CSD 11 chairperson Valli Moosa summarises High-Level Segment

The Ministerial High-Level Segment culminated yesterday 30 April 2003 with a summary by the chairperson outlining the political direction that will underline the work programme work that is required to implement the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.

There was general consensus throughout the deliberations of the High-Level Segment that the Secretary-General's report provided most useful recommendations pertaining to the future organisation of work of the CSD and its work programme.

Representatives agreed that the institutional framework of the CSD's activities should be found within the context provided by the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, Agenda 21 and the Millennium Development Goals. Many delegates were categoric that CSD should not renegotiate commitments or targets agreed upon in these multilateral frameworks. Instead CSD's focus should be on ensuring concrete implementation of these commitments and monitoring and reporting on these outcomes. There was a strong emphasis on the need to ensure CSD's focus on the integration of the three pillars (social, economic and environmental) of sustainable development.

The important value of Ministerial participation to provide political guidance and impetus in CSD work was recognised by several countries. The need to involve Ministers responsible for portfolios from across the sustainable development sectoral spectrum was also emphasised, that is, not only environmental ministers should participate in CSD sessions. There as further wide-spread agreement with the proposal of dividing the CSD's work into two-year cycles, the first year focus on reporting and monitoring and the second on policy discussions to address areas of concerns. The important role to be played by regional implementation forums also enjoyed general endorsement.

Several speakers paid specific attention to the themes to be chosen for the CSD work programme. There was divergent views on the number of themes to be allocated to sessions, ranging from one overarching theme (strongly supported by the United States and Switzerland) in order to enable a focused approach, to a proposal for four themes per cycles, in order to ensure none of the themes of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation was neglected. The number of two themes per session seemed, however, to found favour with most delegations.

Delegations also considered the criteria to be used when selecting themes. Relevance in terms of the WSSD frameworks, especially poverty eradication and urgency were the most commonly agreed upon criteria. A number of delegates warned that themes which were adequately covered by other international institution or organisations should not be considered, in order for the CSD to guard against the duplication of the functions of other organisations. CSD should ideally, thus, focus on issues where specific value could be added and which were not adequately being dealt with by other bodies.

Water and sanitation and energy featured most prominently as the themes proposed for the first possible two-year cycle of the CSD. Management of natural resources, specifically agriculture and biodiversity, were also prominently mentioned as a priority. Several delegates also mentioned the need to deal with cross-cutting themes -- for example means of implementation, gender or patterns of sustainable production and consumption which could be considered at every session. Some delegates also proposed patters of production and consumption as an individual theme. Delegates warned that the WEHAB framework does not provide an exhaustive range of themes and several other sectors, for example, mountains, health and oceans numbered among the proposed themes.

Means of implementation or tools to attain the JPOI and MDG received specific attention in many an intervention. It was emphasised that financing for development -- ODA specifically, but also issues such as trade and market access, debt relief and technology and knowledge transfer to developing countries should be an important component of any consideration of the sustainable development themes in the future CSD sessions. Within this context the relevance for CSD and the need to engage with processes and commitments such as Doha and Monterey, as well as the Bretton Woods Institutions was stressed.

Coordination within the United Nations, strengthening CSD's engagement with for example UNEP, UNDP or the UN Development Groups and CSD's relationship with ECOSOC was another important focus area. There was general consensus to enhance intra-UN coordination and cooperation, avoiding duplication and fulfilling CSD's Johannesburg mandate as the primary high-level forum within the UN system responsible for coordinating and mainstreaming sustainable development. The important role to be played by the UN's regional economic commissions in the activities of the proposed CSD regional implementation forums was emphasised, including the need for optimally efficient structuring of this relationship.

In the light of CSD's focus on implementation of the WSSD and other outcomes, monitoring and reporting received specific attention in many interventions. Modalities proposed for the CSD's monitoring function at three levels -- national, regional and international were considered. Many representatives national reporting should be the prime focus for the CSD's monitoring activities and it was thought that the regional implementation forums would be ideally placed to consider such reports. Some delegates, however, thought the focus should be on the international level and warned against intrusive monitoring of the CSD of national affairs. There was, however, widespread that much was to be gained from the CSD's enabling of a learning from and sharing in national and regional best practices.

The participation of stakeholders and major groups in CSD activities also received attention, with most delegates recognising the value of these groups' participation which must be organised in a constructive and transparent manner. The central role of civil society and the private sector in all sustainable development processes was indeed emphasised.

The segment also dealt with partnerships. While the important contributions of partnerships were recognised and indeed hailed as innovative outcomes of the WSSD, it was emphasised by many delegations that the role of partnerships are only complementary to and do not replace or lessen the value in any manner of international intergovernmental agreements and commitments. Delegations also spoke about the need for CSD to engage constructively with the monitoring of and reporting on partnerships and the need for criteria to be developed in this regard. There was also general endorsement of the Bali principles as a starting point for CSD's further consideration of partnerships.