WORLD SUMMIT
ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
PLAN OF IMPLEMENTATION
I.
Introduction
1.
The United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro
in 1992, provided the fundamental principles
and the programme of action for achieving
sustainable development. We strongly reaffirm
our commitment to the Rio principles, the
full implementation of Agenda 21 and the Programme
for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21.
We also commit ourselves to achieving the
internationally agreed development goals,
including those contained in the United Nations
Millennium Declaration and in the outcomes
of the major United Nations conferences and
international agreements since 1992.
2. The present plan of implementation will
further build on the achievements made since
UNCED and expedite the realization of the
remaining goals. To this end, we commit ourselves
to undertaking concrete actions and measures
at all levels and to enhancing international
cooperation, taking into account the Rio Principles,
including, inter alia, the principle of common
but differentiated responsibilities as set
out in principle 7 of the Rio Declaration
on Environment and Development. These efforts
will also promote the integration of the three
components of sustainable development
economic development, social development and
environmental protection as interdependent
and mutually reinforcing pillars. Poverty
eradication, changing unsustainable patterns
of production and consumption, and protecting
and managing the natural resource base of
economic and social development are overarching
objectives of, and essential requirements
for, sustainable development.
3. We recognize that the implementation of
the outcomes of the Summit should benefit
all, particularly women, youth, children and
vulnerable groups. Furthermore, the implementation
should involve all relevant actors through
partnerships, especially between Governments
of the North and South, on the one hand, and
between Governments and major groups, on the
other, to achieve the widely shared goals
of sustainable development. As reflected in
the Monterrey Consensus, such partnerships
are key to pursuing sustainable development
in a globalizing world.
4. Good governance within each country and
at the international level is essential for
sustainable development. At the domestic level,
sound environmental, social and economic policies,
democratic institutions responsive to the
needs of the people, the rule of law, anti-corruption
measures, gender equality and an enabling
environment for investment are the basis for
sustainable development. As a result of globalization,
external factors have become critical in determining
the success or failure of developing countries
in their national efforts. The gap between
developed and developing countries points
to the continued need for a dynamic and enabling
international economic environment supportive
of international cooperation, particularly
in the areas of finance, technology transfer,
debt and trade, and full and effective participation
of developing countries in global decision-making,
if the momentum for global progress towards
sustainable development is to be maintained
and increased.
5. Peace, security, stability and respect
for human rights and fundamental freedoms,
including the right to development, as well
as respect for cultural diversity, are essential
for achieving sustainable development and
ensuring that sustainable development benefits
all.
5 bis We acknowledge the importance of ethics
for sustainable development, and therefore
we emphasize the need to consider ethics in
the implementation of Agenda 21.
II.
Poverty eradication
6.
Eradicating poverty is the greatest global
challenge facing the world today and an indispensable
requirement for sustainable development, particularly
for developing countries. Although each country
has the primary responsibility for its own
sustainable development and poverty eradication
and the role of national policies and development
strategies cannot be overemphasized, concerted
and concrete measures are required at all
levels to enable developing countries to achieve
their sustainable development goals as related
to the internationally agreed poverty-related
targets and goals, including those contained
in Agenda 21, the relevant outcomes of other
United Nations conferences and the United
Nations Millennium Declaration. This would
include actions at all levels to:
(a) Halve, by the year 2015, the proportion
of the worlds people whose income is
less than $1 a day and the proportion of people
who suffer from hunger and, by the same date,
to halve the proportion of people without
access to safe drinking water;
(b) Establish a world solidarity fund to eradicate
poverty and to promote social and human development
in the developing countries pursuant to modalities
to be determined by the General Assembly,
while stressing the voluntary nature of the
contributions, the need to avoid duplication
of existing United Nations funds, and encouraging
the role of the private sector and individual
citizens relative to Governments in funding
the endeavours;
(c) Develop national programmes for sustainable
development and local and community development,
where appropriate within country-owned poverty
reduction strategies, to promote the empowerment
of people living in poverty and their organizations.
These programmes should reflect their priorities
and enable them to increase access to productive
resources, public services and institutions,
in particular land, water, employment opportunities,
credit, education and health;
(d) Promote womens equal access to and
full participation, on the basis of equality
with men, in decision-making at all levels,
mainstreaming gender perspectives in all policies
and strategies, eliminating all forms of violence
and discrimination against women, and improving
the status, health and economic welfare of
women and girls through full and equal access
to economic opportunity, land, credit, education
and health-care services;
(e) Develop policies and ways and means to
improve access by indigenous people and their
communities to economic activities, and increase
their employment through, where appropriate,
such measures as training, technical assistance
and credit facilities. Recognize that traditional
and direct dependence on renewable resources
and ecosystems, including sustainable harvesting,
continues to be essential to the cultural,
economic and physical well-being of indigenous
people and their communities;
(f) Deliver basic health services for all
and reduce environmental health threats, taking
into account the special needs of children
and the linkages between poverty, health and
environment, with provision of financial resources,
technical assistance and knowledge transfer
to developing countries and countries with
economies in transition;
(g) Ensure that children everywhere, boys
and girls alike, will be able to complete
a full course of primary schooling and will
have equal access to all levels of education;
(h) Provide access to agricultural resources
for people living in poverty, especially women
and indigenous communities, and promote, as
appropriate, land tenure arrangements that
recognize and protect indigenous and common
property resource management systems;
(i) Build basic rural infrastructure, diversify
the economy and improve transportation and
access to markets, market information and
credit for the rural poor to support sustainable
agriculture and rural development;
(j) Transfer basic sustainable agricultural
techniques and knowledge, including natural
resource management, to small and medium-scale
farmers, fishers and the rural poor, especially
in developing countries, including through
multi-stakeholder approaches and public-private
partnerships aimed at increasing agriculture
production and food security;
(k) Increase food availability and affordability,
including through harvest and food technology
and management, as well as equitable and efficient
distribution systems, by promoting, for example,
community-based partnerships linking urban
and rural people and enterprises;
(l) Combat desertification and mitigate the
effects of drought and floods through such
measures as improved use of climate and weather
information and forecasts, early warning systems,
land and natural resource management, agricultural
practices and ecosystem conservation in order
to reverse current trends and minimize degradation
of land and water resources, including through
the provision of adequate and predictable
financial resources to implement the United
Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought
and/or Desertification, particularly in Africa,
as one of the tools for poverty eradication;
(m) Increase access to sanitation to improve
human health and reduce infant and child mortality,
prioritizing water and sanitation in national
sustainable development strategies and poverty
reduction strategies where they exist.
7. The provision of clean drinking water and
adequate sanitation is necessary to protect
human health and the environment. In this
respect, we agree to halve, by the year 2015,
the proportion of people who are unable to
reach or to afford safe drinking water (as
outlined in the Millennium Declaration) and
the proportion of people who do not have access
to basic sanitation, which would include actions
at all levels to:
(a) Develop and implement efficient household
sanitation systems;
(b) Improve sanitation in public institutions,
especially schools;
(c) Promote safe hygiene practices;
(d) Promote education and outreach focused
on children, as agents of behavioural change;
(e) Promote affordable and socially and culturally
acceptable technologies and practices;
(f) Develop innovative financing and partnership
mechanisms;
(g) Integrate sanitation into water resources
management strategies.
8. Take joint actions and improve efforts
to work together at all levels to improve
access to reliable and affordable energy services
for sustainable development sufficient to
facilitate the achievement of the millennium
development goals, including the goal of halving
the proportion of people in poverty by 2015,
and as a means to generate other important
services that mitigate poverty, bearing in
mind that access to energy facilitates the
eradication of poverty. This would include
actions at all levels to:
(a) Improve access to reliable, affordable,
economically viable, socially acceptable and
environmentally sound energy services and
resources, taking into account national specificities
and circumstances, through various means,
such as enhanced rural electrification and
decentralized energy systems, increased use
of renewables, cleaner liquid and gaseous
fuels and enhanced energy efficiency, by intensifying
regional and international cooperation in
support of national efforts, including through
capacity-building, financial and technological
assistance and innovative financing mechanisms,
including at the micro and meso levels, recognizing
the specific factors for providing access
to the poor;
(b) Improve access to modern biomass technologies
and fuelwood sources and supplies, and commercialize
biomass operations, including the use of agricultural
residues, in rural areas and where such practices
are sustainable;
(c) Promote a sustainable use of biomass and,
as appropriate, other renewable energies through
improvement of current patterns of use, such
as management of resources, more efficient
use of fuelwood and new or improved products
and technologies;
(d) Support the transition to the cleaner
use of liquid and gaseous fossil fuels, where
considered more environmentally sound, socially
acceptable and cost-effective;
(e) Develop national energy policies and regulatory
frameworks that will help to create the necessary
economic, social and institutional conditions
in the energy sector to improve access to
reliable, affordable, economically viable,
socially acceptable and environmentally sound
energy services for sustainable development
and poverty eradication in rural, peri-urban
and urban areas;
(f) Enhance international and regional cooperation
to improve access to reliable, affordable,
economically viable, socially acceptable and
environmentally sound energy services, as
an integral part of poverty reduction programmes,
by facilitating the creation of enabling environments
and addressing capacity-building needs, with
special attention to rural and isolated areas,
as appropriate;
(g) Assist and facilitate on an accelerated
basis, with the financial and technical assistance
of developed countries, including through
public-private partnerships, the access of
the poor to reliable, affordable, economically
viable, socially acceptable and environmentally
sound energy services, taking into account
the instrumental role of developing national
policies on energy for sustainable development,
bearing in mind that in developing countries
sharp increases in energy services are required
to improve the standards of living of their
populations and that energy services have
positive impacts on poverty eradication and
improve standards of living.
9. Strengthen the contribution of industrial
development to poverty eradication and sustainable
natural resource management. This would include
actions at all levels to:
(a) Provide assistance and mobilize resources
to enhance industrial productivity and competitiveness
as well as industrial development in developing
countries, including the transfer of environmentally
sound technologies on preferential terms,
as mutually agreed;
(b) Provide assistance to increase income-generating
employment opportunities, taking into account
the International Labour Organization (ILO)
Declaration on Fundamental Principles and
Rights at Work;
(c) Promote the development of micro, small
and medium-sized enterprises, including by
means of training, education and skill enhancement,
with a special focus on agro-industry as a
provider of livelihoods for rural communities;
(d) Provide financial and technological support,
as appropriate, to rural communities of developing
countries to enable them to benefit from safe
and sustainable livelihood opportunities in
small-scale mining ventures;
(e) Provide support to developing countries
for the development of safe low-cost technologies
that provide or conserve fuel for cooking
and water heating;
(f) Provide support for natural resource management
for creating sustainable livelihoods for the
poor.
10. By 2020, achieve a significant improvement
in the lives of at least 100 million slum
dwellers, as proposed in the Cities
without slums initiative. This would
include actions at all levels to:
(a) Improve access to land and property, to
adequate shelter and to basic services for
the urban and rural poor, with special attention
to female heads of household;
(b) Use low-cost and sustainable materials
and appropriate technologies for the construction
of adequate and secure housing for the poor,
with financial and technological assistance
to developing countries, taking into account
their culture, climate, specific social conditions
and vulnerability to natural disasters;
(c) Increase decent employment, credit and
income for the urban poor, through appropriate
national policies, promoting equal opportunities
for women and men;
(d) Remove unnecessary regulatory and other
obstacles for microenterprises and the informal
sector;
(e) Support local authorities in elaborating
slum upgrading programmes within the framework
of urban development plans and facilitate
access, particularly for the poor, to information
on housing legislation.
11. Take immediate and effective measures
to eliminate the worst forms of child labour
as defined in ILO Convention No. 182, and
elaborate and implement strategies for the
elimination of child labour that is contrary
to accepted international standards.
12. Promote international cooperation to assist
developing countries, upon request, in addressing
child labour and its root causes, inter alia,
through social and economic policies aimed
at poverty conditions, while stressing that
labour standards should not be used for protectionist
trade purposes.
III. Changing unsustainable
patterns of consumption and production
13.
Fundamental changes in the way societies produce
and consume are indispensable for achieving
global sustainable development. All countries
should promote sustainable consumption and
production patterns, with the developed countries
taking the lead and with all countries benefiting
from the process, taking into account the
Rio principles, including, inter alia, the
principle of common but differentiated responsibilities
as set out in principle 7 of the Rio Declaration
on Environment and Development. Governments,
relevant international organizations, the
private sector and all major groups should
play an active role in changing unsustainable
consumption and production patterns. This
would include the actions at all levels set
out below.
14. Encourage and promote the development
of a 10-year framework of programmes in support
of regional and national initiatives to accelerate
the shift towards sustainable consumption
and production to promote social and economic
development within the carrying capacity of
ecosystems by addressing and, where appropriate,
delinking economic growth and environmental
degradation through improving efficiency and
sustainability in the use of resources and
production processes, and reducing resource
degradation, pollution and waste. All countries
should take action, with developed countries
taking the lead, taking into account the development
needs and capabilities of developing countries
through mobilization, from all sources, of
financial and technical assistance and capacity-building
for developing countries. This would require
actions at all levels to:
(a) Identify specific activities, tools, policies,
measures and monitoring and assessment mechanisms,
including, where appropriate, life-cycle analysis
and national indicators for measuring progress,
bearing in mind that standards applied by
some countries may be inappropriate and of
unwarranted economic and social cost to other
countries, in particular developing countries;
(b) Adopt and implement policies and measures
aimed at promoting sustainable patterns of
production and consumption, applying, inter
alia, the polluter-pays principle described
in principle 16 of the Rio Declaration on
Environment and Development;
(c) Develop production and consumption policies
to improve the products and services provided,
while reducing environmental and health impacts,
using, where appropriate, science-based approaches,
such as life-cycle analysis;
(d) Develop awareness-raising programmes on
the importance of sustainable production and
consumption patterns, particularly among youth
and the relevant segments in all countries,
especially in developed countries, through,
inter alia, education, public and consumer
information, advertising and other media,
taking into account local, national and regional
cultural values;
(e) Develop and adopt, where appropriate,
on a voluntary basis, effective, transparent,
verifiable, non-misleading and non-discriminatory
consumer information tools to provide information
relating to sustainable consumption and production,
including human health and safety aspects.
These tools should not be used as disguised
trade barriers;
(f) Increase eco-efficiency, with financial
support from all sources, where mutually agreed,
for capacity-building, technology transfer
and exchange of technology with developing
countries and countries with economies in
transition, in cooperation with relevant international
organizations.
15. Increase investment in cleaner production
and eco-efficiency in all countries through,
inter alia, incentives and support schemes
and policies directed at establishing appropriate
regulatory, financial and legal frameworks.
This would include actions at all levels to:
(a) Establish and support cleaner production
programmes and centres and more efficient
production methods by providing, inter alia,
incentives and capacity-building to assist
enterprises, especially small and medium-sized
enterprises and particularly in developing
countries, in improving productivity and sustainable
development;
(b) Provide incentives for investment in cleaner
production and eco-efficiency in all countries,
such as state-financed loans, venture capital,
technical assistance and training programmes
for small and medium-sized companies while
avoiding trade-distorting measures inconsistent
with WTO rules;
(c) Collect and disseminate information on
cost-effective examples in cleaner production,
eco-efficiency and environmental management,
and promote the exchange of best practices
and know-how on environmentally sound technologies
between public and private institutions;
(d) Provide training programmes to small and
medium-sized enterprises on the use of information
and communication technologies.
16. Integrate the issue of production and
consumption patterns into sustainable development
policies, programmes and strategies, including,
where applicable, into poverty reduction strategies.
17. Enhance corporate environmental and social
responsibility and accountability. This would
include actions at all levels to:
(a) Encourage industry to improve social and
environmental performance through voluntary
initiatives, including environmental management
systems, codes of conduct, certification and
public reporting on environmental and social
issues, taking into account such initiatives
as the International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) standards and Global Reporting Initiative
guidelines on sustainability reporting, bearing
in mind principle 11 of the Rio Declaration
on Environment and Development;
(b) Encourage dialogue between enterprises
and the communities in which they operate
and other stakeholders;
(c) Encourage financial institutions to incorporate
sustainable development considerations into
their decision-making processes;
(d) Develop workplace-based partnerships and
programmes, including training and education
programmes.
18. Encourage relevant authorities at all
levels to take sustainable development considerations
into account in decision-making, including
on national and local development planning,
investment in infrastructure, business development
and public procurement. This would include
actions at all levels to:
(a) Provide support for the development of
sustainable development strategies and programmes,
including in decision-making on investment
in infrastructure and business development;
(b) Continue to promote the internalization
of environmental costs and the use of economic
instruments, taking into account the approach
that the polluter should, in principle, bear
the costs of pollution, with due regard to
the public interest and without distorting
international trade and investment;
(c) Promote public procurement policies that
encourage development and diffusion of environmentally
sound goods and services;
(d) Provide capacity-building and training
to assist relevant authorities with regard
to the implementation of the initiatives listed
in the present paragraph;
(e) Use environmental impact assessment procedures.
19. Call upon Governments, as well as relevant
regional and international organizations and
other relevant stakeholders, to implement,
taking into account national and regional
specificities and circumstances, the recommendations
and conclusions of the Commission on Sustainable
Development concerning energy for sustainable
development adopted at its ninth session,
including the issues and options set out below,
bearing in mind that in view of the different
contributions to global environmental degradation,
States have common but differentiated responsibilities.
This would include actions at all levels to:
(a) Take further action to mobilize the provision
of financial resources, technology transfer,
capacity-building and the diffusion of environmentally
sound technologies according to the recommendations
and conclusions of the Commission on Sustainable
Development as contained in section A, paragraph
3, and section D, paragraph 30, of its decision
9/1 on energy for sustainable development;
(b) Integrate energy considerations, including
energy efficiency, affordability and accessibility,
into socio-economic programmes, especially
into policies of major energy-consuming sectors,
and into the planning, operation and maintenance
of long-lived energy consuming infrastructures,
such as the public sector, transport, industry,
agriculture, urban land use, tourism and construction
sectors;
(c) Develop and disseminate alternative energy
technologies with the aim of giving a greater
share of the energy mix to renewable energies,
improving energy efficiency and greater reliance
on advanced energy technologies, including
cleaner fossil fuel technologies;
(d) Combine, as appropriate, the increased
use of renewable energy resources, more efficient
use of energy, greater reliance on advanced
energy technologies, including advanced and
cleaner fossil fuel technologies, and the
sustainable use of traditional energy resources,
which could meet the growing need for energy
services in the longer term to achieve sustainable
development;
(e) Diversify energy supply by developing
advanced, cleaner, more efficient, affordable
and cost-effective energy technologies, including
fossil fuel technologies and renewable energy
technologies, hydro included, and their transfer
to developing countries on concessional terms
as mutually agreed. With a sense of urgency,
substantially increase the global share of
renewable energy sources with the objective
of increasing its contribution to total energy
supply, recognizing the role of national and
voluntary regional targets as well as initiatives,
where they exist, and ensuring that energy
policies are supportive to developing countries
efforts to eradicate poverty, and regularly
evaluate available data to review progress
to this end;
(f) Support efforts, including through provision
of financial and technical assistance to developing
countries, with the involvement of the private
sector, to reduce flaring and venting of gas
associated with crude oil production;
(g) Develop and utilize indigenous energy
sources and infrastructures for various local
uses and promote rural community participation,
including local Agenda 21 groups, with the
support of the international community, in
developing and utilizing renewable energy
technologies to meet their daily energy needs
to find simple and local solutions;
(h) Establish domestic programmes for energy
efficiency, including, as appropriate, by
accelerating the deployment of energy efficiency
technologies, with the necessary support of
the international community;
(i) Accelerate the development, dissemination
and deployment of affordable and cleaner energy
efficiency and energy conservation technologies,
as well as the transfer of such technologies,
in particular to developing countries, on
favourable terms, including on concessional
and preferential terms, as mutually agreed;
(j) Recommend that international financial
institutions and other agencies policies
support developing countries, as well as countries
with economies in transition, in their own
efforts to establish policy and regulatory
frameworks which create a level playing field
between the following: renewable energy, energy
efficiency, advanced energy technologies,
including advanced and cleaner fossil fuel
technologies, and centralized, distributed
and decentralized energy systems;
(k) Promote increased research and development
in the field of various energy technologies,
including renewable energy, energy efficiency
and advanced energy technologies, including
advanced and cleaner fossil fuel technologies,
both nationally and through international
collaboration; strengthen national and regional
research and development institutions/centres
on reliable, affordable, economically viable,
socially acceptable and environmentally sound
energy for sustainable development;
(l) Promote networking between centres of
excellence on energy for sustainable development,
including regional networks, by linking competent
centres on energy technologies for sustainable
development that could support and promote
efforts at capacity-building and technology
transfer activities, particularly of developing
countries, as well as serve as information
clearing houses;
(m) Promote education to provide information
for both men and women about available energy
sources and technologies;
(n) Utilize financial instruments and mechanisms,
in particular the Global Environment Facility
(GEF), within its mandate, to provide financial
resources to developing countries, in particular
least developed countries and small island
developing States, to meet their capacity
needs for training, technical know-how and
strengthening national institutions in reliable,
affordable, economically viable, socially
acceptable and environmentally sound energy,
including promoting energy efficiency and
conservation, renewable energy and advanced
energy technologies, including advanced and
cleaner fossil fuel technologies;
(o) Support efforts to improve the functioning,
transparency and information about energy
markets with respect to both supply and demand,
with the aim of achieving greater stability
and predictability and to ensure consumer
access to reliable, affordable, economically
viable, socially acceptable and environmentally
sound energy services;
(p) Policies to reduce market distortions
would promote energy systems compatible with
sustainable development through the use of
improved market signals and by removing market
distortions, including restructuring taxation
and phasing out harmful subsidies, where they
exist, to reflect their environmental impacts,
with such policies taking fully into account
the specific needs and conditions of developing
countries with the aim of minimizing the possible
adverse impacts on their development;
(q) Take action, where appropriate, to phase
out subsidies in this area that inhibit sustainable
development, taking fully into account the
specific conditions and different levels of
development of individual countries and considering
their adverse effect, particularly on developing
countries;
(r) Governments are encouraged to improve
the functioning of national energy markets
in such a way that they support sustainable
development, overcome market barriers and
improve accessibility, taking fully into account
that such policies should be decided by each
country, and that its own characteristics
and capabilities and level of development
should be considered, especially as reflected
in national sustainable development strategies,
where they exist;
(s) Strengthen national and regional energy
institutions or arrangements for enhancing
regional and international cooperation on
energy for sustainable development, in particular
to assist developing countries in their domestic
efforts to provide reliable, affordable, economically
viable, socially acceptable and environmentally
sound energy services to all sections of their
populations;
(t) Countries are urged to develop and implement
actions within the framework of the ninth
session of the Commission on Sustainable Development,
including through public-private partnerships,
taking into account the different circumstances
of countries, based on lessons learned by
Governments, international institutions and
stakeholders and including business and industry,
in the field of access to energy, including
renewable energy and energy-efficiency and
advanced energy technologies, including advanced
and cleaner fossil fuel technologies;
(u) Promote cooperation between international
and regional institutions and bodies dealing
with different aspects of energy for sustainable
development within their existing mandate,
bearing in mind paragraph 46 (h) of the Programme
of Action for the Further Implementation of
Agenda 21, strengthening, as appropriate,
regional and national activities for the promotion
of education and capacity-building regarding
energy for sustainable development;
(v) Strengthen and facilitate, as appropriate,
regional cooperation arrangements for promoting
cross-border energy trade, including the interconnection
of electricity grids and oil and natural gas
pipelines;
(w) Strengthen and, where appropriate, facilitate
dialogue forums among regional, national and
international producers and consumers of energy.
20. Promote an integrated approach to policy-making
at the national, regional and local levels
for transport services and systems to promote
sustainable development, including policies
and planning for land use, infrastructure,
public transport systems and goods delivery
networks, with a view to providing safe, affordable
and efficient transportation, increasing energy
efficiency, reducing pollution, reducing congestion,
reducing adverse health effects and limiting
urban sprawl, taking into account national
priorities and circumstances. This would include
actions at all levels to:
(a) Implement transport strategies for sustainable
development, reflecting specific regional,
national and local conditions, so as to improve
the affordability, efficiency and convenience
of transportation, as well as improving urban
air quality and health, and reduce greenhouse
gas emissions, including through the development
of better vehicle technologies that are more
environmentally sound, affordable and socially
acceptable;
(b) Promote investment and partnerships for
the development of sustainable, energy efficient
multi-modal transportation systems, including
public mass transportation systems and better
transportation systems in rural areas, with
technical and financial assistance for developing
countries and countries with economies in
transition.
21. Prevent and minimize waste and maximize
reuse, recycling and use of environmentally
friendly alternative materials, with the participation
of government authorities and all stakeholders,
in order to minimize adverse effects on the
environment and improve resource efficiency,
with financial, technical and other assistance
for developing countries. This would include
actions at all levels to:
(a) Develop waste management systems, with
highest priorities placed on waste prevention
and minimization, reuse and recycling, and
environmentally sound disposal facilities,
including technology to recapture the energy
contained in waste, and encourage small-scale
waste-recycling initiatives that support urban
and rural waste management and provide income-generating
opportunities, with international support
for developing countries;
(b) Promote waste prevention and minimization
by encouraging production of reusable consumer
goods and biodegradable products and developing
the infrastructure required.
22. Renew the commitment, as advanced in Agenda
21, to sound management of chemicals throughout
their life cycle and of hazardous wastes for
sustainable development and for the protection
of human health and the environment, inter
alia, aiming to achieve by 2020 that chemicals
are used and produced in ways that lead to
the minimization of significant adverse effects
on human health and the environment, using
transparent science-based risk assessment
procedures and science-based risk management
procedures, taking into account the precautionary
approach, as set out in principle 15 of the
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development,
and support developing countries in strengthening
their capacity for the sound management of
chemicals and hazardous wastes by providing
technical and financial assistance. This would
include actions at all levels to:
(a) Promote the ratification and implementation
of relevant international instruments on chemicals
and hazardous waste, including the Rotterdam
Convention on Prior Informed Consent Procedures
for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides
in International Trade so that it can enter
into force by 2003 and the Stockholm Convention
on Persistent Organic Pollutants so that it
can enter into force by 2004, and encourage
and improve coordination as well as supporting
developing countries in their implementation;
(b) Further develop a strategic approach to
international chemicals management based on
the Bahia Declaration and Priorities for Action
beyond 2000 of the Intergovernmental Forum
on Chemical Safety (IFCS) by 2005, and urge
that the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), IFCS, other international organizations
dealing with chemical management, and other
relevant international organizations and actors
closely cooperate in this regard, as appropriate;
(c) Encourage countries to implement the new
globally harmonized system for the classification
and labelling of chemicals as soon as possible
with a view to having the system fully operational
by 2008;
(d) Encourage partnerships to promote activities
aimed at enhancing environmentally sound management
of chemicals and hazardous wastes, implementing
multilateral environmental agreements, raising
awareness of issues relating to chemicals
and hazardous waste, and encouraging the collection
and use of additional scientific data;
(e) Promote efforts to prevent international
illegal trafficking of hazardous chemicals
and hazardous wastes and to prevent damage
resulting from the transboundary movement
and disposal of hazardous wastes in a manner
consistent with obligations under relevant
international instruments, such as the Basel
Convention on the Control of Transboundary
Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal;
(f) Encourage development of coherent and
integrated information on chemicals, such
as through national pollutant release and
transfer registers;
(g) Promote reduction of the risks posed by
heavy metals that are harmful to human health
and the environment, including through a review
of relevant studies, such as the UNEP global
assessment of mercury and its compounds.
IV. Protecting
and managing the natural resource base of
economic and social development
23.
Human activities are having an increasing
impact on the integrity of ecosystems that
provide essential resources and services for
human well-being and economic activities.
Managing the natural resources base in a sustainable
and integrated manner is essential for sustainable
development. In this regard, to reverse the
current trend in natural resource degradation
as soon as possible, it is necessary to implement
strategies which should include targets adopted
at the national and, where appropriate, regional
levels to protect ecosystems and to achieve
integrated management of land, water and living
resources, while strengthening regional, national
and local capacities. This would include actions
at all levels to:
24. Launch a programme of actions, with financial
and technical assistance, to achieve the millennium
development goal on safe drinking water. In
this respect, we agree to halve, by the year
2015, the proportion of people who are unable
to reach or to afford safe drinking water
as outlined in the Millennium Declaration
and the proportion of people without access
to basic sanitation, which would include actions
at all levels to:
(a) Mobilize international and domestic financial
resources at all levels, transfer technology,
promote best practice and support capacity-building
for water and sanitation infrastructure and
services development, ensuring that such infrastructure
and services meet the needs of the poor and
are gender-sensitive;
(b) Facilitate access to public information
and participation, including by women, at
all levels, in support of policy and decision-making
related to water resources management and
project implementation;
(c) Promote priority action by Governments,
with the support of all stakeholders, in water
management and capacity-building at the national
level and, where appropriate, at the regional
level, and promote and provide new and additional
financial resources and innovative technologies
to implement chapter 18 of Agenda 21;
(d) Intensify water pollution prevention to
reduce health hazards and protect ecosystems
by introducing technologies for affordable
sanitation and industrial and domestic wastewater
treatment, by mitigating the effects of groundwater
contamination, and by establishing, at the
national level, monitoring systems and effective
legal frameworks;
(e) Adopt prevention and protection measures
to promote sustainable water use and to address
water shortages.
25. Develop integrated water resources management
and water efficiency plans by 2005, with support
to developing countries, through actions at
all levels to:
(a) Develop and implement national/regional
strategies, plans and programmes with regard
to integrated river basin, watershed and groundwater
management, and introduce measures to improve
the efficiency of water infrastructure to
reduce losses and increase recycling of water;
(b) Employ the full range of policy instruments,
including regulation, monitoring, voluntary
measures, market and information-based tools,
land-use management and cost recovery of water
services, without cost recovery objectives
becoming a barrier to access to safe water
by poor people, and adopt an integrated water
basin approach;
(c) Improve the efficient use of water resources
and promote their allocation among competing
uses in a way that gives priority to the satisfaction
of basic human needs and balances the requirement
of preserving or restoring ecosystems and
their functions, in particular in fragile
environments, with human domestic, industrial
and agriculture needs, including safeguarding
drinking water quality;
(d) Develop programmes for mitigating the
effects of extreme water-related events;
(e) Support the diffusion of technology and
capacity-building for non-conventional water
resources and conservation technologies, to
developing countries and regions facing water
scarcity conditions or subject to drought
and desertification, through technical and
financial support and capacity-building;
(f) Support, where appropriate, efforts and
programmes for energy-efficient, sustainable
and cost-effective desalination of seawater,
water recycling and water harvesting from
coastal fogs in developing countries, through
such measures as technological, technical
and financial assistance and other modalities;
(g) Facilitate the establishment of public-private
partnerships and other forms of partnership
that give priority to the needs of the poor,
within stable and transparent national regulatory
frameworks provided by Governments, while
respecting local conditions, involving all
concerned stakeholders, and monitoring the
performance and improving accountability of
public institutions and private companies.
26. Support developing countries and countries
with economies in transition in their efforts
to monitor and assess the quantity and quality
of water resources, including through the
establishment and/or further development of
national monitoring networks and water resources
databases and the development of relevant
national indicators.
27. Improve water resource management and
scientific understanding of the water cycle
through cooperation in joint observation and
research, and for this purpose encourage and
promote knowledge-sharing and provide capacity-building
and the transfer of technology, as mutually
agreed, including remote-sensing and satellite
technologies, particularly to developing countries
and countries with economies in transition.
28. Promote effective coordination among the
various international and intergovernmental
bodies and processes working on water-related
issues, both within the United Nations system
and between the United Nations and international
financial institutions, drawing on the contributions
of other international institutions and civil
society to inform intergovernmental decision-making;
closer coordination should also be promoted
to elaborate and support proposals and undertake
activities related to the International Year
of Freshwater 2003 and beyond.
* * *
29. Oceans, seas, islands and coastal areas
form an integrated and essential component
of the Earths ecosystem and are critical
for global food security and for sustaining
economic prosperity and the well-being of
many national economies, particularly in developing
countries. Ensuring the sustainable development
of the oceans requires effective coordination
and cooperation, including at the global and
regional levels, between relevant bodies,
and actions at all levels to:
(a) Invite States to ratify or accede to and
implement the United Nations Convention on
the Law of the Sea, which provides the overall
legal framework for ocean activities;
(b) Promote the implementation of chapter
17 of Agenda 21 which provides the programme
of action for achieving the sustainable development
of oceans, coastal areas and seas through
its programme areas of integrated management
and sustainable development of coastal areas,
including exclusive economic zones; marine
environmental protection; sustainable use
and conservation of marine living resources;
addressing critical uncertainties for the
management of the marine environment and climate
change; strengthening international, including
regional, cooperation and coordination; and
sustainable development of small islands;
(c) Establish an effective, transparent and
regular inter-agency coordination mechanism
on ocean and coastal issues within the United
Nations system;
(d) Encourage the application by 2010 of the
ecosystem approach, noting the Reykjavik Declaration
on Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Ecosystem
and decision 5/6 of the Conference of Parties
to the Convention on Biological Diversity;
(e) Promote integrated, multidisciplinary
and multisectoral coastal and ocean management
at the national level, and encourage and assist
coastal States in developing ocean policies
and mechanisms on integrated coastal management;
(f) Strengthen regional cooperation and coordination
between the relevant regional organizations
and programmes, the UNEP regional seas programmes,
regional fisheries management organizations
and other regional science, health and development
organizations;
(g) Assist developing countries in coordinating
policies and programmes at the regional and
subregional levels aimed at the conservation
and sustainable management of fishery resources,
and implement integrated coastal area management
plans, including through the promotion of
sustainable coastal and small-scale fishing
activities and, where appropriate, the development
of related infrastructure;
(h) Take note of the work of the open-ended
informal consultative process established
by the United Nations General Assembly in
its resolution 54/33 in order to facilitate
the annual review by the Assembly of developments
in ocean affairs and the upcoming review of
its effectiveness and utility to be held at
its fifty-seventh session under the terms
of the above-mentioned resolution.
30. To achieve sustainable fisheries, the
following actions are required at all levels:
(a) Maintain or restore stocks to levels that
can produce the maximum sustainable yield
with the aim of achieving these goals for
depleted stocks on an urgent basis and where
possible not later than 2015;
(b) Ratify or accede to and effectively implement
the relevant United Nations and, where appropriate,
associated regional fisheries agreements or
arrangements, noting in particular the Agreement
for the Implementation of the Provisions of
the United Nations Convention on the Law of
the Sea of 10 December 1982 relating to the
Conservation and Management of Straddling
Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks
and the 1993 Agreement to Promote Compliance
with International Conservation and Management
Measures by Fishing Vessels on the High Seas;
(c) Implement the 1995 Code of Conduct for
Responsible Fisheries, taking note of the
special requirements of developing countries
as noted in its article 5, and the relevant
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO) international plans of action
and technical guidelines;
(d) Urgently develop and implement national
and, where appropriate, regional plans of
action, to put into effect the FAO international
plans of action, in particular the international
plan of action for the management of fishing
capacity by 2005 and the international plan
of action to prevent, deter and eliminate
illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
by 2004. Establish effective monitoring, reporting
and enforcement, and control of fishing vessels,
including by flag States, to further the international
plan of action to prevent, deter and eliminate
illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing;
(e) Encourage relevant regional fisheries
management organizations and arrangements
to give due consideration to the rights, duties
and interests of coastal States and the special
requirements of developing States when addressing
the issue of the allocation of share of fishery
resources for straddling stocks and highly
migratory fish stocks, mindful of the provisions
of the United Nations Convention on the Law
of the Sea and the Agreement for the Implementation
of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982
Relating to the Conservation and Management
of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory
Fish Stocks, on the high seas and within exclusive
economic zones;
(f) Eliminate subsidies that contribute to
illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
and to over-capacity, while completing the
efforts undertaken at WTO to clarify and improve
its disciplines on fisheries subsidies, taking
into account the importance of this sector
to developing countries;
(g) Strengthen donor coordination and partnerships
between international financial institutions,
bilateral agencies and other relevant stakeholders
to enable developing countries, in particular
the least developed countries and small island
developing States and countries with economies
in transition, to develop their national,
regional and subregional capacities for infrastructure
and integrated management and the sustainable
use of fisheries;
(h) Support the sustainable development of
aquaculture, including small-scale aquaculture,
given its growing importance for food security
and economic development.
31. In accordance with chapter 17 of Agenda
21, promote the conservation and management
of the oceans through actions at all levels,
giving due regard to the relevant international
instruments to:
(a) Maintain the productivity and biodiversity
of important and vulnerable marine and coastal
areas, including in areas within and beyond
national jurisdiction;
(b) Implement the work programme arising from
the Jakarta Mandate on the Conservation and
Sustainable Use of Marine and Coastal Biological
Diversity of the Convention on Biological
Diversity, including through the urgent mobilization
of financial resources and technological assistance
and the development of human and institutional
capacity, particularly in developing countries;
(c) Develop and facilitate the use of diverse
approaches and tools, including the ecosystem
approach, the elimination of destructive fishing
practices, the establishment of marine protected
areas consistent with international law and
based on scientific information, including
representative networks by 2012 and time/area
closures for the protection of nursery grounds
and periods, proper coastal land use; and
watershed planning and the integration of
marine and coastal areas management into key
sectors;
(d) Develop national, regional and international
programmes for halting the loss of marine
biodiversity, including in coral reefs and
wetlands;
(e) Implement the RAMSAR Convention, including
its joint work programme with the Convention
on Biological Diversity, and the programme
of action called for by the International
Coral Reef Initiative to strengthen joint
management plans and international networking
for wetland ecosystems in coastal zones, including
coral reefs, mangroves, seaweed beds and tidal
mud flats.
32. Advance implementation of the Global Programme
of Action for the Protection of the Marine
Environment from Land-based Activities and
the Montreal Declaration on the Protection
of the Marine Environment from Land-based
Activities, with particular emphasis in the
period 2002-2006 on municipal wastewater,
the physical alteration and destruction of
habitats, and nutrients, by actions at all
levels to:
(a) Facilitate partnerships, scientific research
and diffusion of technical knowledge; mobilize
domestic, regional and international resources;
and promote human and institutional capacity-building,
paying particular attention to the needs of
developing countries;
(b) Strengthen the capacity of developing
countries in the development of their national
and regional programmes and mechanisms to
mainstream the objectives of the Global Programme
of Action and to manage the risks and impacts
of ocean pollution;
(c) Elaborate regional programmes of action
and improve the links with strategic plans
for the sustainable development of coastal
and marine resources, noting in particular
areas which are subject to accelerated environmental
changes and development pressures;
(d) Make every effort to achieve substantial
progress by the next Global Programme of Action
conference in 2006 to protect the marine environment
from land-based activities.
33. Enhance maritime safety and protection
of the marine environment from pollution by
actions at all levels to:
(a) Invite States to ratify or accede to and
implement the conventions and protocols and
other relevant instruments of the International
Maritime Organization (IMO) relating to the
enhancement of maritime safety and protection
of the marine environment from marine pollution
and environmental damage caused by ships,
including the use of toxic anti-fouling paints
and urge IMO to consider stronger mechanisms
to secure the implementation of IMO instruments
by flag States;
(b) Accelerate the development of measures
to address invasive alien species in ballast
water. Urge IMO to finalize the IMO International
Convention on the Control and Management of
Ships Ballast Water and Sediments.
33.bis Governments, taking into account their
national circumstances, are encouraged, recalling
paragraph 8 of resolution GC (44)/RES/17 of
the General Conference of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and taking into
account the very serious potential for environment
and human health impacts of radioactive wastes,
to make efforts to examine and further improve
measures and internationally agreed regulations
regarding safety, while stressing the importance
of having effective liability mechanisms in
place, relevant to international maritime
transportation and other transboundary movement
of radioactive material, radioactive waste
and spent fuel, including, inter alia, arrangements
for prior notification and consultations done
in accordance with relevant international
instruments.
34. Improve the scientific understanding and
assessment of marine and coastal ecosystems
as a fundamental basis for sound decision-making,
through actions at all levels to:
(a) Increase scientific and technical collaboration,
including integrated assessment at the global
and regional levels, including the appropriate
transfer of marine science and marine technologies
and techniques for the conservation and management
of living and non-living marine resources
and expanding ocean-observing capabilities
for the timely prediction and assessment of
the state of marine environment;
(b) Establish by 2004 a regular process under
the United Nations for global reporting and
assessment of the state of the marine environment,
including socio-economic aspects, both current
and foreseeable, building on existing regional
assessments;
(c) Build capacity in marine science, information
and management, through, inter alia, promoting
the use of environmental impact assessments
and environmental evaluation and reporting
techniques, for projects or activities that
are potentially harmful to the coastal and
marine environments and their living and non-living
resources;
(d) Strengthen the ability of the Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,
FAO and other relevant international and regional
and subregional organizations to build national
and local capacity in marine science and the
sustainable management of oceans and their
resources.
* * *
35. An integrated, multi-hazard, inclusive
approach to address vulnerability, risk assessment
and disaster management, including prevention,
mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery,
is an essential element of a safer world in
the twenty-first century. Actions are required
at all levels to:
(a) Strengthen the role of the International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction and encourage
the international community to provide the
necessary financial resources to its Trust
Fund;
(b) Support the establishment of effective
regional, subregional and national strategies
and scientific and technical institutional
support for disaster management;
(c) Strengthen the institutional capacities
of countries and promote international joint
observation and research, through improved
surface-based monitoring and increased use
of satellite data, dissemination of technical
and scientific knowledge, and the provision
of assistance to vulnerable countries;
(d) Reduce the risks of flooding and drought
in vulnerable countries by, inter alia, promoting
wetland and watershed protection and restoration,
improved land-use planning, improving and
applying more widely techniques and methodologies
for assessing the potential adverse effects
of climate change on wetlands and, as appropriate,
assisting countries that are particularly
vulnerable to those effects;
(e) Improve techniques and methodologies for
assessing the effects of climate change, and
encourage the continuing assessment of those
adverse effects by the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change;
(f) Encourage the dissemination and use of
traditional and indigenous knowledge to mitigate
the impact of disasters, and promote community-based
disaster management planning by local authorities,
including through training activities and
raising public awareness;
(g) Support the ongoing voluntary contribution
of, as appropriate, non-governmental organizations,
the scientific community and other partners
in the management of natural disasters according
to agreed, relevant guidelines;
(h) Develop and strengthen early warning systems
and information networks in disaster management,
consistent with the International Strategy
for Disaster Reduction;
(i) Develop and strengthen capacity at all
levels to collect and disseminate scientific
and technical information, including the improvement
of early warning systems for predicting extreme
weather events, especially El Niño/La
Niña, through the provision of assistance
to institutions devoted to addressing such
events, including the International Centre
for the Study of the El Niño phenomenon;
(j) Promote cooperation for the prevention
and mitigation of, preparedness for, response
to and recovery from major technological and
other disasters with an adverse impact on
the environment in order to enhance the capabilities
of affected countries to cope with such situations.
* * *
36. Change in the Earths climate and
its adverse effects are a common concern of
humankind. We remain deeply concerned that
all countries, particularly developing countries
including the least developed countries and
small island developing States, face increased
risks of negative impacts of climate change
and recognize that, in this context, the problems
of poverty, land degradation, access to water
and food and human health remain at the centre
of global attention. The United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change is the key instrument
for addressing climate change, a global concern,
and we reaffirm our commitment to achieving
its ultimate objective of stabilization of
greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere
at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic
interference with the climate system, within
a time frame sufficient to allow ecosystems
to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure
that food production is not threatened and
to enable economic development to proceed
in a sustainable manner, in accordance with
our common but differentiated responsibilities
and respective capabilities. Recalling the
United Nations Millennium Declaration, in
which heads of State and Government resolved
to make every effort to ensure the entry into
force of the Kyoto Protocol to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,
preferably by the tenth anniversary of the
United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development in 2002, and to embark on the
required reduction of emissions of greenhouse
gases, States that have ratified the Kyoto
Protocol strongly urge States that have not
already done so to ratify the Kyoto Protocol
in a timely manner. Actions at all levels
are required to:
(a) Meet all the commitments and obligations
under the UNFCCC;
(b) Work cooperatively towards achieving the
objectives of the UNFCCC;
(c) Provide technical and financial assistance
and capacity building to developing countries
and countries with economies in transition
in accordance with commitments under the UNFCCC,
including the Marrakech accords;
(d) Build and enhance scientific and technological
capabilities, inter alia through continuing
support to the IPCC for the exchange of scientific
data and information especially in developing
countries;
(e) Develop and transfer technological solutions;
(f) Develop and disseminate innovative technologies
in respect of key sectors of development,
particularly energy, and of investment in
this regard, including through private sector
involvement, market-oriented approaches, as
well as supportive public policies and international
cooperation;
(g) Promote the systematic observation of
the Earths atmosphere, land and oceans
by improving monitoring stations, increasing
the use of satellites, and appropriate integration
of these observations to produce high-quality
data that could be disseminated for the use
of all countries, in particular developing
countries;
(h) Enhance the implementation of national,
regional and international strategies to monitor
the Earths atmosphere, land and oceans
including, as appropriate, strategies for
integrated global observations, inter alia
with the cooperation of relevant international
organisations, especially the United Nations
specialized agencies in cooperation with the
UNFCCC;
(i) Support initiatives to assess the consequences
of climate change, such as the Arctic Council
initiative, including the environmental, economic
and social impacts on local and indigenous
communities.
37.
Enhance cooperation at the international,
regional and national levels to reduce air
pollution, including transboundary air pollution,
acid deposition and ozone depletion bearing
in mind the Rio principles, including, inter
alia, the principle that, in view of the different
contributions to global environmental degradation,
States have common but differentiated responsibilities,
with actions at all levels to:
(a) Strengthen capacities of developing countries
and countries with economies in transition
to measure, reduce and assess the impacts
of air pollution, including health impacts,
and provide financial and technical support
for these activities;
(b) Facilitate implementation of the Montreal
Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone
Layer by ensuring adequate replenishment of
its fund by 2003/2005;
(c) Further support the effective regime for
the protection of the ozone layer established
in the Vienna Convention for the Protection
of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol,
including its compliance mechanism;
(d) Improve access by developing countries
to affordable, accessible, cost-effective,
safe and environmentally sound alternatives
to ozone-depleting substances by 2010, and
assist them in complying with the phase-out
schedule under the Montreal Protocol, bearing
in mind that ozone depletion and climate change
are scientifically and technically interrelated;
(e) Take measures to address illegal traffic
in ozone-depleting substances.
* * *
38. Agriculture plays a crucial role in addressing
the needs of a growing global population,
and is inextricably linked to poverty eradication,
especially in developing countries. Enhancing
the role of women at all levels and in all
aspects of rural development, agriculture,
nutrition and food security is imperative.
Sustainable agriculture and rural development
are essential to the implementation of an
integrated approach to increasing food production
and enhancing food security and food safety
in an environmentally sustainable way. This
would include actions at all levels to:
(a) Achieve the Millennium Declaration target
to halve by the year 2015 the proportion of
the worlds people who suffer from hunger
and realize the right to a standard of living
adequate for the health and well-being of
themselves and their families, including food,
including by promoting food security and fighting
hunger in combination with measures which
address poverty, consistent with the outcome
of the World Food Summit and, for States Parties,
with their obligations under article 11 of
the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights;
(b) Develop and implement integrated land
management and water-use plans that are based
on sustainable use of renewable resources
and on integrated assessments of socio-economic
and environmental potentials, and strengthen
the capacity of Governments, local authorities
and communities to monitor and manage the
quantity and quality of land and water resources;
(c) Increase understanding of the sustainable
use, protection and management of water resources
to advance long-term sustainability of freshwater,
coastal and marine environments;
(d) Promote programmes to enhance in a sustainable
manner the productivity of land and the efficient
use of water resources in agriculture, forestry,
wetlands, artisanal fisheries and aquaculture,
especially through indigenous and local community-based
approaches;
(e) Support the efforts of developing countries
to protect oases from silt, land degradation
and increasing salinity by providing appropriate
technical and financial assistance;
(f) Enhance the participation of women in
all aspects and at all levels relating to
sustainable agriculture and food security;
(g) Integrate existing information systems
on land-use practices by strengthening national
research and extension services and farmer
organizations to trigger farmer-to-farmer
exchange on good practices, such as those
related to environmentally sound, low-cost
technologies, with the assistance of relevant
international organizations;
(h) Enact, as appropriate, measures that protect
indigenous resource management systems and
support the contribution of all appropriate
stakeholders, men and women alike, in rural
planning and development;
(i) Adopt policies and implement laws that
guarantee well defined and enforceable land
and water use rights, and promote legal security
of tenure, recognizing the existence of different
national laws and/or systems of land access
and tenure, and provide technical and financial
assistance to developing countries as well
as countries with economies in transition
that are undertaking land tenure reform in
order to enhance sustainable livelihoods;
(j) Reverse the declining trend in public
sector finance for sustainable agriculture,
provide appropriate technical and financial
assistance, and promote private sector investment
and support efforts in developing countries
and countries with economies in transition
to strengthen agricultural research and natural
resource management capacity and dissemination
of research results to the farming communities;
(k) Employ market-based incentives for agricultural
enterprises and farmers to monitor and manage
water use and quality, inter alia, by applying
such methods as small-scale irrigation and
wastewater recycling and reuse;
(l) Enhance access to existing markets and
develop new markets for value-added agricultural
products;
(m) Increase brown-field redevelopment in
developed countries and countries with economies
in transition, with appropriate technical
assistance where contamination is a serious
problem;
(n) Enhance international cooperation to combat
the illicit cultivation of narcotic plants,
taking into account their negative social,
economic and environmental impacts;
(o) Promote programmes for the environmentally
sound, effective and efficient use of soil
fertility improvement practices and agricultural
pest control;
(p) Strengthen and improve coordination of
existing initiatives to enhance sustainable
agricultural production and food security;
(q) Invite countries that have not done so
to ratify the International Treaty on Plant
Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture;
(r) Promote the conservation, and sustainable
use and management of traditional and indigenous
agricultural systems and strengthen indigenous
models of agricultural production.
* * *
39. Strengthen the implementation of the United
Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought
and/or Desertification, particularly in Africa,
to address causes of desertification and land
degradation in order to maintain and restore
land, and to address poverty resulting from
land degradation. This would include actions
at all levels to:
(a) Mobilize adequate and predictable financial
resources, transfer of technologies and capacity-building
at all levels;
(b) Formulate national action programmes to
ensure timely and effective implementation
of the Convention and its related projects,
with the support of the international community,
including through decentralized projects at
the local level;
(c) Encourage the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, the Convention
on Biological Diversity and the Convention
to Combat Desertification to continue exploring
and enhancing synergies, with due regard to
their respective mandates, in the elaboration
and implementation of plans and strategies
under the respective Conventions;
(d) Integrate measures to prevent and combat
desertification as well as to mitigate the
effects of drought through relevant policies
and programmes, such as land, water and forest
management, agriculture, rural development,
early warning systems, environment, energy,
natural resources, health and education, and
poverty eradication and sustainable development
strategies;
(e) Provide affordable local access to information
to improve monitoring and early warning related
to desertification and drought;
(f) Call on the Second Assembly of the Global
Environment Facility (GEF) to take action
on the recommendations of the GEF Council
concerning the designation of land degradation
(desertification and deforestation) as a focal
area of GEF as a means of GEF support for
the successful implementation of the Convention
to Combat Desertification; and consequently,
consider making GEF a financial mechanism
of the Convention, taking into account the
prerogatives and decisions of the Conference
of the Parties to the Convention, while recognizing
the complementary roles of GEF and the Global
Mechanism of the Convention in providing and
mobilizing resources for the elaboration and
implementation of action programmes;
(g) Improve the sustainability of grassland
resources through strengthening management
and law enforcement and providing financial
and technical support by the international
community to developing countries.
* * *
40. Mountain ecosystems support particular
livelihoods, and include significant watershed
resources, biological diversity and unique
flora and fauna. Many are particularly fragile
and vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate
change and need specific protection. Actions
at all levels are required to:
(a) Develop and promote programmes, policies
and approaches that integrate environmental,
economic and social components of sustainable
mountain development and strengthen international
cooperation for its positive impacts on poverty
eradication programmes, especially in developing
countries;
(b) Implement programmes to address, where
appropriate, deforestation, erosion, land
degradation, loss of biodiversity, disruption
of water flows and retreat of glaciers;
(c) Develop and implement, where appropriate,
gender-sensitive policies and programmes,
including public and private investments that
help eliminate inequities facing mountain
communities;
(d) Implement programmes to promote diversification
and traditional mountain economies, sustainable
livelihoods and small-scale production systems,
including specific training programmes and
better access to national and international
markets, communications and transport planning,
taking into account the particular sensitivity
of mountains;
(e) Promote full participation and involvement
of mountain communities in decisions that
affect them and integrate indigenous knowledge,
heritage and values in all development initiatives;
(f) Mobilize national and international support
for applied research and capacity-building,
provide financial and technical assistance
for the effective implementation of sustainable
development of mountain ecosystems in developing
countries and countries with economies in
transition, and address the poverty among
people living in mountains through concrete
plans, projects and programmes, with sufficient
support from all stakeholders, taking into
account the spirit of the International Year
of the Mountain 2002.
* * *
41. Promote sustainable tourism development,
including non-consumptive and eco-tourism,
taking into account the spirit of the International
Year of Eco-tourism 2002, the United Nations
Year for Cultural Heritage in 2002, the World
Eco-tourism Summit 2002 and its Quebec Declaration,
and the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism
as adopted by the World Tourism Organization
in order to increase the benefits from tourism
resources for the population in host communities
while maintaining the cultural and environmental
integrity of the host communities and enhancing
the protection of ecologically sensitive areas
and natural heritages. Promote sustainable
tourism development and capacity-building
in order to contribute to the strengthening
of rural and local communities. This would
include actions at all levels to:
(a) Enhance international cooperation, foreign
direct investment and partnerships with both
private and public sectors, at all levels;
(b) Develop programmes, including education
and training programmes, that encourage people
to participate in eco-tourism, enable indigenous
and local communities to develop and benefit
from eco-tourism, and enhance stakeholder
cooperation in tourism development and heritage
preservation, in order to improve the protection
of the environment, natural resources and
cultural heritage;
(c) Provide technical assistance to developing
countries and countries with economies in
transition to support sustainable tourism
business development and investment and tourism
awareness programmes, to improve domestic
tourism, and to stimulate entrepreneurial
development;
(d) Assist host communities in managing visits
to their tourism attractions for their maximum
benefit, while ensuring the least negative
impacts on and risks for their traditions,
culture and environment, with the support
of the World Tourism Organization and other
relevant organizations;
(e) Promote the diversification of economic
activities, including through the facilitation
of access to markets and commercial information,
and participation of emerging local enterprises,
especially small and medium-sized enterprises.
* * *
42. Biodiversity, which plays a critical role
in overall sustainable development and poverty
eradication, is essential to our planet, human
well-being and to the livelihood and cultural
integrity of people. However, biodiversity
is currently being lost at unprecedented rates
due to human activities; this trend can only
be reversed if the local people benefit from
the conservation and sustainable use of biological
diversity, in particular in countries of origin
of genetic resources, in accordance with article
15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Convention is the key instrument for the
conservation and sustainable use of biological
diversity and the fair and equitable sharing
of benefits arising from use of genetic resources.
A more efficient and coherent implementation
of the three objectives of the Convention
and the achievement by 2010 of a significant
reduction in the current rate of loss of biological
diversity will require the provision of new
and additional financial and technical resources
to developing countries, and includes actions
at all levels to:
(a) Integrate the objectives of the Convention
into global, regional and national sectoral
and cross-sectoral programmes and policies,
in particular in the programmes and policies
of the economic sectors of countries and international
financial institutions;
(b) Promote the ongoing work under the Convention
on the sustainable use on biological diversity,
including on sustainable tourism, as a cross-cutting
issue relevant to different ecosystems, sectors
and thematic areas;
(c) Encourage effective synergies between
the Convention and other multilateral environmental
agreements, inter alia, through the development
of joint plans and programmes, with due regard
to their respective mandates, regarding common
responsibilities and concerns;
(d) Implement the Convention and its provisions,
including active follow-up of its work programmes
and decisions through national, regional and
global action programmes, in particular the
national biodiversity strategies and action
plans, and strengthen their integration into
relevant cross-sectoral strategies, programmes
and policies, including those related to sustainable
development and poverty eradication, including
initiatives which promote community-based
sustainable use of biological diversity;
(e) Promote the wide implementation and further
development of the ecosystem approach, as
being elaborated in the ongoing work of the
Convention;
(f) Promote concrete international support
and partnership for the conservation and sustainable
use of biodiversity, including in ecosystems,
at World Heritage sites and for the protection
of endangered species, in particular through
the appropriate channelling of financial resources
and technology to developing countries and
countries with economies in transition;
(g) To effectively conserve and sustainably
use biodiversity, promote and support initiatives
for hot spot areas and other areas essential
for biodiversity and promote the development
of national and regional ecological networks
and corridors;
(h) Provide financial and technical support
to developing countries, including capacity-building,
in order to enhance indigenous and community-based
biodiversity conservation efforts;
(i) Strengthen national, regional and international
efforts to control invasive alien species,
which are one of the main causes of biodiversity
loss, and encourage the development of effective
work programme on invasive alien species at
all levels;
(j) Subject to national legislation, recognize
the rights of local and indigenous communities
who are holders of traditional knowledge,
innovations and practices, and, with the approval
and involvement of the holders of such knowledge,
innovations and practices, develop and implement
benefit-sharing mechanisms on mutually agreed
terms for the use of such knowledge, innovations
and practices;
(k) Encourage and enable all stakeholders
to contribute to the implementation of the
objectives of the Convention, and in particular
recognize the specific role of youth, women
and indigenous and local communities in conserving
and using biodiversity in a sustainable way;
(l) Promote the effective participation of
indigenous and local communities in decision
and policy-making concerning the use of their
traditional knowledge;
(m) Encourage technical and financial support
to developing countries and countries with
economies in transition in their efforts to
develop and implement, as appropriate, inter
alia, national sui generis systems and traditional
systems according to national priorities and
legislation, with a view to conserving and
the sustainable use of biodiversity;
(n) Promote the wide implementation of and
continued work on the Bonn Guidelines on Access
to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable
Sharing of Benefits arising out of their Utilization
of the Convention, as an input to assist Parties
to the Convention when developing and drafting
legislative, administrative or policy measures
on access and benefit-sharing, and contract
and other arrangements under mutually agreed
terms for access and benefit-sharing;
(o) Negotiate within the framework of the
Convention on Biological Diversity, bearing
in mind the Bonn Guidelines, an international
regime to promote and safeguard the fair and
equitable sharing of benefits arising out
of the utilization of genetic resources;
(p) Encourage successful conclusion of existing
processes under the World Intellectual Property
Organization Intergovernmental Committee on
Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources,
Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, and in
the ad hoc open-ended working group on article
8 (j) and related provisions of the Convention;
(q) Promote practicable measures for access
to the results and benefits arising from biotechnologies
based upon genetic resources, in accordance
with articles 15 and 19 of the Convention,
including through enhanced scientific and
technical cooperation on biotechnology and
biosafety, including the exchange of experts,
training human resources and developing research-oriented
institutional capacities;
(r) With a view to enhancing synergy and mutual
supportiveness, taking into account the decisions
under the relevant agreements, promote the
discussions, without prejudging their outcome,
with regard to the relationships between the
Convention and agreements related to international
trade and intellectual property rights, as
outlined in the Doha Ministerial Declaration;
(s) Promote the implementation of the programme
of work of the Global Taxonomy Initiative;
(t) Invite all States which have not already
done so to ratify the Convention, the Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety and other biodiversity-related
agreements, and invite those that have done
so, to promote their effective implementation
at the national, regional and international
levels and to support developing countries
and countries with economies in transition
technically and financially in this regard.
* * *
43. Forests and trees cover nearly one third
of the Earths surface. Sustainable forest
management of both natural and planted forests
and for timber and non-timber products is
essential to achieving sustainable development
and is a critical means to eradicate poverty,
significantly reduce deforestation and halt
the loss of forest biodiversity and land and
resource degradation, and improve food security
and access to safe drinking water and affordable
energy; highlights the multiple benefits of
both natural and planted forests and trees;
and contributes to the well-being of the planet
and humanity. Achievement of sustainable forest
management, nationally and globally, including
through partnerships among interested Governments
and stakeholders, including the private sector,
indigenous and local communities and non-governmental
organizations, is an essential goal of sustainable
development. This would include actions at
all levels to:
(a) Enhance political commitment to achieve
sustainable forest management by endorsing
it as a priority on the international political
agenda, taking full account of the linkages
between the forest sector and other sectors
through integrated approaches;
(b) Support the United Nations Forum on Forests,
with the assistance of the Collaborative Partnership
on Forests, as key intergovernmental mechanisms
to facilitate and coordinate the implementation
of sustainable forest management at the national,
regional and global levels, thus contributing,
inter alia, to the conservation and sustainable
use of forest biodiversity;
(c) Take immediate action on domestic forest
law enforcement and illegal international
trade in forest products, including in forest
biological resources, with the support of
the international community, and provide human
and institutional capacity-building related
to the enforcement of national legislation
in those areas;
(d) Take immediate action at the national
and international levels to promote and facilitate
the means to achieve sustainable timber harvesting,
and to facilitate the provision of financial
resources and the transfer and development
of environmentally sound technologies, and
thereby address unsustainable timber-harvesting
practices;
(e) Develop and implement initiatives to address
the needs of those parts of the world that
currently suffer from poverty and the highest
rates of deforestation and where international
cooperation would be welcomed by affected
Governments;
(f) Create and strengthen partnerships and
international cooperation to facilitate the
provision of increased financial resources,
the transfer of environmentally sound technologies,
trade, capacity-building, forest law enforcement
and governance at all levels, and integrated
land and resource management to implement
sustainable forest management, including the
Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF)/Intergovernmental
Forum on Forests (IFF) proposals for action;
(g) Accelerate implementation of the IPF/IFF
proposals for action by countries and by the
Collaborative Partnership on Forests, and
intensify efforts on reporting to the United
Nations Forum on Forests to contribute to
an assessment of progress in 2005;
(h) Recognize and support indigenous and community-based
forest management systems to ensure their
full and effective participation in sustainable
forest management;
(i) Implement the Convention on Biological
Diversitys expanded action-oriented
work programme on all types of forest biological
diversity, in close cooperation with the Forum,
Partnership members and other forest-related
processes and conventions, with the involvement
of all relevant stakeholders.
* * *
44. Mining, minerals and metals are important
to the economic and social development of
many countries. Minerals are essential for
modern living. Enhancing the contribution
of mining, minerals and metals to sustainable
development includes actions at all levels
to:
(a) Support efforts to address the environmental,
economic, health and social impacts and benefits
of mining, minerals and metals throughout
their life cycle, including workers
health and safety, and use a range of partnerships,
furthering existing activities at the national
and international levels, among interested
Governments, intergovernmental organizations,
mining companies and workers, and other stakeholders,
to promote transparency and accountability
for sustainable mining and minerals development;
(b) Enhance the participation of stakeholders,
including local and indigenous communities
and women, to play an active role in minerals,
metals and mining development throughout the
life cycles of mining operations, including
after closure for rehabilitation purposes,
in accordance with national regulations and
taking into account significant transboundary
impacts;
(c) Foster sustainable mining practices through
the provision of financial, technical and
capacity-building support to developing countries
and countries with economies in transition
for the mining and processing of minerals,
including small-scale mining, and, where possible
and appropriate, improve value-added processing,
upgrade scientific and technological information,
and reclaim and rehabilitate degraded sites.
V.
Sustainable development in a globalizing world
45.
Globalization offers opportunities and challenges
for sustainable development. We recognize
that globalization and interdependence are
offering new opportunities to trade, investment
and capital flows and advances in technology,
including information technology, for the
growth of the world economy, development and
the improvement of living standards around
the world. At the same time, there remain
serious challenges, including serious financial
crises, insecurity, poverty, exclusion and
inequality within and among societies. The
developing countries and countries with economies
in transition face special difficulties in
responding to those challenges and opportunities.
Globalization should be fully inclusive and
equitable, and there is a strong need for
policies and measures at the national and
international levels, formulated and implemented
with the full and effective participation
of developing countries and countries with
economies in transition, to help them to respond
effectively to those challenges and opportunities.
This will require urgent action at all levels
to:
(a) Continue to promote open, equitable, rules-based,
predictable and non-discriminatory multilateral
trading and financial systems that benefit
all countries in the pursuit of sustainable
development. Support the successful completion
of the work programme contained in the Doha
Ministerial Declaration and the implementation
of the Monterrey Consensus. Welcome the decision
contained in the Doha Ministerial Declaration
to place the needs and interests of developing
countries at the heart of the work programme
of the Declaration, including through enhanced
market access for products of interest to
developing countries;
(b) Encourage ongoing efforts by international
financial and trade institutions to ensure
that decision-making processes and institutional
structures are open and transparent;
(c) Enhance the capacities of developing countries,
including the least developed countries, landlocked
developing countries and small island developing
States, to benefit from liberalized trade
opportunities, through international cooperation
and measures aimed at improving productivity,
commodity diversification and competitiveness,
community-based entrepreneurial capacity,
and transportation and communication infrastructure
development;
(d) Support the International Labour Organization
and encourage its ongoing work on the social
dimension of globalization, as stated in paragraph
64 of the Monterrey Consensus;
(e) Enhance the delivery of coordinated, effective
and targeted trade-related technical assistance
and capacity-building programmes, including
to take advantage of existing and future market
access opportunities, and to examine the relationship
between trade, environment and development.
45.bis Implement the outcomes of the Doha
Ministerial Conference by WTO members, further
strengthen trade-related technical assistance
and capacity-building, and ensure the meaningful,
effective and full participation of developing
countries in multilateral trade negotiations
by placing their needs and interests at the
heart of the WTO work programme.
45.ter Actively promote corporate responsibility
and accountability, based on the Rio Principles,
including through the full development and
effective implementation of intergovernmental
agreements and measures, international initiatives
and public-private partnerships, and appropriate
national regulations, and support continuous
improvement in corporate practices in all
countries.
45.quater Strengthen the capacities of developing
countries to encourage public/private initiatives
that enhance the ease of access, accuracy,
timeliness and coverage of information on
countries and financial markets. Multilateral
and regional financial institutions could
provide further assistance for these purposes.
45.quinquies Strengthen regional trade and
cooperation agreements, consistent with the
multilateral trading system, among developed
and developing countries and countries with
economies in transition, as well as among
developing countries, with the support of
international finance institutions and regional
development banks, as appropriate, with a
view to achieving the objectives of sustainable
development.
45.sexties Assist developing countries and
countries with economies in transition in
narrowing the digital divide, creating digital
opportunities and harnessing the potential
of information and communication technologies
for development, through technology transfer
on mutually agreed terms and the provision
of financial and technical support, and in
this context support the World Summit on the
Information Society.
VI.
Health and sustainable development
46.
The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
states that human beings are at the centre
of concerns for sustainable development, and
that they are entitled to a healthy and productive
life, in harmony with nature. The goals of
sustainable development can only be achieved
in the absence of a high prevalence of debilitating
diseases, while obtaining health gains for
the whole population requires poverty eradication.
There is an urgent need to address the causes
of ill health, including environmental causes,
and their impact on development, with particular
emphasis on women and children, as well as
vulnerable groups of society, such as people
with disabilities, elderly persons and indigenous
people.
47. Strengthen the capacity of health-care
systems to deliver basic health services to
all, in an efficient, accessible and affordable
manner aimed at preventing, controlling and
treating diseases, and to reduce environmental
health threats, in conformity with human rights
and fundamental freedoms and consistent with
national laws and cultural and religious values,
taking into account the reports of relevant
United Nations conferences and summits and
of special sessions of the General Assembly.
This would include actions at all levels to:
(a) Integrate the health concerns, including
those of the most vulnerable populations,
into strategies, policies and programmes for
poverty eradication and sustainable development;
(b) Promote equitable and improved access
to affordable and efficient health-care services,
including prevention, at all levels of the
health system, essential and safe drugs at
affordable prices, immunization services and
safe vaccines, and medical technology;
(c) Provide technical and financial assistance
to developing countries and countries with
economies in transition to implement the Health
for All Strategy, including health information
systems and integrated databases on development
hazards;
(d) Improve the development and management
of human resources in health-care services;
(e) Promote and develop partnerships to enhance
health education with the objective of achieving
improved health literacy on a global basis
by 2010, with the involvement of United Nations
agencies, as appropriate;
(f) Develop programmes and initiatives to
reduce, by the year 2015, mortality rates
for infants and children under 5 by two thirds,
and maternal mortality rates by three quarters,
of the prevailing rate in 2000, and reduce
disparities between and within developed and
developing countries as quickly as possible,
with particular attention to eliminating the
pattern of disproportionate and preventable
mortality among girl infants and children;
(g) Target research efforts and apply research
results to priority public health issues,
in particular those affecting susceptible
and vulnerable populations, through the development
of new vaccines, reducing exposures to health
risks, building on equal access to health-care
services, education, training and medical
treatment and technology, and addressing the
secondary effects of poor health;
(h) Promote the preservation, development
and use of effective traditional medicine
knowledge and practices, where appropriate,
in combination with modern medicine, recognizing
indigenous and local communities as custodians
of traditional knowledge and practices, while
promoting effective protection of traditional
knowledge, as appropriate, consistent with
international law;
(i) Ensure equal access of women to health-care
services, giving particular attention to maternal
and emergency obstetric care;
(j) Address effectively, for all individuals
of appropriate age, the promotion of their
healthy lives, including their reproductive
and sexual health, consistent with the commitments
and outcomes of recent United Nations conferences
and summits, including the World Summit for
Children, the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, the International
Conference of Population and Development,
the World Summit for Social Development and
the Fourth World Conference on Women, and
their respective reviews and reports;
(k) Launch international capacity-building
initiatives, as appropriate, that assess health
and environment linkages and use the knowledge
gained to create more effective national and
regional policy responses to environmental
threats to human health;
(l) Transfer and disseminate, on mutually
agreed terms, including through public-private
multisector partnerships, technologies for
safe water, sanitation and waste management
for rural and urban areas in developing countries
and countries with economies in transition,
with international financial support, taking
into account country-specific conditions and
gender equality including specific technology
needs of women;
(m) Strengthen and promote ILO and World Health
Organization (WHO) programmes to reduce occupational
deaths, injuries and illnesses, and link occupational
health with public health promotion as a means
of promoting public health and education;
(n) Improve availability and access for all
to sufficient, safe, culturally acceptable
and nutritionally adequate food, increase
consumer health protection, address issues
of micronutrient deficiency, and implement
existing internationally agreed commitments
and relevant standards and guidelines;
(o) Develop or strengthen, where applicable,
preventive, promotive and curative programmes
to address non-communicable diseases and conditions,
such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes,
chronic respiratory diseases, injuries, violence
and mental health disorders and associated
risk factors, including alcohol, tobacco,
unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity.
48. Implement, within the agreed time frames,
all commitments agreed in the Declaration
of Commitment on HIV/AIDS adopted by the General
Assembly at its twenty-sixth special session,
emphasizing in particular the reduction of
HIV prevalence among young men and women aged
15-24 by 25 per cent in the most affected
countries by 2005 and globally by 2010, as
well as combat malaria, tuberculosis and other
diseases by, inter alia:
(a) Implementing national preventive and treatment
strategies, regional and international cooperation
measures, and the development of international
initiatives to provide special assistance
to children orphaned by HIV/AIDS;
(b) Fulfilling commitments for the provision
of sufficient resources to support the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria,
while promoting access to the Fund by countries
most in need;
(c) Protecting the health of workers and promoting
occupational safety, by, inter alia, taking
into account, as appropriate the voluntary
ILO code of practice on HIV/AIDS and the world
of work, to improve conditions of the workplace;
(d) Mobilizing adequate public and encouraging
private financial resources for research and
development on diseases of the poor, such
as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, directed
at biomedical and health research, as well
as new vaccine and drug development.
49. Reduce respiratory diseases and other
health impacts resulting from air pollution,
with particular attention to women and children,
by:
(a) Strengthening regional and national programmes,
including through public-private partnerships,
with technical and financial assistance to
developing countries;
(b) Supporting the phasing out of lead in
gasoline;
(c) Strengthening and supporting efforts for
the reduction of emissions, through the use
of cleaner fuels and modern pollution control
techniques;
(d) Assisting developing countries in providing
affordable energy to rural communities, particularly
to reduce dependence on traditional fuel sources
for cooking and heating, which affect the
health of women and children.
50. Phase out lead in lead-based paints and
other sources of human exposure, work to prevent,
in particular, childrens exposure to
lead, and strengthen monitoring and surveillance
efforts and the treatment of lead poisoning.
[Paragraph 51 is deleted]
VII.
Sustainable development of small island developing
States
52. Small island developing States are a special
case both for environment and development.
Although they continue to take the lead in
the path towards sustainable development in
their countries, they are increasingly constrained
by the interplay of adverse factors clearly
underlined in Agenda 21, the Programme of
Action for the Sustainable Development of
Small Island Developing States and the decisions
adopted at the twenty-second special session
of the General Assembly. This would include
actions at all levels to:
(a) Accelerate national and regional implementation
of the Programme of Action, with adequate
financial resources, including through GEF
focal areas, transfer of environmentally sound
technologies and assistance for capacity-building
from the international community;
(b) Further implement sustainable fisheries
management and improve financial returns from
fisheries by supporting and strengthening
relevant regional fisheries management organizations,
as appropriate, such as the recently established
Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism and
such agreements as the Convention on the Conservation
and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks
in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean;
(c) Assist small island developing States,
including through the elaboration of specific
initiatives, in delimiting and managing in
a sustainable manner their coastal areas and
exclusive economic zones and the continental
shelf (including, where appropriate, the continental
shelf areas beyond 200 miles from coastal
baselines), as well as relevant regional management
initiatives within the context of the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and
the UNEP regional seas programmes;
(d) Provide support, including for capacity-building,
for the development and further implementation
of:
(i) Small island developing States-specific
components within programmes of work on marine
and coastal biological diversity;
(ii) Freshwater programmes for small island
developing States, including through the GEF
focal areas;
(e) Effectively reduce, prevent and control
waste and pollution and their health-related
impacts by undertaking by 2004 initiatives
aimed at implementing the Global Programme
of Action for the Protection of the Marine
Environment from Land-based Activities in
small island developing States;
(f) Work to ensure that, in the ongoing negotiations
and elaboration of the WTO work programme
on trade in small economies, due account is
taken of small island developing States, which
have severe structural handicaps in integrating
into the global economy, within the context
of the Doha development agenda;
(g) Develop community-based initiatives on
sustainable tourism by 2004, and build the
capacities necessary to diversify tourism
products, while protecting culture and traditions,
and effectively conserving and managing natural
resources;
(h) Extend assistance to small island developing
States in support of local communities and
appropriate national and regional organizations
of small island developing States for comprehensive
hazard and risk management, disaster prevention,
mitigation and preparedness, and help relieve
the consequences of disasters, extreme weather
events and other emergencies;
(i) Support the finalization and subsequent
early operationalization, on agreed terms,
of economic, social and environmental vulnerability
indices and related indicators as tools for
the achievement of the sustainable development
of the small island developing States;
(j) Assist small island developing States
in mobilizing adequate resources and partnerships
for their adaptation needs relating to the
adverse effects of climate change, sea level
rise and climate variability, consistent with
commitments under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Changes, where applicable;
(k) Support efforts by small island developing
States to build capacities and institutional
arrangements to implement intellectual property
regimes;
53. Support the availability of adequate,
affordable and environmentally sound energy
services for the sustainable development of
small island developing States by, inter alia:
(a) Strengthening ongoing and supporting new
efforts on energy supply and services, by
2004, including through the United Nations
system and partnership initiatives;
(b) Developing and promoting efficient use
of sources of energy, including indigenous
sources and renewable energy, and building
the capacities of small island developing
States for training, technical know-how and
strengthening national institutions in the
area of energy management;
54. Provide support to SIDS to develop capacity
and strengthen:
(a) Health-care services for promoting equitable
access to health care;
(b) Health systems for making available necessary
drugs and technology in a sustainable and
affordable manner to fight and control communicable
and non-communicable diseases, in particular
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, diabetes, malaria
and dengue fever;
(c) Efforts to reduce and manage waste and
pollution and building capacity for maintaining
and managing systems to deliver water and
sanitation services, in both rural and urban
areas;
(d) Efforts to implement initiatives aimed
at poverty eradication, which have been outlined
in section II of the present document.
55. Undertake a full and comprehensive review
of the implementation of the Barbados Programme
of Action for the Sustainable Development
of Small Island Developing States in 2004,
in accordance with the provisions set forth
in General Assembly resolution S-22/2, and
in this context requests the General Assembly
at its fifty-seventh session to consider convening
an international meeting for the sustainable
development of small island developing States.
VIII.
Sustainable development for Africa
56. Since the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, sustainable development
has remained elusive for many African countries.
Poverty remains a major challenge and most
countries on the continent have not benefited
fully from the opportunities of globalization,
further exacerbating the continents
marginalization. Africas efforts to
achieve sustainable development have been
hindered by conflicts, insufficient investment,
limited market access opportunities and supply
side constraints, unsustainable debt burdens,
historically declining ODA levels and the
impact of HIV/AIDS. The World Summit on Sustainable
Development should reinvigorate the commitment
of the international community to address
these special challenges and give effect to
a new vision based on concrete actions for
the implementation of Agenda 21 in Africa.
The New Partnership for Africas Development
(NEPAD) is a commitment by African leaders
to the people of Africa. It recognizes that
partnerships among African countries themselves
and between them and with the international
community are key elements of a shared and
common vision to eradicate poverty, and furthermore
it aims to place their countries, both individually
and collectively, on a path of sustained economic
growth and sustainable development, while
participating actively in the world economy
and body politic. It provides a framework
for sustainable development on the continent
to be shared by all Africas people.
The international community welcomes NEPAD
and pledges its support to the implementation
of this vision, including through utilization
of the benefits of South-South cooperation
supported, inter alia, by the Tokyo International
Conference on African Development. It also
pledges support for other existing development
frameworks that are owned and driven nationally
by African countries and that embody poverty
reduction strategies, including poverty reduction
strategy papers. Achieving sustainable development
includes actions at all levels to:
(a) Create an enabling environment at the
regional, subregional, national and local
levels in order to achieve sustained economic
growth and sustainable development and support
African efforts for peace, stability and security,
the resolution and prevention of conflicts,
democracy, good governance, respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms, including
the right to development and gender equality;
(b) Support the implementation of the vision
of NEPAD and other established regional and
subregional efforts, including through financing,
technical cooperation and institutional cooperation,
and human and institutional capacity-building
at the regional, subregional and national
levels, consistent with national policies,
programmes and nationally owned and led strategies
for poverty reduction and sustainable development,
such as, where applicable, poverty reduction
strategy papers;
(c) Promote technology development, transfer
and diffusion to Africa and further develop
technology and knowledge available in African
centres of excellence;
(d) Support African countries to develop effective
science and technology institutions and research
activities capable of developing and adapting
to world class technologies;
(e) Support the development of national programmes
and strategies to promote education within
the context of nationally owned and led strategies
for poverty reduction, and strengthen research
institutions in education in order to increase
the capacity to fully support the achievement
of internationally agreed development goals
related to education, including those contained
in the Millennium Declaration on ensuring
that, by 2015, 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 relevant to national needs;
(f) Enhance the industrial productivity, diversity
and competitiveness of African countries through
a combination of financial and technological
support for the development of key infrastructure,
access to technology, networking of research
centres, adding value to export products,
skills development and enhancing market access
in support of sustainable development;
(g) Enhance the contribution of the industrial
sector, in particular mining, minerals and
metals, to the sustainable development of
Africa by supporting the development of effective
and transparent regulatory and management
frameworks and value addition, broad-based
participation, social and environmental responsibility
and increased market access in order to create
an attractive and conducive environment for
investment;
(h) Provide financial and technical support
to strengthen the capacity of African countries
to undertake environmental legislative policy
and institutional reform for sustainable development
and to undertake environmental impact assessments
and, as appropriate, to negotiate and implement
multilateral environment agreements;
(i) Develop projects, programmes and partnerships
with relevant stakeholders and mobilize resources
for the effective implementation of the outcome
of the African Process for the Protection
and Development of the Marine and Coastal
Environment;
(j) Deal effectively with energy problems
in Africa, including through initiatives to:
(i) Establish and promote programmes, partnerships
and initiatives to support Africas efforts
to implement NEPAD objectives on energy, which
seek to secure access for at least 35 per
cent of the African population within 20 years,
especially in rural areas;
(ii) Provide support to implement other initiatives
on energy, including the promotion of cleaner
and more efficient use of natural gas and
increased use of renewable energy, and to
improve energy efficiency and access to advanced
energy technologies, including cleaner fossil
fuel technologies, particularly in rural and
peri-urban areas;
(k) Assist African countries in mobilizing
adequate resources for their adaptation needs
relating to the adverse effects of climate
change, extreme weather events, sea level
rise and climate variability, and assist in
developing national climate change strategies
and mitigation programmes, and continue to
take actions to mitigate the adverse effects
on climate change in Africa, consistent with
the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change;
(l) Support African efforts to develop affordable
transport systems and infrastructure that
promote sustainable development and connectivity
in Africa;
(m) Further to paragraph 40 above, address
the poverty affecting mountain communities
in Africa;
(n) Provide financial and technical support
for afforestation and reforestation in Africa
and to build capacity for sustainable forest
management, including combating deforestation
and measures to improve the policy and legal
framework of the forest sector.
57. Provide financial and technical support
for Africas efforts to implement the
Convention to Combat Desertification at the
national level and integrate indigenous knowledge
systems into land and natural resources management
practices, as appropriate, and improve extension
services to rural communities and promote
better land and watershed management practices,
including through improved agricultural practices
that address land degradation, in order to
develop capacity for the implementation of
national programmes.
58. Mobilize financial and other support to
develop and strengthen health systems that
aim at:
(a) Promoting equitable access to health-care
services;
(b) Making available necessary drugs and technology
in a sustainable and affordable manner to
fight and control communicable diseases, including
HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and trypanosomiasis,
as well as non-communicable diseases, including
those caused by poverty;
(c) Building capacity of medical and paramedical
personnel;
(d) Promoting indigenous medical knowledge,
as appropriate, including traditional medicine;
(e) Researching and controlling the Ebola
disease.
59. Deal effectively with natural disasters
and conflicts, including their humanitarian
and environmental impacts, recognizing that
conflicts in Africa have hindered and in many
cases obliterated both the gains and efforts
aimed at sustainable development, with the
most vulnerable members of society, particularly
women and children, being the most impacted
victims, through efforts and initiatives,
at all levels, to:
(a) Provide financial and technical assistance
to strengthen the capacities of African countries,
including institutional and human capacity,
including at the local level, for effective
disaster management, including observation
and early warning systems, assessments, prevention,
preparedness, response and recovery;
(b) Provide support to African countries to
enable them to better deal with the displacement
of people as a result of natural disasters
and conflicts, and put in place rapid response
mechanisms;
(c) Support Africas efforts for the
prevention and resolution, management and
mitigation of conflicts and its early response
to emerging conflict situations to avert tragic
humanitarian consequences;
(d) Provide support to refugee host countries
in rehabilitating infrastructure and environment,
including ecosystems and habitats, that were
damaged in the process of receiving and settling
refugees.
60. Promote integrated water resources development
and optimize the upstream and downstream benefits
therefrom, the development and effective management
of water resources across all uses and the
protection of water quality and aquatic ecosystems,
including through initiatives at all levels,
to:
(a) Provide access to potable domestic water,
hygiene education and improved sanitation
and waste management at the household level
through initiatives to encourage public and
private investment in water supply and sanitation
that give priority to the needs of the poor,
within stable and transparent national regulatory
frameworks provided by Governments, while
respecting local conditions involving all
concerned stakeholders and monitoring the
performance and improving the accountability
of public institutions and private companies;
and develop critical water supply, reticulation
and treatment infrastructure, and build capacity
to maintain and manage systems to deliver
water and sanitation services, in both rural
and urban areas;
(b) Develop and implement integrated river
basin and watershed management strategies
and plans for all major water bodies, consistent
with paragraph 25 above;
(c) Strengthen regional, subregional and national
capacities for data collection and processing,
and for planning, research, monitoring, assessment
and enforcement, as well as arrangements for
water resource management;
(d) Protect water resources, including groundwater
and wetland ecosystems, against pollution,
as well as, in cases of most acute water scarcity,
support efforts for developing non-conventional
water resources, including the energy-efficient,
cost-effective and sustainable desalination
of seawater, rainwater harvesting and recycling
of water.
61. Achieve significantly improved sustainable
agricultural productivity and food security
in furtherance of the agreed millennium development
goals, including those contained in the Millennium
Declaration, in particular to halve by 2015
the proportion of people who suffer from hunger,
including through initiatives at all levels
to:
(a) Support the development and implementation
of national policies and programmes, including
research programmes and development plans
of African countries to regenerate their agricultural
sector and sustainably develop their fisheries,
and increase investment in infrastructure,
technology and extension services, according
to country needs. African countries should
be in the process of developing and implementing
food security strategies, within the context
of national poverty eradication programmes,
by 2005;
(b) Promote and support efforts and initiatives
to secure equitable access to land tenure
and clarify resource rights and responsibilities,
through land and tenure reform processes which
respect the rule of law and are enshrined
in national law, and to provide access to
credit to all, especially to women, and that
enable economic and social empowerment and
poverty eradication as well as efficient and
ecologically sound utilization of land, and
enable women producers to become decision
makers and owners in the sector, including
the right to inherit land;
(c) Improve market access for goods, including
goods originating from African countries,
in particular least developed countries, within
the framework of the Doha Ministerial Declaration,
without prejudging the outcome of the WTO
negotiations and also within the framework
of preferential agreements;
(d) Provide support for African countries
to improve regional trade and economic integration
between African countries. Attract and increase
investment in regional market infrastructure;
(e) Support livestock development programmes
aimed at progressive and effective control
of animal diseases.
62. Achieve sound management of chemicals,
with particular focus on hazardous chemicals
and wastes, inter alia, through initiatives
to assist African countries in elaborating
national chemical profiles, and regional and
national frameworks and strategies for chemical
management and establishing chemical focal
points.
63. Bridge the digital divide and create digital
opportunity in terms of access infrastructure
and technology transfer and application, through
integrated initiatives for Africa. Create
an enabling environment to attract investments,
accelerate existing and new programmes and
projects to connect essential institutions,
and stimulate the adoption of information
communication technologies in government and
commerce programmes and other aspects of national
economic and social life.
64. Support Africas efforts to attain
sustainable tourism that contributes to social,
economic and infrastructure development through
the following measures:
(a) Implementing projects at the local, national
and subregional levels, with specific emphasis
on marketing African tourism products, such
as adventure tourism, eco-tourism and cultural
tourism;
(b) Establishing and supporting national and
cross-border conservation areas to promote
ecosystem conservation according to the ecosystem
approach, and to promote sustainable tourism;
(c) Respecting local traditions and cultures
and promoting the use of indigenous knowledge
in natural resource management and eco-tourism;
(d) Assisting host communities in managing
their tourism projects for maximum benefit,
while limiting negative impact on their traditions,
culture and environment;
(e) Support the conservation of Africas
biological diversity, the sustainable use
of its components and the fair and equitable
sharing of the benefits arising out of the
utilization of genetic resources, in accordance
with commitments that countries have under
biodiversity-related agreements to which they
are parties, including such agreements as
the Convention on Biological Diversity and
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, as well as
regional biodiversity agreements.
65. Support African countries in their efforts
to implement the Habitat Agenda and the Istanbul
Declaration through initiatives to strengthen
national and local institutional capacities
in the areas of sustainable urbanization and
human settlements, provide support for adequate
shelter and basic services and the development
of efficient and effective governance systems
in cities and other human settlements, and
strengthen, inter alia, the United Nations
Human Settlements Programme/UNEP managing
water for African cities programme.
VIII.bis
Other regional initiatives
66. Important initiatives have been developed
within other United Nations regions and regional,
subregional and transregional forums to promote
sustainable development. The international
community welcomes these efforts and the results
already achieved, and calls for actions at
all levels for their further development,
while encouraging interregional, intraregional
and international cooperation in this respect,
and expresses its support for their further
development and implementation by the countries
of the regions.
Sustainable
development in Latin America and the Caribbean
67. The Initiative of Latin America and the
Caribbean on Sustainable Development is an
undertaking by the leaders of that region
that, building on the Platform for Action
on the Road to Johannesburg 2002, which was
approved in Rio de Janeiro in October 2001,
recognizes the importance of regional actions
towards sustainable development and takes
into account the regions singularities,
shared visions and cultural diversity. It
is targeted towards the adoption of concrete
actions in different areas of sustainable
development, such as biodiversity, water resources,
vulnerabilities and sustainable cities, social
aspects (including health and poverty), economic
aspects (including energy) and institutional
arrangements (including capacity-building,
indicators and participation of civil society),
taking into account ethics for sustainable
development.
68. The Initiative envisages the development
of actions among countries in the region that
may foster South-South cooperation and may
count with the support of groups of countries,
as well as multilateral and regional organizations,
including financial institutions. Being a
framework for cooperation, the Initiative
is open to partnerships with governments and
all major groups.
Sustainable development
in Asia and the Pacific
69.
Bearing in mind the target of halving the
number of people who live in poverty by the
year 2015, as provided in the Millennium Declaration,
the Phnom Penh Regional Platform on Sustainable
Development for Asia and the Pacific recognized
that the region contains over half of the
worlds population and the largest number
of the worlds people living in poverty.
Hence, sustainable development in the region
is critical to achieving sustainable development
at the global level.
70. The Regional Platform identified seven
initiatives for follow-up action: capacity-building
for sustainable development; poverty reduction
for sustainable development; cleaner production
and sustainable energy; land management and
biodiversity conservation; protection and
management of and access to freshwater resources;
oceans, coastal and marine resources and sustainable
development of small island developing States;
and action on atmosphere and climate change.
Follow-up actions of these initiatives will
be taken through national strategies and relevant
regional and subregional initiatives, such
as the Regional Action Programme for Environmentally
Sound and Sustainable Development and the
Kitakyushu Initiative for a Clean Environment,
adopted at the Fourth Ministerial Conference
on Environment and Development in Asia and
the Pacific organized by the Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
Sustainable
development in the West Asia region
71. The West Asia region is known for its
scarce water and limited fertile land resources.
The region has made progress to a more knowledge-based
production of higher value-added commodities.
72. The regional preparatory meeting endorsed
the following priorities: poverty alleviation,
relief of debt burden; and sustainable management
of natural resources, including, inter alia,
integrated water resources management, implementation
of programmes to combat desertification, integrated
coastal zone management, and land and water
pollution control.
Sustainable
development in the Economic Commission for
Europe region
73. The Economic Commission for Europe (ECE)
regional ministerial meeting for the World
Summit on Sustainable Development recognized
that the region has a major role to play and
responsibilities in global efforts to achieve
sustainable development by concrete actions.
The region recognized that different levels
of economic development in countries of the
region may require the application of different
approaches and mechanisms to implement Agenda
21. In order to address the three pillars
of sustainable development in a mutually reinforcing
way, the region identified its priority actions
for the ECE region for sustainable development
in paragraphs 32-46 of a ministerial statement.
74. In furtherance of the regions commitment
to sustainable development, there are ongoing
efforts at the regional, subregional and transregional
levels, including, inter alia, the Environment
for Europe process; the fifth ECE ministerial
conference, to be held in Kiev in May 2003;
the development of an environmental strategy
for the 12 countries of Eastern Europe; the
Caucasus and Central Asia; the Central Asian
Agenda 21; OECD work on sustainable development,
the EU sustainable development strategy; and
regional and subregional conventions and processes
relevant to sustainable development, including,
inter alia, the Aarhus Convention, the Alpine
Convention, the North American Commission
on Environmental Cooperation, the Boundary
Waters Treaty, the Iqaluit Declaration of
the Arctic Council, the Baltic Agenda 21 and
the Mediterranean Agenda 21.
IX. Means
of implementation*
75. The implementation of Agenda 21 and the
achievement of the internationally agreed
development goals, including those contained
in the Millennium Declaration as well as in
the present plan of action, require a substantially
increased effort, both by countries themselves
and by the rest of the international community,
based on the recognition that each country
has primary responsibility for its own development
and that the role of national policies and
development strategies cannot be overemphasized,
taking fully into account the Rio principles,
including, in particular, the principle of
common but differentiated responsibilities,
which states:
States shall cooperate in a spirit of
global partnership to conserve, protect and
restore the health and integrity of the Earths
ecosystem. In view of the different contributions
to global environmental degradation, States
have common but differentiated responsibilities.
The developed countries acknowledge the responsibility
that they bear in the international pursuit
of sustainable development in view of the
pressures their societies place on the global
environment and of the technologies and financial
resources they command.
The internationally agreed development goals,
including those contained in the Millennium
Declaration and Agenda 21, as well as in the
present plan of action, will require significant
increases in the flow of financial resources
as elaborated in the Monterrey Consensus,
including through new and additional financial
resources, in particular to developing countries,
to support the implementation of national
policies and programmes developed by them,
improved trade opportunities, access to and
transfer of environmentally sound technologies
on a concessional or preferential basis, as
mutually agreed, education and awareness-raising,
capacity-building, and information for decision-making
and scientific capabilities within the agreed
time frame required to meet these goals and
initiatives. Progress to this end will require
that the international community implement
the outcomes of major United Nations conferences,
such as the programmes of action adopted at
the Third United Nations Conference on the
Least Developed Countries, and the Global
Conference on the Sustainable Development
of Small Island Developing States, and relevant
international agreements since 1992, particularly
those of the International Conference on Financing
for Development and the Fourth WTO Ministerial
Conference, including building on them as
part of a process of achieving sustainable
development.
76. Mobilizing and increasing the effective
use of financial resources and achieving the
national and international economic conditions
needed to fulfil internationally agreed development
goals, including those contained in the Millennium
Declaration, to eliminate poverty, improve
social conditions and raise living standards
and protect our environment, will be our first
step to ensuring that the twenty-first century
becomes the century of sustainable development
for all.
77. In our common pursuit of growth, poverty
eradication and sustainable development, a
critical challenge is to ensure the necessary
internal conditions for mobilizing domestic
savings, both public and private, sustaining
adequate levels of productive investment and
increasing human capacity. A crucial task
is to enhance the efficacy, coherence and
consistency of macroeconomic policies. An
enabling domestic environment is vital for
mobilizing domestic resources, increasing
productivity, reducing capital flight, encouraging
the private sector, and attracting and making
effective use of international investment
and assistance. Efforts to create such an
environment should be supported by the international
community.
78. Facilitate greater flows of foreign direct
investment so as to support the sustainable
development activities, including the development
of infrastructure, of developing countries,
and enhance the benefits that developing countries
can draw from foreign direct investment, with
particular actions to:
(a) Create the necessary domestic and international
conditions to facilitate significant increases
in the flow of FDI to developing countries,
in particular the least developed countries,
which is critical to sustainable development,
particularly FDI flows for infrastructure
development and other priority areas in developing
countries to supplement the domestic resources
mobilized by them;
(b) Encourage foreign direct investment in
developing countries and countries with economies
in transition through export credits that
could be instrumental to sustainable development;
79. Recognize that a substantial increase
in ODA and other resources will be required
if developing countries are to achieve the
internationally agreed development goals and
objectives, including those contained in the
Millennium Declaration. To build support for
ODA, we will cooperate to further improve
policies and development strategies, both
nationally and internationally, to enhance
aid effectiveness, with actions to:
(a) Make available the increased ODA commitments
announced by several developed countries at
the International Conference on Financing
for Development. Urge the developed countries
that have not done so to make concrete efforts
towards the target of 0.7 per cent of GNP
as ODA to developing countries, and effectively
implement their commitment on ODA to the least
developed countries as contained in paragraph
83 of the Programme of Action for the Least
Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010.
We also encourage developing countries to
build on progress achieved in ensuring that
ODA is used effectively to help achieve development
goals and targets in accordance with the outcome
of the International Conference on Financing
for Development. We acknowledge the efforts
of all donors, commend those donors whose
ODA contributions exceed, reach or are increasing
towards the targets, and underline the importance
of undertaking to examine the means and time
frames for achieving the targets and goals;
(b) Encourage recipient and donor countries,
as well as international institutions, to
make ODA more efficient and effective for
poverty eradication, sustained economic growth
and sustainable development. In this regard,
intensify efforts by the multilateral and
bilateral financial and development institutions,
in accordance with paragraph 43 of the Monterrey
Consensus, in particular to harmonize their
operational procedures at the highest standards,
so as to reduce transaction costs and make
ODA disbursement and delivery more flexible
and more responsive to the needs of developing
countries, taking into account national development
needs and objectives under the ownership of
recipient countries, and to use development
frameworks that are owned and driven by developing
countries and that embody poverty reduction
strategies, including poverty reduction strategy
papers, as vehicles for aid delivery, upon
request.
80. Make full and effective use of existing
financial mechanisms and institutions, including
through actions at all levels to:
(a) Strengthen ongoing efforts to reform the
existing international financial architecture,
to foster a transparent, equitable and inclusive
system that is able to provide for the effective
participation of developing countries in the
international economic decision-making processes
and institutions, as well as for their effective
and equitable participation in the formulation
of financial standards and codes;
(b) Promote, inter alia, measures in source
and destination countries to improve transparency
and information about financial flows to contribute
to stability in the international financial
environment. Measures that mitigate the impact
of excessive volatility of short-term capital
flows are important and must be considered;
(c) Work to ensure that the funds are made
available on a timely, more assured and predictable
basis to international organizations and agencies,
where appropriate, for their sustainable development
activities, programmes and projects;
(d) Encourage the private sector, including
transnational corporations, private foundations
and civil society institutions, to provide
financial and technical assistance to developing
countries;
(e) Support new and existing public/private
sector financing mechanisms for developing
countries and countries with economies in
transition, to benefit in particular small
entrepreneurs and small, medium-sized and
community-based enterprises and to improve
their infrastructure, while ensuring the transparency
and accountability of such mechanisms.
81. Welcome the successful and substantial
third replenishment of the GEF, which will
enable it to address the funding requirements
of new focal areas and existing ones and continue
to be responsive to the needs and concerns
of its recipient countries, in particular
developing countries, and further encourage
GEF to leverage additional funds from key
public and private organizations, improve
the management of funds through more speedy
and streamlined procedures and simplify its
project cycle.
82. Explore ways of generating new public
and private innovative sources of finance
for development purposes, provided that those
sources do not unduly burden developing countries,
noting the proposal to use special drawing
rights allocations for development purposes,
as set forth in paragraph 44 of the Monterrey
Consensus.
83. Reduce unsustainable debt burden through
such actions as debt relief and, as appropriate,
debt cancellation and other innovative mechanisms
geared to comprehensively address the debt
problems of developing countries, in particular
the poorest and most heavily indebted ones.
Therefore, debt relief measures should, where
appropriate, be pursued vigorously and expeditiously,
including within the Paris and London Clubs
and other relevant forums, in order to contribute
to debt sustainability and facilitate sustainable
development, while recognizing that debtors
and creditors must share responsibility for
preventing and resolving unsustainable debt
situations, and that external debt relief
can play a key role in liberating resources
that can then be directed towards activities
consistent with attaining sustainable growth
and development. Therefore, we support paragraphs
47 through 51 of the Monterrey Consensus dealing
with external debt. Debt relief arrangements
should seek to avoid imposing any unfair burdens
on other developing countries. There should
be an increase in the use of grants for the
poorest, debt-vulnerable countries. Countries
are encouraged to develop national comprehensive
strategies to monitor and manage external
liabilities as a key element in reducing national
vulnerabilities. In this regard, actions are
required to:
(a) Implement speedily, effectively and fully
the enhanced heavily indebted poor countries
(HIPC) initiative, which should be fully financed
through additional resources, taking into
consideration, as appropriate, measures to
address any fundamental changes in the economic
circumstances of those developing countries
with unsustainable debt burden caused by natural
catastrophes, severe terms-of-trade shocks
or affected by conflict, taking into account
initiatives which have been undertaken to
reduce outstanding indebtedness;
(b) Encourage participation in the HIPC initiative
of all creditors that have not yet done so;
(c) Bring international debtors and creditors
together in relevant international forums
to restructure unsustainable debt in a timely
and efficient manner, taking into account
the need to involve the private sector in
the resolution of crises due to indebtedness,
where appropriate;
(d) Acknowledge the problems of the debt sustainability
of some non-HIPC low-income countries, in
particular those facing exceptional circumstances;
(e) Encourage exploring innovative mechanisms
to comprehensively address the debt problems
of developing countries, including middle-income
countries and countries with economies in
transition. Such mechanisms may include debt-for-sustainable-development
swaps;
(f) Encourage donor countries to take steps
to ensure that resources provided for debt
relief do not detract from ODA resources intended
to be available for developing countries.
84. Recognizing
the major role that trade can play in achieving
sustainable development and in eradicating
poverty, we encourage WTO members to pursue
the work programme agreed at the Fourth WTO
Ministerial Conference. In order for developing
countries, especially the least developed
among them, to secure their share in the growth
of world trade commensurate with the needs
of their economic development, we urge WTO
members to take the following actions:
(a) Facilitate the accession of all developing
countries, particularly the least developed
countries, as well as countries with economies
in transition, that apply for membership of
WTO, in accordance with the Monterrey Consensus;
(b) Support the Doha work programme as an
important commitment on the part of developed
and developing countries to mainstream appropriate
trade policies in their respective development
policies and programmes;
(c) Implement substantial trade-related technical
assistance and capacity-building measures
and support the Doha Development Agenda Global
Trust Fund established after the Fourth WTO
Ministerial Conference as an important step
forward in ensuring a sound and predictable
basis for WTO-related technical assistance
and capacity-building;
(d) Implement the New Strategy for WTO Technical
Cooperation for Capacity-Building, Growth
and Integration;
(e) Fully support the implementation of the
Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical
Assistance to Least Developed Countries, and
urge development partners to significantly
increase contributions to the Trust Fund of
the Framework, in accordance with the Doha
Ministerial Declaration.
85. In accordance with the Doha Declaration
as well as with relevant decisions taken at
Doha, we are determined to take concrete action
to address issues and concerns raised by developing
countries regarding the implementation of
some WTO agreements and decisions, including
the difficulties and resource constraints
faced by them in fulfilling those agreements.
86. Call upon WTO members to fulfil the commitments
made in the Doha Ministerial Declaration,
notably in terms of market access, in particular
for products of export interest to developing
countries, especially least developed countries,
by implementing the following actions, taking
into account paragraph 45 of the Doha Ministerial
Declaration:
(a) Review all special and differential treatment
provisions with a view to strengthening them
and making them more precise, effective and
operational, in accordance with paragraph
44 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration;
(b) Aim to reduce or, as appropriate, eliminate
tariffs on non-agricultural products, including
the reduction or elimination of tariff peaks,
high tariffs and tariff escalation, as well
as non-tariff barriers, in particular on products
of export interest to developing countries.
Product coverage should be comprehensive and
without a priori exclusions. The negotiations
shall take fully into account the special
needs and interests of developing and least
developed countries, including through less
than full reciprocity in reduction commitments,
in accordance with the Doha Ministerial Declaration;
(c) Fulfil, without prejudging the outcome
of the negotiations, the commitment for comprehensive
negotiations initiated under article 20 of
the Agreement on Agriculture as referred to
in paragraphs 13 and 14 of the Doha Ministerial
Declaration, aiming at substantial improvements
in market access, reductions of with a view
to phasing out all forms of export subsidies,
and substantial reductions in trade-distorting
domestic support, while agreeing that the
provisions for special and differential treatment
for developing countries shall be an integral
part of all elements of the negotiations and
shall be embodied in the schedules of concession
and commitments and, as appropriate, in the
rules and disciplines to be negotiated, so
as to be operationally effective and to enable
developing countries to effectively take account
of their development needs, including food
security and rural development. Take note
of the non-trade concerns reflected in the
negotiating proposals submitted by WTO members
and confirm that non-trade concerns will be
taken into account in the negotiations as
provided for in the Agreement on Agriculture,
in accordance with the Doha Ministerial Declaration.
87. Call on developed countries that have
not already done so to work towards the objective
of duty-free and quota-free access for all
least developed countries exports, as
envisaged in the Programme of Action for the
Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010,
which was adopted in Brussels on 20 May 2001.
88. Commit to actively pursue the WTO work
programme to address the trade-related issues
and concerns affecting the fuller integration
of small, vulnerable economies into the multilateral
trading system in a manner commensurate with
their special circumstances and in support
of their efforts towards sustainable development,
in accordance with paragraph 35 of the Doha
Declaration.
89. Build the capacity of commodity-dependent
countries to diversify exports through, inter
alia, financial and technical assistance,
international assistance for economic diversification
and sustainable resource management, and address
the instability of commodity prices and declining
terms of trade, as well as strengthen the
activities covered by the Second Account of
the Common Fund for Commodities to support
sustainable development.
90. Enhance the benefits for developing countries,
as well as countries with economies in transition,
from trade liberalization, including through
public-private partnerships, through, inter
alia, action at all levels, including through
financial support for technical assistance,
the development of technology and capacity-building
to developing countries to:
(a) Enhance trade infrastructure and strengthen
institutions;
(b) Increase developing country capacity to
diversify and increase exports to cope with
the instability of commodity prices and declining
terms of trade;
(c) Increase the value added of developing
country exports.
91. Continue to enhance the mutual supportiveness
of trade, environment and development with
a view to achieving sustainable development
through actions at all levels to:
(a) Encourage the WTO Committee on Trade and
Environment and the WTO Committee on Trade
and Development, within their respective mandates,
to each act as a forum to identify and debate
developmental and environmental aspects of
the negotiations, in order to help achieve
an outcome which benefits sustainable development
in accordance with the commitments made under
the Doha Ministerial Declaration;
(b) Support the completion of the work programme
of the Doha Ministerial Declaration on subsidies
so as to promote sustainable development and
enhance the environment, and encourage reform
of subsidies that have considerable negative
effects on the environment and are incompatible
with sustainable development;
(c) Encourage efforts to promote cooperation
on trade, environment and development, including
in the field of providing technical assistance
to developing countries, between the secretariats
of WTO, UNCTAD, UNDP, UNEP and other relevant
international environmental and development
and regional organizations;
(d) Encourage the voluntary use of environmental
impact assessments as an important national-level
tool to better identify trade, environment
and development interlinkages. Further encourage
countries and international organizations
with experience in this field to provide technical
assistance to developing countries for these
purposes.
92. Promote mutual supportiveness between
the multilateral trading system and the multilateral
environmental agreements, consistent with
sustainable development goals, in support
of the work programme agreed through WTO,
while recognizing the importance of maintaining
the integrity of both sets of instruments.
93. Complement and support the Doha Ministerial
Declaration and the Monterrey Consensus by
undertaking further action at the national,
regional and international levels, including
through public/private partnerships, to enhance
the benefits, in particular for developing
countries as well as for countries with economies
in transition, of trade liberalization, through,
inter alia, actions at all levels to:
(a) Establish and strengthen existing trade
and cooperation agreements, consistent with
the multilateral trading system, with a view
to achieving sustainable development;
(b) Support voluntary WTO compatible market-based
initiatives for the creation and expansion
of domestic and international markets for
environmentally friendly goods and services,
including organic products, which maximize
environmental and developmental benefits through,
inter alia, capacity-building and technical
assistance to developing countries;
(c) Support measures to simplify and make
more transparent domestic regulations and
procedures that affect trade so as to assist
exporters, particularly those from developing
countries.
94. Address the public health problems affecting
many developing and least developed countries,
especially those resulting from HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics,
while noting the importance of the Doha Declaration
on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health,
in which it has been agreed that the TRIPS
Agreement does not and should not prevent
WTO members from taking measures to protect
public health. Accordingly, while reiterating
our commitment to the TRIPS Agreement, we
reaffirm that the Agreement can and should
be interpreted and implemented in a manner
supportive of WTO members right to protect
public health and in particular to promote
access to medicines for all.
95. States should cooperate to promote a supportive
and open international economic system that
would lead to economic growth and sustainable
development in all countries to better address
the problems of environmental degradation.
Trade policy measures for environmental purposes
should not constitute a means of arbitrary
or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised
restriction on international trade. Unilateral
actions to deal with environmental challenges
outside the jurisdiction of the importing
country should be avoided. Environmental measures
addressing transboundary or global environmental
problems should, as far as possible, be based
on an international consensus.
96. Take steps with a view to the avoidance
of and refrain from any unilateral measure
not in accordance with international law and
the Charter of the United Nations that impedes
the full achievement of economic and social
development by the population of the affected
countries, in particular women and children,
that hinders their well-being and that creates
obstacles to the full enjoyment of their human
rights, including the right of everyone to
a standard of living adequate for their health
and well-being and their right to food, medical
care and the necessary social services. Ensure
that food and medicine are not used as tools
for political pressure.
97. Take further effective measures to remove
obstacles to the realization of the right
of peoples to self-determination, in particular
peoples living under colonial and foreign
occupation, which continue to adversely affect
their economic and social development and
are incompatible with the dignity and worth
of the human person and must be combated and
eliminated. People under foreign occupation
must be protected in accordance with the provisions
of international humanitarian law.
98. In accordance with the Declaration on
Principles of International Law concerning
Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States
in accordance with the Charter of the United
Nations, this shall not be construed as authorizing
or encouraging any action which would dismember
or impair, totally or in part, the territorial
integrity or political unity of sovereign
and independent States conducting themselves
in compliance with the principle of equal
rights and self-determination of peoples and
thus possessed of a Government representing
the whole people belonging to the territory
without distinction of any kind.
98.bis. Further resolve to take concerted
action against international terrorism, which
causes serious obstacles to sustainable development.
*
* *
99. Promote, facilitate and finance, as appropriate,
access to and the development, transfer and
diffusion of environmentally sound technologies
and corresponding know-how, in particular
to developing countries and countries with
economies in transition on favourable terms,
including on concessional and preferential
terms, as mutually agreed, as set out in chapter
34 of Agenda 21, including through urgent
actions at all levels to:
(a) Provide information more effectively;
(b) Enhance existing national institutional
capacity in developing countries to improve
access to and the development, transfer and
diffusion of environmentally sound technologies
and corresponding know-how;
(c) Facilitate country-driven technology needs
assessments;
(d) Establish legal and regulatory frameworks
in both supplier and recipient countries that
expedite the transfer of environmentally sound
technologies in a cost-effective manner by
both public and private sectors and support
their implementation;
(e) Promote the access and transfer of technology
related to early warning systems and to mitigation
programmes to developing countries affected
by natural disasters.
100. Improve the transfer of technologies
to developing countries, in particular at
the bilateral and regional levels, including
through urgent actions at all levels to:
(a) Improve interaction and collaboration,
stakeholder relationships and networks between
and among universities, research institutions,
government agencies and the private sector;
(b) Develop and strengthen networking of related
institutional support structures, such as
technology and productivity centres, research,
training and development institutions, and
national and regional cleaner production centres;
(c) Create partnerships conducive to investment
and technology transfer, development and diffusion,
to assist developing countries, as well as
countries with economies in transition, in
sharing best practices and promoting programmes
of assistance, and encourage collaboration
between corporations and research institutes
to enhance industrial efficiency, agricultural
productivity, environmental management and
competitiveness;
(d) Provide assistance to developing countries,
as well as countries with economies in transition,
in accessing environmentally sound technologies
that are publicly owned or in the public domain,
as well as available knowledge in the public
domain on science and technology, and in accessing
the know-how and expertise required in order
for them to make independent use of this knowledge
in pursuing their development goals;
(e) Support existing mechanisms and, where
appropriate, establish new mechanisms for
the development, transfer and diffusion of
environmentally sound technologies to developing
countries and economies in transition.
* * *
101. Assist developing countries in building
capacity to access a larger share of multilateral
and global research and development programmes.
In this regard, strengthen and, where appropriate,
create centres for sustainable development
in developing countries.
102. Build greater capacity in science and
technology for sustainable development, with
action to improve collaboration and partnerships
on research and development and their widespread
application among research institutions, universities,
the private sector, governments, NGOs and
networks, as well as between and among scientists
and academics of developing and developed
countries, and in this regard encourage networking
with and between centres of scientific excellence
in developing countries.
103. Improve policy and decision-making at
all levels through, inter alia, improved collaboration
between natural and social scientists, and
between scientists and policy makers, including
through urgent actions at all levels to:
(a) Increase the use of scientific knowledge
and technology, and increase the beneficial
use of local and indigenous knowledge in a
manner respectful of the holders of that knowledge
and consistent with national law;
(b) Make greater use of integrated scientific
assessments, risk assessments and interdisciplinary
and intersectoral approaches;
(c) Continue to support and collaborate with
international scientific assessments supporting
decision-making, including the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, with the broad participation
of developing country experts;
(d) Assist developing countries in developing
and implementing science and technology policies;
(e) Establish partnerships between scientific,
public and private institutions, and by integrating
scientists advice into decision-making
bodies in order to ensure a greater role for
science, technology development and engineering
sectors;
(f) Promote and improve science-based decision-making
and reaffirm the precautionary approach as
set out in principle 15 of the Rio Declaration
on Environment and Development, which states:
In order to protect the environment,
the precautionary approach shall be widely
applied by States according to their capabilities.
Where there are threats of serious or irreversible
damage, lack of full scientific certainty
shall not be used as a reason for postponing
cost-effective measures to prevent environmental
degradation.
104. Assist developing countries, through
international cooperation, in enhancing their
capacity in their efforts to address issues
pertaining to environmental protection including
in their formulation and implementation of
policies for environmental management and
protection, including through urgent actions
at all levels to:
(a) Improve their use of science and technology
for environmental monitoring, assessment models,
accurate databases and integrated information
systems;
(b) Promote and, where appropriate, improve
their use of satellite technologies for quality
data collection, verification and updating,
and further improvement of aerial and ground-based
observations, in support of their efforts
to collect quality, accurate, long-term, consistent
and reliable data;
(c) Set up and, where appropriate, further
develop national statistical services capable
of providing sound data on science education
and research and development activities that
are necessary for effective science and technology
policy-making.
105. Establish regular channels between policy
makers and the scientific community for requesting
and receiving science and technology advice
for the implementation of Agenda 21, and create
and strengthen networks for science and education
for sustainable development, at all levels,
with the aim of sharing knowledge, experience
and best practices and building scientific
capacities, particularly in developing countries.
106. Use information and communication technologies,
where appropriate, as tools to increase the
frequency of communication and the sharing
of experience and knowledge, and to improve
the quality of and access to information and
communications technology in all countries,
building on the work facilitated by the United
Nations Information and Communications Technology
Task Force and the efforts of other relevant
international and regional forums.
107. Support publicly funded research and
development entities to engage in strategic
alliances for the purpose of enhancing research
and development to achieve cleaner production
and product technologies, through, inter alia,
the mobilization from all sources of adequate
financial and technical resources, including
new and additional resources, and encourage
the transfer and diffusion of those technologies,
in particular to developing countries.
108. Examine issues of global public interest
through open, transparent and inclusive workshops
to promote a better public understanding of
such questions.
* * *
109. Education is critical for promoting sustainable
development. It is therefore essential to
mobilize necessary resources, including financial
resources at all levels, by bilateral and
multilateral donors, including the World Bank
and the regional development banks, by civil
society and by foundations, to complement
the efforts by national governments to pursue
the following goals and actions:
(a) Meet the development goal contained in
the Millennium Declaration of achieving universal
primary education, ensuring that, by 2015,
children everywhere, boys and girls alike,
will be able to complete a full course of
primary schooling;
(b) Provide all children, particularly those
living in rural areas and those living in
poverty, especially girls, with the access
and opportunity to complete a full course
of primary education;
110. Provide financial assistance and support
to education, research, public awareness programmes
and developmental institutions in developing
countries and countries with economies in
transition in order to:
(a) Sustain their educational infrastructures
and programmes, including those related to
environment and public health education;
(b) Consider means of avoiding the frequent,
serious financial constraints faced by many
institutions of higher learning, including
universities around the world, particularly
in developing countries and countries in transition.
111. Address the impact of HIV/AIDS on the
educational system in those countries seriously
affected by the pandemic.
112. Allocate national and international resources
for basic education as proposed by the Dakar
Framework for Action on Education for All
and for improved integration of sustainable
development into education and in bilateral
and multilateral development programmes, and
improve integration between publicly funded
research and development and development programmes.
113. Eliminate gender disparity in primary
and secondary education by 2005, as provided
in the Dakar Framework for Action on Education
for All, and at all levels of education no
later than 2015, to meet the development goals
contained in the Millennium Declaration, with
action to ensure, inter alia, equal access
to all levels and forms of education, training
and capacity-building by gender mainstreaming,
and by creating a gender-sensitive educational
system.
114. Integrate sustainable development into
education systems at all levels of education
in order to promote education as a key agent
for change.
115. Develop, implement, monitor and review
education action plans and programmes at the
national, subnational and local levels, as
appropriate, that reflect the Dakar Framework
for Action on Education for All and that are
relevant to local conditions and needs leading
to the achievement of community development,
and make education for sustainable development
a part of those plans.
116. Provide all community members with a
wide range of formal and non-formal continuing
educational opportunities, including volunteer
community service programmes, in order to
end illiteracy and emphasize the importance
of lifelong learning and promote sustainable
development.
117. Support the use of education to promote
sustainable development, including through
urgent actions at all levels to:
(a) Integrate information and communications
technology in school curriculum development
to ensure its access by both rural and urban
communities, and provide assistance particularly
to developing countries, inter alia, for the
establishment of an appropriate enabling environment
required for such technology;
(b) Promote, as appropriate, affordable and
increased access to programmes for students,
researchers and engineers from developing
countries in the universities and research
institutions of developed countries in order
to promote the exchange of experience and
capacity that will benefit all partners;
(c) Continue to implement the work programme
of the Commission on Sustainable Development
on education for sustainable development;
(d) Recommend to the United Nations General
Assembly that it consider adopting a decade
of education for sustainable development,
starting in 2005.
* * *
118. Enhance and accelerate human, institutional
and infrastructure capacity-building initiatives,
and promote partnerships in that regard that
respond to the specific needs of developing
countries in the context of sustainable development.
119. Support local, national, subregional
and regional initiatives, with action to develop,
use and adapt knowledge and techniques and
to enhance local, national, subregional and
regional centres of excellence for education,
research and training in order to strengthen
the knowledge capacity of developing countries
and countries with economies in transition
through, inter alia, the mobilization from
all sources of adequate financial and other
resources, including new and additional resources;
119.bis Provide technical and financial assistance
to developing countries, including through
the strengthening of capacity-building efforts,
such as the United Nations Development Programme
capacity 21 programme, to:
(a) Assess their own capacity development
needs and opportunities at the individual,
institutional and societal levels;
(b) Design programmes for capacity-building
and support for local, national and community-level
programmes that focus on meeting the challenges
of globalization more effectively and attaining
the internationally agreed development goals,
including those contained in the Millennium
Declaration;
(c) Develop the capacity of civil society,
including youth, to participate, as appropriate,
in designing, implementing and reviewing sustainable
development policies and strategies at all
levels;
(d) Build and, where appropriate, strengthen
national capacities for carrying out effective
implementation of Agenda 21.
* * *
119.ter Ensure access, at the national level,
to environmental information and judicial
and administrative proceedings in environmental
matters, as well as public participation in
decision-making, so as to further principle
10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development, taking into full account principles
5, 7 and 11 of the Declaration.
119.quater Strengthen national and regional
information and statistical and analytical
services relevant to sustainable development
policies and programmes, including data disaggregated
by sex, age and other factors, and encourage
donors to provide financial and technical
support to developing countries to enhance
their capacity to formulate policies and implement
programmes for sustainable development.
119.quinquies Encourage further work on indicators
for sustainable development by countries at
the national level, including integration
of gender aspects, on a voluntary basis, in
line with national conditions and priorities.
119.sexties Promote further work on indicators,
in conformity with paragraph 3 of decision
9/4 of the Commission on Sustainable Development.
119.septies Promote the development and wider
use of earth observation technologies, including
satellite remote sensing, global mapping and
geographic information systems, to collect
quality data on environmental impacts, land
use and land-use changes, including through
urgent actions at all levels to:
(a) Strengthen cooperation and coordination
among global observing systems and research
programmes for integrated global observations,
taking into account the need for building
capacity and sharing of data from ground-based
observations, satellite remote sensing and
other sources among all countries;
(b) Develop information systems that make
the sharing of valuable data possible, including
the active exchange of Earth observation data;
(c) Encourage initiatives and partnerships
for global mapping.
119.octies Support countries, particularly
developing countries, in their national efforts
to:
(a) Collect data that are accurate, long-term,
consistent and reliable;
(b) Use satellite and remote-sensing technologies
for data collection and further improvement
of ground-based observations;
(c) Access, explore and use geographic information
by utilizing the technologies of satellite
remote sensing, satellite global positioning,
mapping and geographic information systems.
119.noviens Support efforts to prevent and
mitigate the impacts of natural disasters,
including through urgent actions at all levels
to:
(a) Provide affordable access to disaster-related
information for early warning purposes;
(b) Translate available data, particularly
from global meteorological observation systems,
into timely and useful products.
119.diciens Develop and promote the wider
application of environmental impact assessments,
inter alia, as a national instrument, as appropriate,
to provide essential decision-support information
on projects that could cause significant adverse
effects to the environment.
119.undeciens Promote and further develop
methodologies at policy, strategy and project
levels for sustainable development decision-making
at the local and national levels, and where
relevant at the regional level. In this regard,
emphasize that the choice of the appropriate
methodology to be used in countries should
be adequate to their country-specific conditions
and circumstances, should be on a voluntary
basis and should conform to their development
priority needs.
X. Institutional
framework for sustainable development
120.
An effective institutional framework for sustainable
development at all levels is key to the full
implementation of Agenda 21, the follow-up
to the outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable
Development and meeting emerging sustainable
development challenges. Measures aimed at
strengthening such a framework should build
on the provisions of Agenda 21 as well as
the 1997 Programme for its further implementation
and the principles of the Rio Declaration
on Environment and Development and should
promote the achievement of the internationally
agreed development goals, including those
contained in the Millennium Declaration, taking
into account the Monterrey Consensus and relevant
outcomes of other major United Nations conferences
and international agreements since 1992. It
should be responsive to the needs of all countries,
taking into account the specific needs of
developing countries including the means of
implementation. It should lead to the strengthening
of international bodies and organizations
dealing with sustainable development, while
respecting their existing mandates, as well
as to the strengthening of relevant regional,
national and local institutions.
120.bis. Good governance is essential for
sustainable development. Sound economic policies,
solid democratic institutions responsive to
the needs of the people and improved infrastructure
are the basis for sustained economic growth,
poverty eradication, and employment creation.
Freedom, peace and security, domestic stability,
respect for human rights, including the right
to development, and the rule of law, gender
equality, market-oriented policies, and an
overall commitment to just and democratic
societies are also essential and mutually
reinforcing.
Objectives
121. Measures to strengthen sustainable development
institutional arrangements at all levels should
be taken within the framework of Agenda 21
and should build on developments since UNCED,
and should lead to the achievement of, inter
alia, the following objectives:
(a) Strengthening commitments to sustainable
development;
(b) Integration of the economic, social and
environmental dimensions of sustainable development
in a balanced manner;
(c) Strengthening of the implementation of
Agenda 21, including through the mobilization
of financial and technological resources,
as well as capacity-building programmes, particularly
for developing countries;
(d) Strengthening coherence, coordination
and monitoring;
(e) Promoting the rule of law and strengthening
of governmental institutions;
(f) Increasing effectiveness and efficiency
through limiting overlap and duplication of
activities of international organizations,
within and outside the United Nations system,
based on their mandates and comparative advantages;
(g) Enhancing participation and effective
involvement of civil society and other relevant
stakeholders in the implementation of Agenda
21, as well as promoting transparency and
broad public participation;
(h) Strengthening capacities for sustainable
development at all levels, including the local
level, in particular those of developing countries;
(i) Strengthening international cooperation
aimed at reinforcing the implementation of
Agenda 21 and the outcomes of the Summit.
Strengthening the
institutional framework for sustainable development
at the international level
122.
The international community should:
(a) Enhance the integration of sustainable
development goals as reflected in Agenda 21
and support for implementation of Agenda 21
and the outcomes of the Summit into the policies,
work programmes and operational guidelines
of relevant United Nations agencies, programmes
and funds, GEF and international financial
and trade institutions within their mandates,
while stressing that their activities should
take full account of national programmes and
priorities, particularly those of developing
countries, as well as, where appropriate,
countries with economies in transition, to
achieve sustainable development;
(b) Strengthen collaboration within and between
the United Nations system, international financial
institutions, the Global Environment Facility
and WTO, utilizing the United Nations Chief
Executives Board for Coordination (CEB), the
United Nations Development Group, the Environment
Management Group and other inter-agency coordinating
bodies. Strengthened inter-agency collaboration
should be pursued in all relevant contexts,
with special emphasis on the operational level
and involving partnership arrangements on
specific issues to support, in particular,
developing countries efforts in implementing
Agenda 21;
(c) Strengthen and better integrate the three
dimensions of sustainable development policies
and programmes, and promote the full integration
of sustainable development objectives into
programmes and policies of bodies that have
a primary focus on social issues. In particular,
the social dimension of sustainable development
should be strengthened, inter alia, by emphasizing
follow-up to the outcomes of the World Summit
for Social Development and its five-year review,
and taking into account their reports, and
by support to social protection systems;
(d) Fully implement the outcomes of decision
I on international environmental governance
adopted by the UNEP Governing Council at its
seventh special session, and invite the General
Assembly at its fifty-seventh session to consider
the important but complex issue of establishing
universal membership for the Governing Council/Global
Ministerial Environment Forum;
(e) Engage actively and constructively in
ensuring the timely completion of the negotiations
on a comprehensive United Nations convention
against corruption, including the question
of repatriation of funds illicitly acquired
to countries of origin;
(f) Promote corporate responsibility and accountability
and the exchange of best practices in the
context of sustainable development, including,
as appropriate, through multi-stakeholder
dialogue, such as through the Commission on
Sustainable Development, and other initiatives;
(g) Take concrete action to implement the
Monterrey Consensus at all levels.
123. Good governance at the international
level is fundamental for achieving sustainable
development. In order to ensure a dynamic
and enabling international economic environment,
it is important to promote global economic
governance through addressing the international
finance, trade, technology and investment
patterns that have an impact on the development
prospects of developing countries. To this
effect, the international community should
take all necessary and appropriate measures,
including ensuring support for structural
and macroeconomic reform, a comprehensive
solution to the external debt problem and
increasing market access for developing countries.
Efforts to reform the international financial
architecture need to be sustained with greater
transparency and the effective participation
of developing countries in decision-making
processes. A universal, rule-based, open,
non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral
trading system, as well as meaningful trade
liberalization, can substantially stimulate
development worldwide, benefiting countries
at all stages of development.
124. A vibrant and effective United Nations
system is fundamental to the promotion of
international cooperation for sustainable
development and to a global economic system
that works for all. To this effect, a firm
commitment to the ideals of the United Nations
and to the principles of international law
and those enshrined in the Charter of the
United Nations, and to strengthening the United
Nations system and other multilateral institutions
and promoting the improvement of their operations,
is essential. States should also fulfil their
commitment to negotiate and finalize as soon
as possible a United Nations convention against
corruption in all its aspects, including the
question of repatriation of funds illicitly
acquired to countries of origin and also to
promoting stronger cooperation to eliminate
money-laundering.
Role
of the General Assembly
125. The General Assembly of the United Nations
should adopt sustainable development as a
key element of the overarching framework for
United Nations activities, particularly for
achieving the internationally agreed development
goals, including those contained in the Millennium
Declaration, and should give overall political
direction to the implementation of Agenda
21 and its review.
Role of the Economic
and Social Council
126.
Pursuant to the relevant provisions of the
Charter of the United Nations and Agenda 21
provisions regarding the Economic and Social
Council and General Assembly resolutions 48/162
and 50/227, which reaffirmed the Council as
the central mechanism for the coordination
of the United Nations system and its specialized
agencies and supervision of subsidiary bodies,
in particular its functional commissions,
and to promote the implementation of Agenda
21 by strengthening system-wide coordination,
the Council should:
(a) Increase its role in overseeing system-wide
coordination and the balanced integration
of economic, social and environmental aspects
of United Nations policies and programmes
aimed at promoting sustainable development;
(b) Organize periodic consideration of sustainable
development themes in regard to the implementation
of Agenda 21, including the means of implementation.
Recommendations in regard to such themes could
be made by the Commission on Sustainable Development;
(c) Make full use of its high-level, coordination,
operational activities and the general segments
to effectively take into account all relevant
aspects of the work of the United Nations
on sustainable development. In this context,
the Council should encourage the active participation
of major groups in its high-level segment
and the work of its relevant functional commissions,
in accordance with the respective rules of
procedure;
(d) Promote greater coordination, complementarity,
effectiveness and efficiency of activities
of its functional commissions and other subsidiary
bodies that are relevant to the implementation
of Agenda 21;
(e) Terminate the work of the Committee on
Energy and Natural Resources for Development
and transfer its work to the Commission on
Sustainable Development;
(f) Ensure that there is a close link between
the role of the Council in the follow-up to
the Summit and its role in the follow-up to
the Monterrey Consensus, in a sustained and
coordinated manner. To that end, the Council
should explore ways to develop arrangements
relating to its meetings with the Bretton
Woods institutions and WTO, as set out in
the Monterrey Consensus;
(g) Intensify its efforts to ensure that gender
mainstreaming is an integral part of its activities
concerning the coordinated implementation
of Agenda 21.
Role
and function of the Commission on Sustainable
Development
127. The Commission on Sustainable Development
should continue to be the high-level commission
on sustainable development within the United
Nations system and serve as a forum for consideration
of issues related to integration of the three
dimensions of sustainable development. Although
the role, functions and mandate of the Commission
as set out in relevant parts of Agenda 21
and adopted in General Assembly resolution
47/191 continue to be relevant, the Commission
needs to be strengthened, taking into account
the role of relevant institutions and organizations.
An enhanced role of the Commission should
include reviewing and monitoring progress
in the implementation of Agenda 21 and fostering
coherence of implementation, initiatives and
partnerships.
128. Within that context, the Commission should
give more emphasis on actions that enable
implementation at all levels, including promoting
and facilitating partnerships involving Governments,
international organizations and relevant stakeholders
for the implementation of Agenda 21.
129. The Commission should:
(a) Review and evaluate progress and promote
further implementation of Agenda 21;
(b) Focus on the cross-sectoral aspects of
specific sectoral issues and provide a forum
for better integration of policies, including
through interaction among Ministers dealing
with the various dimensions and sectors of
sustainable development through the high-level
segments;
(c) Address new challenges and opportunities
related to the implementation of Agenda 21;
(d) The Commission should focus on actions
related to implementation of Agenda 21, limiting
negotiations in the sessions of the Commission
to every two years;
(e) Limit the number of themes addressed in
each session.
130. In relation to its role in facilitating
implementation, the Commission should emphasize
the following:
(a) Review progress and promote the further
implementation of Agenda 21. In this context,
the Commission should identify constraints
on implementation and make recommendations
to overcome those constraints;
(b) Serve as a focal point for the discussion
of partnerships that promote sustainable development,
including sharing lessons learned, progress
made and best practices;
(c) Review issues related to financial assistance
and transfer of technology for sustainable
development, as well as capacity-building,
while making full use of existing information.
In this regard, the Commission on Sustainable
Development could give consideration to more
effective use of national reports and regional
experience and to this end make appropriate
recommendations;
(d) Provide a forum for analysis and exchange
of experience on measures that assist sustainable
development planning, decision-making and
the implementation of sustainable development
strategies. In this regard, the Commission
could give consideration to more effective
use of national and regional reports;
(e) Take into account significant legal developments
in the field of sustainable development, with
due regard to the role of relevant intergovernmental
bodies in promoting the implementation of
Agenda 21 relating to international legal
instruments and mechanisms.
131. With regard to the practical modalities
and programme of work of the Commission, specific
decisions on those issues should be taken
by the Commission at its next session, when
the Commissions thematic work programme
will be elaborated. In particular, the following
issues should be considered:
(a) Giving a balanced consideration to implementation
of all of the mandates of the Commission contained
in General Assembly resolution 47/191;
(b) Continuing to provide for more direct
and substantive involvement of international
organizations and major groups in the work
of the Commission;
(c) Give greater consideration to the scientific
contributions to sustainable development through,
for example, drawing on the scientific community
and encouraging national, regional and international
scientific networks to be involved in the
Commission;
(d) Furthering the contribution of educators
to sustainable development, including, where
appropriate, in the activities of the Commission;
(e) The scheduling and duration of intersessional
meetings.
132. Undertake further measures to promote
best practices and lessons learned in sustainable
development, and in addition promote the use
of contemporary methods of data collection
and dissemination, including broader use of
information technologies.
Role
of international institutions
133. Stress the need for international institutions
both within and outside the United Nations
system, including international financial
institutions, WTO and GEF, to enhance, within
their mandates, their cooperative efforts
to:
(a) Promote effective and collective support
to the implementation of Agenda 21 at all
levels;
(b) Enhance the effectiveness and coordination
of international institutions to implement
Agenda 21, the outcomes of the World Summit
on Sustainable Development, relevant sustainable
development aspects of the Millennium Declaration,
the Monterrey Consensus and the outcomes of
the fourth WTO ministerial meeting, held in
Doha in November 2001.
134. Request the Secretary-General of the
United Nations, utilizing the United Nations
System Chief Executives Board for Coordination,
including through informal collaborative efforts,
to further promote system-wide inter-agency
cooperation and coordination on sustainable
development, to take appropriate measures
to facilitate exchange of information, and
to continue to keep the Economic and Social
Council and the Commission informed of actions
being taken to implement Agenda 21.
135. Significantly strengthen support for
UNDP capacity-building programmes for sustainable
development, building on the experience gained
from Capacity 21, as important mechanisms
for supporting local and national development
capacity-building efforts, in particular in
developing countries.
136. Strengthen cooperation among UNEP and
other United Nations bodies and specialized
agencies, the Bretton Woods institutions and
WTO, within their mandates.
137. UNEP, UN-Habitat, UNDP and UNCTAD, within
their mandates, should strengthen their contribution
to sustainable development programmes and
the implementation of Agenda 21 at all levels,
particularly in the area of promoting capacity-building.
138. To promote effective implementation of
Agenda 21 at the international level, the
following should also be undertaken:
(a) Streamline the international sustainable
development meeting calendar and, as appropriate,
reduce the number of meetings, the length
of meetings and the amount of time spent on
negotiated outcomes in favour of more time
spent on practical matters related to implementation;
(b) Encourage partnership initiatives for
implementation by all relevant actors to support
the outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable
Development. In this context, further development
of partnerships and partnership follow-up
should take note of the preparatory work for
the Summit;
(c) Make full use of developments in the field
of information and communication technologies.
[Paragraph 139 is deleted]
140. Strengthening of the international institutional
framework for sustainable development is an
evolutionary process. It is necessary to keep
under review relevant arrangements; identify
gaps; eliminate duplication of functions;
and continue to strive for greater integration,
efficiency and coordination of the economic,
social and environmental dimensions of sustainable
development aiming at the implementation of
Agenda 21.
Strengthening institutional
arrangements for sustainable development at
the regional level
141.
Implementation of Agenda 21 and the outcomes
of the Summit should be effectively pursued
at the regional and subregional levels, through
the regional commissions and other regional
and subregional institutions and bodies.
142. Intraregional coordination and cooperation
on sustainable development should be improved
among the regional commissions, United Nations
Funds, programmes and agencies, regional development
banks, and other regional and subregional
institutions and bodies. This should include,
as appropriate, support for development, enhancement
and implementation of agreed regional sustainable
development strategies and action plans, reflecting
national and regional priorities.
143. In particular and taking into account
relevant provisions of Agenda 21, the regional
commissions, in collaboration with other regional
and subregional bodies, should:
(a) Promote the integration of the three dimensions
of sustainable development into their work
in a balanced way, including through implementation
of Agenda 21. To this end, the regional commissions
should enhance their capacity through internal
action and be provided, as appropriate, with
external support;
(b) Facilitate and promote a balanced integration
of the economic, social and environmental
dimensions of sustainable development into
the work of regional, subregional and other
bodies, for example by facilitating and strengthening
the exchange of experiences, including national
experience, best practices, case studies and
partnership experience related to the implementation
of Agenda 21;
(c) Assist in the mobilization of technical
and financial assistance, and facilitate the
provision of adequate financing for the implementation
of regionally and subregionally agreed sustainable
development programmes and projects, including
addressing the objective of poverty eradication;
(d) Continue to promote multi-stakeholder
participation and encourage partnerships to
support the implementation of Agenda 21 at
the regional and subregional levels.
144. Regionally and subregionally agreed sustainable
development initiatives and programmes, such
as the New Partnership for Africas Development
(NEPAD) and the interregional aspects of the
globally agreed Programme of Action for the
Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing
States, should be supported.
Strengthening institutional
frameworks for sustainable development at
the national level
145.
States should:
(a) Continue to promote coherent and coordinated
approaches to institutional frameworks for
sustainable development at all national levels,
including through, as appropriate, the establishment
or strengthening of existing authorities and
mechanisms necessary for policy-making, coordination
and implementation and enforcement of laws;
(b) Take immediate steps to make progress
in the formulation and elaboration of national
strategies for sustainable development and
begin their implementation by 2005. To this
end, as appropriate, strategies should be
supported through international cooperation,
taking into account the special needs of developing
countries, in particular the least developed
countries. Such strategies, which, where applicable,
could be formulated as poverty reduction strategies
that integrate economic, social and environmental
aspects of sustainable development, should
be pursued in accordance with each countrys
national priorities.
146. Each country has the primary responsibility
for its own sustainable development, and the
role of national policies and development
strategies cannot be overemphasized. All countries
should promote sustainable development at
the national level by, inter alia, enacting
and enforcing clear and effective laws that
support sustainable development. All countries
should strengthen governmental institutions,
including by providing necessary infrastructure
and by promoting transparency, accountability
and fair administrative and judicial institutions.
146.bis All countries should also promote
public participation, including through measures
that provide access to information regarding
legislation, regulations, activities, policies
and programmes. They should also foster full
public participation in sustainable development
policy formulation and implementation. Women
should be able to participate fully and equally
in policy formulation and decision-making.
147. Further promote the establishment or
enhancement of sustainable development councils
and/or coordination structures at the national
level, including at the local level, in order
to provide a high-level focus on sustainable
development policies. In that context, multi-stakeholder
participation should be promoted.
148. Support efforts by all countries, particularly
developing countries, as well as countries
with economies in transition, to enhance national
institutional arrangements for sustainable
development, including at the local level.
That could include promoting cross-sectoral
approaches in the formulation of strategies
and plans for sustainable development, such
as, where applicable, poverty reduction strategies,
aid coordination, encouraging participatory
approaches and enhancing policy analysis,
management capacity and implementation capacity,
including mainstreaming a gender perspective
in all those activities.
149. Enhance the role and capacity of local
authorities as well as stakeholders in implementing
Agenda 21 and the outcomes of the Summit and
in strengthening the continuing support for
local Agenda 21 programmes and associated
initiatives and partnerships, and encourage,
in particular, partnerships among and between
local authorities and other levels of government
and stakeholders to advance sustainable development
as called for in, inter alia, the Habitat
Agenda.
Participation
of major groups
150. Enhance partnerships between governmental
and non-governmental actors, including all
major groups, as well as volunteer groups,
on programmes and activities for the achievement
of sustainable development at all levels.
[Paragraph 151 is deleted]
152. Acknowledge the consideration being given
to the possible relationship between environment
and human rights, including the right to development,
with full and transparent participation of
Member States of the United Nations and observer
States.
153. Promote and support youth participation
in programmes and activities relating to sustainable
development through, for example, supporting
local youth councils or their equivalent,
and by encouraging their establishment where
they do not exist.