Title: PRESENTATION OF THE AFRICA REPORT ON INSTITUTIONAL AND STRATEGIC FRAMEWORKS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
1PRESENTATION OF THE AFRICA REPORT ON
INSTITUTIONAL AND STRATEGIC FRAMEWORKS FOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
- Background Document Commissioned by the UNECA
- and Prepared by Omar Alieu Touray
- Africa Regional Preparatory Conference for Rio20
- 20-25 October 2011
2Methodology and objectives of the Report
- Methodology
- The study is based on desk review and field work
- Objectives
- Assess how the institutional and strategic
frameworks - promote the integration of the three pillars of
sustainable development in a balanced manner - Enhance institutional linkages
- Encourage multi-stakeholder participation and
decentralization in the planning and
implementation of programmes - Cater for inter-generational and
intra-generational equity through long-term
planning and strategies that bridge the equality
gaps
3Institutions
- The Study focuses on regional, sub-regional and
national institutions. - Regional Institutions AU (Including the AUC,
NPCA), AMCOW and AMSEN, AfDB, and UN institutions
such as the UNECA, UNDP, UNEP and FAO. (The
treatment of these institutions is limited to
their regional activities) - Subregional Institutions Mainly RECs ECOWAS,
ECCAS, SADC, COMESA, EAC,IGAD, UMA - National Institutions National Councils for
Sustainable Development and national
institutions.
4Main FindingsRegional Level
- AU strategies include
- AUC-led programmes such asThe African Monitoring
of the Environment for Sustainable
DevelopmentThe Great Green Wall initiative for
the Sahara - NEPAD NEPAD has proven to be both an
institution and a strategy for sustainable
development, and gained wide recognition. In
addition it has put in place the CAADP programme,
the Action Plan on the environment, energy
programme, and the APRM. - Progress Made
- AUC-led initiatives such as the Africa Monitoring
of the Environment for Sustainable Development
(AMSED) have enhanced vertical and horizontal
linkages, while the Green Wall of the Sahara
programme has promoted multi-stakeholder
participation - Since its inception, NEPAD has proven to be both
an institution and a strategy for sustainable
development, and has increasingly gained
recognition from the international community and
Africas development partners. The Johannesburg
Plan of Implementation also recognized that NEPAD
provides a framework for sustainable development
in Africa - Through the CAADP programme, the Action Plan on
the environment, and the energy programme, NEPAD
has promoted the integration of economic, social
and environmental dimensions of development,
enhanced partnerships and multi-stakeholder
participation, established horizontal and
vertical linkages at institutional and
programmatic levels.
5Regional Level Cont.
- Main Challenges the difficulty of
inter-departmental and inter-agency coordination
to ensure better synergy and integration. - AUC has mainstreamed the participation of the
major groups in many ways with gender parity
having been attained at the level of the college
of commissioners. But the participation of major
groups in programme implementation across all
sectors remains inadequate - Inadequacy of funds, with the AU depending on
partners for the bulk of its programmes
6AU cont
- Recommendations
- Institutional collaboration should be sustained
beyond the design phase of programmes - AUC should also scale up its coordination
function, establish effective outreach and
communication channels with the RECs - African governments should demonstrate ownership
by budgeting for and exploring alternative
sources of funding for NEPAD programmes - The Concept of Champions, developed in the
context of the PICI, should be extended to other
sectors.
7Specialized Technical Committees (STCs)
- AMCEN and AMCOW have made progress with regard to
integrating environmental and water issues in the
programmes of the AU and the RECs. - They have also built linkages with other regional
and subregional institution - Main Challenges overlapping and unclear mandate
unclear status within the AU Organs inadequate
financial and human resources - Recommendations building synergy through
greater programme coordination linkages with
other structures such as the group of African
Ambassadors in New York and the African members
of the CSD.
8Regional inst cont
- African Development Bank
- Progress made Through it MTS, the Green Growth
strategy and other sectoral programmes, the AfDB
has made significant strides in developing
horizontal and vertical programmatic linkages
and enhancing integrated delivery of programmes
and projects that satisfy sustainability and
poverty reduction objectives. - Recommendation AfDB should increase funding
enhance capacity building promote
multi-stakeholder participation in project design
and implementation and expand the scope of the
EIA to cover social dimensions.
9UNITED NATIONS INSTITUTIONS
- UNECA In response to the mandate given to it
by both the WSSD and the UN General Assembly, the
UNECA has put in place a number of mechanisms
including CFSSD, RIMs, RCMs, SDRA, - In addition, the ECA embarked upon a
repositioning exercise that consists in
realigning its programme of work with the
priorities of the African Union and its NEPAD
Programme.
10UN Institutions Cont.
- Progress Made
- CFSSD fostered institutional linkages ensured
that africas concerns and priorities are well
articulated in the outcomes of the various
sessions of UNCSD created awareness, enhanced
advocacy and capacity building in the application
of integration tools - RIMs have facilitated the review of progress in
the implementation of Agenda 21, PFIA21 and the
JPOI - SDRAs Provide good analysis of priority SD
issues is the output of joint initiatives of
UNECA,UNEP,FAO, UNDP, AUC, AfDB, NPCA.
11ctd
- RCM The RCM has ensured the increased and high
level participation of some 30 agencies and
organizations in support of the AU and NEPAD,
especially in priority areas such as CAADP and
the APRM It has also enhanced institutional
linkages. - Repositioning facilitated integrated programme
implementation, fostered linkages with AUC NPCA,
AfDB and other sub-regional institutions, and
enhanced partner with bilateral donors as
manifested in a scaled up donor funding support.
12Cont.
- Challenges lack of adequate data to facilitate
tracking of progress on sustainable development
inadequate funding and general lack of capacity
at various levels. - Recommendations Stronger linkages should be
established between the global, regional,
sub-regional and national processes - Member-states should be assisted to participate
meaningfully in the RIMs - Sustainable development indicator framework for
Africa should be developed - Coordination between UNECA and NPCA should be
enhanced - Non resident agencies should take part in the RCM
process.
13Other UN Institutions
- UNDP
- Is one of the institutions identified by Agenda
21 for delivering sustainable development at the
global, regional and sub-regional levels - Progress made
- UNDP has supported countries within the framework
of the Capacity 21 to establish their National
Councils for Sustainable Development and develop
national strategies for sustainable development - The UNDP also plays crucial role in programmatic
and institutional linkages through the
coordinating role it plays at the country level,
where UNDP Resident Representatives also serve as
the Resident Coordinator of development
activities for the United Nations system as a
whole. - Recommendation
- The evaluation of the United Nations Delivering
as One pilot phase in eight countries shows that
it is indeed important that the United Nations
delivers as one. The United Nations development
system should therefore coordinate and
collaborate closely to ensure synergy and
coherence at the national level
14Cont.
- UNEP
- The delivery of UNEPs programme in Acfrica is
done through a coordinated and multistakeholder
process that involves UNEP and various partners. - Through the Africa regional programme, UNEP
ensures that there is better coherence and
coordination in the effective delivery of
environmental capacity-building and technical
support at all levels in response to country
needs and priorities. - Recommendation
- There is need to ensure synergy through
streamlined mandates, focusing on commonalities,
and creating mechanisms to influence decision
making processes at all levels. -
- FAO
- The FAO collaborated with NEPAD to develop CAADP
and with member-states to develop national CAADP
compacts which are considered an important step
towards ensuring agricultural stability and
economic development. - Recommendation
- As the main UN body dealing with Agriculture, the
FAOs support to African agriculture and food
security is crucial. The organization should
deepen its support to African countries to put in
place policies that best address development,
food security, poverty reduction and natural
resource use in an integrated manner, and to
identify how aid and public expenditures ensure
balance between socio-economic development and
environmental protection
15INSTITUTIONAL AND STRATEGIC FRAMEWORKS FOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL
- Progress Made at the RECs Level
- All the RECs have programmes on the environment,
agriculture, natural resources, energy, disaster
reduction, peace and security, governance and
socioeconomic development. The sectoral
programmes are anchored in long-term strategies
that constitute the main regional development
frameworks. - These include
- SADCs Regional Indicative Strategic Development
Plan (RISDP), Strategic Indicative Plan of the
Organ (SIPO), - Vision 2020 and the Community Development
Programme (CDP) of ECOWAS, - ECCAS Vision 2025, and Regional Economic
Programme (REP) of CEMAC - The Five Year Development Plans of EAC,
- IGADs Environment and Natural Resources
Strategy, - the 2011-2015 Strategic Plan of COMESA.
16cont
- The review shows the subregional institutions
have, with varying degrees of success,
encouraged multi-stakeholder participation, built
institutional linkages and sought the balanced
integration of the three pillars of sustainable
development. - Challenges
- challenges include the difficulty of integrating
all three dimensions of sustainable development
in a balanced manner - the complexity of the notion of sustainable
development - inadequate financial resources.
- Recommendations
- There is the need to develop and train RECs on
integration tools, elaborate possible financing
mechanisms for sustainable development
programmes, and promote institutional coherence
and programme harmonization.
17INSTITUTIONAL AND STRATEGIC FRAMEWORKS FOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL
- Progress Made at the National Level
- The majority of African countries have
established NCSD and other structures that deal
with sustainable development. - the mandates of the NCSDs and of bodies
responsible for sustainable development at the
national level cover a broad range of issues, but
none of the bodies has a broad mandate. - Challenges
- insufficient capacity at all levels inadequate
human, institutional and financial resources
lack of targeted technical assistance low level
of awareness among policy makers and the general
public limited or unknown best practices or
successful pilot projects limited foreign direct
investment and low level of international
cooperation, and dormant NCSDs. - The relatively weak involvement of planning and
finance ministries in sustainable development
issues - Recommendation
- Countries should be supported to develop NCSD and
integrated strategies - finance and planning ministries should be
givenleadership role in sustainable development
at the national level.
18SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOVERNANCE
- The enabling framework for integration of all
three pillars of sustainable development has been
weak at all levels as a result various reform
proposals have been made including - creating new structures,
- strengthening existing structures
- elevating the existing structures to a higher
level. - Specific proposals
- change the ECOSOC into a Sustainable Development
Council - create a forum within ECOSOC that would deal with
sustainable development. - elevate the CSD to a Sustainable Development
Council as a subsidiary body of the General
Assembly.
19Cont.
- There have also been proposals to strengthen UNEP
by - elevating UNEP to specialized agency status
- creating a UN Environmental Organization (UNEO)
or a World Environmental Organization (WEO), and - revising UNEPs mandate within its current
structure.
20Position of African Environment Ministers on
International Environment Governance
- At the 18th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of
the African Union in Malabo in June 2011, a
decision was taken concerning the revision of
institutional frameworks for sustainable
development that will take into consideration
the need to strengthen, consolidate and transform
UNEP into an international specialized
institution for the environment based in Nairobi.
- During the 4th Special Session of AMCEN in
Bamako, in September 2011, the African
Environment Ministers did not only support the
Assembly decision, they went further to indicate
what shape the proposed body should take. - Most importantly, they stressed that a new
specialized institution does not imply the
establishment of an environment inspection body,
compliance mechanism for developing countries, or
the putting in place of green conditionalities or
trade barriers, and should not lead to additional
financial burdens for Africa.
21Sustainable Development Governance at the
Regional and Sub-regional level
- Regional Level
- Paragraphs 158-161 of the Johannesburg Plan of
Implementation (JPOI) provides for a range of
measures for strengthening the institutional
framework for sustainable development at the
regional level and calls for the Regional
Commissions to promote the integration of the
three dimensions of sustainable development into
their work in a balanced way facilitate and
promote a balanced integration of the economic,
social and environmental dimensions of
sustainable development in member states. - Sub-regional Level
- At the sub-regional level, the Regional Economic
Communities (RECs) take the lead in planning for
regional integration and policy harmonization
22Reform Proposals at Regional and Sub-regional
level
- There is need to strengthen the capacity of the
regional institutions, including the UNECA, to
support the multi-stakeholder and
multidisciplinary forums such as the African
Development Forum, the Regional Coordination
Mechanism of UN Agencies working in Africa, in
Support of the African Union and its NEPAD
Programme, the joint meetings of the African
Union Conference of Ministers of Economy and
Finance and the ECA Conference of African
Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic
Development, the ECA Committee on Food Security
and Sustainable Development, and the associated
Africa Regional Implementation Meetings (RIMs). - RECs can play an important role in spurring the
establishment and development of institutional
and strategic frameworks for sustainable
development, as well as in ensuring their
effective operationalization and implementation.
They should, therefore, be supported to enhance
institutional coherence and harmonize relevant
development policies, plans and programmes among
their member States.
23Governance of Sustainable Development at the
National Level
- National Councils on Sustainable Development
(NCSDs) have proven to be an effective way for
governments to consult with stakeholders and
sectors of society. By doing so they have helped
to build support for potentially difficult
legislation. They have also produced important
national policies and strategies on sustainable
development which have advanced parts of Agenda
21 and the WSSD JPoI. - the principal challenges is the relatively weak
involvement of planning and finance ministries in
sustainable development issues. In many
countries, sustainable development is still in
the domain of environment ministries as national
authorities tend to view sustainable development
as dealing mostly with environment, rather than
viewing environment as one of three equally
important pillars of sustainable development.
24Recommendations on SD Governance
- Global level
- Africa should harnesses its resources to secure
in Rio reformed governance architecture at the
global level that promotes coordination and
synergies across various sectors and actors, and
where the voice of developing countries is
adequately reflected, and is likely to promote
integration at all levels. Such a regime should
address the fragmentation that characterizes the
current international environmental governance
(IEG) framework and the international environment
financing facilities. - Regional Level
- At the regional level, governance should be
strengthened by leveraging upon the comparative
advantages of existing institutions to ensure
effective vertical linkages, as well as
efficiency and effectiveness in sustainable
development actions. More specifically, the
leading role of the regional commissions in
coordinating regional and subregional activities
towards sustainable development, in accordance
with chapter 38 of Agenda 21, must be preserved
and strengthened to foster balanced integration.
Within the context of strengthening regional
institutions, UNEPs Regional Offices should be
further strengthened to support the growing
number of regional-based intergovernmental plans
of actions, such as the environment initiative of
the New Partnership for Africas Development. - Sub-regional level
- RECs should be supported to enhance institutional
coherence and harmonize relevant development
policies, plans and programmes among their member
States. - National Level
- At the national level, Rio20 could reactivate
and reinvigorate the National Councils for
Sustainable Development, to follow up UNCSD 2012
25Good Governance an Essential Element for
Sustainable Development
- Progress made
- Progress on good governance include new
governance parameters and benchmarks that the
African Union and NEPAD have defined the
establishment at the national level of
competitive multiparty democracy and watchdog
institutions such as the ombudsman, human rights
commission, anti corruption commissions, auditor
general, inspector of governance or minister for
good governance. - Challenges
- Despite the progress made, a number of challenges
exist including fragile and weak institutions,
instruments and processes, and the dependence of
watchdog and advocacy agencies on governments
for funding. - Recommendations
- There is need for greater tolerance for diversity
and more guarantees for gender equality
establishment of mechanisms that promote free and
fair election including post-election dispute
adjudication, and exploring alternative sources
of funding for elections.
26CONCLUSIONS
- Africa has responded to the need for a balanced
integration of the three pillars of sustainable
development with varying degrees of success.
Institutional reforms have been undertaken and
sustainable development strategies have been
developed and implemented at all levels. To a
large extent, multi-stakeholder participation has
been promoted and institutional and programmatic
linkages established. The various long term
visions, plans and strategies have also catered
for inter-generational and intra-generational
equity.. - But the problem that is common across all levels
is the difficulty of balanced integration of the
social, economic and environmental pillars of
sustainable development in planning, budgeting
and implementation of plans and programmes. - The challenges in the balanced integration of the
various dimensions also relate to the complexity
of the notion, and the lack of synergy between
the institutions at different levels. - Limited financing is another persistent
constraint in the integration of the three
pillars in a balanced manner in the development
plans and programmes at the subregional, just as
it is at the national and local levels.
27What should Africa expect from Rio20?
- The upcoming Rio20 provides a unique opportunity
for Africa to effectively articulate its needs
and priorities. - Global Level
- In particular, Africa should harness its
resources to secure a reformed global governance
for sustainable development that promotes the
balanced integration of the three pillars at all
levels. - Regional Level
- At the regional level, governance should be
strengthened by leveraging upon the comparative
advantages of existing institutions to ensure
effective vertical linkages, as well as
efficiency and effectiveness in sustainable
development actions. More specifically, the
leading role of the regional commissions in
coordinating regional and subregional activities
towards sustainable development, in accordance
with chapter 38 of Agenda 21, must be preserved
and strengthened to foster balanced integration.
Within the context of strengthening regional
institutions, UNEPs Regional Offices should be
further strengthened to support the growing
number of regional-based intergovernmental plans
of actions, such as the environment initiative of
the New Partnership for Africas Development. - Sub-regional level
- RECs should be supported to enhance institutional
coherence and harmonize relevant development
policies, plans and programmes among their member
States. - National Level
- At the national level, Rio20 could reactivate
and reinvigorate the National Councils for
Sustainable Development, to follow up UNCSD 2012. - THANK YOU, MERCI, SHUKRAN