It is unlikely that the concerns of the poor and marginalised will dictate the Indian government’s positions at the summit on sustainable development

In August 2002, world leaders will come together in Johannesburg, South Africa for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), to assess the progress that has been made on integrating environment and development concerns over the last 10 years. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has not yet indicated whether he will personally represent the country at the summit, but at a meeting in Mumbai, non-government organisations expressed doubt that his government would represent the interests of the people –- particularly the interests of the poor.

In a meeting organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA) on July 12 and 13, 2002, civil society groups from three western and central states (Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan) met to discuss India’s participation at WSSD, and ways to enhance the capacity of Indian civil society to participate effectively in global negotiations.

Many of the issues that will be discussed at WSSD will have a direct impact on the lives of Indian citizens. For instance, poverty eradication will be top on the agenda of the meeting. But so far, the Indian position on measures to eradicate poverty in a country like India shows very little understanding or learning over the past several years. The Indian government, along with the governments of other developing countries, continues to lay emphasis only on demanding funds from industrialised countries, mostly in the form of aid. However, it is clear from past experiences that this approach is unlikely to work –- while industrialised countries are becoming increasingly tight-fisted, governments in developing countries have failed to implement policies that empower people to use the resources available to them to effectively eradicate poverty.

Most of India’s poor live in rural areas. The Indian government would do better to formulate a strong national and global action plan to give them the right to manage their immediate environment to meet their food, housing and energy needs; and implementing incentives to encourage ‘sustainable livelihoods’. Planting and managing forests, for instance, or preserving biodiversity, could be made a lucrative exercise for communities. Such practical measures address both ecological degradation and poverty. Several such examples of poverty alleviation through good natural resource management exist in India, but such experiences are not reflected in the national position.

Without any imaginative proposals of its own, the Indian government –- like other developing countries -– is likely to achieve very little at WSSD. This reactive, rather than proactive, trend has dominated the Indian government’s performance in almost all international negotiations on the environment.

The lack of initiative on part of the government is also there are no procedures for making the country’s position public well in time before a global meeting or to seek public participation in the formulation of the national position, and parliamentary ratification of the country’s commitments to global treaties. The public and the parliament are kept in the dark about the positions taken by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Ministry of External Affairs at global environmental meetings. Given the paucity of information provided to them both by governments and the national media, the public cannot participate effectively in decision-making, or contribute their experiences to enrich the country’s input.

Participants in the Mumbai meeting agreed that decision-making has to be decentralised to the Gram Sabha level, to better reflect the interests of the people. In the present situation, it was felt that the government was playing puppet to the interests of corporations, rather than reflecting the rights of the poor.

Background Note

What is WSSD?

• In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. UNCED resulted in the adoption of Agenda 21 –- a legally non-binding blueprint for governments to promote ‘sustainable development’.
• In 1997, a five-year review of UNCED agreed that UNCED had by and large failed to deliver. In particular,
1. Poverty continued to be an enormous challenge
2. Agenda 21 remained largely unfounded by industrialised countries
3. Carbon dioxide emissions had climbed to a new high since 1992
• The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) is a ten-year review of UNCED. It will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from August 26 to September 4, 2002. Several heads of state are expected to attend the meeting.
• Negotiations on preparing for WSSD have not been very successful so far. The last preparatory meeting, held in Bali from May 27 to June 7, 2002, ended in failure, as governments failed to come to agreement on any concrete deadlines for action (for instance, to alleviate poverty or move to renewable technologies), or commitments (such as aid and technology from industrialised countries).
• WSSD is likely to come up with an Action Plan, a Political Declaration, and several "partnerships" to promote sustainable development. NGOs around the world fear that governments will focus on short-term partnerships, rather than committing to long-term solutions to implement sustainable development.
• The key issues on the table so far include:
  a. Poverty eradication
  b. Changing unsustainable patterns of consumption
  c. Sustainable development and health
  d. Protecting and managing resource base of social and economic development
  e. Sustainable development and globalisation
  f. Means of implementation
  g. Sustainable development and small island developing states
  h. Sustainable development and initiatives for Africa
  i. Strengthening governance for sustainable development at national, regional and international level

However, there were no significant or new ideas on how to address each of these issues.

For more information, please contact: cse@cseindia.org