Glenda Daniels
More than 50 000 delegates from around the world are expected at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa next year making it a bigger event than the recent United Nations conference on racism.
South Africans have begun to formulate their positions and representation for the summit, due to be staged in Johannesburg from September 2 to 11 next year.
This week NGO representatives met to shape political and strategic leadership and provide South African civil society’s position at the world summit. The Civil Society Indaba, as the meeting is called, is organised by the South African National NGO Coalition (Sangoco) and the Rural Development Services Network.
South Africa expects to provide leadership to both developing and developed countries at the summit. Issues to be discussed include land access, food security and water, governance and preserving the environment.
It is expected that the summit will also discuss strategies on poverty elimination and sustainable development.
Countries attending the summit will use a government document entitled Draft 2002 Country Profile on Sustainable Development, which details the major preparations necessary to create an agenda for the summit, the first of its kind in South Africa.
“We have arrived at an event that will put South Africa on the world map. If we don’t do this properly our whole reputation is at stake, especially after the fallout at the anti-racism conference,” says Lloyd Mdakane, executive head of the civil society secretariat for South Africa.
“It’s a significant and major political shift that South Africa is hosting the world summit to eradicate poverty. It’s a political decision that it’s happening here in a country that has a history of inequality, as the conference will be about reflecting issues of the poorest.
“The shift makes it critical that people are at the centre, and development has to take people into account for it to be sustainable.”
Jacqui Brown, CEO of the secretariat, who has been seconded by Sangoco to drive the civil society process, agrees: “Land issues are more critical to the world summit than racism.”
As chair of Sangoco’s Rural Development Services Network, Brown has wide experience in the development issues that will dominate civil society’s agenda at the summit. These include combating poverty, changing consumer patterns in energy, protecting the atmosphere, combating deforestation and sustainable tourist development.
“What is emerging is that easily one of the biggest issues for South Africa will be the demand for clean, drinkable water,” says Mdakane. “Even if you get access to land, what do you do if you don’t have access to clean water for productive use?”
According to the document, water demands in South Africa have grown at 4% to 5% a year. The irrigation sector has the largest water demand at 54%, industry uses 11% and forestry 8%. The major areas of growth in water supply are likely to be the domestic, urban and industrial sectors.
Fierce debate will take place on “the control of power, how the world is being governed and how globalisation has become a heightened form of imperialism”, says Mdakane.
“The whole point is to combine issues, so that we don’t look at deforestation in isolation from people. Conservation of the environment has to go hand in hand with rural development of people for instance. While we develop people we have to make a conscious effort to replenish the planet for future generations.”
Before September next year, there will be a series of meetings in preparation for the summit, including a youth summit, a women’s summit and a rural summit.