World Summit Takes Shape in Johannesburg

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, August 12, 2002 (ENS) - With just two weeks before the start of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has sent world leaders a letter strongly encouraging their active participation at the summit in Johannesburg.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan (Photo courtesy UN)

To date, 106 heads of state and heads of government have indicated that they will attend the high level segment of the conference September 2-4, but U.S. President George W. Bush is not among them.

In his letter, Annan told the leaders that the summit will be an opportunity to reinvigorate a global commitment to sustainable development and to maintain the positive momentum generated at the World Trade Organization meeting in Doha, Qatar, and the UN's International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico.

South Africa has so far raised 80 percent of the money needed to host the summit the Johannesburg World Summit Company (Jowsco) has announced.

The official summit opens at the Sandton Convention Centre August 26 and concludes on September 4. The total budget is estimated at R550 million ($US55 million), of which the South African goverment is expected to contribute R200 million (US$20 million).

Jowsco CEO Moss Mashishi told reporters at the National Press Club in Pretoria last week that contributions from governments and private corporations were "looking quite good" in terms of initial predictions, but he did not give exact figures.

Mashishi said, "We just had advance team briefings which were attended by 109 countries - a pretty high number."

Skyline of Sandton, the city near Johannesburg where the official UN summit is being held. (Photo courtesy Image IT)

About 10,000 representatives of nine key interest groups will also get accreditation to enter the official conference at Sandton.

Another 15,000 people are expected to attend a civil society conference at the Nasrec Expo Center south of Johannesburg, while 800 business people will gather for a forum at Sandton's Hilton hotel.

At least 500 events parallel to the summit are planned in an around Johannesburg, from arts exhibits and cultural performances to a Water Dome based close to the official conference center. Sponsored by the Africa Water Task Force and endorsed by African Water Ministers, the Water Dome will be active from August 29 through September 2. It aims to create water awareness by allowing all stakeholders to showcase their water related activities, policies, initiatives, new technologies, and products.

Sandton Convention Center (Photo courtesy Virtual Exhibit)

The exhibit will allow live links to sustainable development projects all across the globe, and will allow people at the summit - presidents, prime ministers, leaders of nongovernmental organization and businesses - to talk to people in the field. Anyone with access to the Internet, anywhere, can watch.

In view of the exhibit, Johannesburg Summit Secretary-General Nitin Desai has called Johannesburg "the first truly interactive world summit."

"We hope to bring the world to Johannesburg. We want to make the thousands of summit delegates aware that there are people in the field doing innovative things in the pursuit of sustainable development and give those people a chance to participate in the summit process."

Local governments from all over the world will make their views known at a four day session August 27 to 30. More than 500 mayors and representatives of local authority associations will meet in the summit district of Sandton during the first week of the event to challenge summit delegates and agreements.

The Eiffel Tower stands in Paris smog. (Photo by Ian Britton courtesy Freefoto )

A strategic plan known as "Local Action 21" is planned to be launched at the end of the local government session in Johannesburg. It will be presented by the local government representatives in concert with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

"Local authorities are already moving from agenda to action – despite the difficulties," reports Konrad Otto-Zimmermann, secretary general of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), the association leading the local government preparations for Johannesburg.

The main obstacles - the lack of access to financial resources, the inflexibility of tax structures, weak decision making power, and lack of capacity - have continued to keep local governments from exploiting their high potential to address key sustainable development issues.

Still, in Johannesburg local governments will be highlighting their accomplishments since the last UN environment and development summit, in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Since then more than 6,000 municipalities worldwide have addressed issues of sustainable development within Local Agenda 21 processes agreed at the Rio summit.

"Achievements on the local level could be even more impressive, if cities did not face so many obstacles in taking local action," says Otto-Zimmermann.

UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown expressed his conviction that local governments will play a key role in Johannesburg. "Only if we succeed in convincing national governments and organizations that the crucial and heaviest workload for sustainable development is to be done at the local level, do we have a chance at leading the summit to a successful end."