news feature

The upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa faces a bigger challenge following the failure of the preparatory talks in Indonesia to agree on the draft plan of implementation for sustainable development.

The Fourth Preparatory Meeting (Prepcom IV) for the summit, which concluded recently in Bali, saw developed and developing countries disagreeing over many action plans on issues ranging from labour standards to healthcare services, for fear that the plans could affect the trade interests of their respective countries, an official from the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister's Department revealed.

Himmat Singh, the principal assistant director in the EPU, said while developed countries called for "good governance at local level", developing countries wanted "good international governance". Developed countries' mantra on human rights was also competing with developing countries' argument on their right to development.

"All the countries were under pressure to have a deal," he said, but added that developing countries' choices are between "no deal" and "bad deal".

Himmat was speaking at a public forum in Kuala Lumpur yesterday on the global summit to be held in Johannesburg from Aug 26-Sept 4.

The Johannesburg Summit, which is also known as Rio+10, is a United Nations gathering of world governments, concerned citizens, UN agencies, multilateral financial institutions and major stakeholders to assess global change since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Global policy

One of the major challenges in this year's summit is to reach a consensus on a global policy framework which will outline priority actions needed for sustainable development.

However, the likelihood of a consensus looks dim if the 'setbacks' and contentions that hampered the preceding Prepcom IV were any indication.

Also, some of the Prepcom IV delegates thought that things have changed since the Earth Summit in Rio a decade ago, according to Himmat.

"The spirit is gone. The chairman (Prof Emil Salim) talked about one Earth but fragmented world. It is very clearly seen in the negotiations," he lamented, adding that the idea of fairness seemed to be missing in the meeting and there was a general lack of political will.

He said the ascendency of the World Trade Organisation, culminating in the Doha Summit in Qatar last year with its 'corporate-led market approach', could have undermined the initiative for sustainable development.

"If we fail in Johannesburg, we will not have a framework of policy to guide the world towards doing something for humanity. We will sense that we have lost to Doha."

Challenges and triumph

The two other speakers at the forum were South Africa High Commissioner Dr Abraham Nkomo and Chee Yoke Ling of Third World Network, an independent non-profit international network of organisations and individuals concerned with development, the Third World and North-South issues.

"To speak on 'Hopes for the Johannesburg 2002' is rather a challenge in itself, especially when one contrasts the picture of the world in 1992 and the current reality we face in 2002, 10 years after the gathering in Rio [de Janerio, Earth Summit]," Nkomo said.

He quoted statistics from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) then and now.

In 1992, 1.3 billion people had no access to safe water; in 2001, nearly one billion lack access to improved water resources.

Ten years ago, some 300,000 cases of Aids were reported. Now, 36 million people are living with HIV/Aids.

Then, 1.2 billion people lived in absolute poverty; today, an estimated 826 million people are living in poverty.

He also noted that currently, some 120 million couples want to use contraception but have no access to it, and that income disparities between the rich and the poor are widening.

There has also been minimal implementation of strategies for sustainable development to reverse the loss of environmental resources as targeted by 2015.

"There are a number of scenarios that one could quote and project to draw and quantify the magnitude of the challenges that humanity face. By the same measure, there are numerous examples of progress and triumph," Nkomo said.

"It is precisely these challenges, progress and successes that should encourage us to collectively be emboldened to create a better life for the people of the world," he said, adding that the summit in Johannesburg will present humanity with another opportunity to do so.

Rakyat has a role to play

Meanwhile, Chee of Third World Network said the rakyat can play a role in the by understanding the real issues at hand and speaking to the Malaysian delegation who are taking part in the conference.

"As ordinary citizens we have a duty, in a way, to find out more," she said, adding that information and resources about the summit are easily available on the Internet.

"Malaysia can play a certain role and it will be important for all of us, no matter whether we are going or not. The point is we make our voices heard and felt."

The forum was organised by the Environmental Protection Society of Malaysia (EPSM) and the Malaysian NGO Forum for Rio+10 in conjunction with the World Environment Day which fell on June 5.

Dr Abu Bakar Jaafar, a former director-general of Malaysia's Department of Environment, chaired the forum.