Quarterly Bulletin
of
Sustainable Community
Development Programme
(SCDP)
and
Global Environment Facility
Small Grants Programme
(GEF - SGP) Nepal
Year 4
Volume 2
July - September
2002
TECHNICAL
ADVISOR
Gyan Prasad Sharma
Hum Bahadur Gurung
Gopal Raj Sherchan
EDITOR
Harihar Adhikary
WITH CONTRIBUTION OF
Sudeep Gautam, SCDP
Vivek D. Sharma, SDN
Narayan Sapkota, Surkhet
Anil Sharma, Dang
Ram B. Chaudhary, Kailali
Bishnu Pokharel, Humla
Ashok Baniya, Myagdi
Upendra Shakya, Okhaldhunga
and
Sita Shahi
Yeshoda Basnet
Niraj Shrestha
World Summit on
Sustainable Development
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Brazil in 1992 endorsed Agenda 21, a blue print for sustainable development in the 21st century. The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, South Africa from 26 August to 4 September 2002, made fresh commitments for further implementation of Agenda 21. The Summit was attended by over 70,000 people representing governments, businesses, civil society and the media.
The Johannesburg declaration on sustainable development underlines that collective responsibility for and advancement of economic and social development and environmental protection locally, regionally and globally can engender sustainable development. The WSSD also reached several agreements and outlined how the plan was to be implemented in five areas-water and sanitation, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity and ecosystem management. Collectively the initiative is to be known as WEHAB.
Nepal participated in the WSSD deliberations and reported on the progress made since the Earth Summit in 1992. The government outlined some of its plans for advancing sustainable development in the days to come. The Nepali delegation articulated its position on a number of issues particularly poverty reduction, sustainable development and the need for peace, security and stability for making the development possible. It also made specific commitments to invest for reducing poverty, which is the cause and consequence of the country's slow development. Almost 38 percent of Nepal's 23 million people live below the official poverty line, which translates into living on an income of less than a dollar a day. Most of the poor live in remote and mountainous districts, hence its emphasis on development of mountain regions at the meeting of National Council for Sustainable Development (NCSD) was instrumental. Nepal also expressed its willingness to support the establishment of a Grouping of Developing Mountain States (GDMS).
Other highlights in Nepal's report at the WSSD were the need to establish linkages among poverty reduction programmes and environment friendly development through North-South and South-South partnerships, promoting traditional knowledge and technologies and locally-owned-and-implemented activities. The approach underscores the underlying logic of sustainable development, which, all agree, can not be imposed from outside. Instead, it should be rooted in the local culture, values, interests and priorities of people. Nepal also used the WSSD to share its experiences on efforts to conserve its rich and diverse ecosystems with people’s participation. Nepal's strategy in this regard has been to focus on the need for sharing benefits of conservation with local people and strengthening public private partnerships in the forest management.
Another highlight on the Nepali agenda at WSSD was the need for promoting clean energy, particularly hydropower to fuel the larger development efforts in environment-friendly ways. Hence the incorporation of the promotion of micro-hydro schemes has been taken as part of the poverty reduction efforts. Also discussed were the ways to tackle the burgeoning population which has one of the highest growth rates in developing countries, while economic growth has more or less stagnated. Nepal also used the WSSD as an opportunity to develop a country-specific, long- term sustainable development agenda. The National Commission on Sustainable Development (NCSD) was established under the chair of the Rt. Honourable Prime Minister to implement the Sustainable Development Agenda for Nepal.