Expert group meeting on sustainable development in North Africa

30 November 2007 (ECA) – The North Africa Office of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa held from 18 to 21 November 2007 in Tunis, in partnership with the Sahara and Sahel Observatory and the Tunisian Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, an expert group meeting on sustainable development in North Africa . The meeting brought together experts from various ministries of member states ( Algeria , Egypt , Libya , Mauritania , Morocco , Sudan and Tunisia ), private sector operators, consultants, academics , and representatives of NGOs. The opening ceremony was marked by opening speeches of Ms. Karima Bounemra Ben Soltane, Office Director and Mr. Nadhir Hamada, Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development (Tunisia), the introductory presentations of distinguished guests including Mr. Habib Benyahia, Secretary General of the Arab Maghreb Union, and Mr. Youba Sokana, Executive Secretary of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory, and the Kenynote speech of Mr. Ahmed Joghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biodiversity.

The experts discussed the multiple facets of sustainable development by highlighting indicators (economic growth, agriculture and sustainable development, adaptation to climate change, water management, biodiversity and combating desertification, control of energy and natural resource management and achievement of the millennium), actors (governments, private sector researchers, civil society in all its components, particularly youth and women, and the international community and regional organizations) and facilitators (education and training, infrastructure, public-private partnerships, cooperation and international solidarity and management and knowledge sharing) of sustainable development. They called on policy makers to take into acount the specificities of North Africa during the upcoming Bali Conference, insisted on the positive role of migrants in development and requested that the international community be concerned, together with member states, by the situation of populations displaced as a result of adverse effects of climate change.

Several presentations were used to illustrate that environment protection doesn't bare only costs and that good practices in North Africa discussed during the meeting can be generalized so that economic growth in the region can be achieved in a sustainable manner, benefiting all segments of society through the creation of jobs and wealth without compromising neither the ecological balance in the region nor the interests of future generations.

The experts recommended the establishment of mechanisms for encouraging research and innovation through education and training based on appropriate financing tools enabling all development actors (especially rural populations, small and medium enterprises, youth and women) to adopt technologies facilitating adaptation to the economic as well as environmental challenges facing the world. After pointing out the need to include these efforts into a logic of regional cooperation to work together in order to rationalize resources and share experiences, they have highlighted the need to enhance the sustainability of development strategies through increased coordination between economic, environmental and social policies that must all put the goal of human development at the centre of their concerns.