Experts to review ECA’s forthcoming Sustainable Development Report on Africa
By Andrew Allimadi, Communication Officer, ECA
21 October 2005

The Sustainable Development Division (SDD) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is holding an expert group meeting on 22 – 23 October, to thoroughly review the first edition of the Commission’s Sustainable Development Report on Africa.

The report is in line with the Commission’s mandate to review the implementation of Agenda 21 in Africa. Agenda 21 came out of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in 2002. The first SDRA is slated for publication later this year, and subsequent reports will appear every two years.

Josue Dione, director of ECA’s SDD, said it was important for experts to review this report to ensure that, when published, it would be both informative and of a high quality.

World experts and policy-makers in environmental and development issues have been invited to make contributions to the report.

The two-day meeting is a precursor to the Committee on Sustainable Development, which opens on Monday 24 October and runs until 28 October.

This committee functions as the governing body of the Sustainable Development Division.

During the week-long meeting, the Secretariat will present the report on “Managing land-based resources for sustainable development: policy recommendations”, which highlights the main issues related to the sustainable utilization of land, water, energy and mineral resources for the sustainable development of Africa.

The committee will also discuss recent developments in African science and technology policy, taking into account recent efforts by several member countries to restructure, update or re-design their science and technology policies and systems. Members will discuss the African Green Revolution as a scientific and technological platform for sustainable modernization of agriculture and rural transformation (SMART). They will discuss how to put it on their own countries’ development agendas.

Finally, the committee will review ECA’s proposed work programme for 2006 – 2007 and make recommendations.

Background Note:

The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, represented a turning point in the global environment and development discourse. The major outcome of the Conference was The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21. Agenda 21 is a 40-chapter global plan of action that addresses environment and development.

UNCED recommended that governments establish national coordinating institutions for sustainable development. Such institutions were generally known as National Councils for Sustainable Development (NCSDs). UNCED also mandated the regional Commissions to promote the integration of environmental concerns in regional and sub-regional development policies as well as improve regional and sub-regional consultative processes to facilitate the exchange of data, information and experiences in the implementation of Agenda 21.

The WSSD broadened and strengthened this mandate and tasked regional commissions to facilitate and promote a balanced integration of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development into their work and that of regional, sub-regional and other bodies.

In recognition of this mandate, ECA through SDD has undertaken measures to facilitate and promote sustainable development. Consequently, the ECA has also been coordinating the African review of progress in implementing sustainable development. Again in October 2005, ECA will undertake a review of the implementation status under the auspices of CSD-Africa meeting.

It will soon launch the first of its biannual report titled: Sustainable Development Report on Africa.