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Environment NGOs Accuse African Governments of Not Doing Enough -Global Policy Forum- NGOs Environment NGOs Accuse African
Agence France Presse
Governments of Not Doing Enough
July 1, 2002
African civil society organisations attending an environmental conference Monday urged African governments towards more concrete action at the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development
"The African governments are giving a wish-list of what they wanted done, without specifying actions and timed commitments. They will need to move away from generalised statements to specific ones," said Godber Tumushabe, head of the Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment.
Both local and foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs), who have accused African governments of moving in circles, have observer status at the 9th session of African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, which opened here on Monday. The Kampala meeting, is one in a series of preparatory committees, expected to come up with a common position to take to this year's World Summit at Johannesburg in South Africa from August 24 to September 4.
But the NGOs warned Monday that a draft framework on the environment in Africa presented here for debate was not concrete.
"The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is a framework, but what should be presented as a plan of action is also presented as a framework," Tumushabe said on the sidelines of the Monday gathering.
"This is moving in circles. What we need is an action programme for another agenda, not to go back to 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro," he added.
NEPAD is an African initiative that calls for massive investment into the continent and for greater dedication there to democracy and good governance.
"August is not far away, but our governments do not have a clear strategy on what they will take to Johannesburg," said Frank Muramuzi, Executive Director of Uganda's National Association of Professional Environmentalists.
The NGO groups are keeping vigil outside the conference hall with politically pointed messages, including drama, underscoring the role of corruption in environment and development, demanding democratic changes and transparency in how environmentally sensitive investments are licensed.
"The world summit will be held at a time when Africa is losing 150,000 hectares (370,000 acres) of its forest cover every year and a huge chunk of its top soil." the NGOs warned, pointing out: "Millions of people are facing starvation in southern Africa and direct foreign investments are drying up."
But it is in response to the challenges facing African leaders in the face of unmet promises from the Rio de Janeiro summit ten years ago that lies at the heart of government-NGO conflict.
The NGOs want the ministers to come out with clear positions on education, health, water and sanitation, environmental assessments and investments.
The Kampala meeting also takes place under the cloud of a disappointing G8 meeting in Canada which, advocate groups said, did not rise to the expectations of the African continent.
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