‘Another Call for Action’
(With Thabo Mbeki & Kofi Annan)

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

Host country South Africa and the United Nations issued a call to action on sustainable development yesterday, urging rich nations to take the lead in implementing a plan that would improve the lives of the world’s poor without damaging the environment.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened the heads-of-state section of the World Summit on Sustainable Development noting that: “The richest countries must lead the way. They have the wealth. They have the technology. And they contribute disproportionately to global environmental problems.’’

He also underscored the importance of non-governmental groups and businesses to help achieve the goals of sustainable development. “Civil society groups have a critical role, as partners, advocates and watchdogs,’’ Annan told nearly 100 world leaders at the opening ceremony.

The thrust of Annan’s message – that action had to take precedence over words for this summit to be meaningful – was echoed by the host of the WSSD, South African President Thabo Mbeki.

“We can and must act in unity to ensure that there is a practical and visible global development process that brings about poverty eradication and human advancement,’’ Mbeki said in his address.

“This summit must set concrete goals and targets for the realisation of these objectives and agree to implementation and monitoring processes that will ensure that all of us respect the global agreements into which we must enter,’’ he added.

But NGOs lobbying to secure a range of commitments from governments at the WSSD have begun raising the alarm that the summit may endorse a programme of action that will mean very little to the world’s poor and to developing countries.

The World Wildlife Fund, one of the leading NGOs lobbying for concrete language in the action plan’s text, declared on Sunday that the plan of implementation being negotiated is woefully short of what the WSSD promised to deliver.

“The Plan of Implementation, as it currently stands, will not provide significant movement forwards from commitments made in Rio and since … In some cases the text actually constitutes a step backwards (as in trade and globalisation).’’

Particularly troubling for NGOs is the attempt to water down the text relating to such issues as renewable energy, targets for water and sanitation, trade and globalisation and agriculture subsidies, among others.

Even some leaders of developing countries here to review the negotiations expect little will change due to the dominance of the free-trade agenda

Among them is Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, who told government leaders yesterday that the “neo-liberal model is guilty for the disasters of the world, and we need to fight against it.

“I say to the world one more time that we must change this model, because there is no development without humanism. It is not possible to develop the world according to this model,’’ the head of the 133-member Group of 77 said.

The call for concrete commitments on some of the contentious issues at the summit such as financing of development, fair trade between developed and developing countries, globalisation being inclusive and renewable energy, is supported by world opinion.

Last week the London-based Gallup International and the Toronto-based Environics International released the findings of a poll that revealed “a global public opinion climate that is very receptive to major initiatives to reduce poverty’’.

“If it were up to the will of average citizens, the World Summit on Sustainable Development would require national governments to deliver on time-bound commitments towards reducing poverty and resolving environmental problems,’’ this survey, titled ‘Voice of the People’, said.

The survey questioned over 24,000 people in 31 countries in either face-to-face or telephone interviews between July and August this year. The results reflect the views of “almost 1 billion people on all continents except North America’’, the two research institutes said in a press release.