Who does what, by when, and with which resources?

TUESDAY, 29 APRIL 2003:The Eleventh Session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 11) began on Monday 28 April 2003 at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

In his opening address to the Ministerial High Level Segment, which, was also attended by Heads of the UN and other agencies, programs and organisations and leaders and representatives of major groups, Minister Valli Moosa said that a core component of the Johannesburg Summit was to build a decade of implementation.

"There are dozens upon dozens of targets, timeframes and goals in the JPoI," said the Minister. "We should aim to leave here with much greater clarity as to who does what, by when, and with which resources? This is the focus of the High Level Roundtable dialogue."

A singular landmark feature of this session was the high level of attendance by Ministers of a wide variety of portfolios from the member states. In the region of 50 Ministers, Deputy Ministers and high-ranking officials from member states attended as well as high-level representatives from UN agencies and major groups.

The ministerial roundtables are aimed at identifying the critical bottlenecks impeding implementation for each of the goals. The intention is to identify the crucial areas requiring immediate attention by Governments, international organisations and major groups. These could include accelerated funding, capacity building, better networking among local authorities and community based organisations, stronger co-operative arrangements for technology assessment, research and extension, more visible and effective co-ordination of global actors, etc.

According to the chairperson, Johannesburg reminded us that 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. This is the framework that should guide the future work of the CSD and contextualise implementation of priority issues for South Africa such as access to water and sanitation, access to energy, food security and management of biodiversity.

Minister Moosa stated that the WSSD affirmed the importance of multi-lateral solutions to the challenge of sustainable development. "We have over the past months seen the concept of multilateralism and the role of multilateral institutions challenged and tested. Our coming together here is an important reaffirmation of our belief that concerted and collective global action is the only real solution to the problems of sustainable development and poverty that confront the world today. It is a credit to this commission and an endorsement of multilateralism and the role of this United Nations that we have so many Ministers and such a high level of representation at this meeting," Minister Moosa said.