,
offering

second-chance

learning

opportunities,

and

providing

flexible

postprimary models that utilize innovative modes of delivery enhance continued

learning for both girls and boys. Reforms must not only focus on academic skills
but also ensure healthy lives, productive work, and civic participation. Examples
include strengthening the link between postprimary education and improved life
and labor opportunities, and facilitating school-to-work and school-to higher
education transitions.18
There is growing consensus in the education community to embrace an access
plus learning agenda in order to move these priorities forward. Ensuring that
every child is in school and learning is an important step toward sustainable
development, but it is not enough. Achieving sustainable development requires a
change in the way people think and act; education can catalyze this
transformation. As the discussion around the transition to a green economy
accelerates and climate change looms, it is critical to prioritize relevant global
citizenship

skills

and

safe,

climate-resilient,

and

sustainable

learning

environments. The following two priorities are critical for developed and
developing countries alike:
4. Equip all people with relevant skills for 21st century lives and livelihoods. A
central function of education is to foster learning about new subjects. Twentyfirst-century livelihoods require critical thinking, problem solving, and relevant
content knowledge like environmental and climate change education, disaster
risk reduction and preparedness, sustainable consumption and lifestyles, and

green technical and vocational education and training.

Empowering learners to contribute to sustainable development helps to make
education more relevant and responsive to contemporary and emerging
challenges. For instance, Rio+20's focus on a green economy calls for seizing
opportunities to advance economic and environmental goals simultaneously.
Education can assist in the process of shifting the global demand away from
resource- and energy-intensive commodities and toward greener products and
technologies, less pollution, and sustainable lifestyles. Moreover, restructuring
toward a green economy will require transferable skills, those that are not
necessarily linked to specific occupations. Thinking critically, solving problems,
collaborating, and managing risks and uncertainty are core competencies that are
critical for employment in a green economy and living together peacefully in a
sustainable society.19 The education sector plays a critical role in teaching
relevant skills for successful climate change adaptation and mitigation. Teaching
and learning should integrate environmental education, climate change and
scientific literacy, disaster risk reduction and preparedness, and education for
sustainable lifestyles and consumption. Learners need a basic understanding of
scientific concepts; knowledge of and ability to distinguish between certainties,
uncertainties, risks and consequences of environmental degradation, disasters,
and climate change; knowledge of mitigation and adaptation practices that can
contribute to building resilience and sustainability; and understanding of varying
interests that shape different responses to climate change and the ability to
critically judge the validity of these interests in relation to the public good.
Evidence shows that educational interventions are most successful when focused
on local, tangible, and actionable aspects of sustainable development, climate
change, and environmental education, especially those that can be addressed by
individual behavior.20
5. Ensure that learning spaces are safe, climate compatible and sustainable. To help

adapt to climate change, learning spaces should be made safe, disaster resilient,
and climate compatible through the incorporation of disaster prevention,
preparedness, response, and recovery strategies for individuals, educational
systems, and communities. Disaster risk reduction strategies ensure the safety
and continuity of education, helping the system to adapt to climate change and
reduce the vulnerability of learners. Safe school sites can be selected through
participatory risk assessments geared at ensuring that every new school is
climate-proofed and multi-hazard resilient. This requires prioritizing replacement
and retrofitting of unsafe schools and minimizing nonstructural risks. A critical
element in enhancing resilience is the ability to prepare for and respond to the
impacts of climate change. Students, teachers, parents, and communities must be
involved in practicing early warning, simulation drills, and evacuation for
expected and recurring disasters. Education systems also need to work with
parents and the wider community to understand and adapt as necessary to the
seasonality changes caused by climate change through strategies such as adapting
the school year, exam calendar, and textbook distribution.
To ensure adaptive and safe learning environments, schools can develop
contingency plans for continuity of learning in the event of unexpected disasters
and/or displacement caused by impacts of climate change. The Inter-Agency
Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) provides a framework through its
Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response, Recovery on how to
prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters in ways that reduce risk,
improve future preparedness, and lay a solid foundation for quality education.
Moreover, safe and adaptive schools are models for the communities in which
they sit. Likewise, contingency planning within schools provides a positive
example that can spread to the broader community.
Additionally, schools and education institutions should be made sustainable
through environmentally sound and carbon neutral policies that promote

mitigation through building and site design and maintenance. This requires
design, building, management, and maintenance practices geared toward carbon
neutral and environmentally sustainable learning spaces, which integrate green
technology to reduce energy consumption. For example, climate change can
increase water stress caused by erratic rainfall patterns and create a need for
alternative sources of water. Programs for harvesting rainwater can be integrated
into schools so that children have a safe and ready supply of drinking water and
basic sanitation facilities at school. School-based water and sanitation programs
also have the benefit of encouraging parents and the community to support
children going to school. Such schools not only are a contribution to sustainable
development itself, but also contribute to the whole school approach, as they
act as a resource and good practice model for teaching and learning about
sustainability and sustainable consumption.
If these five priorities are moved forward within the larger efforts of education system
development in local context-specific manners, the international community will make
an enormous contribution in addressing not only the learning crisis that affects the
world's poorest communities, but also the challenges of teaching future generations
about the importance of sustainable development and climate change facing both
developed and developing countries alike.
Promising Practices
There is a wide range of learning and education for sustainable development, lifestyles,
and consumption activities and projects underway around the world. However, in spite
of the growing interest at international, national, and local levels about sustainability,
evidence-based research about the impacts of sustainability-related education remains
very limited. The majority of evidence that exists is anecdotal, often in case-study
format without monitoring and evaluation processes in place that could lead to

quantitative as well as qualitative data.

The following is a selection of promising practices that have innovated from standard
programs by seeking to maximize partnership and awareness-raising; provide capacities
and skills; enhance teaching and learning, including through the learning environment;
and empower individuals and communities to create more sustainable futures through
sustainable development, consumption, and lifestyles. While there are common
components to these promising practices (see box at right), given the lack of rigorous
assessment, monitoring, and evaluation of such practices, it is not possible to brand a
given initiative a best practice.
Promising Practices in Teaching and Learning Sustainable Development
The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) is an
international organization implementing sustainable development projects, including
education and capacity-building programs. The Green Pack, REC's flagship program on
education for sustainable development, is a multimedia environmental educational kit
for schoolchildren between the ages of 11 and 15 years in Central and Eastern Europe.
Since the pilot in 2001, the Green Pack has been introduced in 18 countries in the
Western Balkans, Europe, and Asia, and approximately 30,000 teachers and more than 3
million students have been educated, changing the way in which the teaching of
sustainability is approached. Each project has been developed in cooperation with
businesses, governments, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in order to foster
community support across a broad spectrum of society.
The Green Pack project goals are to build capacities, transfer know-how, and establish
the basis for further developments in the field of education for sustainable development.
It covers 22 topics related to sustainable development, divided into five chapters:
Environmental components: air, water, soil, and biodiversity.

 Threats to the environment: urbanization, noise, waste, and chemicals.

Human activities and impacts: energy, transport, industry, agriculture, forestry,
and tourism.
Global challenges: climate change, ozone depletion, acidification, and issues
affecting seas and oceans.
Values: consumerism, human health and the environment, citizensrights, and
responsibility for the earth's future.
Specific challenges are presented in their global, national, and regional contexts, as well
as at the individual level in terms of the role of each citizen in supporting the
sustainable development of society. The challenge of sustainability is conveyed in a
compelling, accessible way and in multiple formats through text, pictures, photos,
maps, tests, interactive tables and illustrations, and film clips. Students follow lesson
plans that are accompanied by complementary videos, role-playing exercises, and
interactive games. There are 22 case studies, each focusing on a particular
environmental problem, which is presented in the form of an interactive dilemma game.
The game offers a number of possible ways of addressing the problem, as well as
comments on the positive and negative aspects of each response. By working through
the dilemmas, teachers and students are able to engage in in-depth discussions on
particular aspects of the conflict between environmental protection and economic
development and train themselves to understand and respect different opinions and
build consensus.
Emphasis is placed on the formation of new values and the establishment of new
models of behavior at school, at home and in society, rather than simply on the
accumulation of knowledge. Students are encouraged to take a proactive approach to
environmental challenges and are asked to share their newfound knowledge and skills

with members of their family. Discussions are also initiated with local community
stakeholders on ways to achieve sustainable development.21
In Serbia, teachers evaluated the Green Pack as very applicable to natural science
classes, as well as geography, informatics, and civic education classes. Teachers
confirmed that the Green Pack filled a gap in adequate literature and tools and reported
that students became more motivated to learn, interested in the topics, and concentrated
more effectively in the class when using the Green Pack. Teachers also reported that the
quality of the knowledge not only improved, but was longer lasting. In particular,
teachers reported that the dilemma game effectively encouraged pupilsdevelopment
of critical thinking, debate and compromise.22
Eco-Schools, an international program of the Foundation for Environmental Education,
is another example of a promising practice in teaching and learning sustainable
development. Becoming an eco-school requires child-centered leadership throughout
seven consecutive steps, such as establishing an Eco-Schools Committee to encourage
and manage the program; providing environmental curriculum; and developing an ecocode outlining the school's values and objectives alongside student goals. Initiated in
1994, 156 schools worldwide have joined Eco-Schools, which includes more than 9
million students, 600,000 teachers, and 5,000 local authorities as of 2012.23
South Africa joined the Eco-Schools program in 2003 and includes 1,200 rural and
urban schools. In South Africa, the international Eco-Schools model has been adapted
to align with the South African national curriculum, which includes environmental
learning outcomes for each grade level and subject area.24 Through this integration
between Eco-Schools objectives and national curriculum standards, Eco-Schools South
Africa fosters changes in sustainable environmental attitudes and behaviors among
students, teachers, and community members. Schools can focus on any of the five
themes: Resource Use, Nature and Biodiversity, Local and Global Issues, Healthy
Living, and Community and Heritage.25 Through these themes, students and

communities empower themselves to take steps toward being part of a solution. For
example, several schools are addressing sustainable development by adapting the
energy sources used for cooking. In Mpumalanga, The Tenteleni Primary School's clay
stove project engaged students in experiential learning: They built a traditional fuelefficient stove and now use recycled paper bricks to cook school meals. The Diklobe
Primary School in Limpopo similarly taught students how to build and use solar
cookers as an alternative to using indigenous trees for firewood. In addition, students
are encouraged to take solar cookers to their homes and teach their families how to
utilize renewable energy for cooking. Finally, students at Wykeham Collegiate in
Kwazulu-Natal have adopted the My Carbon Footprint toolkit to improve knowledge
of sustainable consumption, climate change, and carbon footprints and to reduce their
carbon emissions by 90% over 20 years.
Promising Practice in Teaching and Learning About Sustainable Energy Through
Infrastructure
The Global Action Network for Energy Efficiency Education (GANE) works to expand
the use and impact of energy efficiency resources within education programs and
training institutions around the world. The focus within GANE is on teaching and
learning how to change energy consumption behavior through a multi-disciplinary
academic approach. For instance, GANE's Green Schools Program in the United States
provides training and tools that make students the focus of green schools by placing
them in leadership positions to carry out energy diagnostics in their school building.
The green building becomes a learning lab for students to apply science, math, and
language arts to solve local sustainable energy and climate change challenges. Through
basic changes in operations, maintenance, and individual behavior, schools participating
in the GANE Green Schools Program have reduced their energy consumption and
equipped students, teachers, and administrators to promote energy efficiency in their
homes and communities.

Promising Practices Within Higher Education

A Higher Education Initiative launched in March 2012 by five UN agencies targets
universities and business schools in an effort to create an enlarged understanding of
sustainable development and its implications for how we live work and do business. 26
The initiative calls on leaders of Higher Education institutions to sign a Declaration of
Commitment to Sustainable Practices of Higher Education Institutions. The declaration
commits universities and business schools to, among other things, reducing their
ecological footprints by practicing the three Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle) and proper
waste management; instituting energy and water use policies; greening their transport
systems, supply chains and procurement policies, and campuses, including their
buildings; and teaching and promoting sustainable development as a core module across
disciplines so that every graduate has an understanding of issues such as climate
change, sustainability, and natural resource capital and protection as they relate to his or
her area of learning. The initiative notes that because Higher Education institutions
educate and train decision makers, they play an important role in building more
sustainable societies and have a special responsibility to provide leadership on
education for sustainable development. This is an admirable effort but should not be
confined to higher education.
On the African continent, there are more than 351 public and private institutions of
higher learning educating thousands of young men and women, providing a unique
opportunity to influence knowledge, behaviors, and career choices toward
sustainability. Since 2004, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has led
the Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability into African Universities (MESA)
partnership, which provides a continent-wide platform for discussions on sustainable
development innovations in different African contexts and universities.27 The MESA
partnership, an African network developed and maintained by African professors and
partners, includes a course within universities to strengthen capacities around ESD
innovations. The course provides a broad orientation to environmental issues in the

context of sustainable development, and introduces university teachers, managers, and

students to innovations in teaching, research, services, and management practices. The
partnership also includes seminars for university leaders, and biennial conferences
providing opportunities for universities to share ESD innovations and learn directly
from others.
The partnership thus far has resulted in the initiation of a number of change initiatives
in participating universities and has introduced a stronger systems-focused approach to
change in the participating universities. While no formal evaluation has yet been
undertaken, more than 90 universities in 40 countries have joined the partnership,
creating the first network of African universities on environment and sustainability, in
partnership with UNESCO, the United Nations University, the Association of African
Universities, the Southern Africa Development Commission, the Horn of Africa
Regional Environmental Centre and Network, and the African Network for Agriculture,
Agroforestry and Natural Resource Education.
Promising Practices in Awareness Raising, Communication, and Nonformal
Learning
The UNEP/UNESCO YouthXchange Initiative (YXC) was created in 2001 to promote
sustainable lifestyles among youth aged 1524 years. The YXC initiative contributes to
the creation of sustainable culture by promoting alternative behaviors and lifestyles and
supporting the mainstreaming of resource-efficient and environmentally friendly
products and services through awareness-raising campaigns, communication, and
education. YXC works with young people, educators, NGOs, trainers, and youth leaders
in more than 45 countries. At the national and local levels, YXC capacity development
activities move through a diverse network of partners, ranging from youth NGOs, EcoSchools, and consumer organizations to Ministries of Environment and Education.
YXC has gained momentum in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Arab States,

Asia, and the Pacific due to the commitment of national and regional partners. Initially
a printed training kit on responsible consumption, which has since been translated in 20
languages through partnerships, and a bilingual website (French/English) made up the
content of the initiative. However, growing partnerships in sustainability education have
catalyzed the development of thematic YouthXchange guidebooks, which explain
complex issues in accessible language, supported by practical tips, suggested activities,
relevant case studies, and best practices and web links for more information. The
YouthXchange guidebooks enable educators and young people to better understand how
global challenges are connected to their everyday lifestyle choices. For instance, there
are thematic guidebooks focused on climate change, on biodiversity, and on green skills
and lifestyles. Additional guidebooks will focus on water, cities, energy, and mobility.
Conclusion
As world leaders consider the next steps in the wake of Rio+20 in the coming years to
secure renewed political commitment on sustainable development and influence the
post-2015 agenda, the five-point learning for sustainable development agenda presented
in this article should be promoted as one that addresses the three pillars of sustainable
development. Policymakers should call for the integration of these five priorities into all
countriesdevelopment plans:
1. Support quality early childhood development and learning opportunities for girls
and boys.
2. Ensure that basic literacy and numeracy are learned in school.
3. Enable young people to make the transition to and complete relevant postprimary
education.
4. Equip young people with relevant skills for 21st-century lives and livelihoods.

5. Make learning spaces safe, climate resilient and sustainable.

These five education priorities, focused on learning the skills, knowledge, and
competencies needed to live healthy, safe, and productive lives, will enable the
education sector to have a head start in thinking about how the sustainable development
goals (SDGs) and the post-2015 discussions complement each other through the
merging of the sustainable development and poverty eradication agendas.
A well-coordinated effort is needed to move this agenda forward. It will also require
better facilitated collaboration at the global level for information sharing and building
the evidence base. While there are information-sharing networks geared toward
education and sustainable development, none successfully combine both a facilitated
global network or mechanism for sharing information and a user-friendly website that
catalogues good practices, resources, and tools. Facilitated collaboration is also needed
to bring together key actors together in advance of global meetings to develop a
common strategy for influencing the conference text, which will ultimately influence on
future government action and, potentially, funding.
There is far too little evidence-based research that demonstrates the ways in which
education is an effective tool for sustainable development, in terms of both cost and
outcomes. National governments and donors would be more likely to focus political
will and technical and financial resources on an education and learning for sustainable
development agenda if there were evidence on the most effective sustainable
development strategies through education and their impact at individual, school, and
society levels. Without such evidence, and beset by serious fiscal challenges and an
uncertain global economic outlook, policymakers will continue to prioritize initiatives
and strategies with strong evidence behind them.
In examining the success of the Education for All (EFA) agenda, which has spearheaded
the progress on MDGs 2 and 3, one important component has been the EFA Global

Monitoring Report (GMR). The GMR is produced annually to assess how well
countries and regions are doing in reaching EFA goals and uses both qualitative and
quantitative measures to do so. Comparatively, there is no such global monitoring report
for the education for sustainable development agenda. In fact, the indicators that have
been produced since the launch of the Decade for Education for Sustainable
Development in 2005 have been process indicators, such as setting up national ESD
commissions and policies. While these are important, outcome indicators are essential
in order to evaluate what works and use that information to revise strategies and raise
global awareness of what can and should be done through education to ensure
sustainable development.
The following recommendations require stronger collaboration amongst researchers,
NGOs, UN agencies, governments, networks, and civil society across the education and
sustainable development communities to strengthen the evidence base on the most
effective sustainable development measures through education and their impact at
individual, school, and society levels:
1. The development of a standardized framework of objectives, knowledge, skills,
and measurable outcomes of learning for sustainable development is essential in
order to evaluate what works and use that information to revise strategies and
raise global awareness about what can and should be done through education to
ensure sustainable development.
2. More, and more rigorous, evidence-based research on education as an effective
tool for sustainable development, consumption, and lifestyles is needed.
Moreover, the location of evidence-based research should be varied; most
evidence-based studies have been carried out in Europe, and to a lesser extent the
United States and Australia. In addition, more longitudinal studies are needed to
determine a correlation between positive behavior change and exposure to
sustainable lifestyles and consumption education programs and activities. Future

research should focus on what specific tools produce positive educational

outcomes in numerous and diverse settings.
3. A myriad of education for sustainable development resource guides and policy
toolkits exist; their use needs to be tracked and educational outcomes evaluated.
Given the world's limited natural resources, rising population, and the climate change
challenge, sustainable development cannot be attained without education that equips
learners with the skills needed to live healthy, safe, and productive lives in the 21st
century, while also safeguarding the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs. The learning for sustainable development agenda presented here will equip
individuals with this new knowledge and the skills needed to reduce vulnerabilities and
change behavior, ultimately creating more resilient individuals and societies.
Education and Climate Change
In many countries, the changing climate is making it harder to deliver education and to
keep learners safe while doing it. Climate-related disasters damage or destroy school
facilities and educational systems, threatening the physical safety and psychological
well-being of communities and interrupting educational continuity. Furthermore, the
economic impacts of disasters reduce school enrollment, as children are kept out of
school to help with livelihoods.
Despite these threats, the education sector offers a currently untapped opportunity to
combat climate change and achieve sustainable development. Education can impart the
knowledge, skills, and behavior change that are necessary for mitigation: reducing
greenhouse gas emissions through sustainable consumption patterns in lifestyles,
livelihoods, economies, and social structures that are currently based on excessive
greenhouse gas production. Education can enable individuals to play a critical role in
redefining their lifestyles to address the current sustainability issues that humanity is
facing. Education is also a critical component of adaptive capacity: The way that people

are educated and the relevance of education can provide the knowledge and skills
needed for making informed decisions about how to adapt individual lives and
livelihoods, as well as ecological, social, or economic systems in a changing
environment. Additionally, schools play a role in mitigation in terms of becoming
carbon neutral and energy efficient and reducing their own ecological footprint.
Sustainable lifestyles are patterns of action and consumption, used by people to
affiliate and differentiate themselves from others, which: meet basic needs, provide a
better quality of life, minimize the use of natural resources and emissions of waste and
pollutants over the lifecycle, and do not jeopardize the needs of future generations.
Kate Scott, Literature Review on Sustainable Lifestyles and Recommendations for
Further Research, Stockholm Environment Institute, March, 2009
Education in Relation to Rio's Priority Thematic Issues
Education is a critical cross-cutting issue for many of Rio+20's priority thematic issues,
from the green economy to climate change and disasters. For example:
Education can impart knowledge and spark behavior change to shift global
demand away from resource-and energy-intensive commodities, especially those
that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
Education can help reduce the vulnerability of communities to the impacts of
disasters and also enable them to adapt to climate change though integrating
disaster risk reduction and environmental and climate change education into
curricula. Schools can be made climate-proofed and multi-hazard resilient.
Common Components to Promising Practices for Learning for Sustainable
Development initiatives
Projects are developed within a diverse network or alliances of partners in order

to foster community support across a broad spectrum of society.

Projects go beyond the accumulation of knowledge to behavior change behavior
through active, participatory and experiential learning at school, at home, and in
society.
Active learning should be connected to local problem solving. Hands-on
educational activities with a local focus create successful learning outcomes.
Governments and/or ministries of education and the environment not only buy
into learning for sustainable development initiatives, but provide leadership and
resources
1. International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (Washington, DC:
2006), http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2006/02/data/download.aspx
2. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis
(Washington, DC: 2005), p. 1, http://www.maweb.org/en/index.aspx
3. A. Sumner, Global Poverty and the New Bottom Billion: What is Three-Quarters of
the World's Poor Live in Middle-Income Countries, Institute of Development Studies
no 349 (2010): 46.
4. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Special Report on Managing the Risks
of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation, IPCC
Special Report on Extreme Events (November 2011), and Climate Change 2007: Fourth
Assessment Report (2007). See also J. Lubchenco and T. R. Karl, Predicting and
Managing Extreme Weather Events, Physics Today (March 2012): 31.
5. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Special Report on Managing the Risks
of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (Geneva,

Switzerland: 2011), http://www.ipcc-wg2.gov/SREX

6. Ibid.
7. U.S. Climate Change Science Program, Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of
Climate Science, U.S. Global Change Research Program/Climate Change Science
Program (Washington, DC: 2009). See also United Nations Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, Monitoring
Disaster Displacement in the Context of Climate Change: Findings of a study by the
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Internal
Displacement Monitoring Center (Geneva, Switzerland: 2009), p. 15.
8. United Nations, United Nations Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Global
Sustainability. Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing (New York,
NY: 2012). http://www.un.org/gsp/report/.
9. G. Psacharopoulos and H. A. Patrinos, Returns to Investment in Education: A Further
Update, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 2881 (Washington, DC: World
Bank, 2002).
10. E. Hanushek and L. Woessmann, The Role of Education Quality in Economic
Growth (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007). See also IBS International, Pathways to
Learning in the 21st Century: Toward a Strategic Vision for USAID Assistance in
Education, USAID Educational Strategies Research Paper 2 (Washington, DC: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 2009); E. Jamison et al., The Effects of Education Quality
on Income Growth and Mortality Decline (Washington, DC: National Bureau of
Economic Research, 2006).
11. United Nations, Report of the World Summit for Social Development (New York,
NY:
http://social.un.org/index/Home/WorldSummitforSocialDevelopment1995.aspx

1995).

12. United Nations Environment Programme, Visions for Change: Recommendations

for

Effective

Policies

on

Sustainable

Lifestyles

(Paris,

France:

2011).

http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/DTIx1321xPA-VisionsForChange
%20report.pdf
13. Ibid., p. 7.
14. Ibid., p. 74.
15. United Nations Economic Social and Cultural Organization, Characteristics of ESD,
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-internationalagenda/education-for-sustainable-development/education-for-sustainabledevelopment/characteristics-of-esd (accessed 24 July 2012)
16. Brookings Institution, Global Compact on Learning (Washington, DC: Center for
Universal

Education,

2011),

pp.

1722.

http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2011/06/09-global-compact
17. Ibid., pp. 2329.
18. Ibid., pp. 3041.
19. Partnership for 21st Century Skills, A Framework for 21st Century Learning,
http://www.p21.org/overview/skills-framework (accessed 8 May 2012). Twenty-first
century learning, or the 21st Century Skills movement, is a growing global movement
to redefine the goals of education, transform how learning is practiced each day, and
expand the range of measures in student achievement in order to meet the new demands
of the 21st century. The Framework for 21st Century Learning has been developed to
describe the skills, knowledge, and expertise students must master to succeed in work
and life; it is a blend of content knowledge, specific skills, expertise and literacies.
20. A. Anderson, Climate Change Education for Mitigation and Adaption, Journal of

Education for Sustainable Development, September 2012.

21. Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Green Pack:
Turning Innovative Education Into Action for a Sustainable Future (Szentendre,
Hungary: 2000). http://documents.rec.org/greenhorizon/greenpack_leaflet.pdf
22. Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Evaluation of
Green Pack Training of Teachers Seminars, MayJune 2010, unpublished evaluation,
2011. See also Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe,
Summary of the Feedback From Teachers Who Went Through the Training on How to
Use Green Pack, May and June 2010, unpublished report, 2010.
23. Foundation for Environmental Education, Eco-Schools Programme Celebrating 15
Years (Copenhagen, Denmark: 2010).

http://www.eco-schools.org/15-years_eco-

schools/Download/eco-schools_15years.pdf
24. Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa, WESSA/WWF Eco-Schools
Programme (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: 2011). http://wessa.org.za/what-we-do/ecoschools.htm
25. Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa & the World Wildlife Fund, EcoSchools

South

Africa

Handbook

(KwaZulu-Natal,

South

Africa:

2001).

http://wessa.org.za/uploads/images/projects/ecoschools/Handbook%202012%20(2).pdf
26. United Nations, Higher Education Sustainability Initiative Concept Note, Office of
the Executive Coordinators of the Rio + 20 Effort, UN Conference on Sustainable
Development Rio+20, April 2012.
27. United Nations Environment Programme, Mainstreaming Environment and
Sustainability
Development

in

Africa

Innovation

Universities
Course

PartnershipEducation
Toolkit

(Nairobi,

for

Sustainable

Kenya:

2006).

http://www.unep.org/training/mesa/toolkit.asp
Allison Anderson is a Fellow with the Brookings Institution's Center for Universal
Education, where she focuses on the ways in which quality education contributes to
sustainable development, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation and
mitigation. She is also an adjunct professor on international education, emergency
response, and risk reduction at Columbia University's School of International and
Public Affairs (SIPA) in New York City.
Morgan Strecker is a Consultant with UNICEF's Education Section. She previously
worked for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on sustainable
lifestyles and consumption.

Preparing for Sustainability Through Messy Predicting

Each of the three articles in this issue (by Wilbanks, Szabo, and Huntington along with
their colleagues) addresses the difficulties of predicting how human capabilities for
responding to climate change risks can be converted into more sustainable outcomes. In
terms of providing reliable predictions, the case studies of the Arctic fisheries in the
face of sea ice melt-back (Huntington); lacustrine lagoons in the exposure of higher
tides, more frequent storms, and increased pollution (Szabo); and appropriately resilient
infrastructures to cope with fires, storms, floods, and droughts (Wilbanks) reveal that at
best such predictions are messy. By messy we can mean confusing and complicated
and challenging. Messiness is an admission of scientific strength, not weakness. The
timelines of historical changes to the connected geographies of any given location are
not sufficiently robust to forecast outcomes that are the consequences of never-beforeexperienced combinations of future weather patterns. That is problematic enough. But
predicting the social circumstances and the spread of economic opportunities,
successes, and failures in such locations, irrespective of future weather risks, is also
likely to be messy. Messiness is duplicated by trying to bring the two broad patterns of
forecasting together.
What emerges from these fascinating reports is the sheer incomprehensibility of
possible outcomes for regions where existing levels of social and ecological well-being
are almost unknown and even unknowable. On the Alaskan northern shore,
communities are forced to relocate as their coastlines become marshy as a consequence
of heating seas. Yet there could be profitable whaling and fishing as species migrate
north from the warming currents. Similar mixes of threat and opportunities abound in
estuaries, where fishing could flourish or atrophy, or where pollution, propelled by
unusual water or sediment warmth, could wipe out whole livelihoods within a few
frightening years.
Messy predicting offers fascinating new ways of bringing changing ecological

processes into the histories of cultural memories. Clever combinations of interpreting

the social settings of the past with the possibilities offered by the geographical
modulations of the future, coupled to ingenious uses of big data management, could
offer the basis for recasting sustainability in regions of social and environmental flux.
Sylvia Szabo and her co-authors offer the vision of deploying sustainable development
goals for this process. This would be a wonderful use of such goals. It would be most
interesting to hear how far Henry Huntington and Tom Wilbanks believe that the clever
application of sustainable development goals might offer a way forward to their arenas
of shifting sea ice and inappropriately prepared infrastructure. My hunch is that these
much-vaunted goals are simply not yet designed for messy predicting. Indeed, they are
messy in a more conventional way. They are too many, too convoluted, and too
nonspecific for the kinds of tasks expected of them by Szabo. Certainly the scenarios
offered by Huntington and Wilbanks do not seem suited for the application of
sustainable development goals as they are currently being formulated.
This is no reason to despair. It is precisely because predicting climate change risks are
messy that it should be possible to create ways of bringing together credible forecasts
with ingenious deployment of data and imaginative forms of interest-group
participation to shape sustainable futures through not only conscious choice, but also
much more attention to social and ecological justice. Bending sustainable development
goals to this purpose (they are sufficiently flexible to permit such interpretation) could
well be the lifesaving of their concept and purpose. Indeed, such an approach could help
shape the betterment of regions currently experiencing the prospect of perilous patterns
of messy adjustment.
Tim O'Riordan

Sustainable Development: A Case for Education

by Allison Anderson and Morgan Strecker
Over the last quarter of a century, the world economy has quadrupled, benefiting
hundreds of millions of people and lifting millions out of poverty in an accelerated
process of globalization, including production, consumption, trade, and investment, as
well as an expansion in the number of countries reaching middle-income status. 1 In
contrast, 60% of the world's major ecosystem goods and services that underpin
livelihoods have been degraded or used unsustainably.2
In addition, not all have benefited equally and many have benefited little or not at all
from this process. The growing economic shift into middle-income countries (MICS)
hides the reality that MICS are home to three-quarters of the world's poor people. 3
Indeed, the economic growth of recent decades has been accomplished through
increasing consumption and production patterns, drawing down on natural resources
and allowing for widespread ecosystem degradation and widening inequity gaps.
Compounding this situation is climate change, which threatens to undo and even
reverse the progress made toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). Climate change poses one of the most serious challenges to achieving
sustainable development. As a key causative factor, climate change has already changed
the magnitude and frequency of some extreme weather, increasing the length,
frequency, and intensity of heat waves, flooding, droughts, intense tropical cyclones,
rising sea levels, and loss of biodiversity.4 These hazards increase vulnerability to
disasters and result in widespread human, material, economic, and environmental
losses.5 These impacts will increase in the future and are exacerbated for poor people
and countries with limited resources for adaptation.6 The effects of climate-related
changes are severely undermining food security, efforts to eradicate poverty, and other
existing pressures on these societies. Over the long term, these effects, combined with
factors such as population pressure, are likely to lead to environmental degradation and

loss of biodiversity, and to exacerbate existing socioeconomic tensions and create new
ones. This will have implications for migration, stability, and security at local, national,
regional, and global levels.7
Therefore, the challenge facing humanity is to sustain the process of poverty eradication
and development while shifting gears so as to avoid greater damage to our environment,
including from climate change. Developed countries must preserve development
achievements while focusing more on sustainable development and shrinking
environmental impacts. Developing countries must continue to raise their people's
living standards and eradicate poverty while containing increases in their ecological
footprints. Both must adapt to the impacts of the damage already done. This is a shared
challenge with a goal of shared prosperity and sustainable development.
There is a clear education agenda in this process in terms of providing a foundation for
the shift in the global demand away from resource- and energy-intensive commodities
and toward green products, the production of such commodities, and in sustainable
lifestyles. While this change will not happen overnight, the education sector has a
critical role to play in imparting the knowledge and skills that lead to behavior change
for sustainable development. Specifically, education can enable individuals and
communities to make informed decisions and take action for climate compatible
sustainable development. For this shift to take place, the international community must
champion a learning for sustainable development agenda that is focused on learning not
only basic literacy and numeracy but also the relevant knowledge and skills to equip
individuals for green growth and sustainable consumption and lifestyles.
This article makes a case for and defines an agenda for learning for sustainable
development. It highlights promising practices in formal and nonformal education
contexts that have the potential to change consumption patterns and lifestyles. The
article concludes by making recommendations for policymakers working on sustainable
development and poverty alleviation beyond the United Nations Conference on

Sustainable Development 2012 (Rio + 20) to the post-2015 agenda.

The Case for a Learning for Sustainable Development Agenda
The United Nations Secretary General's High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability
recently wrote that sustainable development is not a destination, but a dynamic process
of adaptation, learning and action. It is about recognizing, understanding and acting on
interconnectionsabove all, those between the economy, society and the natural
environment.8 Similarly, addressing the climate challenge requires individuals and
institutions to be able to assess and understand climate change, design and implement
adequate policies, and, most important of all, take action toward low-carbon, climateresilient, and sustainable growth. Therefore, climate change education is an integral part
of learning for sustainable development (see box at right).
To achieve sustainable development, which is development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,
individuals need to adopt sustainable lifestyles. Everyday, millions of choices are made
by individuals, businesses, and governmentsall of which influence society and impact
the planet. These choices connect and differentiate individuals evolving within a global
society of seven billion people (see box below). Unsustainable collective choices have
led to major environmental crises, from climate change to resource scarcity, while
failing to improve people's well-being. However, sustainable lifestyles, enabled by both
efficient infrastructure and individual actions, play a key role in minimizing the use of
natural resources, emissions, wastes, and pollution while supporting equitable
socioeconomic development and progress for all. This requires rethinking ways of
living, purchasing, and consuming, altering the organization of daily life, of
socialization, exchange, education, and the building of identities. Equally important is
understanding the interlinkages between the three pillars of sustainable development
economic growth, social development, and environmental protectionand the

consequences of choices.
It is also critical to understand the ways in which these three pillars of sustainable
development are dependent upon education. In our knowledge-based world, economic
development and poverty reduction depend upon an educated and skilled workforce.
For instance, in developing countries, one additional year of education adds about 10%
to a person's earnings.9 However, it is the cognitive or learning skills of a population,
and not simply the number of years in school, that is correlated to individual earning
and economic growth.10 Social development is also dependent on education to empower
learners and to maximize their capacities, resources, and opportunities to fully
participate in society.11 Education is critical to environmental protection through
teaching and learning environmental stewardship. This includes environmental and
climate change education, which promotes new attitudes and skills for environmental
protection and diversity and also helps people change consumption and production
patterns. Access to quality, relevant education that empowers all, including the
marginalized, to utilize environmental resources sustainably is essential to equitable
social development and is a necessary foundation for sustainable development.
On another level, a strong case can be made for a learning for sustainable
development agenda based on current gaps in young people's understanding of their
own role. In 2009, UNEP and UNESCO launched the first global in-depth qualitative
and projective Global Survey on Sustainable Lifestyles (GSSL). The overall objective
was to listen to young adultsvoicesmore than 8,000 people from 20 different
countriesto reach a better understanding of their everyday life, expectations, and
visions for the future with regards to sustainability.12 The results reveal a great need for
better information on global challenges and the ways in which these challenge relate to
lifestyles and individual actions. While the majority of respondents stated that poverty
and environmental degradation were the most important global challenges, they also
demonstrated a lack of understanding about the ways in which individual actions and
benefits are linked with collective actions and benefits. Many reported being well

informed about global challenges such as climate change, but demonstrated a striking
lack of information about local-level issues related to global challenges. 13 While
environmental damage and degradation were cited as among the worst elements within
a vision of the future, sustainability was still not considered as a factor for progress.
Hence, the benefits of integrated environmental, economic, and social development
need to be better communicated, particularly in terms of how they relate to
sustainability within one's individual lifestyle. Education provides a unique opportunity
to inform and empower young peopleand all peopleto create their own sustainable
lifestyles and communities.14
Defining a Learning for Sustainable Development Agenda
Conceptualizing the role education can play in creating sustainable and resilient futures
has been an ongoing debate over three decades. In 1992, governments adopted Agenda
21 at the first Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, committing to reorient education
programs and systems toward sustainable development. In 2005, the United Nations
Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) was launched to strengthen
government commitments to embed sustainable development into all education
systems, strategies and public awareness by 2014. Despite these advances, the role of
education continues to be seen as secondary to other priority issues such as the green
economy, natural disasters, climate change, and energy. However, given the world's
limited natural resources, rising population, and the looming challenge of climate
change, sustainable development cannot be attained without education that equips
learners with the skills needed to live healthy, safe, and productive lives in the 21st
century, while also safeguarding the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs (see box below).
What is missing is a holistic, compelling, and pragmatic vision of what a sustainable
society consists of and how it can be translated at the national, local, and individual
level. Governments have a key role to play by creating the appropriate frameworks and

infrastructures to enable citizens to change. Information and education are essential, as

is the full participation of civil society in shaping innovative solutions for sustainable
lifestyles and development.
Education must be made climate compatible and linked to sustainable development in
order to meet the needs of the 21st century and beyond. Education for Sustainable
Development (ESD) is an approach to teaching and learning based on the ideals and
principles that underlie sustainability. As such, ESD promotes multi-stakeholder social
learning; emphasizes the empowerment of communities and citizens; engages with key
issues such as human rights, poverty reduction, sustainable livelihoods, climate change,
and gender equality in an integral way; and encourages changes in behavior that will
create a more sustainable future.15 However, education within the context of the United
Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable Development, as it exists today,
continues to struggle as an international policy priority, in part due to lack of funding
but also due to a lack of evidence-based policymaking brought on by its own failure to
integrate assessment, monitoring, and evaluation into the agenda.
If the international community is to set an achievable strategy for sustainable
development, the following five priorities of learning for sustainable development must
be championed:
1. Support quality early childhood development and learning opportunities for girls
and boys.
2. Ensure that basic literacy and numeracy are learned in school.
3. Enable young people to make the transition to and complete relevant postprimary
education.
4. Equip young people with relevant skills for 21st-century lives and livelihoods.
5. Make learning spaces safe, climate compatible and sustainable.

Achieving quality education for all remains a pivotal goal for global development.
While there has been considerable progress in increasing primary school enrollment
around the world over the last decade, children too often leave primary and even
secondary school without acquiring the basic knowledge, skills, and competencies
needed to grow into healthy adults and lead safe, productive, and sustainable lives. In
short, there is a global learning crisis underfoot, which affects children and youth who
are out of school with limited learning opportunities and also those who are in school
but not learning the skills needed for their future. Marginalized groups like girls from
poor, rural households and children and youth living in conflict-affected areas are
particularly missing out.
The Brookings Institution Center for Universal Education's Global Compact on
Learning has identified the following three priority areas and concrete strategies, which,
if given the international community's collective attention, would help to improve
educational opportunities and outcomes for and build the resilience of children and
youth:
1. Support quality early childhood development and learning opportunities for girls
and boys. High-quality early childhood development activities have long been
shown to have a lasting impact on learning. These activitieswhich include
health, nutrition, and stimulationcan also lead to cost-saving efficiencies in
primary school by increasing overall retention, reducing attrition, and raising
primary school completion rates. Returns are often greatest for children from the
most disadvantaged backgrounds. Across countries, access to preprimary
programs is highly uneven; within countries, attendance patterns typically show
that children from the poorest and most marginalized households are least likely
to attend preprimary school.
Ensuring that all girls and boys, particularly the most marginalized, start school
at an appropriate age has been and can be accomplished through public policies

on early childhood development; availability of high-quality early childhood

development opportunities; financial incentives such as cash transfers; public
campaigns about the importance of school readiness; and tracking that
encourages age-appropriate school enrollment. Developing and supporting
multigrade and multi-age teaching approaches is also important.16
2. Ensure that basic literacy and numeracy are learned in school. Literacy and
numeracy skills are foundational skills for all future learning. It is crucial to learn
these skills early because failing to learn to read is associated with falling further
behind each year or dropping out altogether. This link is particularly important
for low-income girls and conflict-affected young people who remain the most
educationally marginalized. Children whose mother tongue differs from the
language of instruction are further disadvantaged in acquiring these foundational
skills.
Strategies to ensure basic literacy and numeracy include prioritizing these skills
in the curriculum, through mother tongue-based multilingual education where
appropriate, in the lower primary grades. This can be accomplished by
maximizing the amount of time spent on learning, including addressing teacher
absenteeism, providing training to teachers in effective methods of reading
instruction and numeracy, providing appropriate-level reading materials to
children and communities, creating a culture of literacy and learning, and
implementing a comprehensive local language policy.17
3. Enable young people to transition to and complete relevant post-primary
education. Despite considerable evidence of the many social and economic
returns from secondary school, too few girls and boys continue beyond primary
school. For those who do, many are not learning the skills they need for their
future lives and livelihoods.

Enabling girls and boys to transition and complete postprimary educational

opportunities requires the provision of well-targeted, appropriately structured
subsidies for educationally marginalized groups; safe learning environments; and
girl-friendly school policies. Furthermore, cultivating community support,
offering

second-chance

learning

opportunities,

and

providing

flexible

postprimary models that utilize innovative modes of delivery enhance continued

learning for both girls and boys. Reforms must not only focus on academic skills
but also ensure healthy lives, productive work, and civic participation. Examples
include strengthening the link between postprimary education and improved life
and labor opportunities, and facilitating school-to-work and school-to higher
education transitions.18
There is growing consensus in the education community to embrace an access
plus learning agenda in order to move these priorities forward. Ensuring that
every child is in school and learning is an important step toward sustainable
development, but it is not enough. Achieving sustainable development requires a
change in the way people think and act; education can catalyze this
transformation. As the discussion around the transition to a green economy
accelerates and climate change looms, it is critical to prioritize relevant global
citizenship

skills

and

safe,

climate-resilient,

and

sustainable

learning

environments. The following two priorities are critical for developed and
developing countries alike:
4. Equip all people with relevant skills for 21st century lives and livelihoods. A
central function of education is to foster learning about new subjects. Twentyfirst-century livelihoods require critical thinking, problem solving, and relevant
content knowledge like environmental and climate change education, disaster
risk reduction and preparedness, sustainable consumption and lifestyles, and
green technical and vocational education and training.

Empowering learners to contribute to sustainable development helps to make

education more relevant and responsive to contemporary and emerging
challenges. For instance, Rio+20's focus on a green economy calls for seizing
opportunities to advance economic and environmental goals simultaneously.
Education can assist in the process of shifting the global demand away from
resource- and energy-intensive commodities and toward greener products and
technologies, less pollution, and sustainable lifestyles. Moreover, restructuring
toward a green economy will require transferable skills, those that are not
necessarily linked to specific occupations. Thinking critically, solving problems,
collaborating, and managing risks and uncertainty are core competencies that are
critical for employment in a green economy and living together peacefully in a
sustainable society.19 The education sector plays a critical role in teaching
relevant skills for successful climate change adaptation and mitigation. Teaching
and learning should integrate environmental education, climate change and
scientific literacy, disaster risk reduction and preparedness, and education for
sustainable lifestyles and consumption. Learners need a basic understanding of
scientific concepts; knowledge of and ability to distinguish between certainties,
uncertainties, risks and consequences of environmental degradation, disasters,
and climate change; knowledge of mitigation and adaptation practices that can
contribute to building resilience and sustainability; and understanding of varying
interests that shape different responses to climate change and the ability to
critically judge the validity of these interests in relation to the public good.
Evidence shows that educational interventions are most successful when focused
on local, tangible, and actionable aspects of sustainable development, climate
change, and environmental education, especially those that can be addressed by
individual behavior.20
5. Ensure that learning spaces are safe, climate compatible and sustainable. To help
adapt to climate change, learning spaces should be made safe, disaster resilient,

and climate compatible through the incorporation of disaster prevention,

preparedness, response, and recovery strategies for individuals, educational
systems, and communities. Disaster risk reduction strategies ensure the safety
and continuity of education, helping the system to adapt to climate change and
reduce the vulnerability of learners. Safe school sites can be selected through
participatory risk assessments geared at ensuring that every new school is
climate-proofed and multi-hazard resilient. This requires prioritizing replacement
and retrofitting of unsafe schools and minimizing nonstructural risks. A critical
element in enhancing resilience is the ability to prepare for and respond to the
impacts of climate change. Students, teachers, parents, and communities must be
involved in practicing early warning, simulation drills, and evacuation for
expected and recurring disasters. Education systems also need to work with
parents and the wider community to understand and adapt as necessary to the
seasonality changes caused by climate change through strategies such as adapting
the school year, exam calendar, and textbook distribution.
To ensure adaptive and safe learning environments, schools can develop
contingency plans for continuity of learning in the event of unexpected disasters
and/or displacement caused by impacts of climate change. The Inter-Agency
Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) provides a framework through its
Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response, Recovery on how to
prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters in ways that reduce risk,
improve future preparedness, and lay a solid foundation for quality education.
Moreover, safe and adaptive schools are models for the communities in which
they sit. Likewise, contingency planning within schools provides a positive
example that can spread to the broader community.
Additionally, schools and education institutions should be made sustainable
through environmentally sound and carbon neutral policies that promote
mitigation through building and site design and maintenance. This requires

design, building, management, and maintenance practices geared toward carbon

neutral and environmentally sustainable learning spaces, which integrate green
technology to reduce energy consumption. For example, climate change can
increase water stress caused by erratic rainfall patterns and create a need for
alternative sources of water. Programs for harvesting rainwater can be integrated
into schools so that children have a safe and ready supply of drinking water and
basic sanitation facilities at school. School-based water and sanitation programs
also have the benefit of encouraging parents and the community to support
children going to school. Such schools not only are a contribution to sustainable
development itself, but also contribute to the whole school approach, as they
act as a resource and good practice model for teaching and learning about
sustainability and sustainable consumption.
If these five priorities are moved forward within the larger efforts of education system
development in local context-specific manners, the international community will make
an enormous contribution in addressing not only the learning crisis that affects the
world's poorest communities, but also the challenges of teaching future generations
about the importance of sustainable development and climate change facing both
developed and developing countries alike.
Promising Practices
There is a wide range of learning and education for sustainable development, lifestyles,
and consumption activities and projects underway around the world. However, in spite
of the growing interest at international, national, and local levels about sustainability,
evidence-based research about the impacts of sustainability-related education remains
very limited. The majority of evidence that exists is anecdotal, often in case-study
format without monitoring and evaluation processes in place that could lead to
quantitative as well as qualitative data.

The following is a selection of promising practices that have innovated from standard
programs by seeking to maximize partnership and awareness-raising; provide capacities
and skills; enhance teaching and learning, including through the learning environment;
and empower individuals and communities to create more sustainable futures through
sustainable development, consumption, and lifestyles. While there are common
components to these promising practices (see box at right), given the lack of rigorous
assessment, monitoring, and evaluation of such practices, it is not possible to brand a
given initiative a best practice.
Promising Practices in Teaching and Learning Sustainable Development
The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) is an
international organization implementing sustainable development projects, including
education and capacity-building programs. The Green Pack, REC's flagship program on
education for sustainable development, is a multimedia environmental educational kit
for schoolchildren between the ages of 11 and 15 years in Central and Eastern Europe.
Since the pilot in 2001, the Green Pack has been introduced in 18 countries in the
Western Balkans, Europe, and Asia, and approximately 30,000 teachers and more than 3
million students have been educated, changing the way in which the teaching of
sustainability is approached. Each project has been developed in cooperation with
businesses, governments, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in order to foster
community support across a broad spectrum of society.
The Green Pack project goals are to build capacities, transfer know-how, and establish
the basis for further developments in the field of education for sustainable development.
It covers 22 topics related to sustainable development, divided into five chapters:
Environmental components: air, water, soil, and biodiversity.
Threats to the environment: urbanization, noise, waste, and chemicals.

 Human activities and impacts: energy, transport, industry, agriculture, forestry,

and tourism.
Global challenges: climate change, ozone depletion, acidification, and issues
affecting seas and oceans.
Values: consumerism, human health and the environment, citizensrights, and
responsibility for the earth's future.
Specific challenges are presented in their global, national, and regional contexts, as well
as at the individual level in terms of the role of each citizen in supporting the
sustainable development of society. The challenge of sustainability is conveyed in a
compelling, accessible way and in multiple formats through text, pictures, photos,
maps, tests, interactive tables and illustrations, and film clips. Students follow lesson
plans that are accompanied by complementary videos, role-playing exercises, and
interactive games. There are 22 case studies, each focusing on a particular
environmental problem, which is presented in the form of an interactive dilemma game.
The game offers a number of possible ways of addressing the problem, as well as
comments on the positive and negative aspects of each response. By working through
the dilemmas, teachers and students are able to engage in in-depth discussions on
particular aspects of the conflict between environmental protection and economic
development and train themselves to understand and respect different opinions and
build consensus.
Emphasis is placed on the formation of new values and the establishment of new
models of behavior at school, at home and in society, rather than simply on the
accumulation of knowledge. Students are encouraged to take a proactive approach to
environmental challenges and are asked to share their newfound knowledge and skills
with members of their family. Discussions are also initiated with local community
stakeholders on ways to achieve sustainable development.21

In Serbia, teachers evaluated the Green Pack as very applicable to natural science
classes, as well as geography, informatics, and civic education classes. Teachers
confirmed that the Green Pack filled a gap in adequate literature and tools and reported
that students became more motivated to learn, interested in the topics, and concentrated
more effectively in the class when using the Green Pack. Teachers also reported that the
quality of the knowledge not only improved, but was longer lasting. In particular,
teachers reported that the dilemma game effectively encouraged pupilsdevelopment
of critical thinking, debate and compromise.22
Eco-Schools, an international program of the Foundation for Environmental Education,
is another example of a promising practice in teaching and learning sustainable
development. Becoming an eco-school requires child-centered leadership throughout
seven consecutive steps, such as establishing an Eco-Schools Committee to encourage
and manage the program; providing environmental curriculum; and developing an ecocode outlining the school's values and objectives alongside student goals. Initiated in
1994, 156 schools worldwide have joined Eco-Schools, which includes more than 9
million students, 600,000 teachers, and 5,000 local authorities as of 2012.23
South Africa joined the Eco-Schools program in 2003 and includes 1,200 rural and
urban schools. In South Africa, the international Eco-Schools model has been adapted
to align with the South African national curriculum, which includes environmental
learning outcomes for each grade level and subject area.24 Through this integration
between Eco-Schools objectives and national curriculum standards, Eco-Schools South
Africa fosters changes in sustainable environmental attitudes and behaviors among
students, teachers, and community members. Schools can focus on any of the five
themes: Resource Use, Nature and Biodiversity, Local and Global Issues, Healthy
Living, and Community and Heritage.25 Through these themes, students and
communities empower themselves to take steps toward being part of a solution. For
example, several schools are addressing sustainable development by adapting the
energy sources used for cooking. In Mpumalanga, The Tenteleni Primary School's clay

stove project engaged students in experiential learning: They built a traditional fuelefficient stove and now use recycled paper bricks to cook school meals. The Diklobe
Primary School in Limpopo similarly taught students how to build and use solar
cookers as an alternative to using indigenous trees for firewood. In addition, students
are encouraged to take solar cookers to their homes and teach their families how to
utilize renewable energy for cooking. Finally, students at Wykeham Collegiate in
Kwazulu-Natal have adopted the My Carbon Footprint toolkit to improve knowledge
of sustainable consumption, climate change, and carbon footprints and to reduce their
carbon emissions by 90% over 20 years.
Promising Practice in Teaching and Learning About Sustainable Energy Through
Infrastructure
The Global Action Network for Energy Efficiency Education (GANE) works to expand
the use and impact of energy efficiency resources within education programs and
training institutions around the world. The focus within GANE is on teaching and
learning how to change energy consumption behavior through a multi-disciplinary
academic approach. For instance, GANE's Green Schools Program in the United States
provides training and tools that make students the focus of green schools by placing
them in leadership positions to carry out energy diagnostics in their school building.
The green building becomes a learning lab for students to apply science, math, and
language arts to solve local sustainable energy and climate change challenges. Through
basic changes in operations, maintenance, and individual behavior, schools participating
in the GANE Green Schools Program have reduced their energy consumption and
equipped students, teachers, and administrators to promote energy efficiency in their
homes and communities.
Promising Practices Within Higher Education
A Higher Education Initiative launched in March 2012 by five UN agencies targets

universities and business schools in an effort to create an enlarged understanding of

sustainable development and its implications for how we live work and do business. 26
The initiative calls on leaders of Higher Education institutions to sign a Declaration of
Commitment to Sustainable Practices of Higher Education Institutions. The declaration
commits universities and business schools to, among other things, reducing their
ecological footprints by practicing the three Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle) and proper
waste management; instituting energy and water use policies; greening their transport
systems, supply chains and procurement policies, and campuses, including their
buildings; and teaching and promoting sustainable development as a core module across
disciplines so that every graduate has an understanding of issues such as climate
change, sustainability, and natural resource capital and protection as they relate to his or
her area of learning. The initiative notes that because Higher Education institutions
educate and train decision makers, they play an important role in building more
sustainable societies and have a special responsibility to provide leadership on
education for sustainable development. This is an admirable effort but should not be
confined to higher education.
On the African continent, there are more than 351 public and private institutions of
higher learning educating thousands of young men and women, providing a unique
opportunity to influence knowledge, behaviors, and career choices toward
sustainability. Since 2004, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has led
the Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability into African Universities (MESA)
partnership, which provides a continent-wide platform for discussions on sustainable
development innovations in different African contexts and universities.27 The MESA
partnership, an African network developed and maintained by African professors and
partners, includes a course within universities to strengthen capacities around ESD
innovations. The course provides a broad orientation to environmental issues in the
context of sustainable development, and introduces university teachers, managers, and
students to innovations in teaching, research, services, and management practices. The

partnership also includes seminars for university leaders, and biennial conferences
providing opportunities for universities to share ESD innovations and learn directly
from others.
The partnership thus far has resulted in the initiation of a number of change initiatives
in participating universities and has introduced a stronger systems-focused approach to
change in the participating universities. While no formal evaluation has yet been
undertaken, more than 90 universities in 40 countries have joined the partnership,
creating the first network of African universities on environment and sustainability, in
partnership with UNESCO, the United Nations University, the Association of African
Universities, the Southern Africa Development Commission, the Horn of Africa
Regional Environmental Centre and Network, and the African Network for Agriculture,
Agroforestry and Natural Resource Education.
Promising Practices in Awareness Raising, Communication, and Nonformal
Learning
The UNEP/UNESCO YouthXchange Initiative (YXC) was created in 2001 to promote
sustainable lifestyles among youth aged 1524 years. The YXC initiative contributes to
the creation of sustainable culture by promoting alternative behaviors and lifestyles and
supporting the mainstreaming of resource-efficient and environmentally friendly
products and services through awareness-raising campaigns, communication, and
education. YXC works with young people, educators, NGOs, trainers, and youth leaders
in more than 45 countries. At the national and local levels, YXC capacity development
activities move through a diverse network of partners, ranging from youth NGOs, EcoSchools, and consumer organizations to Ministries of Environment and Education.
YXC has gained momentum in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Arab States,
Asia, and the Pacific due to the commitment of national and regional partners. Initially
a printed training kit on responsible consumption, which has since been translated in 20

languages through partnerships, and a bilingual website (French/English) made up the

content of the initiative. However, growing partnerships in sustainability education have
catalyzed the development of thematic YouthXchange guidebooks, which explain
complex issues in accessible language, supported by practical tips, suggested activities,
relevant case studies, and best practices and web links for more information. The
YouthXchange guidebooks enable educators and young people to better understand how
global challenges are connected to their everyday lifestyle choices. For instance, there
are thematic guidebooks focused on climate change, on biodiversity, and on green skills
and lifestyles. Additional guidebooks will focus on water, cities, energy, and mobility.
Conclusion
As world leaders consider the next steps in the wake of Rio+20 in the coming years to
secure renewed political commitment on sustainable development and influence the
post-2015 agenda, the five-point learning for sustainable development agenda presented
in this article should be promoted as one that addresses the three pillars of sustainable
development. Policymakers should call for the integration of these five priorities into all
countriesdevelopment plans:
1. Support quality early childhood development and learning opportunities for girls
and boys.
2. Ensure that basic literacy and numeracy are learned in school.
3. Enable young people to make the transition to and complete relevant postprimary
education.
4. Equip young people with relevant skills for 21st-century lives and livelihoods.
5. Make learning spaces safe, climate resilient and sustainable.
These five education priorities, focused on learning the skills, knowledge, and

competencies needed to live healthy, safe, and productive lives, will enable the
education sector to have a head start in thinking about how the sustainable development
goals (SDGs) and the post-2015 discussions complement each other through the
merging of the sustainable development and poverty eradication agendas.
A well-coordinated effort is needed to move this agenda forward. It will also require
better facilitated collaboration at the global level for information sharing and building
the evidence base. While there are information-sharing networks geared toward
education and sustainable development, none successfully combine both a facilitated
global network or mechanism for sharing information and a user-friendly website that
catalogues good practices, resources, and tools. Facilitated collaboration is also needed
to bring together key actors together in advance of global meetings to develop a
common strategy for influencing the conference text, which will ultimately influence on
future government action and, potentially, funding.
There is far too little evidence-based research that demonstrates the ways in which
education is an effective tool for sustainable development, in terms of both cost and
outcomes. National governments and donors would be more likely to focus political
will and technical and financial resources on an education and learning for sustainable
development agenda if there were evidence on the most effective sustainable
development strategies through education and their impact at individual, school, and
society levels. Without such evidence, and beset by serious fiscal challenges and an
uncertain global economic outlook, policymakers will continue to prioritize initiatives
and strategies with strong evidence behind them.
In examining the success of the Education for All (EFA) agenda, which has spearheaded
the progress on MDGs 2 and 3, one important component has been the EFA Global
Monitoring Report (GMR). The GMR is produced annually to assess how well
countries and regions are doing in reaching EFA goals and uses both qualitative and
quantitative measures to do so. Comparatively, there is no such global monitoring report

for the education for sustainable development agenda. In fact, the indicators that have
been produced since the launch of the Decade for Education for Sustainable
Development in 2005 have been process indicators, such as setting up national ESD
commissions and policies. While these are important, outcome indicators are essential
in order to evaluate what works and use that information to revise strategies and raise
global awareness of what can and should be done through education to ensure
sustainable development.
The following recommendations require stronger collaboration amongst researchers,
NGOs, UN agencies, governments, networks, and civil society across the education and
sustainable development communities to strengthen the evidence base on the most
effective sustainable development measures through education and their impact at
individual, school, and society levels:
1. The development of a standardized framework of objectives, knowledge, skills,
and measurable outcomes of learning for sustainable development is essential in
order to evaluate what works and use that information to revise strategies and
raise global awareness about what can and should be done through education to
ensure sustainable development.
2. More, and more rigorous, evidence-based research on education as an effective
tool for sustainable development, consumption, and lifestyles is needed.
Moreover, the location of evidence-based research should be varied; most
evidence-based studies have been carried out in Europe, and to a lesser extent the
United States and Australia. In addition, more longitudinal studies are needed to
determine a correlation between positive behavior change and exposure to
sustainable lifestyles and consumption education programs and activities. Future
research should focus on what specific tools produce positive educational
outcomes in numerous and diverse settings.

3. A myriad of education for sustainable development resource guides and policy

toolkits exist; their use needs to be tracked and educational outcomes evaluated.
Given the world's limited natural resources, rising population, and the climate change
challenge, sustainable development cannot be attained without education that equips
learners with the skills needed to live healthy, safe, and productive lives in the 21st
century, while also safeguarding the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs. The learning for sustainable development agenda presented here will equip
individuals with this new knowledge and the skills needed to reduce vulnerabilities and
change behavior, ultimately creating more resilient individuals and societies.
Education and Climate Change
In many countries, the changing climate is making it harder to deliver education and to
keep learners safe while doing it. Climate-related disasters damage or destroy school
facilities and educational systems, threatening the physical safety and psychological
well-being of communities and interrupting educational continuity. Furthermore, the
economic impacts of disasters reduce school enrollment, as children are kept out of
school to help with livelihoods.
Despite these threats, the education sector offers a currently untapped opportunity to
combat climate change and achieve sustainable development. Education can impart the
knowledge, skills, and behavior change that are necessary for mitigation: reducing
greenhouse gas emissions through sustainable consumption patterns in lifestyles,
livelihoods, economies, and social structures that are currently based on excessive
greenhouse gas production. Education can enable individuals to play a critical role in
redefining their lifestyles to address the current sustainability issues that humanity is
facing. Education is also a critical component of adaptive capacity: The way that people
are educated and the relevance of education can provide the knowledge and skills
needed for making informed decisions about how to adapt individual lives and

livelihoods, as well as ecological, social, or economic systems in a changing

environment. Additionally, schools play a role in mitigation in terms of becoming
carbon neutral and energy efficient and reducing their own ecological footprint.
Sustainable lifestyles are patterns of action and consumption, used by people to
affiliate and differentiate themselves from others, which: meet basic needs, provide a
better quality of life, minimize the use of natural resources and emissions of waste and
pollutants over the lifecycle, and do not jeopardize the needs of future generations.
Kate Scott, Literature Review on Sustainable Lifestyles and Recommendations for
Further Research, Stockholm Environment Institute, March, 2009
Education in Relation to Rio's Priority Thematic Issues
Education is a critical cross-cutting issue for many of Rio+20's priority thematic issues,
from the green economy to climate change and disasters. For example:
Education can impart knowledge and spark behavior change to shift global
demand away from resource-and energy-intensive commodities, especially those
that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
Education can help reduce the vulnerability of communities to the impacts of
disasters and also enable them to adapt to climate change though integrating
disaster risk reduction and environmental and climate change education into
curricula. Schools can be made climate-proofed and multi-hazard resilient.
Common Components to Promising Practices for Learning for Sustainable
Development initiatives
Projects are developed within a diverse network or alliances of partners in order
to foster community support across a broad spectrum of society.

 Projects go beyond the accumulation of knowledge to behavior change behavior

through active, participatory and experiential learning at school, at home, and in
society.
Active learning should be connected to local problem solving. Hands-on
educational activities with a local focus create successful learning outcomes.
Governments and/or ministries of education and the environment not only buy
into learning for sustainable development initiatives, but provide leadership and
resources
1. International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (Washington, DC:
2006), http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2006/02/data/download.aspx
2. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis
(Washington, DC: 2005), p. 1, http://www.maweb.org/en/index.aspx
3. A. Sumner, Global Poverty and the New Bottom Billion: What is Three-Quarters of
the World's Poor Live in Middle-Income Countries, Institute of Development Studies
no 349 (2010): 46.
4. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Special Report on Managing the Risks
of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation, IPCC
Special Report on Extreme Events (November 2011), and Climate Change 2007: Fourth
Assessment Report (2007). See also J. Lubchenco and T. R. Karl, Predicting and
Managing Extreme Weather Events, Physics Today (March 2012): 31.
5. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Special Report on Managing the Risks
of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (Geneva,
Switzerland: 2011), http://www.ipcc-wg2.gov/SREX

6. Ibid.
7. U.S. Climate Change Science Program, Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of
Climate Science, U.S. Global Change Research Program/Climate Change Science
Program (Washington, DC: 2009). See also United Nations Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, Monitoring
Disaster Displacement in the Context of Climate Change: Findings of a study by the
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Internal
Displacement Monitoring Center (Geneva, Switzerland: 2009), p. 15.
8. United Nations, United Nations Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Global
Sustainability. Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing (New York,
NY: 2012). http://www.un.org/gsp/report/.
9. G. Psacharopoulos and H. A. Patrinos, Returns to Investment in Education: A Further
Update, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 2881 (Washington, DC: World
Bank, 2002).
10. E. Hanushek and L. Woessmann, The Role of Education Quality in Economic
Growth (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007). See also IBS International, Pathways to
Learning in the 21st Century: Toward a Strategic Vision for USAID Assistance in
Education, USAID Educational Strategies Research Paper 2 (Washington, DC: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 2009); E. Jamison et al., The Effects of Education Quality
on Income Growth and Mortality Decline (Washington, DC: National Bureau of
Economic Research, 2006).
11. United Nations, Report of the World Summit for Social Development (New York,
NY:

1995).

http://social.un.org/index/Home/WorldSummitforSocialDevelopment1995.aspx
12. United Nations Environment Programme, Visions for Change: Recommendations

for

Effective

Policies

on

Sustainable

Lifestyles

(Paris,

France:

2011).

http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/DTIx1321xPA-VisionsForChange
%20report.pdf
13. Ibid., p. 7.
14. Ibid., p. 74.
15. United Nations Economic Social and Cultural Organization, Characteristics of ESD,
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-internationalagenda/education-for-sustainable-development/education-for-sustainabledevelopment/characteristics-of-esd (accessed 24 July 2012)
16. Brookings Institution, Global Compact on Learning (Washington, DC: Center for
Universal

Education,

2011),

pp.

1722.

http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2011/06/09-global-compact
17. Ibid., pp. 2329.
18. Ibid., pp. 3041.
19. Partnership for 21st Century Skills, A Framework for 21st Century Learning,
http://www.p21.org/overview/skills-framework (accessed 8 May 2012). Twenty-first
century learning, or the 21st Century Skills movement, is a growing global movement
to redefine the goals of education, transform how learning is practiced each day, and
expand the range of measures in student achievement in order to meet the new demands
of the 21st century. The Framework for 21st Century Learning has been developed to
describe the skills, knowledge, and expertise students must master to succeed in work
and life; it is a blend of content knowledge, specific skills, expertise and literacies.
20. A. Anderson, Climate Change Education for Mitigation and Adaption, Journal of
Education for Sustainable Development, September 2012.

21. Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Green Pack:
Turning Innovative Education Into Action for a Sustainable Future (Szentendre,
Hungary: 2000). http://documents.rec.org/greenhorizon/greenpack_leaflet.pdf
22. Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Evaluation of
Green Pack Training of Teachers Seminars, MayJune 2010, unpublished evaluation,
2011. See also Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe,
Summary of the Feedback From Teachers Who Went Through the Training on How to
Use Green Pack, May and June 2010, unpublished report, 2010.
23. Foundation for Environmental Education, Eco-Schools Programme Celebrating 15
Years (Copenhagen, Denmark: 2010).

http://www.eco-schools.org/15-years_eco-

schools/Download/eco-schools_15years.pdf
24. Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa, WESSA/WWF Eco-Schools
Programme (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: 2011). http://wessa.org.za/what-we-do/ecoschools.htm
25. Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa & the World Wildlife Fund, EcoSchools

South

Africa

Handbook

(KwaZulu-Natal,

South

Africa:

2001).

http://wessa.org.za/uploads/images/projects/ecoschools/Handbook%202012%20(2).pdf
26. United Nations, Higher Education Sustainability Initiative Concept Note, Office of
the Executive Coordinators of the Rio + 20 Effort, UN Conference on Sustainable
Development Rio+20, April 2012.
27. United Nations Environment Programme, Mainstreaming Environment and
Sustainability
Development

in

Africa

Innovation

Universities
Course

PartnershipEducation
Toolkit

(Nairobi,

for

Sustainable

Kenya:

2006).

http://www.unep.org/training/mesa/toolkit.asp
Allison Anderson is a Fellow with the Brookings Institution's Center for Universal

Education, where she focuses on the ways in which quality education contributes to
sustainable development, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation and
mitigation. She is also an adjunct professor on international education, emergency
response, and risk reduction at Columbia University's School of International and
Public Affairs (SIPA) in New York City.
Morgan Strecker is a Consultant with UNICEF's Education Section. She previously
worked for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on sustainable
lifestyles and consumption.

Sustainable development
Beyond Johannesburg
Joke Waller-Hunter, OECD Environment Directorate
Environment Directorate

Click to enlarge
Sustainable development is not about the environment or the economy or society. It is
about striking a lasting balance between all of these.
When heads of state and government gather at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the end of August, there will no doubt
be many fine words said as to the enormity of the task and the historical responsibility
they hold. But will the participants show leadership and pass from words to action?Ten
years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the Johannesburg Summit aims to bring
countries together under the UN banner in a bid to agree on a way forward. A negotiated
inter-governmental action plan will be up for adoption and there will be a large range of
partnership initiatives and commitments by various combinations of governments,
business, environmental groups, and other stakeholders. This summit represents a major
opportunity for us all to establish a path towards truly sustainable development. Many
challenges will have to be faced along the way, including some difficult ones for OECD
countries.An OECD report to the Johannesburg Summit spells these out clearly. It finds
that some progress has been made towards sustainable development since the 1992 Rio
Earth Summit: air quality has improved in many urban areas, for instance, and water

quality too, thanks often to a mix of better technology and regulation. But the report
emphasises that much more has to be done.There can be no sustainable development
without fighting poverty and disease for a start, as these continue to hamper
development in many countries. Despite the recent boom years in the global economy, a
fifth of the worlds population still live on less than US$1 a day and millions suffer from
chronic hunger. Diseases such as HIV/AIDS undermine society in many countries and
older communicable diseases once thought conquered are resurgent. Climate change,
biodiversity loss, deforestation, lack of access to clean water, overfishing: all need
immediate attention. Meanwhile, international and civil conflicts threaten the ability of
people to rise out of poverty, setting up a vicious circle whereby poverty feeds violent
conflict, and vice-versa.OECD countries know they bear special responsibility for
leadership in sustainable development, because of their weight in the global economy
and their effect on the environment. Facing up to this responsibility and taking the
necessary action is not easy. Yet, sustainable development will be hard to achieve
otherwise. And if the OECD cannot lead by example, how can its countries realistically
forge durable agreements with the rest of the world, whether in Johannesburg or
beyond?OECD members can do much to contribute to more sustainable development
globally. Increasing the level and the effectiveness of development aid is essential to
help poorer countries to develop the human capacities, institutions and governance
necessary to benefit from the opportunities offered by globalisation. Most OECD
countries have agreed to devote 0.7% of their gross national income to development
assistance, but the majority fall well short of this target. Little increase has been seen in
official development assistance in the past two decades, although there were strong
signs of a new readiness to increase aid efforts among some of the major OECD
countries, the US included, at the International Conference on Financing for
Development at Monterrey this March.Increased market access to goods and services,
resulting from further trade liberalisation, is an essential component of sustainable
development. In particular, the persistence of trade barriers in OECD countries has
contributed to underdevelopment. It is estimated that developing countries could benefit

by as much as US$43 billion per year from unrestricted access to OECD markets for
textiles and clothing, other manufactured goods, and agricultural products. Efforts to
reduce trade distortions are being strengthened through the World Trade Organizations
Doha Development Agenda, and OECD countries must work together to ensure that
these moves are effective.Opening markets may not be enough; some of the poorest
countries have lacked the capacity to take advantage of world trade, others have
suffered from debilitating corruption. This is why OECD help in establishing adequate
capacity and policy frameworks to promote good governance, transparency, and
appropriate social and environmental policies, is a fundamental condition for
development in poorer countries. Such action would bolster support for OECD-led
initiatives,

such

as

our

guidelines

for

multinationals

or

the

anti-bribery

convention.Encouraging more private investment flows and better technology cooperation can help to build up capacity. Already, foreign direct investment from the
OECD to developing countries far outstrips development aid. Making sure that those
investment flows support sustainable development the sort that respects the balance
between economic, social and environmental well-being requires some serious
preparation.To further sustainable development in OECD countries, governments will
have to implement policies to achieve a more marked decoupling of environmental
pressures from economic growth. Despite some progress on this, economic pressures on
the environment continue to increase (see chart). Urban air pollutants arising from
energy and transport frequently exceed national health limits in some places, while
pollution from agriculture and other sources impairs water and soil quality. Persistent
and toxic chemicals are more pervasive in the environment, and municipal waste
generation continues to rise.OECD countries contribute to global environmental
problems as well. They are currently responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas
emissions, yet it is the non-OECD countries that are likely to bear a disproportionately
high share of the impact, damage, and adaptation costs associated with global climate
change. Several policy tools already exist to encourage more sustainable consumption
and production. OECD countries simply need to implement them in accordance with

their situations. A better integration of sustainable development concerns across

governments would help, with, for instance, transport, economics, environment,
agriculture and finance departments working more closely together. They should make
greater use of market-based instruments (e.g. environmental taxes, tradable emissions
permits, reform of environmentally damaging subsidies), as well as working to boost
public awareness (and responsibility). Education holds the key to the public support that
can help governments overcome obstacles to reform. With broad support, events such as
the road blockages that took place in many OECD countries in 2000 in protest against
rising petrol prices or the dumping of agricultural produce in front of government
offices would not cause politicians to think twice about introducing important
reforms.Naturally, there are uncertainties to be addressed, and governments and other
stakeholders have to work together to preserve international competitiveness and
manage any social effects of reform. Yet reform is essential. Sustainable development
requires a balance that is not easy to achieve. And hiding from it will not make it go
away: indeed the challenges only deepen. If OECD countries are to show leadership,
they will need to tackle these thorny issues. The stakes are enormous and summits like
Johannesburg do not happen often.References:Working Together Towards Sustainable
Development: The OECD Experience, OECD, 2002.Sustainable Development: Critical
Issues, OECD, 2001.Policies to Enhance Sustainable Development, OECD,
2001.OECD Environmental Outlook, OECD, 2001.OECD Environmental Strategy for
the First Decade of the 21st Century, OECD, 2001.Joke Waller-Hunter, Observer 233

This web page has the following sub-sections:

1. What is Sustainable Development?
2. Little Progress So Far

3. The Earth Summit in 1992 Attempted to Highlight the Importance of

Sustainability
4. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Bleak Future
5. Putting an economic value on the environment
6. The Political Challenge
What is Sustainable Development?
The idea of sustainable development grew from numerous environmental movements in
earlier decades and was defined in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and
Development (Brundtland Commission 1987) as:
Sustainable Development
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
This contributed to the understanding that sustainable development encompasses a
number of areas and highlights sustainability as the idea of environmental, economic
and social progress and equity, all within the limits of the worlds natural resources.
Back to top
Little Progress So Far
However, the record on moving towards sustainability so far appears to have been quite
poor.
Though we might not always hear about it, sustainable development (and all the interrelated issues associated with it) is an urgent issue, and has been for many years, though
political will has been slow-paced at best. For example, there are
1.3 billion without access to clean water;

 about half of humanity lacking access to adequate sanitation and living on less
than 2 dollars a day;
approximately 2 billion without access to electricity;
Sources
And this is in an age of immense wealth in increasingly fewer hands. The inequality of
consumption (and therefore, use of resources, which affects the environment) is terribly
skewed: 20% of the worlds people in the highest-income countries account for 86% of
total private consumption expenditures the poorest 20% a minuscule 1.3%
according to the 1998 United Nations Human Development Report.
Back to top
The Earth Summit in 1992 Attempted to Highlight the Importance of
Sustainability
The 1992 Rio Earth Summit was attended by 152 world leaders, and sustainability was
enshrined in Agenda 21, a plan of action, and a recommendation that all countries
should produce national sustainable development strategies. Despite binding
conventions and numerous detailed reports, there seems to have been little known about
the details to ordinary citizens around the world.
In the 10+ years since Rio, there has been little change in poverty levels, inequality or
sustainable development, as the World Development Movement notes. Despite
thousands of fine words the last decade has joined the 1980s as another lost decade for
sustainable development with deepening poverty, global inequality and environmental
destruction.

As LEAD and Panos highlight, In the ten years since Rio, sustainable development
hasnt been very high on international agendas and criticizes both rich and poor nations
alike:
In many countries rich and poor this is often because of a perception that
sustainability is expensive to implement and ultimately a brake on development. Poor
countries for their part usually lack the physical infrastructure, ideas and human
capacity to integrate sustainability into their development planning. Besides, they are
often quite skeptical about rich countries real commitment to sustainable development
and demand a more equitable sharing of environmental costs and responsibilities. Many
people also believe that environmental problems can wait until developing countries are
richer.
Ten years on, there is still no widely shared vision of what sustainable development
might mean in practice. India sees the idea of a light ecological footprint as part of its
cultural heritage. Japan, on the other hand, is debating whether the emphasis should be
on the sustainable or on the development half of the equation.
Roads to the Summit, LEAD International and Panos London, 30 August 2002 (Link
is to a news report, which has a link to a Microsoft Word formatted document from
which this was quoted.)
Back to top
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Bleak Future
In March 2005, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) was released. This 2,500page report was four years in the making, drawn up by 1,300 researchers from 95
nations over four years, and funded by the Global Environment Facility, the United
Nations Foundation, the World Bank and various others.

Surveying the planet, it made a number of conclusions that many have stressed for
years. The key messages from the report included the following points:
Everyone in the world depends on nature and ecosystem services to provide the
conditions for a decent, healthy, and secure life.
Humans have made unprecedented changes to ecosystems in recent decades to
meet growing demands for food, fresh water, fiber, and energy [which has]
helped to improve the lives of billions, but at the same time they weakened
natures ability to deliver other key services such as purification of air and water,
protection from disasters, and the provision of medicines.
Human activities have taken the planet to the edge of a massive wave of species
extinctions, further threatening our own well-being.
The loss of services derived from ecosystems is a significant barrier to the
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty, hunger,
and disease.
The pressures on ecosystems will increase globally in coming decades unless
human attitudes and actions change.
Measures to conserve natural resources are more likely to succeed if local
communities are given ownership of them, share the benefits, and are involved in
decisions.
Even todays technology and knowledge can reduce considerably the human
impact on ecosystems. They are unlikely to be deployed fully, however, until
ecosystem services cease to be perceived as free and limitless, and their full value
is taken into account.

 Better protection of natural assets will require coordinated efforts across all
sections of governments, businesses, and international institutions. The
productivity of ecosystems depends on policy choices on investment, trade,
subsidy, taxation, and regulation, among others.
Living Beyond Our Means: Natural Assets and Human Well-being

, An

interpretation of the key messages to emerge from the assessment, from the Board of
Directors governing the MA process, March 2005
To the mainstream, this Assessment draws attention to the notion of the environment as
having an economic value associated with it far greater than what is currently assigned
(if anything).
The economic challenge is a complex one then. It requires proper accounting of
resource use, as well as addressing purposes of consumption. What is normally counted
economically as an externality needs to be internalized instead.
A BBC summary of the Assessment gives the following example:
Airlines do not pay for the carbon dioxide they put into the atmosphere;
The price of food does not reflect the cost of cleaning waterways that have been
polluted by run-off of agrochemicals from the land.
There are countless other examples. Some vivid examples from this site include the
following:
Beef consumption, highlighting enormous and severe environmental degradation
around the world; many health problems; no positive nutritional value; and how it
is largely wasteful in an economic sense;

 Tobacco consumption highlights how areas of land are used for a product that is
costly to the environment, to peoples personal health and to societys resources
to provide health care;
Treating food as a commodity has led to lots of food being grown, but by
diverting land use to non-productive uses;
Other parts of the consumption section show various other examples.
The Trade, Economy, & Related Issues section on this site has a number of
articles that show how economic and political decisions ultimately have an
enormous impact on determining how the worlds resources are used (and
wasted).
More fundamentally, which the BBC, and much of mainstream fail to recognize, our
main economic measurement, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or Gross National
Income (GNI), generally fails to measure environmental impacts because they are
external costs borne by society instead.
If the cost of production included environmental impacts, the cost of safe disposal of
many products and their waste, etc, that may help businesses think more about
environmental factors in their products and services. In market-based economies (and
with globalization always spreading, this increasingly implies most of us), this would be
crucial.
For further information:
Millennium Economic Assessment web site, where you can order the full report,
see summaries (from where the above key points are presented)
Study highlights global decline, BBC, March 30, 2005, provides a summary of
the report.

Back to top
Putting an economic value on the environment
As noted in the biodiversity section, ecosystems provide many services to us, for free.
Despite these free benefits, it has long been recognized that we tend to ignore or
underestimate the value of those services. So much so that economic measures such as
GDP often ignores environmental costs, as also mentioned earlier.
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is an organization backed
by the UN and various European governments attempting to compile, build and
make a compelling economics case for the conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity
and notes the economic benefits of protecting the environment are well-understood,
even if seemingly rarely practiced:
Numerous studies also show that investments in protected areas generate a cost-benefit
ratio of one to 25 and even one to 100 in some cases, [Pavan Sukhdev, from TEEB]
said. Planting and protecting nearly 12,000 hectares of mangroves in Vietnam costs just
over a million dollars but saved annual expenditures on dyke maintenance of well over
seven million dollars.
Stephen Leahy, Environment: Save At Least Half the Planet, or Lose It All, Inter
Press Service, November 17, 2009
It has perhaps taken about a decade or so and a severe enough global financial crisis
that has hit the heart of this way of thinking to change this mentality (in which time,
more greenhouse gases have been emitted inefficiently).
Economists talk of the price signal that is fundamental to capitalism; the ability for
prices to indicate when a resource is becoming scarcer. At such a time, markets mobilize
automatically to address this by looking for ways to bring down costs. As a result,
resources are supposedly infinite. For example, if energy costs go up, businesses will

look for a way to minimize such costs for themselves, and it is in such a time that
alternatives come about and/or existing resources last longer because they are used
more efficiently. Running out of resources should therefore be averted.
However, it has long been argued that prices dont truly reflect the full cost of things, so
either the signal is incorrect, or comes too late. The price signal also implies the poorest
often pay the heaviest costs. For example, commercially over-fishing a region may
mean fish from that area becomes harder to catch and more expensive, possibly
allowing that ecosystem time to recover (though that is not guaranteed, either).
However, while commercial entities can exploit resources elsewhere, local fishermen
will go out of business and the poorer will likely go hungry (as also detailed on this
sites section on biodiversity). This then has an impact on various local social, political
and economic issues.
In addition to that, other related measurements, such as GNP are therefore flawed, and
even reward unproductive or inefficient behavior (e.g. Efficiently producing
unhealthy food and the unhealthy consumer culture to go with it may profit the
food industry and a private health sector that has to deal with it, all of which require
more use of resources. More examples are discussed on this sites section on
consumption and consumerism).
Our continued inefficient pumping of greenhouse gases into the environment without
factoring the enormous cost as the climate already begins to change is perhaps an
example where price signals may come too late, or at a time when there is already
significant impact to many people. Resources that could be available more indefinitely,
become finite because of our inability or unwillingness to change.
Markets fail to capture most ecosystem service values. Existing price signals only
reflect - at best - the share of total value that relates to provisioning services like food,
fuel or water and their prices may be distorted. Even these services often bypass
markets where carried out as part of community management of shared resources. The

values of other ecosystem services are generally not reflected in markets apart from a
few exceptions (such as tourism).
This is mainly explained by the fact that many ecosystem services are public goods or
common goods: they are often open access in character and non-rival in their
consumption. In addition, their benefits are felt differently by people in different places
and over different timescales. Private and public decisions affecting biodiversity rarely
consider benefits beyond the immediate geographical area. They can also overlook
local public benefits in favor of private benefits , even when local livelihoods are
at stake, or focus on short-term gains to the detriment of the sustained supply of benefits
over time.
Benefits that are felt with a long-term horizon (e.g. from climate regulation) are
frequently ignored. This systematic under-valuation of ecosystem services and failure
to capture the values is one of the main causes underlying todays biodiversity crisis.
Values that are not overtly part of a financial equation are too often ignored.
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for National and International
Policy Makers 2009

, p.10 (Emphasis original)

In effect, as TEEB, and many others before have argued, a key challenge will be
adapting our economic systems to integrate sustainability and human well-being as well
as other environmental factors to give us truer costs (after all, market systems are
successful when there is full availability of information).
Think of some of the effects this could have:
Some industrial meat production, which is very harmful for the environment, may
become more expensive

o For example, as mentioned in the previous link, if water used by the meat
industry in the United States were not subsidized by taxpayers, common
hamburger meat would cost $35 a pound.
o Instead of regulation to change peoples habits, markets would
automatically reflect these true costs; consumers can then make better
informed choices about what to consume, e.g. by reducing their meat
consumption or demand more ecologically sustainable alternatives at
reasonable cost.
A reduction in meat production could protect forests or help reduce clearance of
forests for cattle ranches, which would have a knock-on benefit for climate
change concerns.
Appropriate investment in renewable energy could threaten the fossil fuel
industry though they are trying to adapt to that (perhaps slowly, and after initial
resistance). But at the same time, governments that are able to use renewable
sources are less likely to find themselves spending so many resources in
geopolitical areas (e.g. politics, military, terrorist response to Western presence in
Middle East, etc) to protect or secure access to fossil fuels.
Cradle to cradle type of design where products are designed to be produced
and recycled or disposed of more sustainably could considerably reduce costs
for producers and consumers alike, and possibly reduce stress on associated
ecosystems.
Land that is used to produce unhealthy or marginally nutritious items (e.g.
tobacco, sugar, possibly tea and coffee) could be used for more useful or healthier
alternatives, possibly even helping address obesity and other issues. (For
example, while factoring in environmental costs could make healthy produce

more expensive too, expanding production of healthier foods could help contain
costs rises to some extent.)
etc.
Naturally, those who benefit from the current system may be hostile to such changes,
especially if it may mean they might lose out. so, as well as being a pressing economic
challenge, this is a crucial political challenge.
Back to top
The Political Challenge
As hinted to above, how sustainability is viewed is itself a factor, as it has different
meanings to different people. And this impacts how policies may or may not be pursued,
and who may participate, who may be affected, and who may benefit.
Consider for example, the following:
[The late Anil Agarwal, founder editor of Down To Earth Magazine], made us
understand that economists often missed the real measure of poverty. We needed to
understand poverty not as a lack of cash, but as a lack of access to natural resources.
This was because millions of people lived within what he called the biomass-based
subsistence economy. For these millions, the Gross Nature Product was more important
than the Gross National Product. For them, environmental degradation was not a matter
of luxury, but a matter of survival. Development was not possible without
environmental management. In fact, what was needed was to regenerate the
environment for development. He made us look beyond pretty trees and tigers to see
environmental issues not as people versus nature a conservation perspective but
as people versus people.
Sustainable development was, therefore, not about technology but about a political
framework, which developed power and gave people the victims of environmental

degradation rights over natural resources. The involvement of local communities in

environmental management was a prerequisite for sustainable development.
We have not made environment into a development challenge. Because we have still
not learned how to use it sustainably. Therefore, environmental protection becomes an
invariable conflict with development. A conflict between nature and jobs. Instead, what
we need is policies and practices to use the environment for the greater enterprise of
jobs and prosperity. Build green futures from the use of forests, land, water and
fisheries. But we dont know how.
We dont know how because we refuse to learn the most basic lesson. We have to really
trust people and communities. As yet, all we have done is use bureaucratic tricks to stall
and obfuscate. We will have to make changes effective and earnest to devolve
powers in the practice of managing the environment.
Sunita Narain, Devolution has to happen. It will, Down To Earth Magazine, January
31, 2003
The above highlights the need to consider multiple angles and perspectives.
More focus is needed on developing technologies that are environment friendly.
Advances in such technologies would have a profound impact on all manner of society.
Yet, achieving sustainable development seems primarily a political task not a
technological one, though technology may be one of the many factors that could play an
important part in moving towards more sustainable development. Without the political
will to overcome special interests, it will prove difficult and those without voices to be
heard, such as the poor that make up the majority of the planet, would be impacted the
most.

The rest of the pages on this sites section on sustainable development hopes to
introduce some of these challenges and look at primarily the political aspects affecting
the issue of sustainability. (Over time this section is expected to grow.)

African Preparatory Conference for the World Summit on Sustainable

Development: African Ministerial Statement - (Advanced Copy)
AFRICAN PREPARATORY CONFERENCE FOR THE WORLD SUMMIT ON
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Nairobi, 18 October 2001
AFRICAN MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
ADVANCED COPY
K0128108 181001
FROM RIO DE JANEIRO TO JOHANNESBURG
1. We, Ministers of African States, met in Nairobi, Kenya from 17 to 18 October, 2001,
in the context of the African regional preparatory process for the World Summit on
Sustainable Development (WSSD), to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 2 to
11 September 2002. The aim of the meeting was to assess the progress made, the
constraints encountered, areas where further efforts are needed and the new challenges
confronting Africa within the framework of the implementation of Agenda 21. In doing
so, we took into consideration the concerns of our continent`s industry, and civil society,
including NGOs, Trade Unions and youth.
2. We are convinced that the WSSD should reinvigorate the commitment of the
international community to the goals of sustainable development and give effect to a
new vision based on a concrete programme of action for the implementation of Agenda
21 in the next decade. To this effect, we reaffirm that poverty eradication is an
indispensable requirement for sustainable development and reiterate our commitment to
address all three components of sustainable development - namely economic growth
and development, social development and environmental protection, as interdependent

and mutually reinforcing pillars - in a balanced way, in conformity with the fundamental
principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.
3. We believe that holding the Summit in Africa will provide a unique opportunity for a
genuine international partnership to achieve the development goals enunciated in the
Millennium Declaration and in the outcome of United Nations conferences and summits
held since Rio, as well as those regional initiatives that Africa has adopted. We affirm
that the achievement of those development goals is contingent on an enabling
international environment premised on the legitimate development priorities of
developing countries, that addresses the fundamental challenges of financing for
development, globalization, and market access in the sectors of export of interest to
them, thus reaching a comprehensive and lasting solution to their crippling external debt
problems.
4. We recall that success in meeting the objectives of development and poverty
eradication depends, inter-alia, on good governance both within each country and at the
international level, as well as on transparency in financial, monetary and trading
systems. We are also committed to an open and equitable rule-based, predictable and
non-discriminatory multi-lateral trading and financial system.
5. We note with concern the limited progress in the implementation of Agenda 21,
which stems from the lack of fulfillment by the international community of its
commitments made in Rio with regard to the means of implementation, thereby
hampering the achievement of sustainable development in developing countries,
particularly in Africa. The implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action for the
Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States has similarly been
hampered. We reconfirm that the Johannesburg Summit should not renegotiate the
outcomes of Rio but should result in a concrete programme of action with time-bound
measures and well-specified sources of funding to implement them.

6. We believe that a system of monitoring contributes to the effectiveness of

implementation. We therefore call upon the World Summit on Sustainable Development
to establish a follow-up mechanism as an integral component of all the elements of its
programme of action in terms of resource flow and implementation, and to create the
system required to make that possible.
7. We emphasize that poverty, underdevelopment, marginalization, social exclusion and
economic disparities are closely associated with the legacy of colonialism as well as the
continued exploitation of African resources. We recognize the negative economic, social
and cultural consequence thereof, that have contributed significantly to the
underdevelopment of developing countries and, in particular, of Africa. We urge the
Summit to reaffirm the right to development and to adopt concrete mechanisms to free
the entire human race from want.
8. We recognize the important role played by civil society and the need to ensure their
full participation in achieving sustainable development.
9. We note with appreciation the role of the business sector and civil society, including
the youth and labour segments in pursuit of the sustainable development agenda in line
with our commitment to multi-stakeholder dialogue. In this regard we acknowledge
their significant contributions to the preparatory process in the African region.
10. We affirm our commitment to partnership for the implementation of the WSSD
outcomes, the mobilization of major groups and appropriately capacitating these groups
to fruitfully engage in the implementation of the sustainable development agenda,
perhaps in the form of the Johannesburg Programme of Action.
11. We invite governments to work together with major groups to prepare concrete
inputs to a programme of action.

12. We propose that the theme People, planet, prosperity underpins our focus on the
three pillars of sustainable development, and it is therefore proposed as the slogan for
the Johannesburg Summit.
13. We believe that the New African Initiative (NAI) should be a framework for
sustainable development in Africa. The NAI, which is a pledge by African leaders, is
based on a common vision and a firm and shared conviction, that they have a pressing
duty to eradicate poverty and to place their countries, both individually and collectively,
on a path of sustained growth and development, and at the same time, to participate
actively in the world economy and body politic. This programme is anchored on a
determination of Africans to extricate themselves and the continent from the malaise of
underdevelopment and exclusion in a globalising world.
ACHIEVEMENTS AND CONSTRAINTS SINCE RIO
14. We acknowledge that since the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, there has been increased awareness of the fragility of the African
environment and its natural resources. Many countries have established and
strengthened policy, legislative, and regulatory frameworks, including the ratification of
regional

and

global

environmental

conventions,

and

the

formulation

and

implementation of various environmental action plans.

15. We note that life expectancy in many African countries remains low despite some
improvements since Rio. However, in some countries life expectancy has deteriorated.
Whilst the overall literacy rate remains low, access to education has increased,
especially for females, who have come to play a crucial role and are increasingly acting
as agents for change for sustainable development. However, only 58 per cent of the
continents population have access to safe water.
16. We note the increased incidence of natural disasters in Africa, that have resulted in
significant human, social and economic losses, thereby posing a major obstacle to the

African continents efforts to achieve sustainable development, especially in view of the

region`s insufficient capacities to predict, monitor, handle, and mitigate natural
disasters.
17. We further note that the level of food insecurity in Africa has reached a critical level,
as the number of undernourished presently exceeds 200 million people, and 500 million
hectares of land have been affected by soil degradation, including as much as 65 per
cent of agricultural land. These unfavourable developments compound the problem of
poverty in Africa, as the agricultural sector includes 70 per cent of the poor and
represents 40 per cent of regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP), thereby making the
full implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in
Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa
(UNCCD) an urgent priority in the post-Johannesburg era.
18. We observe that most African economies have declined both in qualitative and
quantitative terms. The rate of GDP growth in at least half of the region has stayed
below 2 per cent per annum. Africa, unlike other regions of the world, continues to
receive extremely low foreign private capital investment, declining levels of official
development assistance and an increasing debt burden.
19. We also note that wars, civil conflicts and the proliferation of small arms, and the
continued presence of landmines, have hampered the efforts of many African countries
to achieve sustainable development.
PRIORITY AREAS FOR ACTION
Eradication of poverty
20. We observe that while Africa is an indispensable resource base that has been serving
all humanity for many centuries, poverty in Africa stands in stark contrast to the
prosperity of the developed world. The process of globalization has further marginalized

Africa and this has contributed to the increasing incidence of poverty in the continent. It
is in this regard that the New African Initiative calls for the reversal of this abnormal
situation by changing the relationship that underpins it. Achieving the poverty reduction
goals of the Millennium Declaration is a joint responsibility of the North and the South.
It requires the adoption of a comprehensive approach that addresses key priority areas,
including: the removal of obstacles preventing the access of exports from developing
countries to the markets of developed countries, debt reduction/cancellation, a review of
the conditionalities of the Bretton Woods Institutions, promoting industrial growth
especially through small and medium- sized enterprises, ensuring, particularly in rural
areas, access to sources of energy at affordable prices, micro-credit and savings,
promoting micro-finance, enhancing access to basic health services, sustainable rural
development, agricultural development and food security, greater access to safe water
and sanitation, reducing the vulnerability of our people to natural disasters and
environmental risks, as well as access to and improved standards of education at all
levels.
21. We acknowledge the abundant skills and potential that exists in Africa for the
development and realization of the crafts, art and endogenous technology industry.
Development of this industry will contribute to the fight against poverty. Financial,
technical and organizational support could also enable this sector to make a notable
contribution to sustainable development in the continent.
22. Moreover, and within the framework of the world attachment to international
solidarity, the acceleration of the setting up of the necessary mechanisms of the World
Solidarity Fund, whose main aim is to contribute to the eradication of poverty and to the
promotion of the most under-privileged areas in the world, more particularly in the
poorest countries, is highly recommended.
Industrial development

23. We note with concern that national economies have a narrow industrial base and that
the performance of the manufacturing sector over the last decade has shown a decline
when compared with the previous decade. In general, Africa is sliding into a deindustrialization phase at the time when it needs to expand its manufacturing basis.
24. We acknowledge the fact that African countries have considerable resources, and in
all fields: mineral and oil resources, agricultural resources, fishery resources, forestry
resources, but unfortunately, these resources are not processed in a beneficial way in
Africa. This constitutes a major lost opportunity for Africa. Consequently it is urgently
necessary to develop and foster industry, to make it possible to add value to our
resources before they are exported. SMEs/SMIs have helped many emerging and
developed countries to industrialize and to develop. Today there is an emergence of
SMEs/SMIs to address this, but the lack of finance, supervision and organization
prevents them from playing the real role which should fall to them to initiate sustainable
development in Africa and therefore institutional support must be established and
sustained.
25. We recognize the contribution of industrial development to poverty eradication and
efficient natural resource management. We call upon the international community to:
Assist in enhancing the industrial productivity and competitiveness of African
industries through a combination of appropriate financing and technological support
services;
Promote the development of micro, small and medium-size enterprises with a special
focus on agro-industry as provider of livelihood for rural communities;
Support multilateral and regional organizations in their programmes to support
industrial development in Africa.
Agriculture and food security

26. We recognize that the African continent is endowed with sufficient natural resources
for food self-sufficiency. However, taking into account current levels of food production
and the projected population growth in Africa, it is apparent that those levels are
insufficient and will not allow the achievement of the goal of halving the number of
under-nourished people by 2015, as enunciated at the World Food Summit. It is
imperative, therefore, to reverse the current trends of land degradation and dwindling
water resources for irrigation, as well as to improve the development and dissemination
of agricultural technologies within African countries, and the transfer to them of applied
agricultural research and technology at affordable prices.
27. We emphasize the minimum need to double agricultural production in Africa within
five years. In this respect, we resolve to increase national financing for the agricultural
sector, and call upon the international financial institutions and the Global Environment
Facility (GEF) to substantially increase the finance provided to the agricultural sector
and for the full implementation of the UNCCD and other relevant conventions.
28. While we recognize the need to enhance the availability and accessibility to food by
poor households, we emphasis that Africa should not be a dumping ground for
subsidized food products from developed countries, nor for genetically modified food.
In this connection, we call upon the developed countries to remove their agricultural
subsidies and to apply the precautionary principle.
Human development
29. We acknowledge that Africa is currently straining under the burden of
communicable diseases that are disabling our economies. Endemic, parasitic and
infectious diseases have retarded the quality and productivity of Africas human
resources. Many have roots in the environmental conditions under which people live, in
poor environmental hygiene, inadequate access to resources, such as water and
sanitation, and inadequate nutrition.

30. We recognize that the growing threat of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is no longer
merely a health issue, but a serious threat to sustainable development. HIV / AIDS
should be incorporated in overall poverty reduction/ eradication, sustainable
development and economic growth strategies. At the same time, Africa is faced with an
emerging epidemic of infectious diseases and diseases of lifestyle.
31. We call for a holistic approach to health that addresses its multiple determinants
(social, environmental, economic). Efforts in Africa to ensureing greater access to
affordable, primary and secondary health care and medical technology, improve
environmental and social conditions that contribute to diseases, and build appropriate
capacity in local communities, are of paramount importance. To this end, we call upon
the developed world to offer greater assistance in making both preventative and curative
health care available to Africa. We underscore that, in the context of the Agreement on
Trade Related Intellectual Property (TRIPS), African countries should be allowed to
take all necessary measures to provide access to medicine at affordable prices and to
promote public health and nutrition.
32. We emphasize the importance of empowering women in social and economic
development by reinforcing their capacity in the domains of education and training, by
developing revenue generating activities through facilitating access to credit, and by
ensuring their participation in the political and economic life of African countries.
33. We believe that the empowerment of women and improving their health status
should be prioritised, because they have key roles in all societies with respect to healthy
living conditions.
Youth
34. We recognize that participation by young people in sustainable development is the
foundation of the success of this strategy to combat poverty for the future of Africa.
Young people make up half of the population of Africa; education, training, health

protection, professional employment, communication, etc. are insufficient in this

category of dynamic actors. There is therefore a need in the framework of sustainable
human development to ensure strengthening the skills of young people in all areas.
35. We emphasize that education and information dissemination are major priorities in
ensuring improvements in the quality of life, the eradication of poverty and placing the
African continent on a path of sustainable development and growth. Human resources
development and capacity building are crucial elements of sustainable development and
it is important to develop clear policies in relation to training, education and research in
the region. It is essential to (a) upgrade the quality of education to be able to respond to
challenges of the market ; (b) strengthen capacity-building as a critical component of
human resource development; (c) launch literacy campaign to cut the percentage of
illiteracye to 50per cent of the current figures, with major emphasis on women; (d)
strengthen and, if needed, establish well-equipped and strongly-supported specialized
research and technology development institutes; and (e) promote the role of women in
strategies for investing in people. In this regard, we call upon the international
community to assist African countries in their need to respond to new and longer term
challenges by making education and training relevant to national needs in the context of
a globalizing world. Emphasis must be placed on improving the access of girls to
education and training, with the aim of attaining parity with boys.
Trade and market access
36. We emphasize the need for the multilateral trading system to ensure that issues of
development are addressed adequately and decisively. For the global economy to remain
stable, there must be resource flows to developing countries, and World Trade
Organisation (WTO) agreements can and should promote this through the following :
Contributing to structural change in the location of production globally to enable
developing countries, including Least Developed Countries (LDC), to diversify their
production and export in existing and potential areas of competitive advantage;

 Leveling the playing field by addressing concerns and imbalances in existing WTO
Agreements;
Operationalizing, as a matter of priority, the special and differential treatment
provisions in favour of developing countries including providing assistance to
developing countries to build their required capacities for the implementation of their
commitments under various WTO Agreements.
Ensuring the universality of the WTO, as well as its transparent, non- discriminatory,
equitable and predictable conduct of proceedings, and ensuring the full participation of
developing countries in decision making;
Expediting the completion of the mandated negotiations on agriculture and services,
without adding new issues on the agenda of multilateral negotiations especially nontrade issues
37. We call on developed countries to open their markets and eliminate subsidies on
agriculture, textiles and other export products of interest to African countries so as to
enable them to reach the Millennium Declaration poverty-reduction target by 2015.
Financing for sustainable development
38. We note with concern that a major limitation in the implementation of Agenda 21
has been the lack of the necessary means of implementation particularly financial
commitments made in Rio. We therefore emphasize the importance of mobilizing in a
coherent manner all available sources, including new and additional resources, for the
financing of development, inter alia domestic resources, foreign direct investment, debt
relief and official development assistance. We note that the international conference on
financing for development, to be held in Mexico, in March 2002, will, among other
items, consider in an integrated manner all sources of financing for sustainable
development.

Investment
39. We stress the need for increased foreign direct investment in African economies as
an essential component of a sustainable long-term approach to poverty eradication.
Developed countries should recognize African economic reforms towards macroeconomic stability and put adequate measures in place to mobilize more financial
resources, especially private capital for African economies. Sustained efforts should be
made to assist African countries to create the necessary conditions for foreign direct
investment, especially in infrastructure and production capacity.
40. We call upon the international community to support African countries in their
efforts to enhance domestic investment through measures such as (a) increasing revenue
mobilization, (b) reducing capital flight, (c) encouraging increased inflows of
remittances from Africans living abroad, (d) improving public efficiency to increase
national saving and investment.
Debt relief
41. We call for existing debt relief measures for African countries to be evaluated
appropriately, taking into account the special needs of Africa, especially those countries
that have high debt burdens, including Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs). The
cancellation of debt for the poorest countries should be considered to allow them to
concentrate their resources on poverty reduction programmes. While the enhanced
HIPC initiative will provide relief, it is imperative that African countries be assisted to
find a lasting exit from their external debt situations.
42. Furthermore, developed countries need to commit themselves to providing more
meaningful market access to products of HIPCs to increase their export earnings and
diversify their production and export bases and provide development assistance on
highly concessional terms, in order to keep the debt situation sustainable and safeguard
the benefits of HIPC relief. We call on the international community to support the

African initiative that seeks to secure a negotiated agreement,to provide further debt
relief for countries participating in the initiative .
Increased official development assistance (ODA)
43. We urge that ODA to Africa should be increased and that developed countries
should adhere to the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent of Gross National Product
(GNP). ODA should be untied and supportive of recipient countries objectives to enable
them to take ownership of their development programmes. The New African Initiative
calls for the reform of ODA to ensure that ODA flows are more effectively utilized.
Global Environment Facility (GEF)
44. We recognize the importance of the GEF in financing sustainable development. In
this connection, we call for an improvement in its operational procedures and project
implementation, so as to make it more responsive to the needs of development in Africa,
including financing the implementation of UNCCD other multilateral environmental
agreements (MEAs). We call for a substantial increase in the resources of GEF in the
context of the on-going Third Replenishment Negotiations so as to enable it to allocate a
greater share of its resources to Africa. We recognize the need to amend the GEF
instrument and to review the issue of incremental cost and environmental issues of
global concern during its Second Assembly, to be held in China, in October 2002.
Infrastructure and sustainable human settlement
45. We affirm the importance of infrastructure development for Africas continued
socio-economic growth and development. We call on the international community to
assist African countries in their efforts to: improve access to and the affordability and
reliability of infrastructure services; attract investment in public transport and
communication systems, ports, roads, schools and hospitals.

46. We reaffirm our commitment to implement the Habitat Agenda and the outcome of
the United Nations Special Session on Human Settlements and emphasize our full
support for the two global campaigns on urban governance and secure tenure. We call
on the international community to mobilize the necessary resources for the
implementation of the Habitat Agenda and the Declaration of the 25th United Nations
Special Session to achieve sustainable human settlements in Africa.
Science and Technology
47. We recognize that harnessing science and technology requires action in several
areas, including adequate financing, promoting the culture of innovation and science in
our societies, appropriately managing intellectual property rights to promote increased
science and technology activities within African countries, whilst minimizing barriers to
access to knowledge worldwide.
48. We therefore urge the international community to assist African countries in their
efforts to gain access to new technologies, particularly information and communication
technologies and to create conditions for the development of indigenous technologies
that are important for enhancing economic development.
Desertification and land degradation
49. We recognise that the majority of people in Africa directly depend on land resources
for their livelihoods. To varying degrees, however, there are poor land management
practices and, in some countries, inappropriate land tenure systems. This leads to land
degradation and non-optimal use of land. We therefore reaffirm the importance of a
timely and effective implementation of the UNCCD in addressing the issue of poverty
deriving from land degradation. In this regard, we invite the World Summit on
Sustainable Development to acknowledge the UNCCD as a sustainable development
convention and to proclaim it as a prime tool in the eradication of poverty in Africa and
in other dry and arid lands.

50. Accordingly, we call for substantial and predictable financial resources to be

available for its implementation. We congratulate the GEF Council for its latest decision
in this respect and invite its Assembly due to meet in Beijing shortly after the WSSD, to
open up the Facility to become the UNCCD financial mechanism.
Coastal and marine environments
51. We observe that coastal communities and some national economies, particularly
small island developing states, are highly dependent on their coastal and marine
resources. The integrity of coasts and oceans is under threat from unsustainable
development and over exploitation. We note the impact of climate change on coastal
zones and especially on small island developing states.
52. We call for the harmonization, coordination and compliance of regional and
international laws and agreements related to the seas. We reiterate our support for the
protection and development of marine and coastal environments and the revitalization
of the Nairobi and Abidjan conventions as the two vital instruments for the their
protection, management and development in Africa. We recognise that this requires
technology for monitoring levels of fish stocks, guarding against illegal fishing and
supporting the efforts of developing countries in the area of capacity building. The
Johannesburg Summit must incorporate the outcomes of the African process for the
protection and development of the marine and coastal environment, including concrete
projects, programmes, resources commitments and partnerships.
Biodiversity
53. We believe that the wealth of biological diversity, including marine biodiversity,
found in the region are a major resource for Africa and most of our economies are
highly dependent on this resource.

54. We note the scientific and economic opportunities attached to this source of wealth
and the imperative of ensuring that these opportunities directly benefit the region. We
commit ourselves to developing and implementing national legislation for the protection
of the rights of local communities, farmers and breeders, and for the regulation of
access to biological resources, and for bio-safety in line with the Organisation of
African Unity (OAU) Model Law.
55. We are convinced that wetlands are areas of high agricultural, fishery and forestry
productivity and that they are currently subject to considerable pressure from man, and
we commit ourselves, with the support of our development partners, to rehabilitate
them.
Forests
56. We welcome the establishment of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF),
and emphasize that it should not become a forum for statements, but a vehicle for the
full implementation of the International Panel on Forests (IPF)/International Forest
Forum (IFF) proposal for action for the sustainable management of all types of forests,
including addressing the special needs of low forest cover countries. To this effect, we
call for the provision by the international community of the requisite financial resources
and technology transfer to developing countries, particularly in Africa. We believe that
any examination of the possibility of a legal binding instrument for forests is contingent
upon the realization of the above measures. We look forward to the first Ministerial
Meeting of the UNFF to be held in Costa Rica in March 2002.
57. We are convinced that bush fires contribute to the reduction of forest cover and
nullify afforestation efforts. We recognize therefore the need to initiate a large-scale
campaign to combat bush fires, and to do so with the support of GEF and other funding
agencies.
Mineral resources.

58. We note that mining activities contribute significantly to the economic development
of many economies in our continent. The benefits arising from this resource will depend
on how countries in the region harmonize policies and regulations on agreed minimum
levels, operational practices and information on mining, in order to assist in reducing
risks, and to develop an information and capacity development framework that can also
benefit small-scale miners.
Climate change and atmosphere
59. We note with concern the current impacts and potential future impacts of climate
change on Africa, including the constituent small island states, particularly sea level rise
and extreme weather events such as floods and droughts. We call upon the international
community to finalize agreement on the Kyoto Protocol and operationalize the Climate
Change Fund for developing countries, as well as the Special Fund for Least Developed
Countries.
Disaster prevention
60. We stress the need to reduce the vulnerability of our countries to natural disasters
and in particular drought and floods in Africa.The World Summit should support the
strengthening of Africas institutional capacity for the assessment, prevention,
preparedness and management initiatives, establishment of early warning systems, and
the promotion of public involvement and information exchange. In particular, the
Summit should call for the establishment of regional and subregional institutions and
networks to support the above initiatives.
Waste
61. We note that poor waste management is a core contributor to environmental
degradation, health hazards, over-exploitation and depletion of scarce resources. We call

upon the international community to support the efforts of the African countries to put
in place the required funding and capacity to effectively manage non-hazardous waste.
62. Of critical importance for Africa is the question of the management including
generation, storage, transport, and transboundary-movement and disposal of hazardous
waste, including radioactive waste. We call on the international community to fully
implement the international and regional conventions, taking into consideration Africas
needs.
63. We call on the developed countries, in the framework of the implementation of
international agreements, to take steps to counter the export of obsolete capital goods
and equipment to the developing countries, to prevent Africa from becoming the
Northern countries` dumping ground for these products.
Environmentally sound management of chemical products
64. In accordance with chapter 19 of Agenda 21, the Rotterdam and Stockholm
conventions (PIC and POPs), African countries should be assisted and supported in the
management of chemical products. The strengthening of the technical, financial,
institutional and juridical capacities of African countries is necessary to ensure
sustainable development in the agricultural and industrial sectors which use these
products and to prevent cases of poisoning (human health) and pollution and wellknown nuisances.
Fresh water and sanitation
65. We observe that the majority of people in Africa still lack access to safe water and
sanitation services. Consequently, morbidity and mortality due to waterborne and waterrelated diseases are still very high. We emphasize that the international community
should encourage cooperation among countries sharing a transboundary water resource,
through the provision of financial resources and technology transfer to assist them to

implement regional cooperation projects and initiatives and to develop the quality and
quantity of water resources for the benefit of all riparian states, including assisting
African countries in protecting the quality of water.
66. The Summit should deliver a programme of action for the achievement of the
Millennium Assembly target on access to water and sanitation services, and for the
support of regional shared water initiatives.
Energy
67. We note that energy plays a critical role in facilitating development. We recognize
that at least 80 per cent of the people in Africa are still dependent almost exclusively on
traditional sources of energy. There is a need for access to affordable energy, especially
in rural areas and in sustainable industrial development.
68. We call for support for research and development, for clean energy technologies,
efficiency of energy supply and usage, and affordable uptake of renewables.
Furthermore, we call on the Summit to deliver a deal that promotes global access to
energy for sustainable development in a form that minimises impact on air quality.
69. We strongly call on the World Summit to revitalize the Barbados Programme of
Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and to
provide the necessary support for its effective and timely implementation.
Support for regional cooperation and economic integration
70. We strongly call on the World Summit to endorse the provision of urgent
international support to the newly established African Union. We make this call in
recognition of the fact that economic ties among the members of the sub-regional or
regional groupings prevent disputes and tensions between them from becoming
conflicts, thereby ensuring the peace and stability necessary for sustainable
development.

71. We recognize that still greater policy convergence and harmonization is required if
these efforts are truly to gain momentum. In this connection, we call for support for
specific activities at the regional level, including cooperative projects that link two or
more countries in common economic enterprise zones, common infrastructure projects,
and joint tourism efforts.
Governance
72. We believe that the democratization of international governance is essential to
promoting and implementing sustainable development at all levels. In this connection,
we urge the Summit to reach agreement on the need for an effective governance regime
for sustainable development and that the international preparatory process should
examine this critical issue.
73. We recognize that peace, security and stability, are prerequisites for sustainable
development in all countries and regions of the world. In that respect, the international
community should provide resources and support for mechanisms to prevent, manage
and resolve conflicts as developed by African states, and to satisfy the needs of refugees
and displaced people and their host countries.
74. We recognize the need for an effective international environmental governance
regime. We note the on-going process in this regard and expect that its outcome will
lead to meeting this objective, and will ensure the effective participation of African and
other developing countries. WSSD should call for a greatly strengthened UNEP with a
financial base that is more sustainable and predictable.
75. We recognize that ignorance on the part of people, especially in rural areas, is at the
root of environmental degradation. Consequently, we commit ourselves to increase our
support to our development partners and campaigns of environmental information,
education and communication.

Stakeholders participation
76. We invite the organizers of all forthcoming intergovernmental meetings held in
preparation for WSSD to ensure that the agendas and organizational modalities of such
meetings provide for timely and direct involvement of major groups and consideration
of their views and proposals in a way that they can effectively contribute to the
intergovernmental deliberations. In this connection, the conference took note of the
offer by the Senegalese delegation to host a youth forum in Dakar.
Johannesburg Vision
77. We call on the Summit to agree on what we may call the Johannesburg Vision: a
practical expression of the political commitments made by the international community
in the Rio principles and Agenda 21, and the Millennium Declaration. These
commitments envisage a global consensus on the eradication of poverty and global
inequality. The World Summit on Sustainable Development provides a unique platform
for the realization of this vision and must adopt a results-orientated , Johannesburg
Programme of Action with clear time frames and specific targets. For the effective
achievement of this programme, concrete global partnerships between governments on
the one hand, and between governments, business and civil society on the other hand,
are required. We believe that, through these outcomes, the Summit will provide practical
meaning for the achievement of the hopes of the African Century.
What is Sustainable Development?
Environmental,

economic

and

social well-being for

today

and

tomorrow
Sustainable development has been defined in many ways, but the most frequently
quoted definition is from Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report:[1]

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains
within it two key concepts:
the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to
which overriding priority should be given; and
the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization
on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs."
All definitions of sustainable development require that we see the world as a systema
system that connects space; and a system that connects time.
When you think of the world as a system over space, you grow to understand that air
pollution from North America affects air quality in Asia, and that pesticides sprayed in
Argentina could harm fish stocks off the coast of Australia.
And when you think of the world as a system over time, you start to realize that the
decisions our grandparents made about how to farm the land continue to affect
agricultural practice today; and the economic policies we endorse today will have an
impact on urban poverty when our children are adults.
We also understand that quality of life is a system, too. It's good to be physically
healthy, but what if you are poor and don't have access to education? It's good to have a
secure income, but what if the air in your part of the world is unclean? And it's good to
have freedom of religious expression, but what if you can't feed your family?
The concept of sustainable development is rooted in this sort of systems thinking. It
helps us understand ourselves and our world. The problems we face are complex and
seriousand we can't address them in the same way we created them. But we can
address them.

It's that basic optimism that motivates IISD's staff, associates and board to innovate for
a healthy and meaningful future for this planet and its inhabitants.
Contents
Twenty

Years

After

Brundtland

This conference was held in Ottawa, Ontario, October 18-19, 2007 to reflect on
the past twenty years of sustainable development in Canada since the publication
of the Brundtland report in 1987. The presentations are now available as well as
information from the conference.
Ten

Years

After

Rio:

Successes

and

Failures

Looks at the most important successes and failures in SD in the decade following
the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Published in 2002 to coincide with the World
Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.
Further Reading
IISD's Reporting Services is building a sustainable development knowledge base
in preparation for Rio+20. Click here to follow international policy developments
on sustainability.

The

Sustainable

Development

Timeline

Silent Spring was published in 1962. The book's release was considered by many

to be a turning point in our understanding of the interconnections among the

environment, the economy and social well-being. Since then, many milestones
have marked the journey toward sustainable development. The Sustainable
Development Timeline captures some of the key events. The original version was
published in 1998 with the support of the International Development Research
Centre.
A second edition was published in 1999. The 2002 version, available in English
and French, was published for the World Summit on Sustainable Development
with the support of Environment Canada. The 2006 version, available in English
and Mandarin, was funded by the Canada School of Public Service and the
Canadian International Development Agency. The 2007 version, available in
English (PDF - 1.1 MB) and French (PDF - 1.1 MB), was supported by Manitoba
Education, Citizenship and Youth. The latest version (2009), is also available in
English (PDF - 3.5 MB) and French (PDF - 3.5 MB).
For our views on how the field of sustainable development is evolving, click here
to read IISD's commentaries.

Technology for Africa

(Edward S. Marek)
The following paper was prepared by Edward S. Marek, president, The Marek
Enterprise, Inc. (MAREK), and editor of the monthly newsletter-magazine "africa."
Comments and ideas about implementing the program described below should be sent
by e-mail to "edwards930@aol.com" or please call Mr. Marek at the toll free number
(800) 575-2735.
Subject: American-Africa Technology Consortium
Several regions in the USA are world-class leaders in advanced technologies and their
applications, hubs for the international network of technology business.
Africa is a continent comprised of diverse countries, each of which is developing at a
different rate, many of which are dynamic emerging economies, some of which are
pivotal states to American national strategic interests, one of which (South Africa) has
been identified by the U.S. Department of Commerce as one of ten "Big Emerging
Markets" that will get the attention of American trade and development.
MAREK's objective is to link advanced American technologies to the enormous
economic development that is now in train among the emerging markets of Africa. It is
true that these African markets lag behind those in East Asia, Latin America, eastern
Europe, and the states of the former Soviet Union in their development. But, they offer
incredible

opportunity

for

the

long-term.

American exports to sub-Saharan Africa amounted to $4.5 billion in 1995, higher than
all American exports to eastern Europe or to the republics of the former Soviet Union.
The official position of the U.S. Government is that the U.S. will no longer concede the
African marketplace to the European colonial powers. Secretary of Commerce Brown

has made Africa one of his personal projects. For example, he is enroute to Africa now
to advocate and promote $9 billion worth of business transactions.
At the moment, Africa commands little attention among American technologists,
leaving the field open to the to those who might wish to take a commanding leadership
role quickly and, perhaps, largely unchallenged.
There are two kinds of companies relevant to this discussion:
1. One set includes those companies with a long tradition of commercial activity in
Africa. These companies are entrenched, they have strong ties to the governments
involved, and in many instances they carry considerable political baggage resulting
from American foreign policy treatment of Africa during the Cold War. These
companies include the oil and mining companies, manufacturers of oil and mining
equipment, and manufacturers of agricultural related equipment.
2. Another set includes those high technology companies with little or no previous
experience in Africa. These companies carry little or no political baggage from the Cold
War and they offer Africans the potential to leapfrog entire stages of economic
development and solve globally worrisome strategic problems associated with the
environment, population, food production, energy, poverty, and health care. These are
the companies of that could be represented in Africa by a consortium of American high
technology companies.
Potential strategic objectives for An American-Africa Technology Consortium
1. Pull a select set of promising African nations into the global economy through new
technology. This is an objective of the European Commission and this market should
not be left to the Europeans uncontested. 2. Shape the regulatory framework of a select
set of promising African nations to set the environment in which American technologies
can compete; set technical standards, and substantially broaden African access to value-

added information services. The G7 states have discussed this idea and agree that
dynamic competition among private sector companies will promote the kind of
innovations needed in Africa. 3. Influence select African leaders and political systems to
increase the percentage of GDP devoted to developing science and technology for the
purposes of modernizing their rudimentary industrial base and improving their capacity
to deal with difficult environmental, health, and energy issues and needs. The
Organization of African Unity (OAU), headquartered in the pivotal state of Egypt,
recognizes African science and technology is most inadequate for modern development.
The

OAU

will

be

receptive

to

this

objective.

Central to the OAU's thinking is that they must substantially increase the exploration,
development and use of their abundant energy and mineral resources as a basis for their
development. 4. Work with the U.S. government to obtain financing and economic
incentives for the application of American technologies to the crucial challenges of the
African continent. Work with the American government and a select group of African
governments to establish programs that promote and reward new technologies used to
advance economic development in Africa. The Corporate Council on Africa, whose
membership consists of some of America's top corporations such as Mobil, Motorola,
Kaiser Aluminum, Eli Lilly and Caterpillar has recommended to the U.S. government
that financing be found for projects that will encourage the application of American
technology and services to critical African issues. 5. Take advantage of the work already
done by a core of telecommunications companies and business leaders and examine the
options

open

to

American

technology

companies

to

enter

the

African

telecommunications market, including actions that will reduce the costs of American
technologies to Africans, such as the building of assembly plants in Africa. Bell
Atlantic's CEO Freeman is on the record saying that communications technologies for
Africa are essential for it to develop; Emmit McHenry, President of Netcom Solutions
says telecommunications in Africa will act as a magnet to bring in all kinds of new
businesses to Africa; AT&T Submarine is working to lay the Africa One cable around
Africa to connect one country to the other; American experts see the African

telecommunications market as a $1.5 billion per year market that is likely to grow to
$10-12 billion in sales over the next ten years; Millard Arnold of the U.S. Commerce
Department says American firms must meet the Europeans head-on and take a
leadership role. The American-Africa Technology Consortium can decide to lead the
charge.
Sample sets of opportunities
There are many very exciting opportunities in Africa and many unmet challenges. The
technology consortium could tackle both the opportunities and the challenges, and
produce "never-before-done" innovations in technology development, application, and
financing

that

would

carry

global

implications.

For example:
1. Response to privatization: African nations are privatizing their energy,
telecommunications and mining companies. These are mind-boggling markets that
demand new solutions. Biomass, thermal, solar (photovoltaic), and wind generation and
new energy storage technology solutions are being applied to energy in lieu of
expensive and politically entangled hydroelectric and nuclear power systems. Housing
and industrial developments are being designed that have self-sufficient sources of
energy to avoid the expense of expanding the electrical grid. Equipment in multiple
countries is being monitored from command centers in yet another country. All together,
the privatizations in Africa have the potential to cause an explosion in whole new kinds
of businesses and industries. Environmental challenges: Africans face serious
environmental issues associated with population growth, poverty, and economic
development. Many of these issues are strategic, with global implications.
Environmental irresponsibility is causing the rise of new viruses and infectious diseases
as humans disrupt viruses that have peacefully lived in the jungles of Africa. African
scientists have ideas about and experience with these kinds of problems and have a very
important contribution to make to finding global solutions. But African science is being

hindered

by

poor

communications.

Much of the African scientific community is being impeded from interacting with the
global

scientific

community

because

of

poor

communications.

Terrific opportunities exist to build National Information Infrastructures in Africa to

connect to the Global Information Infrastructures to find solutions to these and other
critical strategic problems.
2. Sustainable development: This whole question of sustainable development creates
perhaps the most exciting opportunities in Africa for technologies such as are
represented by those working in the technology consortium. The term "sustainable
development" means that life is a set of trade-offs, that development in places like
Africa must occur and will occur, and therefore, one should not talk in terms of
preserving or conserving, but rather talk in terms of economic development done
smartly. This means that sustainable development offers enormous economic
opportunities and is already spawning whole new industries and technology approaches
to unmet problems. Costa Rica is now seen by many as a laboratory for the world.
South Africa is also experimenting. The idea is to commercialize projects that sustain
the environment yet enable economic development. In Cost Rica, for example, they are
building up the National Institute for Biodiversity and new vehicles, buildings,
computers and field biology stations are coming on-line. The World Bank is preparing
to fund $80 million for a five-year project. An enormous amount of new knowledge is
being created about organisms and ecology. Commercial software is being developed to
support cataloging of over a half-million species, which has created alliances between
Costa Rica and American biodiversity companies. Contracts have been signed to extract
from local trees, migratory bird habitats are being established, deforestation projects are
underway, bamboo plantations are being grown to replace wood and concrete for
homes. In South Africa, the government is committed to electrifying 2.5 million
households in five years. It cannot afford to extend the electrical grid, so the South
Africans are switching to solar and wind sources of power. Battelle Memorial Institute

has designed a biomass gasification system to produce power and FERCO of Atlanta
has licensed the process and will soon start building a test project. The World Bank is
funding similar projects in Scandinavia. Secretary of Energy O'Leary has shown
considerable interest in such projects. Finally, in Curtiba, Brazil, Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam, Bangalore, India and Jakarta, Indonesia, whole new sets of projects are
coming on line to repair cities under pressure from poverty and population growth.
Curtiba has learned how to mix manufacturing, services and commerce and offers
services that exceed many First World cities. All of these kinds of initiatives apply to
Africa.
3. Biotechnology: Significant developments have occurred in biotechnology over the
past two decades. Significant biotech discoveries have been made in the agrofood sector
and real commercial production in the U.S. is expected within the next two decades.
Improvements have been made in biofeeding, diagnostic kits, seed and crop quality
innovations, and trials of several transgenic plants. Enormous progress is expected here
in the near future. Trial tests of genetically-modified crop species and large-scale
marketing of transgenic plants are expected to come on line early in the next century.
These dramatic changes caused by biotechnology will permit African countries to
generate more agricultural products to the point where surpluses are possible. Africans
themselves have made significant achievements, especially with regard to
micropropagation of banana, yams, cassava, soybeans, maize and rice. Africans need
more documentation centers and telecommunications access to, and computerized
storage of, biotechnology information. They need better facilities, more specialized
equipment, and they need to find cost-effective ways to integrate their biotechnology
research into the agricultural food production process.
4. Health care: The challenges in the area of health care seem to many to be daunting,
but they are actually quite workable. Study after study shows that there are a set of
highly cost-effective actions that Africans could take that would cause their health care
systems

to

make

quantum

leaps

forward.

Developing countries tend to spend too much on urban hospitals and far too much on
tertiary-care hospitals that focus on research, education and training. The tendency is to
spend far too little on public health services and clinical care in public and community
health centers. They need primary health care interventions designed to reduce
childhood malnutrition and mortality, mainly from infectious diseases; they need
chemotherapy against tuberculosis, integrated prenatal and delivery care, mass
programs to deworm children, provision of condoms, and anti-smoking measures.
Because of pressure from the World Bank, some 22 countries are redesigning their
national health care packages and assessing how best to reallocate their resources. This
process has been slow, but donor countries are jumping on the bandwagon with
particular focus on control of infectious diseases, tuberculosis control, and AIDS
control.
5. Legal Center: The Organization for African Unity (OAU) and other organizations
have shown a keen interest in establishing a legal documentation center in Africa. This
idea has attracted the attention of various governments. Most countries in Africa are
moving toward free-market economies. This requires each to update its laws and
regulations to support implementation of new economic policies. Such an update will
cause most of African law to change, and will indeed require major changes to entire
judicial systems. There is not now a central repository of any kind that makes
information available on the laws and regulations specific to each African state. The
World Bank has loaned money to Guinea to put laws concerning economic development
on computer and then to train public administrators on those laws. The French began a
cooperation program to put the laws of four or five West African states on computer.
The Ministers of the francophone states decided in Canada to create a regional
documentation center and the government of Benin set aside a building in Cotonou to
house such a center. The European Commission approved the idea for such a center but
the project was impeded by the desire to cross linguistic boundaries of French and
English. The UN Development Program has financed a regional project to harmonize

the penal and criminal codes of Africa. But what is really needed is a center that would
serve all African governments who participated. It could have a digitized library
containing African laws, international laws, and treaties concerning business and
economic development. Its digitization would facilitate retrieval, alteration and
communication over distance. It would facilitate the study of research, study,
preparation and coordination of legal texts and regulations. It could be used as a center
for African judges and lawyers to study the changes that are taking place in international
law

and

the

legal

aspects

of

privatization.

It would also serve as a training center for civil servants. This is a concept that could
attract American government investment since it is in the American national interest that
American interests are reflected in African law, especially since the main competitors in
Africa are French and British, the former colonizers.
In conclusion, there is enormous opportunity for the American-Africa Technology
Consortium to organize American technology companies to tackle the far-reaching
challenges presented by Africa. Furthermore, the consortium has the capacity to
influence the American government to support its efforts and assist in the finance
needed to move American technologies to applications in Africa that will produce the
kind of commercial synergism needed to develop Africa into a mass market for
American products and services. ------------Message-Id: <199602231003.FAA05972@listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu> Date: Fri, 23 Feb
1996 04:54:22 -0500 From: Abdul-Rehman Malik as-Shukri <arm@epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Technology for Africa (fwd)

Number 6: Sustainable Development Part 2

Contents:
INTRODUCTION
AUTHORS
TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN GHANA
TOXIC WASTE DUMPING IN ZAMBIA
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND THE PRESS IN AFRICA
THE

ROLE

OF

AFRICAN

NGOS

IN

AFRICA'S

SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT
RIOD: THE DESERTIFICATION NETWORK
CAMPFIRE: ZIMBABWE'S TRADITION OF CARING
"A HAPPY FAMILY:" THE GREEN ZONE COOPERATIVES
SoS/E: WORKING TOWARDS FOOD SECURITY
CLIMATE CHANGE: KENYA'S RESPONSES
ECOTOURISM: SUICIDE OR DEVELOPMENT?
THE POOR PARTNERS' ATTITUDES TO TECHNICAL COOPERATION IN
AFRICA

INTRODUCTION
While the African continent faces many of the same problems which trouble its northern
neighbours, these problems are compounded by African's closeness to their natural
environment. Poverty, overcrowding, pollution, soil degradation, over- and under
development;what sets these apart in Africa is the intensity with which they affect a
continent already stretched to its survival limits. In Voices from Africa 5, African
authors from a variety of backgrounds expressed their own visions of their continent's
march towards sustainable development. This volume, the sixth in the series, takes a
further look at the environmental state of Africa and the continent's attempts not to stray
from sustainable development despite crushing constraints.
The book's first article explains how, to deal with managing the environment, Ghana has
set up a framework, the National Environmental Policy. Mike Anane examines how his
country is working to come to grips with its legacy of environmental destruction and its
future of sustainable development. He looks at the birth of the environmental movement
in Ghana, and the government's environmental role. Part of the problem, he says, is lack
of environmental awareness.
In a case study from Zambia, Katongo Chisupa explains how the government
environment body, the Environmental Council of Zambia (ECZ), is dealing with the
specific environmental problem of dumping of toxic waste. While laws were passed and
institutions set up after the 1992 Earth Summit, a lack of general environmental
awareness in the country seriously hampers Zambian efforts to protect the environment
and halt pollution.
Environmental awareness is a leitmotif which threads its way through discussions on
the management of Africa's natural resources. A lack of adequate reporting on
environmental issues is one factor holding back this awareness. As Sandie Mbanefo
Obiago explains, journalists trying to cover the environment in Africa face an array of
problems, including lack of money to visit environmental sites, little interest on the part

of the editors in publishing environmental stories, and government restrictions on

information or on reporting on unsustainable projects.
While governments and their representative bodies play key roles in Africa's sustainable
development, they are not the only actors. Mamadou Lamine Thiam says NGOs have a
crucial role, as they can be agents of social change by encouraging democracy. He
argues that NGOs need to drop their apolitical stance and come to terms with the
political nature of development. For any development policy to succeed, there has to be
peace and stability, and these can only exist in democratic conditions, with equal rights
for all.
A good example of specific NGO action in the field of sustainable development is
provided by Mass Lo in his overview of RIOD, the network on desertification created
around the convention on desertification. His article traces the way in which an
institutional process has been harnessed by civil society in an effort to move closer to
sustainable development.
Another example of NGO sustainable development work takes a different approach by
looking at the role of culture in protecting nature. Zimbabweans have always had a
strong link with their environment, but as Stephen Kasere writes, this tradition of caring
was destroyed under colonialism. The Campfire programme to conserve wildlife
through peoples's traditional beliefs and cultural systems makes Zimbabweans partners
in their own sustainable development. The article develops the thesis that no
development programme can succeed in rural or communal areas if it disregards the
beliefs and attitudes held by the people it is intended to benefit.
In Mozambique, the Green Zones agricultural cooperatives near Maputo are an example
of how things can be turned around when farmers take things into their own hands. The
land was underutilized for many years, and farmers who took it over after the
Portuguese left did not own it, nor did they have the knowledge to practice
commercially viable agriculture. Ruth Ansah Ayisi explains how all this has changed:

farmers--most of them women--now have legal tenure, and are members of agricultural
cooperatives which give them a strong voice in the way things are run and which are
key to the post-war reconstruction effort of the country.
Farming remains the basis of much of Africa's survival and food self-sufficiency. In
Ethiopia, farmers developed landraces over centuries, making their country one of the
world's most important centres of genetic crop diversity. This gene pool has suffered
because of poor agricultural practices, such as growing a few genetically uniform
varieties of crop, and also because of the famine in the last decade. Melaku Worede
discusses the efforts of one NGO to provide food security by conserving and using crop
genetic resources to their fullest, rather than relying on imported strains and external
financial assistance with which to maintain them.
Sustainable development in Africa goes beyond local survival problems, and countries
are participating fully in the international processes shaping environmental action. In
Kenya, national and private institutions have been set up to deal with the problem of
climate change. In his article, Jason S. Ogala talks about Kenya's role in the climate
change debate and the measures taken by this industrialising country to deal with its
implications.
Development, whatever its form, is not to the liking of everyone. The Masai pastoralists
of East Africa have lost large tracts of land to game parks and reserves, depriving them
of their livelihood. Ole Komuaro discusses the problems encountered in one specific
type of development, ecotourism. He says because of this growing industry, indigenous
people are either pushed onto marginal lands where survival is difficult, or maintained
as cultural artifacts. He emphasizes the need to establish adequate infrastructures to
review and reevaluate ecotourism and to educate tourists on its impact.
Africa remains to a large extent dependent on overseas assistance for its development,
with technical cooperation playing a major role in the shift towards development that is
sustainable. But it has its pitfalls. Recipient countries react to technical cooperation.

According to Jean-Martin Tchaptchet, some recipient countries have adopted poor

attitudes to aid, often believing it is owed to them by the North. He calls on these
countries to change their attitudes if they want to compete in the new era of the postCold War world.
Today's Africa is often a mixture of the old and of the new. Traditions remain, and can
be revived as modernity encroaches rapidly upon this vast and diverse continent. As in
the rest of the world, Africa faces the problem of marrying yesterday's traditions to
tomorrow's promises. The challenge of sustainable development is to make these
promises come true with destroying Africa's environment and resource base in the
process. Across the continent initiatives--sometimes small and sometimes wide-rangingare carving out a uniquely African path towards sustainable development. Voices from
Africa is one small effort to make sure these voices are heard.
We would like to express our appreciation to the contributors to this edition and to
renew our thanks to the institutions that support this series.

TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN GHANA

by Mike Anane
All over the world, people and nations are beginning to realize that current destructive
paths of development are clearly unsustainable, and that there is now a need to preserve
the integrity and the natural resource base of the environment both for present and
future generations. Ghana has not been left out in this line of thinking, hence the
adoption of the National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP), which provides a
coherent framework for interventions deemed necessary to safeguard the environment
and redirect development efforts into more environmentally sustainable programmes
and practices.
Background
Ghana is endowed with abundant natural resources which undoubtedly contributed
immensely to the country's industrialization after independence. But the extraction of
these resources has not been without problems as care was not taken to guard against
their depletion. In fact, no governmental action was taken to address the issue of
environmental degradation in Ghana until the country's participation in the United
Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in June 1972.
Ghana has since become aware of the enormity of its environmental problems, and in
1974 the government established the Environmental Protection Council (EPC). A
critical look at the EPC during this period would reveal that its approach to work was
rather ad hoc and environmental problems were tackled as they arose. No
comprehensive plan existed to identify environmental problems and provide solutions,
nor was there machinery to create environmental consciousness among Ghanaians.
Serious environmental problems such as deforestation, soil degradation and industrial

pollution persisted. GDP fell at an average rate of 1.3% per year, and population grew
rapidly.
Faced with the stark reality of a fast declining economy, the Ghanaian government in
1983 launched its Economic Recovery Programme (ERP). This programme of
economic policy reforms, calculated to put the Ghanaian economy on a positive growth
path, was given financial and technical support by the World Bank and the IMF. The
components of the reform efforts included creation of an enabling environment for
foreign and domestic investment, and liberalization of credit and monetary
arrangements.
A key objective of the ERP was the improvement of Ghana's economic performance by
revitalizing agriculture, forestry, mining and the manufacturing industry. While this led
to positive economic growth, it was growth at a high environmental price: an estimated
41.7 billion cedis, 4% of GDP, or US$128.3 million in 1988 alone.
Environmental Problems Resulting from the ERP
Agriculture imposed the greatest environmental degradation cost, at 69% or 28.8 billion
cedis (US$88.5 million). These costs were reflected in wind and water erosion, soil
compaction, surface soil crusting and loss of soil stability and fertility, not forgetting the
indiscriminate use of fertilizers and pesticides. While these unsustainable agricultural
practices had adverse effects on the environment, they also intensified the poor living
conditions of a majority of Ghanaians.
Ghana's forests also suffered from the ERP. Forests cover 34% of the country and
contain 2100 plant species and many rare animals. An amazing 95% of Ghana's high
forest has already been logged, and only 1% of what is left lies within protected areas
such as wildlife sanctuaries, game reserves and sacred groves.

As in agriculture, the ERP led to a recovery in the exploitation of forest resources,

particularly of timber. Timber earnings increased from 5.9% in 1986 to 13.2% in 1990.
But the opportunity cost of this impressive progress was exceedingly high, estimated at
10.8 billion cedis, or US$33.4 million. This continued depletion of the forest resulted in
land degradation, decreasing biodiversity, desertification, and the shrinking of the
natural sink for carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
The mining sector was also heavily rehabilitated during the ERP. Dust, sulphur dioxide
and arsenic trioxide are the major mining-related impacts on air quality in mining areas.
Metals such as arsenic and mercury have been discharged into river systems, and the
deterioration of water quality has affected resident aquatic organisms. The levels of
arsenic and cyanide discharged into the water;which also serves as a source of drinking
water for local residents;were higher than those recommended by the World Health
Organization. Uncontrolled mining also left in its trail barren wasteland.
Given this worsening of Ghana's environmental problems in the wake of rapid
industrialization, in March 1988 the government constituted a group of experts. It
charged them with reviewing existing policies related to environmental protection, and
with proposing a strategy to address the key issues of deforestation, land management,
forestry and wildlife, water management, marine and coastal ecosystems, mining,
manufacturing industries and hazardous chemicals, human settlements, legal and
institutional issues, environmental education and environmental data systems.
The National Environmental Policy (NEAP) was then adopted to provide the broad
framework for the implementation of the action plan and to ensure sound management
of resources over a ten-year period, from 1991-2000. The NEAP endorses a preventive
approach to environmental management and emphasizes a need to promote
socioeconomic development within the context of acceptable environmental standards.
Indeed it seeks to reconcile economic planning and environmental resource
development with the view to achieving sustainable national development.

Achievements of NEAP So Far

The Environmental Protection Council (EPC) is the government institution that advises
and coordinates all environment-related issues in the country. It is the overall
coordinating body for the NEAP, with district assemblies playing key roles.
The adoption of the NEAP set into motion some structural and organizational changes.
Though the EPC performed its role creditably during its 20 years of existence, the
council was not as effective as it should have been because it lacked the power to
enforce its decisions. In 1994, it was replaced by the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), which received the necessary political backing and enforcement.
Other EPA mandates include issuing environmental permits, requesting environmental
impact assessments for development programmes, providing information on the
environment, and serving enforcement notices. The EPA also issues guides and provides
training in procedures on these matters.
A new Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology has also been created and is
charged with policy formulation. The ministry occasionally issues policy directives to
the EPA.
Pesticides Control
A programme to control pesticides has also been put in place. The Ghana Standards
Board, which is responsible for product quality control, monitors the quality of all
pesticides to be used in Ghana, while the Ministry of Agriculture provides training for
the farming communities on safe and effective application of pesticides.
The interdepartmental pesticide control programme made up of the EPA, Ministry of
Agriculture, the Ghana Standards Board and the Ghana Medical School was set up by
the government with the EPA as coordinating body. Legislations to control the
importation, distribution, sale and use of pesticides and other toxic chemicals has been

drafted and placed before parliament. This is laudable because over the years the
importation, manufacture, distribution and handling and use of potentially toxic
chemicals in Ghana has gone on without considering the environmental consequences
and even quantities and types of chemicals in the country are not fully known.
Agro-Forestry
Agro-forestry is increasingly being popularized as the best option to undertake food and
animal production without harming the land's tree cover; soil fertility is also maintained.
A school of forestry and an institute of renewable natural resources have been
established to offer courses in this field.
Legislation
The dearth of environmental legislation in Ghana is perhaps one of the biggest problems
militating against attempts at environmental protection and sustainable development. It
is evident that the body of existing legislation on the various aspects of environment is
inadequate and most provisions have no direct bearing on present-day realities or on the
aspirations of the people of this country. For example, there is no coordinated and
comprehensive land use or management policy. Compounding this is the multiplicity of
agencies responsible for various aspects of land management. So far, one can count
about 20 such agencies. These critical problems in environmental management can
seriously impair any efforts to address Ghana's environmental problems. The few
existing laws on the environment date back to the colonial era and due to their ruleoriented nature, abuses are common.Ghana continues to use British laws, some of which
have destroyed the traditional systems of village management. In some areas, land,
water and forests are owned by the government. As a result, village communities have
lost all interest in managing or protecting them. Once the villagers realize the main
objective of government management is to meet urban and international industrial
needs, their motivation shifts from conserving to exploiting resources as fully as
possible. A case in point is illustrated in a recent article in the Ghanaian Times, which

reported the story of Nana Ameyaw Gyensiamah III, chief of Kwahu Tafo. The chief is
appealing to the Ministry of Lands and Forestry to release the 30 square mile forest
reserve at Kwahu (a town in the eastern region of Ghana) to the people for protection
against illegal felling of trees and bush fires; the reserve had been turned into a
grassland due to neglect by the department. Clearly no village can function within a
legal framework that prevents it from taking care of its village environment. Several
laws will have to be changed to give people the right to improve and develop their
village's natural resource base.The effectiveness of any planning or conservation
measures in most parts of the country are often hampered by the problems of land
acquisition. In most cases, ownership boundaries are not clearly documented and
registered, and coupled with the absence of adequate data for local and farm planning,
attaining optimal land use can be a mirage, often resulting in the underutilisation or
misuse of land. In this confused state, land degradation becomes the order of the day in
most parts of Ghana.International CooperationThe implementation of sustainable
development programmes in countries like Ghana requires major investments and
access to technologies that respect the environment; only in this way can developing
countries avoid having to choose between economic development and environmental
conservation. International cooperation is indispensable to enable poor- and mediumincome countries to ensure sustainable development and participate in protecting the
earth's global ecological equilibrium. At the international level, the EPA has either
organized or participated actively in a number of seminars and workshops. For instance,
the EPA facilitated the ratification of the convention on biodiversity and the climate
change convention by Ghana. The preparation of the necessary documentation for the
ratification of the convention to combat desertification and the convention on oil
pollution preparedness and response has also been completed.
NGOs
Sustainable development is not exclusively a government affair but is a matter for
society as a whole. Ghanaians must be mobilized to carry on and amplify government

actions in favour of sustainable development. Efforts to achieve sustainable

development cannot succeed if the EPA does not maintain active partnership with all
segments of society. Over 100 environmental NGOs are active in Ghana. Some have
been in existence for over 20 years and have broad experience of the natural
environment and of activities to promote and protect it.
The EPA makes use of the recognized skills of NGOs by involving them in policy
preparation. The EPA has been eliciting their cooperation by involving them in policy
preparation and decision making regarding the environment. In June 1991, for instance,
a national workshop was organized in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana for
over 20 environmental NGOs on the environment action plan.
Environmental Education and Awareness
As a result of the government's efforts to make environmental issues a priority, an
environmental education strategy was adopted. It aims to ensure that all sections of the
population understand how the environment works and what opportunities and
problems it presents. This strategy covers both the formal and informal educational
sectors, and was a cooperative effort developed with input from the media, non-formal
divisions of the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service, NGOs and the
National Council on Women and Development.
A key objective of environmental education is to raise the level of public awareness on
environmental issues to a point where individuals, groups and organizations can fully
assume their responsibilities in safeguarding the environment, particularly at the
grassroots level.
Environmental education has not yet been fully integrated into the country's educational
system. If steps are not taken to address this problem immediately, the very aim of the
NEAP will be defeated. It is also important that non-formal education be given attention
so that all those who do not attend school;traders, farmers, unemployed youth;be

reached. Alternative methods such as drama troupes, cinema vans, opinion leaders and
local chiefs can be mobilized to reach this community in their own local dialects.
In the formal sector, environmental education can be taught alongside existing subjects
and topics could relate more closely to the environment of the communities within
which the schools are located. The literate population can also be reached through
newspapers, magazines and periodicals, as well as radio and television.
There is a notable lack of scientific information and a disturbingly low level of public
awareness about many aspects of the environment in Ghana.
In addition to education, this gap of ignorance can be filled partially by an active
environmental reporting, which not only increases awareness, but also establishes an
informed and active participation on the part of the individual.
Government officials should see the few environmental newspapers and environmental
journalists in the country as partners in development, and criticisms published in these
newspapers should be taken in good faith and constructively.
But this is not the case. The Triumph newspaper, a privately owned weekly, investigated
and published a story about the illegal importation and burial of toxic waste material in
the country by a Lebanese national. Ghana's fourth republican parliament instituted an
independent committee to investigate the authenticity of the story, and found that the
illegal import contained high concentrations of lead and mercury, which could be
harmful to human health. Still, no punitive action was taken against the perpetrators of
this heinous crime; the toxic waste was not exhumed, in spite of the parliamentary
committee's report.
Investigations conducted by The Triumph into an asbestos product factory indicated that
the factory had been polluting the air with carcinogenic asbestos fumes. Despite
persistent calls by The Triumph for a relocation of the factory or its closure, the

country's environment officials ignored the request and turned a deaf ear. Yet the factory
is located in a densely populated area. This official insensitivity to environmental news
reporting is rather discouraging and undermines the country's attempts at sustainable
development.
Poverty
Poverty is a major setback to environmental protection and sustainable development in
Ghana. This is because a majority of the people, particularly in rural areas, are poor. For
them, where to get the next meal is much more important than any problem of
desertification or wildlife depletion. The government must embark on serious poverty
alleviation efforts, not only to raise the living standards of the people, but also to
prevent them from unleashing their anger on the forests and other natural resources in
their desperate bid to keep bone and flesh together.
Income-generating activities, revenue sharing or alternative employment opportunities
can be initiated by the government on the principle that by providing other sources of
income, the economic incentive to utilize wildlife illegally will be removed. These
opportunities could include jobs as wardens, rangers, guides, labourers, or
administrative staff. Revenue-sharing activities could mean the distribution of both cash
and kind derived from tourist entrance fees. This approach would not only improve
local income and living standards, but also curb the illegal use of wildlife and remove
pressure from protected areas.
The cutting of forests in search of cheap firewood and energy, the grazing of marginal
lands, the drift to the towns, all are problems caused by poverty. At the same time, the
debt crisis facing Ghana and many developing countries today dramatically affects
commodity prices and increases the outflow of resources from the less developed
countries.

Also, one cannot forget the impact of structural adjustment policies on a country like
Ghana. These policies have forced the government to cut down on social services, cut
back the labour force (bread winners of families in most cases), and remove subsidies
on medical care.
The World Bank's policies of structural adjustment as a condition for loans has stressed
export crops to earn foreign exchange to pay off the mounting debt. This has certainly
had a detrimental impact on many of the poor people in Ghana as most of them have
been pushed off land needed for export crops. In desperation, most have moved to
marginalized and less fertile areas or to the burgeoning cities, while others become
dependent on the informal sector to survive.
One wonders how we can ever achieve sustainable development when the debt crisis
has not been eased and when the government continues to swallow IMF/World Bank
conditionalities hook, line and sinker, when women and children continue to bear the
brunt of these harsh polices, and when such policies continue to wreak havoc on our
environment.
Conclusion
The sustainability of economic and social development in Ghana depends to a large
extent on its resource base, more so when economic growth has been based on the use
of renewable and non-renewable natural resources like forests, soil and water. Clearly,
the pressure on these natural systems is enormous. Unfortunately, past attempts to
address the environmental problems have been largely on an ad hoc basis. There is a
need for a rethinking of our natural development efforts along more sustainable lines.
The government of Ghana, through the NEAP, has stated its commitment to
environmental protection and sustainable development. While not all promises have
been realized, Ghana's efforts have been more than lip service. With the passage of time,
efforts have gone beyond words into strengthening institutions, developing human

resources, research capacity and methodology, thus improving popular participation and
balancing access to and distribution of resources.
Already the NEAP is helping to facilitate national strategies and networking in the field
of sustainable development. These considerable efforts must be intensified since
environmental protection is a recurring challenge requiring constant vigilance and
periodic revision. Perhaps what is needed most is a sustained and consistently
orchestrated campaign by the mass media in Ghana to instill a commitment in the public
to halt the alarming rate of environmental degradation and to develop new strategies for
sustainable living.
Incentives and deterrents should also be provided to complement the legal texts already
in force in the environmental field to give greater weight to the policy of environmental
protection. Land and forest laws in particular need to become more rational, both from a
scientific and social perspective, to encourage people's involvement and ecological
regeneration.
References
Tunstall, Daniel B., 1993 Directory of Country Environmental Studies: An Annotated
Bibliography of Environmental Assessments, WRI, USA, 1993.
Laing, E., Ghana Environmental Action Plan (Volume 1), Ghana, 1991.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND THE PRESS IN AFRICA

by Sandra Mbanefo Obiago
Sustainable development is a much used phrase in international circles, but it is a
concept that still has no clear definition nor clear time frame (what is a sustainable
period?) and is little understood by the African press.
According to the World Resources Institute's 1994-95 Guide to the Global Environment,
"Sustainable development is based on the recognition that a nation cannot reach its
economic goals without also achieving social and environmental goals;that is, universal
education and employment opportunity, universal health and reproductive care,
equitable access to and distribution of resources, stable populations, and a sustained
natural resource base." Although this definition is as broad as it is imprecise, we shall
use it within the context of this article.
One reason that the African press doesn't write much about sustainable development is
probably that there are few good examples of sustainable development projects to
report. Another is that the press rarely gets the opportunity to visit examples of
sustainable development and to see what it's all about first-hand.
Another reason sustainable development issues are not in the media spotlight is that
major media houses across Africa are cash-strapped. There is no money for journalists
to leave the city and visit sustainable development projects in the field. Furthermore,
news and information have been forced into a commercial straightjacket. Ninety percent
of what gets into the newspapers, television and radio is heavily sponsored. So cashstrapped developmental NGOs feel the necessity to wine and dine journalists to ensure
that their message gets into print.
But even this is no assurance, as the information gatekeepers or editors often don't see
the relevance of publishing the developmental story. Disaster, crime, and politics always

beat the sustainable development story to the end-goal, unless of course there is some
national controversy, in which case the story usually takes another twist and the
controversy is pushed to the foreground.
An editor of a Nigerian newspaper asked a press officer of an environmental NGO
about the relevance of a press release on the biodiversity convention. When the press
officer explained that the biodiversity convention covered topics such as sustainable
agriculture, equitable trade, technology transfer, and intellectual property rights and that
it was important for developing countries to be active in the biodiversity dialogue, the
editor insisted that while interesting, this was not a pressing news story.
Another obstacle to developmental reporting is that development, like the environment,
often crosses into the area of human rights. A case in point is the massive oil exploration
in Nigeria's Niger River delta. Everyone is aware that the oil exploration activities are
unsustainable and that huge areas of the delta are being destroyed by oil pollution.
Niger Delta communities are crying out for international help as their soil, rivers,
streams, and fish stocks are polluted and their livelihoods gravely threatened. But
government is cracking down on this protest and the worst hit communities have been
zoned off as national security areas. Journalists and human rights workers undertaking
investigative work in the area have been labelled "unpatriotic" and have encountered
difficulties in getting information.
And this is not an isolated case. Many African countries lack press freedom and when
criticism of governments' unsustainable development practices and human rights
violations becomes too sharp, media houses are proscribed and journalists become
"security risks."
At the end of 1994 the organization Journalistes Sans Frontires reported that 103
journalists had lost their lives in the line of duty that year, up from 63 in 1993. Many

were killed covering wars and civil unrest, but a large proportion also died while
investigating controversial stories.
Also in the wake of wars and political turmoil in many African countries, sustainable
development reporting takes a back seat within a context of political instability.
But before we go further in criticizing the African press, it is only fair to note that the
non-African press also understand very little about sustainable development in Africa.
A case in point is the environment and development project called Campfire
(Communal Areas Management Plan for Indigenous Resources) in Zimbabwe (see p.
33). Campfire is a national programme which gives local communities control of the
natural resources in their area. The most notable natural resource with the highest
income generating potential is wildlife;which, conversely, causes the greatest amount of
poverty.
Communities which are rich in wildlife and want to join the Campfire programme
register with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). Wildlife surveys are
subsequently carried out within the Campfire communal areas, and sustainable wildlife
quotas are set by the NPWS. Village committees decide if they want to kill and eat the
wildlife on their quota, or if they want to sell the quota as hunting rights to safari
hunters.
And this is the beginning of sustainable development. Villagers earn significant
revenues from safari hunting (a tourist pays as much as US$12,000 to shoot an
elephant), which they plough back into community development projects like schools
and clinics.
But non-African press have a problem with this form of sustainable development. While
they understand that shooting a few elephants will increase Africans' standard of living

and alleviate poverty in rural areas where the land is poor, they often cannot reconcile
killing a majestic elephant or lion as sustainable development or advancement.
In their minds, elephants are best kept protected, even at the cost of human suffering. In
a similar vein the western press can't understand why some of Zimbabwe's elephants
should be culled even if they destroy overpopulated national parks by ripping up tree
trunks and destroying park vegetation, continuing on to ravage farmland and terrorize
villagers outside park boundaries.
No, most of the international press, supported by animal rights activists, would rather
see 70,000 elephants protected in Zimbabwe at the expense of sustainable development.
The fact that Zimbabwe's land does not have the carrying capacity to sustain this
massive elephant population falls mostly on deaf ears. All the international press are
interested in are sensational photographs of elephants being slaughtered, accompanied
by a few simplistic captions.
But from at least an African perspective, how can we ensure that sustainable
development stories get into the African press?
The most obvious point is that sustainable development stories need to have a strong
African slant and relevance to an African audience. For example, an international
conference on the world's dwindling fish stocks will have little relevance to a Malawian,
unless parallels can be drawn to the lack of sustainable fishing practices in Lake
Malawi.
Development NGOs often work hand in hand with their international sister
organizations and jointly publish press releases with a northern bias and non-African
examples. If a story has a strong local lead and contains local examples and local
quotes, there is a greater chance of having the information picked up.

Well-respected Kenyan educator and journalist Hilary Ng'weno recently commented

that environment and development NGOs need to communicate, not just to the media
but to all stakeholders in society. A concerted effort needs to be made to find strong,
well-respected development spokespeople in such sectors as the religious community,
the legal profession, the industrial and business sector and other professional groups.
These spokespeople will not only ensure that the message reaches their target audience,
but they also stand a better chance of getting picked up by the media.
Likewise, if newsworthy information is being released during a press conference, it
increases the development NGO's credibility if nationally recognized content experts
(not only staff members) also take part on the panel.
Bryna Brennan, a veteran American journalist experienced in conducting environmental
reporting seminars in the developing world, advises NGOs to put media contacts on
their mailing lists and encourages NGOs to write press releases with a local human
interest angle free of scientific jargon.
A propos "jargon," Tom McShane, Africa Programme Officer with the World Wide
Fund for Nature (WWF) said recently, "I suggest that the word "sustainable
development" is jargon. The scientific, NGO, development and environment community
really don't know what the term means;ask ten people and you will get ten definitions."
Development NGOs should also consider organizing awareness raising seminars for
journalists to increase their understanding of development issues and to put the media in
contact with development experts; journalists often don't know who the leading experts
in various fields are.
Field trips to projects are another good way of impressing journalists with threedimensional examples of exemplary sustainable development projects, as well as
showing them examples of unsustainable development practices.

Furthermore, the environment and development community needs to support

development courses in African universities, to sensitize students to sustainable
development issues.
And in conclusion the best development medium in Africa is still radio. Radio is the
most cost-effective and widespread medium for reaching Africa's 744 million people.
Especially in highly populated urban areas and in rural communities, most people listen
to the radio because it is cheap and doesn't always require electricity.
There are approximately 31.1 million radio receivers in sub-Saharan Africa;compared
with 7.73 million television receivers, and a newspaper circulation of 4.8 million.1
Clearly, more Africans receive information through the radio than from any other
communications medium. If development NGOs want to get their message across to the
African general public, they should invest in radio communications and take a special
interest in sensitizing radio journalists and producers to development issues.
I would like to end this brief article with the inspiring words of one of Africa's foremost
fighters for sustainable development and environment, Wangari Maathai. Maathai, who
is revered for her selfless and fearless struggle for African development said to me
during an interview at the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992:
"As long as you plant trees and don't ask questions, nobody will bother you. It's when
you start looking for the causes of environmental degradation, rather than constantly
dealing with the symptoms, that you enter into the arena of politics, human rights,
justice and equity. In Kenya the government claims it has a right to encroach on
forests;that it wants to create jobs. But forests are important for water security, for
example. If the government is going to encroach on forests, people must be informed
and must understand the impact... because 20-30 years along the road, they will have no
water, streams will dry out, they will not be able to grow their crops, and there will be

famine. That's the time we start asking the world to give us aid to feed our people.
Instead of waiting until we see starving children, I would rather go to the root cause of
the problem."
Notes
1. 1992 Africa South of the Sahara report.

THE ROLE OF AFRICAN NGOS IN AFRICA'S SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

by Mamadou Lamine Thiam
Today, Africa is in the grip of an unprecedented crisis, due essentially to the exclusion
of people from the search for solutions to their own problems.
The UN Special Session on Africa (1986), which resulted in the creation of the UN
Programme for Africa's Economic Recovery and Development (UNPAAERD),
demonstrated that the international community has committed itself to helping African
people in their struggle against underdevelopment and poverty.
At the same time, the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the
1990s (UN-NADAF), which is only half-implemented, does not seem to be of any great
help to the continent.
Faced with this situation, African populations are now coming together to take their
destiny into their own hands. The proliferation of organisations of peasant and village
women with links to NGOs and civil society is a good indication of Africa's ability to
rely upon herself, something of which African NGOs are well aware.
There is now new hope since, in political terms, African populations have started
wrenching power back from dictators who used to exercise it against them and "in their
name." They have finally understood that they could contribute to economic recovery,
initially by participating in major decision making. As a matter of fact, the many
national conferences which have taken place around the continent are proof of African
civil society's demands for involvement in the national decision making process and
insistence on actual popular participation.
African NGOs' Role in the Development Process

While in its infancy, the associations' movement confined itself to timely actions based
on religious or charitable considerations. Today, NGOs have realized that they should
have their own perception of development if they want to fully play their part. That
perception requires long-term programmes which can help to solve the problems facing
us.
This new mission for NGOs calls for a political stance on issues. The kind of
sustainable development we want to create demands that we and our populations
become involved in decisions affecting the future of the grassroots communities which
we represent. This would make it necessary for us to:
help promote popular participation as defined by the Arusha Charter, which could
well act as a code of conduct for both NGOs and African governments;
contribute to the introduction of durable peace in order to build our future; and
help promote equality between social layers and for women, securing a fair share
of power for them. The continent's economy should be restructured without delay
in order to promote better long-term living conditions for our populations.
However, for that to be feasible, several conditions would have to be met:
there should be greater transparency in public affairs which, in most countries,
have been mismanaged, with leaders confusing their own interests with those of
the community. As in any democratic country, the population insists on checking
on the way national assets are being used;
popular participation in development should be made more effective, and greater
freedom for grassroots initiatives promoted. The population should be involved in
any decisions affecting their lives;

 African women should receive more support in their struggle for a social status
more in tune with their responsibilities in society and within the family;
African NGOs should engage in the reproduction and preservation of our natural
resources for a more sustainable development through our environment; and
African NGOs should be involved in informing, mobilizing and organizing civil
society into a politically influential group.
In poor countries where technological means and energy resources are limited, each
citizen should be relied upon for his or her skills, ambitions, means and priorities. All
citizens should be put into a position to use their resources and natural talents on behalf
of the continent at large.
Today, Africa needs a strategy which can enable the poor to participate in development.
But this would assume the introduction of democratic rules, of peace and of security.
African NGOs' Role for Democracy in Africa
The sudden appearance of local organisations and of a civil society could not have taken
place at a better time. This phenomenon is the result of a shift from indifference and
fatalism to self-reliance, self-defence and participation.
African NGOs have a major role to play in bringing about such change by throwing
their weight behind the population to counterbalance the power of the state, thus
ensuring durable peace and a partnership between people and governments. It is in this
context that we could consider a development initiative a process of long-term
autonomy for Africans.
African NGOs should join grassroots populations in order to enforce popular
participation. They should demand the right to participate in political decisions on the
future of Africa;this, because sustainable development is a political issue resulting from

a set of collective decisions governing the life of each and every one. It is in this
connection that one should examine the decisions made by African NGO delegates to
FAVDO's (Forum of African Voluntary Development Organizations) General Assembly
in Harare on the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) which have been secretly
negotiated between our governments and the World Bank, and which have clearly led to
increasing suffering and poverty.
Democracy and human rights are the foundations of sustainable, fair and human
development. Therefore, an attempt should be made to set up local development
programmes which take into consideration the values, needs, aspirations and culture of
local populations.
Finally, strengthening the institutional capacity of grassroots communities would allow
these to better participate in the struggle for democracy, the protection of marginalized
social groups and in making the population more accountable.
African NGOs and their partners in the North should help and encourage civil society
actors to express their aspirations and assert themselves in order to actually participate
in all decisions made in their name.
This shows that it is urgent for African NGOs to come to terms with the political nature
of development and drop their traditional apolitical stance. No African organization can
claim it is not affected by the change occurring in its country. And, the involvement of
NGOs in the democratic process should start with NGOs themselves through the fair
application of democratic rules in the decision making and concertation processes with
grassroots communities.
Clearly, no development policy will succeed without peace. There can be no lasting
peace without any equal justice for all citizens, all social groups, all social categories,
and all generations of both sexes.

No justice can avoid being biased without being grounded in ethics and a culture of
equity. Based on solidarity, communal society should include the resources required for
the introduction of a system capable of getting everybody involved and giving
individuals the security needed to undertake something.
In view of the above, African NGOs should:
encourage access by grassroots communities to information materials,
communications methods, and popular participation in decision making;
support grassroots organizations and social groups that are in a position to work
out alternative policies and bring about change through collectively defined
actions which are culturally acceptable;
promote a participative democracy that respects peoples' aspirations and existing
cultures; and
reinforce the empowerment of women and impoverished populations and their
role in development-related decisions and actions.
Conclusion
African NGOs should now actively contribute to the economic recovery of the continent
and to the consolidation of democracy. Therefore, they should, from now on, design
long-term programmes with the following global aims:
to promote popular participation, assistance for popular organizations, the
integration of NGOs into civil society, democratization, the protection of human
rights, and so on;
to reinforce the institutional capacity of grassroots communities; and

 to set up a partnership with NGOs in the North, based on solidarity, mutual

respect and a fair distribution of tasks.
African NGOs should work towards an empowerment of civil society, giving people the
capacity to make decisions and to negotiate. It is in this context that a development
initiative can be regarded as a process of autonomy. This will involve giving power to
people for greater commitment to participation in survival and development efforts.

RIOD: THE DESERTIFICATION NETWORK

By Mass Lo
Of all the conventions stemming from the UN Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, the Convention on
Desertification is probably the one which gives the greatest importance to the activities
of local communities, community organizations, and NGOs. The convention treats them
as central to action programmes to fight desertification, both nationally and regionally.
As for NGOs, they are treated as full partners by states, both to elaborate action
programmes and to mobilize the necessary financial resources for their implementation.
The decision to make local communities the main participants in the convention makes
them unconditional partners in the implementation of the convention and of its regional
annexes. It is also an invitation to countries threatened by desertification to change or
improve their method of governance, especially in the management of natural resources.
It is within this framework of new challenges and responsibilities that NGOs taking part
in the convention's negotiations created the Rseau International d'ONG et OCB pour le
suivi de la convention contre la dsertification (RIOD) to bring the convention to the
level of local communities and to make sure they take part in all phases of its
implementation.

An International Network
RIOD is not an organization, it is a mechanism for communication and coordination
among NGOs, community groups, associations and rural organizations involved in the
fight against desertification, in an effort to ensure follow-up to the convention.
RIOD's overall objective is to promote activities designed by NGOs and local
communities to fight desertification, especially cooperation in the elaboration and
implementation of national and subregional action programmes. More specifically,
RIOD aims to reinforce the analytical capacity of its members in order to help them
fulfil their role in implementing the convention, and to contribute to raising public
awareness in both North and South.
RIOD is composed of National Focal Points, Subregional Focal Points, and Regional
Focal Points. The focal points are designated communicators through which network
members exchange information. They are selected based on criteria defined in the
network's basic document. Among other things, all focal points must:
be involved in the fight against desertification,
have the capacity to translate information on convention negotiations and
documents produced by the network into language accessible to NGOs and local
communities, and
to reproduce and disseminate them in as many copies as needed.
Subregional and regional focal points must have international experience, since they are
in charge of liaison with intergovernmental and regional organizations involved in the
convention's implementation.
Coordination of the network is handled by a Global Focal Point. This person is in
charge of developing the network's communications efforts, and of compiling and

distributing the RIOD newsletter, in cooperation with regional focal points. The terms
of reference of the focal points are defined in a way that ensures efficient ongoing
follow-up of the convention at the national, subregional and international levels. To
achieve this and to facilitate the flow of information, there is no real hierarchy among
focal points: all are partners is a single network.
An Action Plan for the Convention
RIOD's Action Plan is based on activities through which focal points will promote and
guarantee the involvement of local communities, especially women, in the
implementation of national and subregional action plans in the fields of information,
awareness raising, and elaboration of mechanisms for NGO participation.
There are three types of activity: basic activities, lobbying, and network activities.
Basic activities are those necessary for efficient communications: gathering information
on the fight against desertification, publication of form letters, and electronic
conferencing of members among the various network members on issues relative to the
convention.
Lobbying activities take place during convention negotiations and official meetings on
implementation of the convention. They involve writing of position papers and
declarations which reflect NGO positions. The bulletin ECO, published since the onset
of convention negotiations, is the best tool available for NGO lobbying activities.
The final category is made up of information and awareness activities at a national level
in order to promote greater mobilization of those involved in the fight against
desertification. These would include the translation of the convention and the
production of press materials.
The remarkable participation of NGOs in the convention negotiations and their role in
the convention's implementation place RIOD in a privileged position at the crossroads

of the various institutions involved in implementation. As a result, initiatives are being

launched in all regions in order to expand the network and to prepare its members to
take part in the elaboration and application of action plans to fight desertification.
RIOD in Africa
The International Convention to Combat Desertification is considered to be one of the
most promising for Africa among all the conventions dealing with environment. It
recognizes Africa's special status and gives it priority. In this way, decisions were made
to implement urgent measures for Africa before the convention comes into force,
mobilizing all partners to design action plans responsive to the needs of local
communities.
As Regional Focal Point for Africa, ENDA has prepared an action plan for the network
aimed particularly at NGOs.
The first initiative in the plan involved the organization of a forum for NGOs involved
in the convention. The forum took place in Senegal, ENDA's headquarters, in
collaboration with Senegal's National Council of Development NGOs (CONGAD),
several community organization networks, and development workers, including the Arid
Lands International Network (ALIN) and Rseau Afrique 2000. The forum helped
inform and sensitize participants, compile a relatively complete list of NGOs,
community groups and associations involved in the desertification issue, and to appoint
CONGAD as national focal point for RIOD. A National Coordination Committee
(CNCOD) for follow-up activities was also established.
Similar activities in other countries are now paving the way for the designation of
national focal points in Mali, Burkina Faso, Uganda and elsewhere. Plans for
subregional meetings of NGOs and community organizations have been elaborated and
forwarded to subregional focal points in order to speed up the process.

In Mali, a number of information and awareness meetings about the convention as well
as a national NGO forum have taken place. They were organized by Guamina, RIOD's
national focal point in Mali.
In Niger, a national seminar on the convention was held on 26-28 June 1995. Its aim
was to provide broader information to non-governmental partners and to assist them in
providing information to the local community level. After the seminar, NGOs decided to
set up a National NGO Coordinating Committee against desertification. Previously,
NGOs had taken part in the national workshop on the elaboration of a National Action
Plan, and in national information and awareness days on the convention, on 16 and 17
June 1995.
A study on collaborative participation in the elaboration of National Action Plans was
completed by a group of African NGOs, with support from UN Sudano-Sahelian Office
(UNSO). The study was presented to the subregional conference on the convention in
Dakar, and was retained as a reference document for the elaboration of National Action
Plans in the Comit Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Scheresse au Sahel (CILSS)
countries. Based on this level of recognition, the NGOs decided to change their
approach to the project in order to reinforce their capacities in the fight against
desertification and to ensure their effective involvement in the plans of action.
In addition, a number of subregional activities are taking place.
In Central Africa, the Subregional Focal Point (CONGAC, Cameroon) is committed to
raising awareness among public authorities to encourage them to ratify the convention.
A number of activities are also underway to inform NGOs about the convention. In
Cameroon, the interministerial committee in charge of the convention has now been
opened to NGOs.
In the Sudan, a National Coordinating Committee of NGOs has been established as a
result of the days set aside to raise awareness about the convention.

The designation of National Focal Points is not moving forward as quickly as expected,
however. A project to produce a popular version of the convention and the elaboration
of pariticipative National Action Plans against desertification by the Regional Focal
Point for Africa should help speed up matters. The aim is to designated as many
National Focal Points as possible by the convention's entry into force in 1997, both in
Africa and on other continents.
To fill the need for information and awareness raising during the convention's interim
period, RIOD has organised a number of NGO meetings and set up several projects
designed to strengthen communication and build capacity among its members. But little
by

little,

mobilisation

and

financial

management

activities

have

led

to

institutionalization of the network. In fact, the approach of the Global Focal Point to the
network's management has sometimes clashed with some members' view of the
network's goals.
As a result, at the seventh INCD in Nairobi, NGOs decided to restructure RIOD and
turn it into a simple communications network. To maintain the level of resources,
however, members have been asked to share their experience in the fields of project
design and fundraising.
The aim now is to make RIOD accessible to NGOs and community organizations
worldwide in order to assist them in shouldering their responsibilities under the
International Convention to Combat Desertification.
The new structure of RIOD should be adopted at the first Conference of Parties of the
INCD.

CAMPFIRE: ZIMBABWE'S TRADITION OF CARING

by Stephen Kasere
Much has already been said and written about Zimbabwe's Campfire programme,
highlighting how the programme decentralises political and administrative powers to
grassroots people, how it distributes millions of dollars to the barefoot masses in
communal areas, and how people have adopted eco-friendly views on wildlife and other
natural resources as a result of it. But little has been said so far about the significance of
the programme to reviving the cultural well-being of the people in Zimbabwe.
The cultural component in Campfire not only proves to the world that sustainability is
not a creation of western scholarship, as many would argue, but also explains why
Campfire has managed to rapidly win the hearts of millions of Zimbabweans when
other programmes, both in Zimbabwe and abroad, could not make it beyond the design
stage.
Prevailing arguments view Africans as non-conservationists at heart who have fallen in
love with Campfire only because of the meat and money it generates. My contention, on
the contrary, is that the programme has been accepted by people because it does not
contradict the African wisdom about environment. While economic incentives are
indispensable, the programme preaches and practises sustainable consumption as a
vehicle for development. This is the language the Zimbabwean people and their
ancestors have been practising since time immemorial.
The Tradition of Caring
Long before Dr David Livingstone had set foot in Southern Africa, Zimbabweans had
cultural links with their environment second to that of no other known culture in the
world. They had a distinct culture of conservation overseen by the chief, in a tete--tete
with the great Shona spirit Mhondoro. From childhood, everyone was taught both the

material and spiritual value of trees, forests, animals, water, snakes, birds and all other
natural resources.
The Forests
Random cutting of trees was not permissible. Some trees, like the parinari curatellifolia,
were sacred and had to be preserved for the spiritual well-being of individual
households and the entire community. It was always under that tree that the Shona
people, or more precisely the Zezuru, gathered to pray to ancestors for rain or other
needs.
Trees like the upaca kirkiana, strychnos cocculoides, and azanza garkeana were
preserved to provide a wide range of fruits at different times of the year. These trees are
still highly regarded in communal areas where they are selectively retained in fields
cleared for cultivation despite attempts by government extension services to promote
removal of trees from fields.
Of course some trees had to be cut to satisfy such basic human needs as provision of
shelter or cattle kraals, but no tree could be cut if not needed for worthwhile or
immediate use. Cutting green trees for firewood was taboo. Only dry wood was
collected for firewood, and women who collected it exercised extreme caution because
certain trees, even when dry, were sacred and could never be used as fuel. Everyone
knew the value of trees as primary sources of biodiversity and genetic resources, and
understood how their depletion would anger the ancestors and God, resulting in
punishing natural disasters such as drought.
Certain forests were sacred and highly protected as though the scientific importance of
preserving forests for the regulation of hydrological cycles and exchanges of gases and
nutrients as described in Agenda 21 was known. Any human being risked disappearing
for good if he tried to trespass into the area. Some traditional leaders, particularly chiefs,

were buried in these sacred forests, and certain protocol had to be applied before any
human encroachment could be allowed.
Wildlife
Like the other fruits of nature, wildlife was regarded as common property subject to
strict cultural controls. These controls were more effective than present control
mechanisms since violation of laws then called for both earthly and spiritual
punishments, which varied with the nature and degree of the offence.
All people belonged to clans which were;and still are;identified with a particular totem.
These totems forbade each clan from killing certain types of wildlife species. The
totems still exist in Zimbabwe, and in Matabeleland in particular surnames such as
Ndlovu, Dube, and Nyati are all totems which refer to elephant, zebra and buffalo
respectively. These totems are also prevalent among the Shona people for whom intermarriage within the same totem is strictly forbidden.
Although the system was not protectionist par excellence, these totemic groups
represented interest groups for their respective animals and could not stand total
depletion or abuse. So Western animal rights groups;who from their well-ventilated
animal-free offices shout their worry for aesthetic reasons that they have more concern
for wildlife than do Zimbabweans;should be reminded that that of wildlife in this
country had far more to do with the belief system of indigenous people who associated
their survival with that of certain species. They can never be considered less caring than
foreigners about the extinction of wildlife.
Even though the majority of people survived mainly on hunting, certain species such as
the lion and giraffe were royal and so had to be preserved. Animals such as the pangolin
were eaten only by the chief. Big animals, once culled, had to be shared by all
households in a village to ensure nobody went hungry or had reason to slip away into
the forest to damage individually what were collectively owned resources.

Hunting was also a well-managed profession, limited to established and reputable

hunters. Among both the Ndebele and Shona of Zimbabwe, specific hunting periods
were arranged and monitored by the king or chief. Before hunters were released for
their tour of duty, certain traditional customs had to be enacted. These took place after
consultation with the Spiritual Medium to ensure no traditional ethos was transgressed,
ensuring hunters would meet no dangers on their hunting expeditions.
Enforcement
As we all appreciate, no law can be a real law if it can be violated at any time with
impunity. Punishment for violating the cultural environmental laws in Zimbabwe before
colonialism was extremely severe. As the sovereign and overall custodian of the
environment, the chief executed his divine right to safeguard the environment with a
strong hand.
While this may appear draconian to today's democratic generation, Zimbabweans then
viewed their environment as a common heritage vital to the survival of all humanity.
Environmental resources were owned by all, for the good of all. No one had the right to
claim private ownership, since that would give individuals unlimited freedom to misuse
the fruits of nature to the detriment of all.
Being common property, it is easy to see why there was tacit consent among people for
the need for a strong Leviantham;a chief ordained with spiritual powers who would
punish deviants in order to safeguard the common heritage, for the good of generations
to come. Anyone caught scrambling for fruit or cutting forbidden trees or taking more
than a fair quota in hunting risked expulsion from the area or losing his wealth by
decree.
Policemen were not even needed to detect offenders. Everyone owned and depended on
the resource and therefore had an interest in the behaviour of others. To make matters
worse, everyone knew that the invisible Mhondoro spirit watched over their behaviour,

and deviants risked a series of misfortunes or provoking a natural disaster that would
affect the entire community if they lacked observance. Even today, the most dreaded,
most respected and most controversial powers are those attributed to the great
Mhondoro spirit. Literally translated, Mhondoro simply means lion. But to the Shona,
the term Mhondoro is much more than a reference to the dreaded animal commonly
known as "The Honourable King of the Jungle." To the Shona, the term refers to the
great ancestral spirit;what one may call the father of all spiritual mediums in a region.
The spirit could foretell the future, communicate with the chief and the creator, heal the
sick and detect deviant acts committed by individuals or groups against the
environment.
Colonial Deprivation
Colonialism and modern western thought regarded these cultural systems as backward,
superstitious and inimical to rapid economic growth. It introduced laws which dealt a
devastating blow to the environmentally-friendly culture which governed the day-to-day
activities of indigenous people. Through the use of force, white settlers appropriated
large tracts of rich land and forced the majority of African people into the most denuded
animal-free areas, which they called reserves.
In a bid to clear land for cultivation, many animals were shot and most sacred forests
and trees ploughed under. The lucky wildlife species which survived the onslaught were
driven into protected areas managed by the "shoot first and ask questions later"
department of National Parks and Wildlife Management.
Wildlife became the property of the state and hunting by indigenous people became ipso
facto illegal. In fact, it was in practice a capital offence as any villager seen with dogs
on commercial farms or in protected areas risked being greeted with bullets. Hunting
concessions became the government's responsibility and none was granted, even for
subsistence purposes, to indigenous people, most of whom suffered from incessant
attacks by wildlife.

"The White Man's Burden"

The results of these protectionist measures were catastrophic to both human beings and
wildlife. To indigenous people, wildlife, formerly held in high esteem, became a source
of unbearable agony. Interest in conserving them was lost. So even though Zimbabwean
villagers did not poach animals for commercial gain, they cooperated with foreign
poachers who hunted elephant and rhino;hence the massive loss of our rhino population,
which declined from over 3000 in 1987 to only 300 today. As far as the communities
were concerned the conservation of wildlife was not their problem. It was now "the
white man's burden."
With these negative developments, it became vividly clear to the Department of
National Parks and Wildlife Management that the conservation of wildlife and other
natural resources could not be achieved without the intimate involvement of the people
who lived with the resource. In 1978, a project called Windfall (Wildlife Industry New
Development for All) was launched. It sought to develop people's interest in
conservation by distributing wildlife meat to communal people living around National
Parks. This early approach soon collapsed, mostly because of its top-down nature.
Communities never fully identified with the project. Most of those who received the
meat did not even understand that the meat was meant to involve them in conservation
strategies for wildlife. Their understanding was that they were getting the meat because
a trophy hunter (just like a commercial poacher), had obtained the core product
(trophy). Therefore they, as villagers, could help themselves to that meat, which they
considered of no use to the hunter.
It was only after 1982 that serious debates and ministerial consultations resulted in the
Campfire programme. In 1989 the districts of Nyaminyami and Guruve received
Appropriate Authority (legal status given by the Department of National Parks and
Wildlife Management) to manage and utilise game. From these first two districts,

Campfire has spread to 25 Rural District Councils, reuniting about two million people
with traditions as well as earning them millions of dollars.
The Campfire Programme
The introduction of Campfire came as a relief to communities suffering the costs of
living with wildlife. Although the Campfire programme does not preach the gospel of
culture, it fully subscribes to the thesis that no development programme can succeed in
rural or communal areas if it disregards the beliefs and attitudes held by the people it is
intended to benefit.
Beliefs about the powers of both the chief and the Mhondoro are still held by communal
people today despite 100 years of colonial strangulation. In a survey conducted at the
peak of the 1991 drought, almost all respondents saw the drought as punishment by
ancestral spirits and by the creator for a century-long erosion of cultural values and the
total disregard of the advice and ceremonial roles of the Mhondoro and chiefs, by both
the colonial and post-independence governments.
In practical terms, Campfire has rekindled the cultural principle of common ownership
and management of the fruits of nature by emphasising and developing an infrastructure
for effective local participation in decision making and sharing of all revenues earned
through the programme by producer communities. The programme operates through
democratically elected committees at village, ward or district level where wildlife
committees serve as vehicles to articulate people's problems and needs. The
nomenclatures may differ from one district to another, but central in Campfire is that
institutions should allow democratic participation of all people. This ensures that
projects suit the cultural and economic needs of communities.
Campfire does not create a dichotomy between culture and economics. Both are
important and seen as inseparable sides of the same coin. Economics is seen as the base
and culture the concentrated expression of economics. This explains why most

Campfire gatherings, whether dividend distribution ceremonies or quota setting

meetings, are always opened by a traditional ceremony.
It is clear that the history of the people of Zimbabwe, like that of many other countries
in Africa, reflects a magnificent wealth of knowledge on sustainable use and
development that can be improved upon and applied to achieve both conservation and
development throughout the continent. With their strong attachment to totems and
spiritual beliefs about the power of the Mhondoro, Zimbabweans have a culture which
can be easily adapted to conservation and affordably implemented. Of course rational
questions arise about the efficiency of their beliefs, but this is difficult to prove, as is the
case with all religions.
What matters for conservation and development is that the Zimbabwean people love
their trees, animals, forests, all of nature. To them, resources do not just mean dollars
and cents, but are part of their spiritual heritage, which they feel obliged to maintain for
their spiritual well-being as well as that of future generations. For more than 100 years,
Zimbabweans have watched their resources managed ruthlessly against their spiritual
and economic interests. Through Campfire, they feel their spirits are smiling once more.
Campfire has reawakened them to the reality that if they cannot live by sustainable
means, then they may not live at all.

SoS/E: WORKING TOWARDS FOOD SECURITY

by Melaku Worede
Ethiopia is recognized as one of the world's most important centres of crop genetic
diversity. It is often referred to as a major Vavilovian gene centre. Much of this diversity
is found in small fields belonging to peasants who, aided by nature, have played and
continue to play, a central role in the creation, maintenance and use of this invaluable
resource.1 The traditional crops and their landraces2 have been adapted by these
farmers over centuries of selection and use to meet changing needs, using locally
accessible resources for the management of farming systems. Wide use of these genetic
materials promotes diversity of diet, income source, stability of production, reduced
pest and disease incidence and efficient use of labour.
Most of this diversity is now in serious danger, mainly because of displacement of the
traditional seed by a few genetically uniform, new or improved varieties of crop that
require expensive external inputs, often beyond the reach of resource-poor farmers. The
drought of the last decade caused considerable genetic erosion, directly and indirectly,
and even resulted at times in massive destruction of both plants and animals.
The famine of the mid-1980s seriously threatened Ethiopia's biological resources,
particularly the crop genetic resources peasant farmers depend upon to produce food. In
some cases, food grain from relief agencies became the only source of seed for planting
after farmers ate their own seed, or sold as food commodity in order to survive. The
poorly-adapted high-technology, exotic seeds either failed to grow at all or were
difficult to handle, especially under the adverse growing conditions on these farms.
Disease and pest epidemics were also serious threats in areas where these crops were
grown in abundance.

As a result, a rescue mission was launched by the Plant Genetic Resource

Centre/Ethiopia (PGRC/E), with the help of various government and non-government
organizations, particularly local extension agents and farming communities. The
mission included collecting local seeds (or landraces) for redistribution to farmers once
the drought was over. Meanwhile, Ethiopian scientists at PGRC/E investigated the
possibility of conserving the local seeds on peasant farms, in a state of dynamism that
allowed continued coevaluation of the landraces with the changes occurring with
disease and pest, or drought and other stresses. For the centre, which is located in a
gene-rich but resource-poor country, this was both an opportunity and a challenge.
With support from the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada, PGRC/E extended its
genetic resources programme of a farmer-based crop genetic resource conservation and
utilization handled by the Seeds of Survival (SoS/E) Programme for Ethiopia (and
Africa) since it was launched in 1988.
One aspect of the programme seeks to restore the landraces to regions where farmers
had once planted them extensively but where they had been replaced by new, exotic or
improved (high input) varieties. In the region of Ada, in Central Shoa, the indigenous
durum wheat has nearly disappeared because of displacement by introduced bread and
durum wheat varieties. In this area, farmers rarely use bread wheat for themselves;
rather, they sell it as a commodity crop to the cities. The local durums are used by
women farmers to make porridge, "enjera," unleavened bread, homemade beer, or to be
sold or exchanged at the local markets. To upgrade such materials, the gene bank, in
close collaboration with the wheat breeding team at Debre Zeit Agricultural Research
Centre, Alemaya Agricultural University (AAU), undertook extensive collection of
landraces from which elite landrace selections were developed as composites.3 These
were then made available to local farmers for planting, with assistance from SoS/E.
PGRC/E, on the other hand, worked to maintain representative populations for in situ4
conservation of the original seed stock, following the traditional cultural methods that
created the distinctive characteristics of these materials in the first place. A network of

locations for the in situ conservation is also being established across a range of agroecological niches on the basis of the strategies farmers employ to spread their risks
across locations and time.
Farmers then multiplied what they recognized as the best seeds, from which some 332
farming families obtained at least 20 kilograms each for planting during the 1994-95
cropping season. Grown without commercial fertilizers or other chemicals, the
performance of these materials (in yield/ha and farmer preference) has been quite
impressive, exceeding their high input counterparts by 10-15% and the original farmers
seed (maintained in situ) by 20-25%.5 The demand for these seeds is astonishing, and
many farmers still recall how highly prized their landraces were as a dependable source
of planting material and food.
Another aspect of the SoS/E farmer-based activity deals with landrace conservation and
use in areas where the native seeds are still widely grown, primarily in the regions of
Wello and Northeastern Shoa. Farmers there continue to plant their traditional seed,
avoiding the hybrid sorghum/maize they still receive as part of the external aid
programmes. The hybrids did so poorly that in some cases sheep were left to graze on
them. Here the strategy is to protect the native seed (sorghum, maize and various pulses)
as well as to help the farmers continue to improve their yield through selection and
enhancement.
About 500 farmers have already shared these selected and contractually multiplied
seeds and the number of farmers that will have access to such materials may grow to
20,000 by 1997. The bulk of the original seed is also conserved in situ, following the
same method/strategy described for durum wheat above. This approach was designed by
PGRC/E to conserve germplasm in a dynamic state, complementing the more static
system as represented by the off-farm (ex situ) conservation at the centre. In this
programme many of the sorghum landraces and locally adapted maize jointly selected
with farmers have exceeded the original seeds, all with no additional external inputs.6

They are expanding into areas of the above regions, where frequent crop failures have
occurred due to prevailing droughts. To date, 3102 farmers are using the sorghum, and
2999 the maize.
The SoS/E programme has made major strides towards building Ethiopia's food
resources at a time when the country is seriously threatened by famine and irreversible
losses of its crop diversity. Much of this problem, common across Africa, is attributed to
so-called advances in agriculture. These usually involve the expansion of a few major
crops (hi-tech, high input varieties), forcing small-scale farmers to adopt the cash crop
model.
The Perspectives
Africa now faces a dilemma: producing enough food for its rapidly growing population
on the one hand, and protecting the resource base upon which this depends on the other.
Maintaining a sustainable balance between these two has been a major challenge for
many African countries, who are often led to think that following the Western model is
the only way to increase food production. This model, however, usually entails the use
of inputs, whose costs African peasant farmers have trouble meeting.
Traditionally, peasant farmers maintained the use of field diversity of their crops to
sustain productivity and to diversify their diet and income. This diversity allowed the
farmer to maximize output under the farming conditions often characterized by highly
varied micro-environments differing in characteristics such as soil, water temperature,
altitude, slope and fertility. The traditional varieties or landraces are well adapted to
these environments and produce stable yields over changing seasons.
The disruptive measures taken to replace the traditional farming systems by the Western
model manipulate the external environment to maximize and sustain yield, thereby
changing the whole picture. Spraying against diseases and pests becomes routine, as
opposed to capitalizing on natural resistance; crop rotation may change, giving way to

planting the same crop year after year, with heavy fertilizer inputs and similar
disadvantages. The decisive factor is the seed itself: whether it was bred for high
external inputs, or for broad adaptation, overlooking the highly varied conditions on
small peasant farms. Once the farmer adapts the seeds, the rest goes without saying.
Following this course of development, it may not be surprising if African farmers
become a source of cheap labour for the large-scale mono crop commercial enterprises
which many of the small farms will eventually become.
The SoS/E initiative is timely in seeking to avert this situation. Its main objective is to
help African farmers retain their diversity while improving productivity, and to maintain
their freedom of choice in their planting material. The programme's success largely
resides in the fact that a significant number of farmers in Ethiopia are now benefiting
from the use of landraces which they themselves selected and multiplied.
The elite landrace materials are also a dependable source of planting material with the
potential to outperform the improved, exotic seed that often fails to meet the farmers'
diverse needs and requirements. The programme is working to add new entries to the
poor of elite landrace selections (mostly composites) that are now rapidly expanding.
The network of in situ conservation plots being established at representative sites across
a wide range of environments will provide useful germplasm on a continuous basis.
This will improve or enhance the elite landraces, especially with respect to resistance to
disease and pests or stresses like drought.
SoS/E's pioneer work continues with new initiatives as the programme probes the
immense possibilities of supporting community-based genetic resource activities,
building on the knowledge and skills of peasant farmers. One such initiative is to
enhance the small storage units (pits, clay pots) traditionally used by farmers to store
seeds for planting. Improving these units will help preserve diversity, complementing
the more formal ex situ system. This is appropriate as farmers will always retain seeds
in order to be self-sufficient. The seed stock maintained in this way would also represent

a backup system for the in situ field plots, in case of crop failures, and provide a
mechanism to ensure continuity of in-field conservation of landraces.
The success of SoS/E has led to the emergence of new initiatives which are now
building on the existing farmer-based landrace conservation, enhancement and
utilisation programme. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has allocated some
US$2.5 million to support a three-year programme. The project will build a series of
community gene banks that will maintain local germplasm for crop improvement and a
seed reserve system for emergency use. A community biodiversity development and
conservation programme for Africa is also emerging, focusing on local crop
improvement. All these activities are guided and coordinated by PGRC/E which has
established a department responsible for all community-based genetic resource
activities, including those of SoS/E, which form an integral part of the centre's overall
genetic resource conservation strategy.7
SoS/E is also working toward new strategies and approaches to landrace development
and use, adding a new dimension to its yield enhancement efforts. These include the
promotion of elite landraces selected or enhanced on the basis of the growing urban
consumption needs. This would provide the market incentive for farmers to produce
indigenous seeds beyond the subsistence level. SoS/E scientists and farmers have
already identified a few elite seeds (such as white and purple seeded durum wheats)
with potential for use in the food industry (for pasta and pastries) which at present
largely depends on imported food grain.
Long-term stability of food crop production may be enhanced by maintaining a large
repertoire of landrace materials or cultivars which farmers traditionally maintained to
adjust to new, changing conditions, including market demand. Complementing crop
diversity with improved farming practices (such as crop rotation, soil and water
management) is, however, crucial to sustained crop yields.

Promoting the development, distribution and use of indigenous crop cultivars along
these lines will provide a mechanism to enable farmers to benefit from a stable, more
secured crop harvests, and from increased productivity, to eventually make them
independent from external financial assistance. With its continued creative approach to
conservation and utilisation of crop genetic resources, the SoS/E programme remains in
the forefront of the new world paradigm: food security through sustainable agricultural
development.
Notes
1. Worede, 1993b.
2. Landraces are crop populations that have not been bred as cultivars but have been
adapted through years of natural and artificial selection to the conditions under which
they are cultivated. They could also be referred to as "folkseeds" to reflect the role of
local communities in selection and innovation. See also the Final Consensus Report of
the Keystone International Dialogue Series on Plant Genetic Resources, Madras Plenary
Session, Second Plenary Session, 29 Jan-2 Feb 1990, Madras, India.
3. Tessema, 1987.
4. In situ conservation seen in this context relates to maintaining traditional cultivars or
landraces in the surroundings they have been adapted, or the farming systems under
which they have acquired their distinctive characteristics.
5. Ataro and Bayush, 1995.
6. Ataro and Bayush, ibid.
7. More details are to be found in relevant PGRC/E activity reports and project
documents.
References

Ataro Adare and Bayush Tsegaye, Survey on Relative Performance of Landraces for the
1993/94 Cropping Season, Consultancy Report, Seeds of Survival, USC Canada in
Ethiopia, 1994.
Tessema, T., "Improvement of Indigenous Wheat Landraces in Ethiopia." In J.M.M.
Engles (ed.) Proceedings of the International Symposium on Conservation and
Utilization of Ethiopian Germplasm, 13-16 October 1986, pp. 232-238.
Worede, M., "Crop Genetic Resources Conservation and Utilization: An Ethiopian
Perspective." In: AAAS (ed.) Science in Africa: Achievements & Prospects.
Proceedings of the Symposium of the American Association for Advancement of
Science, 15 February 1991, Washington DC.
Worede, M. and Hailu Mekbib, "Linking Genetic Resources Conservation to Farmers in
Ethiopia." In: de Boef et al (ed.). Cultivating Knowledge: Genetic Diversity Farmer
Experimentation and Crop Research. Intermediate Technology Publications, London,
1993a, pp. 78-84.
Worede, M., "The Role of Ethiopian Farmers in the Conservation and Utilization of
Crop Genetic Resources." In: D. R. Buxton et al (ed.). International Crop Science
Society of America, Madison, USA, 1993b.

CLIMATE CHANGE: KENYA'S RESPONSES

by Jason S. Ogola
There had been growing concern about climate change as a result of increased
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere. The first major international
meeting on climate change, held in Geneva in 1979, discussed climate variability and
how changes might affect human activities. In 1985, the Villach Symposium in Austria
concluded that the increase in greenhouse gases could induce global warming and
produce serious sea level rise. This led to the presentation of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the Earth Summit in Rio in
1992, which noted that climate change is a global phenomenon which requires all
nations to seek mitigation measures at all levels.
This requires a compromise in the economic and social lives of nations in the
exploitation of natural resources, energy production and utilization, disposal of wastes,
international trade and technological transfer as well as information acquisition and
dissemination. Sustainable policies can only be implemented if national and local
authorities embrace the causes to be defended, understand and agree on the strategies to
be used, and see the stated international objectives as their own.1
In Kenya, despite the government's assertion that it "aims at integrating key provisions
of Agenda 21 at all levels in planning and decision making," it further states that "the
need to drastically reduce poverty, be ensuring (sic) that the poor get a larger share of
development benefits as well as greater access to resources is paramount." From this, it
is apparent that priority would not be given to GHG mitigation options in the event of a
conflict between GHG effects and human needs.
The Climate Change Debats

Under the UNFCCC, every country is required to develop a climate response

programme that integrates climate change activities into all relevant sectors including
energy, transport, industry, agriculture, forestry and waste management. Climate change
has devastating effects on the lives of people, so any action taken to reduce its potential
impacts should seriously consider social, economic and political problems.
Whereas African GHG emissions are comparatively low due to low levels of industrial
development and economic growth, it would be wrong to assume that the African
environment would not suffer from effects of climate change. To maintain low levels of
GHG emissions in Africa, developed countries responsible for high GHG emissions
must provide Africa with adequate resources. This would offset the extra costs of
cleaner energy, use energy more efficiently, halt potential environmental degradation,
and shift to modes of transport with lower gas emissions.
Kenya has been playing a prominent role in the climate change debate. The first
significant declaration on climate change in Africa was made in Kenya in 1990 during
the Nairobi Conference of Global Warming and Climate Change. It became known as
the Nairobi Declaration on Climate Change: "Global climate change is fundamentally
different from the conventional environmental agenda where the practice has been to
react and correct. The challenge now is to anticipate and prevent." The conference
played an important role in introducing African countries to the international debate on
climate change. Subsequent international meetings in Kenya included the Conference
on Policy Options and Responses to Climate Change in Nairobi in 1994.
The role of Kenya in the climate change debate has been boosted by the activities of
Climate Network Africa (CNA) and the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS),
both organizations based in Kenya, and by the support of the Swedish Environmental
Institute (SEI). These organizations have played a leading role in Africa in creating
public awareness on climate change issues and in building an African position on the
climate convention.

Kenya has been well represented in most climate change debates at scientific,
intergovernmental and non-governmental fora. As a result of these efforts, there have
been several publications in the country, including those by CNA (Impact Quarterly),
ACTS/SEI, the Kenya Academy of Sciences, and individuals. Despite all these efforts,
there is still a lack of research and of general awareness about climate change issues,
about the existence of the UNFCCC, and about the opportunities it provides for
mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
Land Use and GHG Emissions
In Kenya land use is changing rapidly due to high population growth and economic
expansion. This has led to encroachment on forests and savannah land for agricultural
and pastoral farming, woodfuel and timber for construction. Land use conversion results
in burning of large quantities of biomass, with subsequent emissions of CO2, CO, CH4
and N2O into the atmosphere.
While attempts have been made to assess GHG emissions from land use changes in
Kenya,2 this type of study has been hampered by several factors:
lack of relevant equipment for direct measurement of GHG emissions;
lack of accumulated data on GHG emissions;
lack of forestry inventory data such as type and composition of trees, forest
dimensions and the rate of forest encroachment; and
forest classification in Kenya, which does not correspond to the classification
contained in the draft of the 1993 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Gases Inventory Workbook.
The greenhouse gas emissions from land use changes in Kenya for 1990 reveals that
total CO2 emissions were &endash;57,181Gg. This implies that Kenyan forests act as

sinks for CO2. The study further established that the higher GHG emissions come from
grassland conversion into agricultural land, while the abandoned managed lands act as
sinks. If sustainably managed, woodfuel and other forms of biomass energy sources
may provide no net GHG emissions.
Energy Systems and GHG Emissions
Most GHG emissions come from energy use, particularly the use of fossil fuels. Kenya's
economy depends on the following energy systems: woodfuel, fossil fuel, electricity,
ethanol, coal, wind and solar energy. Fossil fuel is imported as crude oil and refined at
the Kenya Oil Refineries in Mombasa. The oil products are transported up-country by
road and by pipeline to Nairobi, Kisumu and Eldoret. Electricity comes mainly from the
seven hydro-electric power stations along the Tana river and from the Olkaria
geothermal station in the Rift Valley. Coal is imported through Mombasa.
There is a strong correlation between increased energy use in the industrial sector and
economic growth in Kenya. This indicates that with further industrial advancement,
energy consumption in the country will rise proportionately. Consequently, if not
properly investigated, the impacts of energy systems on climate change could have
devastating effects on the environment.
Since energy demands are increasing rapidly with industrialization, it should be
recognised that today's energy production and consumption patterns will determine
environmental impacts well into the future. These impacts will get worse unless new
understanding and new energy patterns are developed.
National Institutions
With the growing concern on climate change, the Kenyan government established the
National Climate Change Activities Coordinating Committee (NCCACC). Its members
are drawn from ministries of agriculture and forestry, energy, planning, finance,

industry, research and technology, municipal councils, public universities, the private
sector and from non-governmental organizations. The NCCACC aims to:
ensure the establishment of a properly networked database on climate change,
impact and response strategies, and research activities;
identify and facilitate development of national research programmes on climate
change, impacts and responses strategies and options, and advise the government
on studies for which funding by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) or any
other international financial mechanisms is required;
identify research projects requiring regional and international cooperation;
identify scientists who could be called upon to undertake specific research in
climate change, impacts and response strategies;
create public information and awareness;
assist in the development of human resources, including the preparation of
teaching materials on climate change;
assist with the preparation of information to the IPCC and other bodies concerned
with climate issues, and ensure the formulation of appropriate national responses
to issues which may be raised at national and international levels;
advise the government on climate change-related aspects requiring policy
guidance;
advise the government on the implications of commitments under the UNFCCC
on climate change and related issues;

 respond to scientific and other issues on climate change, impacts and respective
strategies;
advise on the selection of participants to national and international meetings
related to climate change.
The task before the NCCACC is heavy, and requires adequate resources and capacity
building if it is to carry out its work effectively and with integrity.
Private Sector Institutions
The industrial sector relies on energy production, mainly from non-renewable sources.
It is therefore one of the major contributors to GHG emissions. For a smooth transition
to joint implementation, the private sector will need to build capacity. In Kenya, this
role could be played by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM). The informal
sector, through the Kenya Jua Kali Association could also play a prominent role in GHG
mitigation options.
Notes
1. Silveira, 1994.
2. Kinuthia, et al., 1994.
References
CNA, Political and Practical Constraints to the Acceptability of Joint Implementation
under the UNFCCC. Interim report. Nairobi, 1995, p. 23.
Glantz, M. Kartz, R. and Krenz, M. (ed.), Impact: Climate Crisis. United Nations, New
York, USA, 1987, p. 104.

Houghton, J.T., Meira Fiho, L.G., Bruce, J., Hoesung Lee, Callander, B.A., Haites, E.,
Harris, N. and Maskell, K. (ed.), Climate Change 1994: Radioactive Forcing of Climate
Change and an Evaluation of the IPCC IS92 Emissions Scenarios. Cambridge
University Press, 1995, p. 339.
Kinuthia, J.H., Agatsiva, J.L. and Aligula, H.M., Greenhouse gases inventory from land
use and forestry changes in Kenya, CNA interim report, Nairobi, 1995, p. 38.
Okoth-Ogendo, W.H.O. and Ojwang, J.B. (ed.), A Climate for Development: Climate
Change Policy Options for Africa. ACTS press, Nairobi, 1995, p. 264.
Ottichilo, W.K., Kinuthia, J.H., Ratego, P.O. and Nasubo, G., Weathering the storm:
Climate Change and Investment in Kenya, ACTS Press, Nairobi, 1991, p. 91.
Silveira, S. (ed.), African Voices on Climate Change: Policy Concerns and Potentials.
ACTS/SEI Publ. Stockholm, 1994, p. 39.
Wildlife Clubs of Kenya, Kenya's Indigenous Forests. Nairobi, 1995, p. 12.

ECOTOURISM: SUICIDE OR DEVELOPMENT?

by Ole Kamuaro

The trend towards the commercialization of tourism schemes disguised as sustainable, nature-

based, environmentally friendly ecotourism ventures has become the subject of considerable

public controversy and concern. These schemes may have serious impacts on nature and society,
particularly in the South.

This so-called ecotourism has become the fastest growing sub-sector of the tourist industry, with

an annual growth rate of 10-15% worldwide. At the same time, international tourism to the Third

World is rapidly increasing by 6% per year, compared to growth in developed countries of only
3.5%. At present, 20% of international tourists travel to southern countries.

Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa reap significant economic benefits from these commercial

ventures. But the negative psycho-social impact of this type of tourism;including physical

displacement of persons and gross violation of fundamental rights;far outweigh its intended
medium-term economic benefits.
A Deficient and Ambiguous Concept

East Africa provides excellent examples of the disastrous nature of these activities. Mass tourism

was first introduced to these regions in the 1950s with the legalization of hunting and culling of

wild game by the then "white settlers," the British colonial masters who controlled Kenya and

Tanzania. The need for exclusive hunting and recreational zones inaccessible to "natives" led to

the creation of protected areas, national parks and game reserves. These areas became very
important revenue-earning ventures with the establishment of lodges and tourist campsites.

But 70% of national parks and game reserves in East Africa are on pastoralist lands, particularly
Masai land.

The first undesirable impact of tourism on the Masai of both these countries was massive loss of

land. Parks and game reserves require considerable space and investment. Local and national

governments in these countries took unfair advantage of the ignorance of the Masai and robbed

them of huge chunks of grazing land, in most cases the best pasture areas, putting to risk their
only socioeconomic livelihood, pastoralism.

The fierce loyalty of these people to their traditions had soured their relations with their colonial

rulers. They were provided with few or no social and infrastructure services; as post-

independence governments did little to improve their literacy rate, few acquired a formal

education. While others adapted to modern ways of life the Masai pursued traditional
pastoralism, which has unfairly been considered backward and wasteful as an economic activity.

Ironically, pastoralism and conservation of nature go hand in hand. Given the Masai's large open

tracts of land, abundant plant and animal wildlife, and their rich and much-romanticised culture,
it was almost inevitable that they would be targeted by large-scale tourism.

In Kenya, tourism has not brought any tangible economic benefits to the Masai people. Despite

their loss of land, employment favours better-educated workers from other parts of the country.

Investors in the tourism industry are not local and so have not ploughed back their profits into the
local economy.

Outside the park and game reserve areas, land tenure is communal. On communally owned group

ranches, residents are registered and resources are in theory distributed equally, with land
managed by a committee elected every year.

But management committee officials can be easily corrupted and have been known to register

non-residents, who then appropriate large portions of land for themselves, gaining an unfair

advantage when campsites and lodges are developed for tourists. As a result land disputes have

erupted and local elders cannot resolve them because of their complexity and powerful persons
involved, all casting an envious eye on the area's tourism potential.

Traditionally, land was not a commodity for exchange like money or livestock. With the

introduction of tourism it has become possible to trade land for money and this has created
destitution and poverty, pitting members of the same clan against one another.

In Tanzania, the picture is similar and in some cases even worse. In Mkomazi, a game reserve

was designated without informing or consulting local people, who simply received an eviction

order from their own government. In Ngorongoro district, the Sultan of the United Arab Emirates

was allocated a hunting corridor through vast grazing land, with no limit set on hunting. The

Masai were never informed of the development. When they reacted with indignation, grazing
restrictions were imposed on their herds. Tourism and hunting always take the best land.

Clearly, tourism as a trade does not empower those who make it rich and satisfying. It simply

exploits and depletes, particularly in the Third World. It has to be redefined and reoriented if it is
ever to become sustainable.
Impacts of Ecotourism: Environmental Hazards

Biodiversity and environmentally intact lands form the basis of ecological stability. But this has

already been severely affected by industrialisation, urbanisation, unsustainable agricultural

practices and mass tourism. While ecotourism sounds comparatively benign, one of its most

serious impacts is usurpation of "virgin" territories;national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and other
wilderness areas;which are then packaged as green products for ecotourists.

With the tremendous expansion of commercialised ecotourism, environmental degradation,

including deforestation, disruption of ecological life systems and various forms of pollution, has

in fact increased. Even its proponents concede that ecotourism is far from a panacea for
environmental destruction.

The Masai Mara National Park in Kenya and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania are

both excellent examples of ecological disaster arising from tourism. In both areas, lodges and

camps have heavily deforested the small riverine forests that existed here with their hunger for
firewood for cooking and heating.

The number of motor vehicles crisscrossing the park areas keeps growing as tour drivers search

for rare animals such as lions and rhinos. An unsightly network of roads and tracks for "game
drives" disrupts the grass cover, with serious consequences for plant and animal species.

Often overlooked is the fact that ecotourism is a highly consumer- centred activity catering to the

lifestyles of the new urbanized middle-class societies. In their search for untouched or authentic

places, young and adventurous travellers open destinations off the beaten track, accelerating the
pace of social and environmental decay in host communities.

But any commercial venture into unspoiled, pristine natural places with or without the "eco"

prefix is a contradiction in terms. To generate substantial revenue;whether from foreign

exchange, tourism business, local communities or conservation;the number of tourists must be

high, which inevitably means greater pressures on the environment.

Many East African parks are also mismanaged and deteriorating rapidly. Recent efforts to

rearrange existing mass tourism into ecotourism have failed due to a general reluctance to limit

the growth of tourism, lack of controls and sustainability, and lack of thorough examination on

the environmental impacts of tourism, including the impact of environmental resource utilisation,

the consumptive nature of tourism, and its continuous discharge of pollutants through increased
road and air traffic.

The sewage material from one Ngorongoro hotel, for example, is dumped at a "safe" distance

from the tourist hotel and allowed to flow onto neighbouring grazing grounds and Masai

settlement areas. In other parks, sewage material from campsites is simply thrown into the river
from which wildlife, livestock and local communities draw their drinking water.
Social Degradation

With the establishment of protected areas, local people have often illegally lost their homes and

livelihood, often without any compensation. They have been pushed onto marginal lands with

harsh climatic conditions, poor soils, lack of water resources, and infested with human and
livestock diseases, making survival impossible.

While ecotourism planners recently put local participation in decision making high on their

agendas, this has mostly been done to confuse dissent. Rarely have local people been involved in

the planning and implementation of ecotourism ventures. Nor have they taken part in decisions
on whether a project should go ahead or on the distribution of common resources and revenue.

The designation of ecotourism sites tends to disentitle the poor by depriving them of their

traditional use of land and natural resources. Despite local resistance, property rights have often

been reallocated by influential figures in order to allow investors to make profits. With such an

approach, local communities face exploitation and abuse, including the loss of cultural and social

identity. This form of development undermines the autonomy of local people by increasing their
dependence on outside forces, eroding societies' capacity and potential for self-reliance.

Other social side effects include drastic behavioral change, particularly among youth. These side

effects include loss of positive traditional values, increased promiscuity leading to prostitution,

and the spread of AIDS from mass tourism sites to ecotourism destinations. These issues have
been studiously avoided in ecotourism discussions.

Corruption is covered up or downplayed and funds continue to flow even though there is
evidence that much of the money is pocketed by corrupt influential figures.
Indigenous Cultures Threatened

For ecotourism to claim that it preserves and enhances local cultures is highly disingenuous.

Ethnic groups are increasingly being seen as a major asset and "exotic" backdrop to natural

scenery and wildlife. The fact that these people are the target of exploitation and suppression by
the dominant social groups in states has generally been ignored.

There is rarely an acknowledgment;much less support;of indigenous people's struggle for cultural

survival, self-determination, freedom of cultural expression, rights to ancestral lands, and control

over land use and resource management. Pastoralist communities are the single most exploited

cultural group in East Africa today. Postcards portraying traditional headdresses or cultural
ceremonies adorn gift shops throughout the tourist circuits of Kenya and Tanzania.

Though ecotourism attempts to integrate indigenous communities into the market driven

economic system, the underlying objective is to keep them as archaeological artifacts, stimulating

the tourist's nostalgic desire for the authentic, the untouched, the primitive and the savage.

Photographs and descriptions of ethnic women used to promote ecotourism give credence to the

false notion that they are willing and available for "discovery" by tourists. This is a dehumanising

and undignified practice which intensifies the very dysfunctional cultural impacts it is intended to
forestall, while strengthening discrimination by race and by class.
An Example

The Masai from Loita Hills, some 320 km southwest of Nairobi, have been fighting a fierce

battle to prevent an indigenous forest, traditionally known as Naimina-Enkiyio or the Forest of

the Lost Child, from being turned into another ecotourism destination. Having experienced the

devastating effects of tourism at the nearby Masai Mara National Park, they are determined to

preserve their sacred forest, which for generations has been under their management and control
and carefully kept as a sacred place for worship and communion with Masai deities.

Though largely pastoralists, the Masai here are also small-scale subsistence agriculturists who

have used resources in a sustainable manner. As a result, the forest is still dense and rich in

biodiversity, with abundant wild flora and fauna, plants which serve as herbal medicines,
sufficient water sources, and pastures on which to raise healthy cattle.

Undoubtedly, their spiritual and material way of life will degenerate rapidly if tourism intrudes.

As one local person in the neighbouring Masai Mara reserve said, "Tourism has been allowed to

develop with virtually no controls. Too many lodges have been built, too much firewood is being

used and no limits are being placed on tourist vehicles. They regularly drive off-track and harass

the wildlife. Their vehicle tracks crisscross the entire Masai Mara. Inevitably the bush is
becoming eroded and degraded."
Ecotourism versus Development: A Language of Confusion

Reports and literature promoting ecotourism have created considerable confusion between

ecotourism as an ideal and its reality on the ground. Terms like "opportunity" and "potential for"
ecotourism give the impression that this activity has already proved a success.

Whereas its proponents concede that it has destructive potential against natural and cultural

resources, they promote ecotourism as a powerful tool for boosting economic development. They
argue that its benefits will far outweigh its problems.

Another threat is the illegal acquisition of genetic materials by multinational corporations who,

under the guise of ecotourism, gain access to pristine areas high in biological diversity. The

recent trend by these multinational corporations is to term this illegal activity "nature

interpretation," which allows them to illegally remove and genetically control valuable flora and

develop their own Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). This exploitation of natural

resources is causing a rapid decline of valuable flora which local communities have managed for

generations and upon which they depend for healing and food sources. It also denies them an
opportunity to learn from the scientific process of genetic resource development.
Disregard and Suppression of Critical Input

While criticism for ecotourism is widespread, there has been little acknowledgement of this by its

organizers and promoters. This may be due to a fear of creating "image" problems, which might
slow the industry's growth.

At the same time, outside professional initiatives are usually favoured over local, more traditional
ones, which tend to be rejected as unscientific.

Yet despite the lack of "success stories," tremendous amounts of money and human resources

continue to be spent on ecotourism. Even more is spent on public relations campaigns to dilute

the effects of criticism. This channels resources away from other projects which might contribute
more sustainable and realistic solutions to pressing social and environmental problems.

Conclusions

The ecotourism lobby, predominantly based in Northern countries, exercises tremendous

financial and political influence. But at the very least, there exists a strong case for restraining

such activities. At best, they should be scrutinised, monitored and controlled through
administrative mechanisms, legal frameworks and informed public debate.

There is also a need to establish an adequate infrastructure to review and reevaluate ecotourism

and develop accountability mechanisms to phase out unsustainable policies and projects.

Simultaneously, expanded and adequate resources should be made available for holistic studies of

other fields of development aimed at bringing about alternative solutions to tourism and to the

diverse problems resulting from urbanization, industrialization and over-exploitative agricultural

land uses.

More efforts need to be made to fully inform and educate tourists on the adverse environmental

and social impacts of ecotourism. And, regulations and laws should be enacted to prohibit the

promotion of unsustainable ecotourism projects and materials which project false images of
destinations, demeaning local and indigenous cultures.
References
Loita Naimina-Enkiyio Conservation Trust Company Brochure: Forest of the Lost Child, 1994.
Panos Media Briefing, The Panos Institute, London, 1995.
Carrere, R., Kenyan Indigenous People Battle to Save Sacred Forest, 1994.
Third World Resurgence
Third World Network

THE POOR PARTNERS' ATTITUDES TO TECHNICAL COOPERATION IN

AFRICA
by Jean-Martin Tchaptchet
Over the past few years the aims, methodologies and resources for grant-financed
technical cooperation (TC) activities in Africa have undergone substantial changes in an
effort to make sure they yielded long-term results.
Among the major changes which have been introduced are the integration of TC
resources and activities into the national plan of the receiving country; the ownership of
TC programmes and their execution by the beneficiary partner; the development among
technical cooperation actors of partnerships based on solidarity and full participation of
beneficiary partner; and the promotion in the recipient country of an environment of
good governance which includes sound management of national resources and foreign
aid and the respect of the rule of law.
Efforts are being made by all parties and partners involved (providers of funds,
beneficiaries from governments and non-governmental organizations, resource agencies
of know-how and skills) to successfully translate these reforms into reality.
Implementing Reforms: Donor Determination
New principles, policies and procedures of technical cooperation have been defined and
formulated by the major donors of the OECD countries and adopted at different
international fora such as the Development Assistance Committee (DAC)1, the
European Union (EU)2 and the United Nations3.
Within the donor community, there appears to be a consensus on strong support for
those African governments and NGOs which abide by the provisions and principles of

new orientations in TC. There appears to be a similar commitment to firmness toward

those who only pay lip service to reforms but do not apply them in practice.
A recent case relates to Tanzania which risks losing the favourable treatment bestowed
on it by the donor community in general and the Nordic administrations and the
Netherlands in particular. It has been reported that Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the
Netherlands, which used to pour aid into Tanzania, are now reducing their funding
drastically. One of the reasons for this is the failure of the Tanzanian government to
make good its promise to investigate nation-wide tax evasion and prosecute the guilty
parties.4
The government's attitude is an example of what is happening today in several African
countries. Old attitudes towards TC, developed during the Cold War period, persist. As a
result, policy makers appear to be resisting new TC orientations although this might not
always be deliberate. These attitudes are called "poor partners attitudes" because of the
state of poverty of African countries today.
Poor Partners' Attitudes
The actions have two characteristics in common: paying lip service to new TC
orientations and rules to gain donors' confidence and thus qualify for assistance; and
implementing outdated TC and procedures which served the interests of the ruling elite
and the bureaucracy.
This was made easier by the fact that in the early days of TC reform, the UN
organizations which were instrumental in initiating the reforms were themselves not in
control of the game. As a result, they failed to persuade their partners and counterparts
in the receiving countries of the need to change. During the early post Cold War era,
some donors hesitated to tie TC support to such requirements (as abiding by the rule of
law, commitment to market economy, sound management, and similar conditions).
Consequently some African partners continued to hold "poor partner attitudes."

The first attitude takes place when government or NGO officials appeal spontaneously
to the "generosity" of the Western public and/or private donors whenever they find it
difficult to fund their development activities. They behave as though their states had
renounced their responsibility to generate public resources for development through
taxation.
The second attitude concerns receiving governments who demand technical assistance
from donors. At the negotiating table, they defend their requests as though they had
already secured support for their programmes. Moreover, during the life of the
externally-funded projects, these beneficiaries do not follow the mutually agreed rules.
In short, they behave as though they have a right to benefit from technical cooperation
on their own terms.
Thirdly, certain non-governmental organizations claim that financial resources flowing
from Western donors to Africa should be considered not as aid but as compensation to
African peoples for past wrongs, such as the slave trade and colonial exploitation.
Fourthly, the receiving partners do not maintain a transparent and solid dialogue with
donors on issues of mutual interest. The recipient fears losing the funds promised by the
donor and so avoids taking any decision, adopting any policy or expressing any opinion
which, it supposes, would not be palatable to the foreign experts.
The manifestations of these attitudes spread or reinforce a number of social ills within
society as a whole: laziness, lack of professional integrity, parasitism, dependency and
corruption, all of which are antagonistic to genuine development. In the field of
technical cooperation, they create unhealthy environments which are not conducive to
effective and sustainable results.
Technical Cooperation at Independence

When most African countries achieved independence in the late 1950s-60s, their
governments were confronted with a wide range of political, economic, social and
cultural problems. They all had vital implications for the development of the new
nations. Though these nations were endowed with a variety of natural resources, all
lacked human and financial resources to conceptualize, plan, organize and carry out
their development activities. Countries would acquire these human and financial
resources only by cooperating with other nations, more particularly those of the West.
Hence the development of international technical cooperation.
During those early years, African leaders had very limited experience in international
affairs. Their acceptance or refusal of TC projects would be influenced by United
Nations so-called neutral experts, philanthropists and former colonial administrators
serving as advisers. African governments welcomed all technical cooperation projects in
good faith, considering them practical expressions of the UN Charter or of solidarity
among peoples. There is no doubt that the majority of experts set out to do their work
with devotion and a great sense of mission. Their achievements contributed to laying the
foundations of a new era in post-colonial Africa.
By the end of the first and during the second decades of independence, new factors
influenced thinking on the nature and motivations of TC. Among those factors were the
assumption of administrative and official positions by large numbers of African scholars
educated in local or foreign universities and institutes; the politics of peaceful
coexistence; the Sino-Soviet ideological conflict; negotiations for a new international
economic order; the anti-Apartheid struggle; the oil crisis; and the debt crisis. The
feeling there were severe inequalities among the nations of the world emerged and
expanded through the debates which took place in developing countries and abroad. The
humanitarian solidarity expressed by other nations for African peoples during the
droughts of the seventies and the ensuing famine was impressive. But at the same time,
it became clear to many people that TC in its current form would not help bridge the
gap between Africa and the industrialized countries.

Nature of TC and its Management

In a recent report on technical cooperation in Africa commissioned by the Regional
Bureau of UNDP for Africa, TC is presented in the following terms:
"Technical cooperation is mostly grant-funded. And even if it is not, the users (operating
agencies) don't pay. The market for technical cooperation is therefore largely a market
without prices. On the demand side, the money costs of this form of aid to recipient
agencies are minimal. With opportunity costs close to zero, user agencies have little
reason to decline cooperation projects, to choose wisely among alternative projects, or
to economize during project implementation. On the supply side, donors have many
reasons for urging recipients to accept projects and often find themselves in competition
with one another for access to the client. The incentive structure in the technical
cooperation market is thus out of joint. It encourages proliferation and redundancy of
projects and dilutes local commitment to their effective implementation."5
This means that for a long time, resources for technical assistance in Africa seemed
inexhaustible. Multilateral and bilateral donors always seemed prepared to fund
development projects, be they well formulated or not, had they been soundly managed
or not, had previous projects with the same objectives and even the same managers been
successful or not,6 had the final evaluations recommended their extension or not, or had
they had impacts judged sustainable or not.
In this context, the word "donor" became one of the most frequently used among
government officials, the private sector and non-governmental organizations. Donors'
meetings of all kinds including roundtables, pledging conferences and high-level
meetings, were convened to find foreign aid. Representatives of donor agencies became
very popular, courted by everyone from top officials to private merchants in need of
cash to support public or very private projects. Those asking for aid hoped to be granted
a part of the funds that were available from locally managed sources or in the coffers at
the European or North American headquarters of donor agencies.

Accustomed to an environment characterised by abundant funds that were readily

allocated and could be managed in a lax manner, recipients gradually came to believe
that their international partners (the donors, the experts and the executing agencies)
were not always concerned with the success or failure of meeting the objectives of
projects, the sustainability of their results, or the way in which the project funds were
managed. Consequently they could always demand more.
Technical Cooperation in Africa: The Motivations
Clearly, the search by African leaders for TC resources was not necessarily dictated by
aspirations for collective self-reliance.
Debates on the motivations of donors suggest that there is need to make a distinction
between the humanitarian motivations of those individuals or organizations with faith in
the common destiny of humanity compared with those with mainly political objectives.
The former believe that all people should live in harmony, enjoy equality and work
together to achieve a world of peace and stability. Hence their support for TC is usually
free of nationalistic considerations.
On the public donors' side and more particularly the governments, there were major
political considerations.
"Rich countries provide aid because doing so improves the donors' positions in the
world economy."7
Analyzing donor motivations during the Cold War era, John White8 wrote in 1974:
"Each donor saw his aid not only as contributing to the development of the recipient,
but also as a means of persuading the recipient to adopt an ideology of development
which was assumed to be favourable to the donor's own interests...For the United States,
aid as an instrument of development and aid as an instrument of the Cold War are one
and the same. Germany and Japan saw the provisions of development assistance as an

avenue of return of international respectability and a way of reconstructing commercial

and other relationships that had been severed by their defeat in war; and Germany also
had the limited and specific Cold War aim of preventing international recognition of
East Germany. Britain and France saw aid as a transformation of their former colonial
relationships."
Institutions of higher learning, both African and foreign (in Europe and North America),
played an important role in the spread of these analyses of donors' motivations. The rise
to policy and decision making positions in their countries by Africans who graduated
from these institutions has contributed to the understanding of TC policies and strategies
of donors. This has also influenced African governments in adopting tactics aiming at
drawing more resources. The most significant tactic consisted of blackmailing both
major parties to the Cold War. This gave some African governments the wrong
impression that donors were an inexhaustible source of funds which could be used in
any manner at all times.
Changing Attitudes in the New Era of Technical Cooperation
With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the communist system, a new era has
emerged which is reshaping all international relations, including those relating to
technical cooperation. In this era, characterised by scarcity of financial resources and
severe international trade competition, African governments and non-governmental
organizations should welcome TC as a supplement, not as a substitute to national efforts
to create resources to achieve national prosperity. Consequently, the "poor partner
attitudes' described above will not help them forge genuine partnership with other
nations, especially those of the West. These attitudes should be discarded and the earlier
the better.
In this new era, elected representatives in industrialized countries are demanding that
governments account for taxpayers' money allocated for technical cooperation
programmes. These demands are strongly supported by public opinion, according to

which technical cooperation funds should no longer be considered as "cheap money."

On the contrary, these funds should be managed to produce visible or durable dividends
for all partners involved.
The circumstances surrounding the application of the Marshall Plan9 to war-devastated
European countries, the financial magnitude of the plan, the stages of industrialization
of these countries and their level of control of science and technology are by no means
comparable to those of post-colonial Africa.
However, there are some lessons which African countries may wish to learn from the
ways in which the Marshall Plan was successfully implemented in less than a decade.
These include political commitment of the leaders to achieve collective self-reliance,
hard work, professional integrity, organization, discipline, supporting local initiatives,
and the rule of the law.
Governments of South-East Asian countries have learned these lessons. Moreover, they
are participating in the competition for technology control. Today they are harvesting
the fruits of their choice.
Notes
1. Principles for New Orientations in Technical Cooperation Extracts from DAC,
(OECD/GD(91)207).
2. Title XVII of the Treaty of Maastricht.
3. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 44/211, February 1990.
4. "Sweden and Norway implement drastic reductions in aid to Tanzania;Norway cuts
ten percent annually," Development Today, Nordic Outlook on Development Assistance,
Business and the Environment 6-7/95 and 14/95.

5. E.J. Berg, Rethinking Technical Cooperation, Reforms for Capacity Building in

Africa, 1994.
6. Several publications have commented about the low quality of evaluating TC
projects.
"...neither donor nor recipient has a strong interest in assessment of performance. Since
technical assistance costs relatively small amounts, donors can afford to be less
discriminating in responding to requests for technical assistance, or even in pressing
upon the recipients, on the basis of a loose and questionable assumption that all
technical assistance has at the very least a publicity value favourable to the donor."
&endash;John White, The Politics of Foreign Aid, London, 1974.
7. Sarah J. Tisch and Michael B. Wallace, "Dilemmas of Development Assistance," The
What, Why and Who of Foreign Aid, Oxford, 1994.
8. John White, The Politics of Foreign Aid, London, 1974.
9. "Total US aid commitments to the participant countries over the four-year period
amounted to an average of approximately US$3000 million a year, of which more than
90% was in the form of grants. The combined population of the recipient countries was
approximately 250m. Annual average per capita, therefore, was approximately US$12,
mostly in grants, which would be the equivalent of perhaps US$20 at the 1970 price.
For comparison, annual average per capita aid receipts of developing countries in the
period 1968-1970, from DAC member countries and multilateral agencies, were
US$4.38 (net of amortisation, but not of interest)." &endash;John White, The Politics of
Foreign Aid, London, 1974.

Home > 15th Session of African Ministers of Environment ends in Cairo, Egypt

15th Session of African Ministers of Environment ends in Cairo, Egypt

By Benita Nsabua
Created 03/18/2015 - 08:12

" [1]
The Fifteenth Ordinary Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the
Environment (AMCEN) has ended in Cairo, Egypt. The meeting was held under the
auspices of the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt and opened by the Prime
Minister His Excellency Ibrahim Mahlab. The Prime Minister welcomed all delegates
stressing that Egypt was privileged to host the AMCEN session 30 years after the first
session was held in Cairo in 1985. He praised the work of AMCEN as truly remarkable,
especially with regards to its role in bringing together African countries to face
challenges linked to the environment and sustainable development in Africa. He further
commended AMCEN for being at the forefront of providing political guidance by
supporting most African countries to adopt common positions on the environment and
in ratifying many multilateral environmental agreements.
Under the theme "Managing Africas Natural Capital for Sustainable Development
and Poverty Eradication" the 15th AMCEN Session was held between 2-6 March,
2015 with Experts and Ministerial Sessions taking place. AMCEN is the principal

intergovernmental policy-making body on environment in Africa responsible for

providing regional vision and leadership on Environment in Africa.
The outgoing President of AMCEN Dr. Binilith Mahenge, Minister of Environment of
the United Republic of Tanzania thanked member states for the support offered to
Tanzania during its tenure as president of AMCEN. Dr. Mahenge outlined the guidance
provided to the African climate change negotiators in developing the key messages and
common position of Africa. Dr. Khaled Mohamed Fahmy Abdel Aal, Egypts Minister
of Environment who assumed the rotational presidency of AMCEN for the next two
years expressed gratitude for his countrys selection as the new president of the
Ministerial Forum and commended his predecessor for facilitating and broadening
political and public policy debate regarding environmental priorities and concerns in
Africa. Solidarity messages were delivered by Ms. Christina Figueres, Executive
Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Ms.
Annick Girardin, Minister of State for Development of France, Mr. Braulio de Souza
Dias, the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Other
messages came from the Government of India, the European Union, African
Development Bank, the World Bank and Civil Society Organizations.
An Experts Group Meeting preceded the ministerial session and provided an
opportunity for experts to review and analyse the implementation of the Regional
Flagship Programmes as well as the outcomes of the twentieth session of the
Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC COP20) that was held in Lima, Peru in December 2014.

The NEPAD Agency as the coordinating institution of the Regional Flagship

Programmes which were adopted by AMCEN as a means to implement the outcomes of
the Rio+20 summit on sustainable development provided a progress on the
implementation of the flagship programmes. AMCEN welcomed the progress in the

development of the flagship programmes and called for stronger coordination and
support from member states, partners and the private sector.
The Steering Committee of the Regional Flagship Programme held its 2nd meeting on
the margins of the AMCEN Session to take stock of the implementation of the Regional
Flagship Programmes and enhancing coordination in reporting. The Committee also
discussed amongst others the operationalization of the African Environment Partnership
Platform as a monitoring, evaluation and experience sharing on the implementation on
the Flagship. The session was co-chaired by Hon. Yasmine Fouad, Assistant Minister for
Sustainable Development and External Affairs of the Ministry of Environment, Egypt
and Mrs. Estherine Fotabong, Director of programmes at NEPAD Agency.
A side event on linking the Land Degradation, Biodiversity and Adaptation to Climate
Change (LDBA) Flagship programme on sustainable land management and
desertification to a holistic and integrated landscapes approach also took place during
the AMCEN session. The event convened by NEPAD Agency attracted participation
from member states, development partners, regional institutions and civil society
groups.
The 15th AMCEN Session also took stock of the on-going climate change negotiations
which have entered a critical stage towards an expected legal agreement in December,
2015 during the twenty first session of the Conference of the Parties to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP21) to be held in
Paris later in the year.
The session also offered an opportunity for Ministers and experts to review the state of
environment in Africa and deliberate on pertinent issues and initiatives related to the
environment and sustainable development in the continent. In particular, deliberations
highlighted issues related to the Post-2015 activities, including sustainable development
goals, and illegal trade in wildlife and its implications for Africa.

The next AMCEN Ordinary Session will be held in Gabon in 2017.

NINTH SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

AND THE AFRICA REGIONAL FORUM ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
16 June 2015 to 18 June 2015
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Introduction
The ninth session of the ECA Committee on Sustainable Development (CSD-9) will
deliberate on statutory and programmatic matters related to the ECA subprogramme on
innovations, technologies and the management of natural resources under the auspices
of the Special Initiatives Division (SID). The session will in addition provide a platform
for the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD), which ECA is
organizing jointly with the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African
Development Bank (AfDB) in collaboration with the United Nations Department of
Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In keeping with the
UN General Assembly resolution, the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable
Development (ARFSD) will bring together government ministries and agencies, major
groups and other stakeholders, to deliberated on and provide Africas collective input to
HLPF-2015.
Objectives
The main objectives of CSD-9 are to:
a) Review and provide guidance on the ECA Subprogramme on Innovations,
technologies and management of Africas natural resources, the implementation of its
2014/2015 work programme, and priorities of the subprogramme for the 2016/2017
work programme in the context of the ECA strategic framework and proposed
programme budget for the 2016/2017 biennium; and
b) Provide a platform for ARFSD for the HLPF 2015. The Africa Forum deliberations
will focus and agree on Africas collective input, in the form of key messages to HLPF

2015. These are on (i) integration, implementation and review including shaping the
HLPF beyond 2015; (ii) new and emerging issues and the science-policy interface; (iii)
sustainable consumption and production; (iv) SIDS and other countries in special
situations.
Expected Outcomes
CSD-9 is expected to lead to:
1. Clear understanding and appreciation of the new ECA subprogramme on innovations,
technologies and the management of Africas natural resources. Specifically on:
a) Role and potential of new innovations and technologies as engines of economic
growth in Africa, and strategic options for member States to harness these innovations
and technologies;
b) Green economy as a tool to achieve inclusive and green structural transformation and
development;
c) Role and importance of mineral resources in fostering sustainable socio-economic
development and strategic options for achieving such development in the context of the
African Mining Vision; and
d) The challenges posed by climate change and measures for climate change mitigation
and adaptation including appropriate mechanisms for integration into national
development priorities, policies, strategies and programmes.
2. Clear guidance and direction on enhanced implementation of the 2014/2015 work
programme; and on priorities for the 2016/2017 biennium for the ECA Subprogramme
on innovations, technologies and management of Africas natural resources.
3. Clear understanding and articulation of Africas priorities and key messages on the
theme and other discussion topics of HLPF 2015.

ECA'S SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT FORUM TALKS TECHNOLOGY

AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Addis Ababa, 03 June 2015 (ECA) - The Economic Commission for Africas
Committee on Sustainable Development will hold its ninth session to discuss the roles
and potentials of innovations, technologies and the management of natural resources
from 16 to 18 June 2015 in Addis Ababa.
ECAs Special Initiatives Division (SID) hosts the meeting giving a platform to the
Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD); a group comprised of
government ministers, senior government officials, international organizations,
agencies, and major civil society groups.
The ninth session will discuss how new technologies and innovations can be the drivers
of continental economic growth. Member states will also hear ideas on harnessing these
innovations to their advantage.
Delegates will talk of the role of mineral resources in fostering sustainable socioeconomic development and exchange ideas on strategic options for achieving such
development in the context of the African Mining Vision. The Vision embraces
transparent, equitable and optimal exploitation of mineral resources to underpin broad
based sustainable growth and socio-economic development.
The Africa Forums work also includes making recommendations to the High Level
Political Forum (HPLF) 2015, which is the main United Nations platform on sustainable
development providing political leadership, guidance, reviews and recommendations.
The Forum will agree on key collective messages and priorities on sustainable
consumption and production and on the science-policy interface to forward to HLPF
2015.

As climate change hampers development activities, participants are expected to

deliberate on challenges posed by climate change and recommend appropriate
mitigation measures to adapt and ways these can be incorporated into national
development plans.
The Forum will provide ECA guidance and direction on enhanced implementation of its
2014/15 work programme; and on priorities for the 2016/2017 biennium for the ECA
sub programme on innovations, technologies and management of Africas natural
resources.
ECA is organizing the session jointly with the African Union Commission (AUC) and
the African Development Bank (AfDB) in collaboration with the United Nations
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP).

PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (SD) AND EDUCATION FOR

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (ESD): THE ROLE OF HIGHER
EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN AFRICA
BACKGROUND
Arguably, the greatest challenges to susta inable development are environmental issues. In a

region like Africa, few issues are more important than environment-related problems of
food security, poverty, disease, land degradation, water security, climate change,
conflicts, deforestation, natural disasters, and urbanization. There is ever growing
concern among African leaders about the danger of global warming, the loss of
biodiversity and the potential for conflict growing out of competition over dwindling
natural resources and other environmental-related issues.
Cognisant of the importance of sustainable development to Africa, the AAU dedicated
both the 2006 and 2008 editions of its African Universities Day celebrations to the
theme Role of Higher Education in Promoting Sustainable Development in Africa.
This was also the theme of its 12 th General Conference held in Abuja, Nigeria in May
2009. Achieving sustainable development in Africa has therefore been included as one
of the new programmes in the Core Programme (2013-2017).
The AAU's programme on Achieving Sustainable Development aims at ensuring that
the continents higher education institutions continues to remain relevant to the
continents developmental needs by developing innovative local strategies to entrench
values, behaviour and lifestyles required for a sustainable future and for positive
societal transformation.
Africas stock of human resources is enormous and the potential to tap into this for
accelerated development has been emphasized over the decades. The continentshigher
education institutions should not only mainstream education for sustainable
development in their activities but should also ensure that the review of the learning

materials reflect the latest scientific understanding of sustainable development. They

also need to set examples by, for example, introducing energy saving measures,
recycling waste and generally helping to create a clean, healthy and safe campus
environment conducive to teaching and learning.
The key activities under the Programme will be under four sub-themes, namely:
Agriculture and Food Security; Water Resources Management; Climate Change; and
Energy.
Agriculture and Food Security
It is estimated that Africa is currently home to two-thirds of all countries suffering food
insecurity and present trends would mean that the number of chronically
undernourished in Sub-Saharan Africa would rise from the current 180 to 300 million
by the year 2010. In spite of the presence of higher education and research institutions
with strong programmes in agriculture, in most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, farming is
still at subsistence level and in most cases it is lagging behind population growth. Hence
supporting agriculture, especially in rural areas, by mounting appropriate courses,
undertaking research and engaging the community, would ensure food security while
improving the incomes of the farmers and thereby contribute to poverty reduction.
One of the ways through which higher education institutions in Africa can promote food
security is in the area of capacity building - enhancing the ability of individuals, groups,
organisations and communities to address their food and nutrition security challenges.
This will require promoting appropriate technologies, devising curricula and creating
research networks in the African higher education system.
Water Resources Management
Between 1960 and 1980, water resources on the continent declined from 16.5 million
cubic metres per capita to 9.4. Although some African countries, particularly in West

and Central Africa, have more than enough water on a per capita basis, population
growth and economic development are creating excess demand over supply. With
Africas population expected to exceed 1 billion by 2025, access to clean water is
increasingly a challenge, mostly in the rural and peri-urban areas. This compounds the
risk of recurrent and localised drought, decreased food security, water-borne and waterrelated diseases that cause millions of deaths each year, and environmental degradation.
In view of all these, water resources management becomes critically essential.
Climate Change
Accelerated development is having an increasingly negative impact on the physical
environment, thereby interfering with the global climate system. General observations
give a collective picture of a warming worldand mathematical models of global climate
patterns suggest that there may be long-term temperature increase, leading to adverse
changes in world climate patterns. Africa remains highly vulnerable to global climatic
changes, compounding the already known threats to food and water security, disease,
land degradation, poverty, deforestation, natural disasters and urbanization.
Energy
Rural Africa continues to remain outside energy assessment and planning, which are
normal practices for industry, commerce and transport. This is due, in part, to the
inadequate attention paid to rural energy a country has on the national energy balance
sheet as well as the dispersed and often non-monetised nature of rural energy. Breaking
the current energy bottleneck to sustainable energy systems requires environmentally
sound, socially acceptable and economically viable systems characterised by a move
from the present levels of subsistence energy usage based on human labour and fuel
wood resources, to a situation where household, services and farming activities use a
range of sustainable and diversified energy sources. Likewise, the implications of a shift
to biofuels as alternative energies responding to the present energy crisis on a global
level appear challenging in maintaining a balance between food and energy security.

Very important to note, the oil and gas boom in Africa is a recent phenomenon, and in
countries like Nigeria which is an OPEC member, the inefficient management of this
resource has become more of a curse to the local communities than a bless for the whole
country at large. African universities need to equip their faculty and students with the
skills needed to explore the emerging market in the petroleum industry to the benefit of
the oil exporting countries.