Introduction: The Real Challenge of Johannesburg

30.05.02 World Summit on Sustainable Development
Norwegian Non-paper

In Johannesburg world leaders will be faced with a crucial task: to focus on the principal challenges posed by sustainable development and agree on the need to make some major but implementable decisions. These decisions could mean life, liberty and opportunity for hundreds of millions of people in the short to medium term and will safeguard for future generations the life systems on which we all depend.

These decisions are concerned with sustainable solutions to problems of poverty that are closely related to environmental degradation:

• malnutrition,
• unsafe and insufficient drinking water, and
• hazardous air quality.

Environmental degradation is a major underlying cause of poverty and morbidity among the poor in large parts of the world. The Sachs Commission has already established beyond doubt that there is a direct link between health problems and underdevelopment. Technically we have already mastered these problems. For the most part we have the solutions.

What remains to be done? Basically there are three conditions that need to be met if there is to be real, lifesaving progress:

• Realistic, targeted strategies for fighting poverty in each and every developing country.

Some countries already have them, but too many still lack an overarching vision and a clear roadmap for the sustainable eradication of poverty. Sometimes there is also a lack of political will and a lack of institutional capacity to implement the required action.

More countries need good poverty reduction strategies (PRSPs). Some very good strategies already exist. These plans should focus more strongly on strategic interventions for the sustainable eradication of poverty. PRSPs and national strategies for sustainable development (NSSDs) should be combined into a single, integrated framework for the sustainable eradication of poverty. In this way the economic, social and the ecological dimensions of poverty are addressed. In cases where a PRSP has been made or is in progress, there should be no pressure to develop a separate NSSD.

Countries not under any formal obligation to develop PRSPs (e.g. middle-income countries) should also be encouraged to develop an integrated approach to poverty alleviation and environmentally sustainable development.

• Tangible and sufficient commitments by wealthy countries to finance strategic programmes for sustainable poverty eradication.

The OECD countries have so far failed to see the tremendous opportunities that already exist for making significant progress in the fight against poverty. The fact that not all developing countries do not yet have good poverty reduction strategies is not an excuse for inaction. There is no shortage of opportunities for supporting high-quality poverty reduction programmes. From the local level through the national and regional to the global, we know what could really make a considerable difference.

The WSSD should (a) target ODA and (b) step it up significantly. The international community should act on the principle that no country with a good and sustainable poverty reduction strategy paper should be left without financial support for its realization. The Monterrey Consensus arrived at by the UN Conference on Financing for Development provides an important platform and a new common frame of reference for development policies based on the Millennium Development Goals. This consensus emphasizes the fundamental role of developing countries’ national policies in attracting investment, exploiting trade opportunities and using ODA effectively. The Monterrey Consensus also calls on developed countries to support national development efforts by increasing ODA and opening their markets. The WSSD process must build on this consensus.

• The WSSD preparation process must produce an agenda for action with a strong focus and tangible commitments.

The complexity of the process and the number of actors mean that there is a strong built-in tendency to litter the agenda with too many narrow or special issues and initiatives and to keep the references to larger issues vague and lacking in commitment.

This non-paper therefore has one main purpose: to refocus the agenda on a relatively small number of challenges for world decision-makers. If Johannesburg is to be about the sustainable reduction of poverty, the following is what ought to be on the table. The new focus must be linked with the realization of the Millennium Development Goals.

Underlying Causes of Poverty

It goes without saying that poverty is a very complex problem. Environmental factors are important but they are neither the only cause of poverty nor the only solution. However, some environment-related problems affecting human health, quality of life and productivity, particularly among the poor, are widely recognized as significant underlying causes of poverty. These should be addressed in Johannesburg.

• Land degradation, in large part caused by poor natural resource management (water, land, forests) and flawed agricultural policies and practices, is associated to an increasing extent with chronic and even deepening poverty, particularly malnutrition.

• Poor water resource management and flawed agricultural and urban policies and practices are some of the major reasons for unsafe drinking water and worsening access to drinking water and water for productive purposes.

• Lack of access to efficient energy services and flawed energy and natural resource management policies are causing hazardous air pollution, particularly indoors, and a deteriorating natural resource base for poor countries and poor rural communities.
  
• Poverty is the number one killer in the world today, and poor people carry a disproportionate part of the global burden of ill health. Premature death and illness attributable to environmental factors are now estimated to make up one fifth of the total burden of disease in developing countries, polluted water and air being major underlying causes.

The human misery, underdevelopment and poverty resulting from these environment-related problems are enormous. The poor are more vulnerable than others to natural disasters, and according to the Red Cross, environmental refugees outnumbered refugees from war and political unrest for the first time in 1998. Nearly one billion people live in unplanned shantytowns without any defined rights to the land they occupy, and are extremely vulnerable to natural disasters. Better physical and environmental planning would reduce their vulnerability and result in healthier societies. Unless governments and international institutions take concrete action, it will be impossible to reach Millennium Development Goals such as:

• To halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than a dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger, and by the same date, to halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or afford safe drinking water.
• To ensure that, by the same date, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling and that girls and boys will have equal access to all levels of education.
• To reduce, by the same date, maternal mortality by three quarters, and under-five mortality by two thirds, of their current rates.
• By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers as proposed in the "Cities without Slums" initiative.
• To make every effort to ensure the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol, preferably by the WSSD, and to embark on the required reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases.
• To press for full implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention to Combat Desertification.
• To stop the unsustainable exploitation of water resources by developing water management strategies at the regional, national and local levels, which promote both equitable access and adequate supplies.
• To take special measures to address challenges of poverty eradication and sustainable development in Africa, including debt cancellation, improved market access, enhanced ODA, increased flows of foreign direct investment and transfers of technology.

Strategic Areas of Intervention

The UN Secretary-General recently launched the acronym WEHAB: " We in habit the earth. And we must re habilitate our one and only planet." WEHAB stands for Water and sanitation, Energy, Health, Agriculture and Biodiversity, which according to him are the five key areas where concrete results must be achieved in Johannesburg. We welcome the Secretary-General’s statement and hope that it will help to mobilize the political will to act.

Strategic investments and policy improvements in these areas will yield very important dividends:

• The environmental dividend: safeguarding and improving critical environmental goods and services
• The social dividend: improving poor people’s health and standards of living
• The developmental dividend: improving poor people’s livelihoods and reducing their vulnerability

The Commission on Macroeconomics and Health has documented the potential developmental benefits of a strategic commitment to improving health service delivery. Norway fully supports the principal conclusions and recommendations of the Commission’s report. However, a balanced approach must be adopted between improving services and attacking the underlying causes of poor health and morbidity. The following simple facts illustrate the fundamental importance of energy, water, agriculture and biodiversity as strategic sectors for supporting and multiplying the benefits of investment in health and making investment in social and economic development truly sustainable in the longer term.

• Energy, water and sanitation, and agriculture are water-intensive sectors.

Together they account for 80-100 per cent of all water consumed by human activity. If we are to safeguard the world’s resources of freshwater, improve access for the poor and reduce their vulnerability to water-borne diseases, these are the sectors we need to focus on.

• The energy sector accounts for a large share of health problems caused by poor air quality.

For poor families, indoor air pollution associated with the use of wood biomass and manure for cooking can cause serious respiratory problems and disease. It can also cause significant losses in productivity.

• Cutting down of woodlands for energy and other purposes is causing severe degradation of forests, biodiversity and agricultural lands (through erosion).

Poor people are in desperate need of affordable alternatives.

• The water and sanitation sector is crucial for improving poor people’s health.

If we are to improve health conditions significantly and reduce poverty on a large scale, water and sanitation services must be significantly expanded. These services tend to be out of reach of the poor. Furthermore, insufficient attention to sanitation for some users too often leads to degradation of water supplies for others. Either way, the health consequences are staggering.

• The growing demand for water in urban areas (for human consumption, energy and industrial production) and poor water management are putting water sources and eco-systems under growing stress.

Conflicts between competing users of water are a growing problem. In addition, the aquatic eco-systems on which all life services depend are often the ultimate losers in such conflicts.

• Agriculture holds one of the most important keys to securing sufficient, safe water supplies in the future.

The approach to freshwater management in this sector will in large part determine how far we are successful in meeting human and ecological freshwater needs, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions.

• Agriculture also has a crucial role when it comes to providing enough adequate food for all.

People’s general well-being, health and productivity depend on their access to adequate nutrition. This can be ensured through a combination of increased local production and imports and adequate storage of food. We need to adopt a broad strategy that boosts agricultural production and productivity, particularly in the least developed countries, while at the same time safeguarding and improving environmental conditions and services (e.g. freshwater systems, erosion-protective forested areas, biodiversity, land nutrient balance) on which greater production ultimately depends.

• Loss of biodiversity undermines the potential for sustainable development
  Human activities are causing biological diversity to diminish at an alarming speed. Tropical forests and coral reefs are under particular pressure. Biological resources are an essential part of the natural resource base (fisheries, agriculture, timber, genetic resources, etc.), and their value for sustainable development must be kept in mind when addressing challenges in key sectors for sustainable development.

In all of the above sectors strategic investments and policy improvements are called for in order to achieve real quantum leaps for sustainable development. These efforts must target not only improved productivity and service delivery, but also represent decisive steps on the path towards environmental sustainability. In this regard, special attention to toxic and persistent chemical substances and heavy metals are called for. Chemical safety issues should be seen in connection with policies on poverty, health issues, food supply and protection of the marine environment. A strategic approach to global chemicals management must be developed.

Making Sustainable Commitments to Human Development

When a large part of the population is illiterate, weakened by disease, and has neither income nor property, this hinders economic and social development.

Education is an important precondition for development. Without education, the state receives less income that can secure basic social services, costs are high and the private sector has less access to the human and economic resources it needs.

Diseases and ill health may cause economic havoc, less productivity, a reduction in children’s ability to learn and, more generally, a weakening of the individual’s capacity to realize his or her full intellectual, moral and physical potential.

Investment in education and health is thus one of the most effective measures we have for combating poverty.

A Call for Action

The ambitions of the Norwegian Government with regard to the WSSD are high. We will seek to ensure that a framework is established for a joint strategic global effort to promote sustainable development and poverty reduction. We should agree in Johannesburg on a plan with clear priorities, goals and time limits. We must identify the necessary means to achieve the goals. The plan must be so clear and binding that words are transformed into action after the summit.

The WSSD should result in global and regional initiatives in strategically important areas that will yield developmental, environmental and social dividends. The negotiations in Johannesburg should result in a framework for joint action.

At the WSSD new initiatives will be launched and partnerships formed between actors who can implement the action plan we hope will be adopted. The new partners must agree on joint strategies to implement the plan. The new partnerships must not be donor-driven but be based on the recipients’ needs. Coordination and quality assurance must be ensured through multilateral cooperation mechanisms.

Adequate resources must be made available for the implementation of these strategies, plans and initiatives.

The OECD/DAC must hold member countries accountable for devising policies that are effective in the fight against poverty. Norway will contribute to the development of indicators for measuring and reporting on progress in these efforts.

The UN must monitor how the Millennium Development Goals as well as WSSD goals are being achieved. A monitoring mechanism, including when necessary a reporting system, should be further developed building on the existing monitoring process. This should include indicators of sustainable development that will allow us to evaluate the progress made in fulfilling WSSD goals.

The goals can be only achieved by sustained action on many fronts – foreign investment, trade, debt relief and development cooperation – and of course by better policies being devised by the developing countries themselves.

In the strategic policy areas political commitments like targets and benchmarks, and, if possible, indicators, should be spelled out.