The Hindu : CSD meet to review measures adopted in global summit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 09, 2003

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CSD meet to review measures adopted in global summit

By P. Sunderarajan

NEW DELHI Feb. 8. The United Nations has proposed to devote the coming meeting of its Commission for Sustainable Development to review the progress in the implementation of the various decisions taken during the global summit on sustainable development, held at Johannesburg from August 26 to September 4, 2002.

Speaking to The Hindu, the U.N. Under Secretary-General in-charge of Social and Economic Affairs, Nitin Desai, said the two-week meeting, to be held in April, would hear detailed reports from Governments, international organisations, NGOs and other stakeholders on the measures taken so far, and future plans to implement the decisions taken at the Johannesburg summit.

A highlight of the summit was that leaders of different countries agreed on a series of time-bound programmes in different sectors that have a bearing on sustainable development. For instance, they decided to halve the number of persons who had no access to potable water and proper sanitation by 2015, considering that improvement in the living conditions of the people was among the important factors for promoting sustainable development.

The Johannesburg deliberation was also noteworthy as, besides the agreements among the Governments, a large number of bilateral and multilateral programmes to promote sustainable development, involving international agencies, NGOs, industry organisations and other stakeholders were agreed upon.

Mr. Desai, who is here in connection with the on-going Delhi Sustainable Development Summit organised by TERI, said that the CSD meeting would begin with presentations by leaders of delegations from different countries, departing from the normal procedure, according to which they take place at the end of the proceedings. The change had been thought of to underscore the importance of the process initiated by the Johannesburg Summit to make the world a better place to live in and to ensure that commitments made by the global community were put into action and did not merely remain as lofty ideals on paper.

In this context, he noted that the focus of the summit itself was on the implementation and putting together of a detailed action plan and not just declaration of intentions. "The main agenda before the U.N. is to ensure that the momentum generated at the summit is not only maintained, but also accelerated.''

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