Forum for the Voiceless

By Farah Khan

JOHANNESBURG

While world leaders engage in diplomatic exchanges as they tussle to reach a political agreement, experts and community activists will be meeting in side events to hammer-out practical ways to tackle global poverty and protect the world's environment.

The United Nations describes side events as gatherings that take place on the margins of the official inter-governmental meetings. They are organised to allow participants to share their experiences about how best to tackle common problems and to increase opportunities for discussion among delegates to the official meetings.

Presently there are 211 approved side events.

Crédito: Njamburi/Cabak ELS

''Much of the discussion about the practical mechanisms that will have to be used to improve the living conditions of the world's poor - while protecting the global environment - will take place at side events at WSSD,' ' explains, the South African representative of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), Saliem Fakir.

For example, government's attending the WSSD are expected to agree on ways to half the number of people who do not have access to safe drinking water, by 2015. It is estimated that more than one billion people are without safe drinking water and twice that number lack adequate sanitation. More than three million people die every year from diseases caused by unsafe water.

One of the biggest side events going to be run during the WSSD is the WaterDome. The main aim of the WaterDome is to create public awareness and room for discussions between communities, companies and people interested in providing clean water to the world's poor. Stakeholders from public and private organisations involved in providing fresh, clean water will get the opportunity to exhibit their initiatives, new technologies and products.

The WaterDome will tackle many of the practical problems likely to emerge once the WSSD takes a political resolution to tackle the problem of ensuring the world's poor have access to clean water.

''The side events will also host some of the foremost thinkers and business leaders in the world, as well as leading environmental and community activists. This will give government officials, business people and representatives of community, development and environmental organisations a chance to debate issues in a way that the strict diplomatic protocols of the official meetings will not allow,'' says Fakir.

The side events will also ensure that ordinary South Africans can get involved in the WSSD and see exactly what world leaders will be talking about at the summit. Communities can also come and hear debates and discussions about the challenges facing the world. They will have a chance to meet people from other parts of the world, who in many cases, share the same problems of pollution and poverty.

Near to the Sandton Convention Centre, where the heads of state are officially meeting, the Ubuntu - or people's - Village has been set-up.

The village is housed in Tensile One, the largest moveable tent in the world. The tent is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records and has only been completely erected on two previous occasions. The village will host exhibitions on sustainable development and related technology, an arts and crafts market, and the African Globe Theatre, among others.

The village will also receive live television coverage from the heads of state summit and the Global Forum - where international non-governmental and community activists will be meeting. This will allow ordinary people to see and hear what is going on in the official gatherings. The gates to Ubuntu Village open on Saturday (Aug 17).

Another key side event is the meeting of Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD) -- a group set up to try and ensure that business starts operating in an environmentally and socially responsible way.

Issues on the BASD programme include ''initiatives for a more sustainable use of water and energy, initiatives to provide access to water, energy, health and agriculture'' and ''how markets and trade can contribute to sustainable development.

The side events also ensure that the WSSD will make a practical contribution to tackling world poverty and protecting the global environment, whatever the political outcome. By raising public awareness and sharing solutions to common problems, the side events will offer many delegates possible solutions to the challenges of sustainable development at home, says Fakir.