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Title: PRESENTATION OF THE AFRICA REPORT ON INSTITUTIONAL AND STRATEGIC FRAMEWORKS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT


1
PRESENTATION 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

2
Methodology 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

3
Institutions
  • 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.

4
Main 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.

5
Regional 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

6
AU 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.

7
Specialized 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.

8
Regional 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.

9
UNITED 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.

10
UN 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.

11
ctd
  • 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.

12
Cont.
  • 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.

13
Other 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

14
Cont.
  • 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

15
INSTITUTIONAL 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.

16
cont
  • 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.

17
INSTITUTIONAL 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.

18
SUSTAINABLE 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.

19
Cont.
  • 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.

20
Position 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.

21
Sustainable 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

22
Reform 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.

23
Governance 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.

24
Recommendations 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

25
Good 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.

26
CONCLUSIONS
  • 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.

27
What 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
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