Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 13 Nov 2002

Vol. 557 No. 2

Written Answers. - UN Sustainable Development Programme.

Thomas P. Broughan

Ceist:

88 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on the poor result produced by the United Nations world for sustainable development programme in relation to world poverty and particularly for those facing starvation in southern Africa. [21450/02]

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Cowen)

: The World Summit on Sustainable Development, which took place in Johannesburg from 26 August to 4 September last, reviewed the global implementation of Agenda 21, the outcome of the Rio conference on environment and development ten years on and agreed a plan of implementation for the further implementation of Agenda 21. Johannesburg also put the promotion of poverty eradication through sustainable development at the heart of its work. Unlike the Rio Summit, which was heavily influenced by the environmental agenda, Johannesburg was the first major summit to treat all aspects of sustainable development, that is, the economic, social and environmental aspects, in a coherent and integrated way.

While the ten days of intensive negotiations at Johannesburg cannot be deemed a total success, the representatives of the more than 190 countries who took part agreed a specific agenda to reduce poverty through action in five key areas: water and sanitation, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity. These five key areas singled out for action were seen by the summit as crucial to the achievement of poverty eradication through sustainable development. They also build on the already agreed time-bound development goals from the Millennium Summit of the UN. Furthermore, Johannesburg re-affirmed the commitments made at the WTO ministerial meeting at Doha – November 2001 – and at the Inter national Conference on Financing for Development at Monterrey – March 2002 – in relation to trade and financing for development.

In his address to the Johannesburg Summit, the Taoiseach reminded world leaders that ten years ago, when the Rio Conference took place, there was a serious food crisis in southern Africa. A potentially devastating famine in the region was only narrowly averted through the intensive efforts of Governments, donors, NGOs and international organisations, particularly the World Food Programme. The Taoiseach regretted that ten years later, this same region was once again threatened with famine and facing another devastating catastrophe. The Taoiseach underlined that much of this could have been avoided if the world had not missed the targets in the intervening ten years since Rio and had we come up with enough money to finance Rio's action plan, Agenda 21.

Given the crowded nature of the agenda for the world summit, reaching an agreement that would satisfy all of the participants was always going to be a huge challenge. In the end, the plan of implementation from Johannesburg has shown that the international community, despite internal differences, has managed to agree to work together to find joint solutions to global problems. This relaunch of multilateralism has firmly placed poverty eradication and sustainable development on the international agenda.

Ultimately, the only measure of the success or failure of Johannesburg will lie in the willingness of the international community to deliver on those commitments. We have agreed on the ways and means. The challenge now is to show our political willingness to turn words into deeds. In October, the General Affairs and External Relations Council launched the EU's strategy for the implementation of the Johannesburg plan of implementation. I will be working hard both at the national level and with our partners in the EU to promote the implementation of that strategy and to deliver on the promises that were made at Johannesburg.