IFAP Report
World Summit on Sustainable Development
26 August- 4 September 2002
IFAP sent a delegation to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, that took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August - 4 September 2002.
The objective of this Summit was to move from the grand declarations of the Earth Summit in Rio of 1992 (where IFAP President Hans Kjeldsen from Denmark addressed the Summit), to partnerships for action. Most speakers in Johannesburg agreed that there has been a singular lack of action on sustainable development since the signing of Agenda 21 in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
The Johannesburg Summit was not an easy one in term of reconciling the difference among nations at different stages of development, and with different interests. However, it has built awareness of the need to incorporate the social, ecological, and cultural aspects into economic development, in order to achieve sustainablilty.
The two main texts agreed at the Summit were:
- the Political Declaration. This makes Food Security a priority, but does not mention agriculture or rural development inspite of lobbying by IFAP.
- the Implemenation Plan. This is a large framework that brings together many international agreements and processes involved in Sustainable Development, e.g the Doha Development Agenda on Trade, the Monterrey Concensus on Financing for Development.
IFAP succeeded to get Agriculture on the WSSD agenda during the earlier Preparatory Committee Sessions. The text on agriculture take in much of what IFAP proposed. There was great pressure in Johannesburg to take the Doha Declaration further in term of reducing agricultural subsidies, but in the end the Doha text was reaffirmed. There was also pressure to reduce subsidies for 'non-sustainable' energy, e.g. grants for oil exploration.
The Summit sessions were well structured, enabling IFAP representatives to be involved in several side events, parallel events, as well as the official program.
Please find attached two presentations given by IFAP. They are:
First week - Ministerial session
- Intervention in Plenary by Gerard Doornbos, Immediate Past President of IFAP
Second week - Heads of State session
- Closing remarks to the Plenary by Jack Wilkinson, President of IFAP
The first week of the Summit was devoted to debating the five themes of the Conference, namely: Health, Biodiversity, Agriculture, Cross-cutting issues (Trade/Finance, etc) Water, and Energy. The background papers for these debates were well-prepared. IFAP is arranging for all members to recive a copy of the background paper on agriculture.
The debate on the five themes involved panelists from major groups. Farmers were represented on the panels by: Remi Bailhache (APCA, France), Tom Lambie (FF, New Zealand), Gerard Doornbos (LTO, Netherlands -see his photo in the Financial Times of August 28), and Mercy Karanga (KNFU, Kenya).
The second week of the Summit was devoted to presenteations by Heads of State and Governments. There were also four Round Table discussion sessions among Heads of State to which one person from each major group was invited. The subject of these Round Tables was "Making it happen". Farmers were represented by: Jack Wilkinson (Canada), IFAP President; Philip Kiriro (Kenya), IFAP Vice-President; Sekou Oumar Tall (Mali), Chair IFAP Committee on Developing Countries; and Caroline Trapp (Sweden), Chair IFAP Development Cooperation Committee.
Mercy Karaja (Kenya) made a presentation to an FAO event on Sustainable Agriculture, as well as an intervention in Plenary; Nora Ourabah (Secretariat) presented IFAP's recent study on Desertification, and David King (Secretariat) presented IFAP's Policy on Industrial Concentration in the Food Chain, at side events in the Water Dome. IFAP was also involved in the Civil Society Implementation Conference, particularly in discussions on partnerships on Water, Agro-ecology and Capacity-building. Reports on these events will be sent out later.
Other members of the IFAP delegation not mentioned above include: Johannes Østergaard, Denmark; Nicola Stolfi, CIA, Italy; Jack Raath and Nic Opperman, Agri SA; Mike Deegan, ACDI/VOCA, USA.
We extend our thanks to all those who participated in the IFAP delegation, as well as to our South African members who welcomed us so warmly.