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by B M S Batagoda, Director, Environmental Economics and Global Affairs Division, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources

The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was held in Johannesburg, South Africa from 26 August to 4 September 2002 to hold a ten year review of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) at the Summit level to reinvigorate global commitment to sustainable development.

The UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) that is also known as the Earth Summit took place from 3-14 June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Over 100 Heads of State and Government, representatives from 178 countries and some 17,000 participants attended the Summit Main outcomes of the Summit were the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Agenda 21, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Statement of Forest principles.

The Commission on sustainable Development (CSD) was created as called for in the chapter 38 of the Agenda 21 to ensure effective follow up to the UNCED, enhance international co-operation and rationalise intergovernmental decision making, and examine progress in the implementation of Agenda 21 at all levels.

The UNGA held in December 2000 decided to embark on a ten year review of the UNCED focusing on accomplishments, identify areas requiring further efforts to implement Agenda 21. The UNGA also accepted the offer made by South Africa to host the WSSD.

Four sessions of the preparatory committee (PREPCOM) for the WSSD were held to develop documents and other logistics for the summit. Five regional inter-governmental ministerial preparatory meetings have been held. Asia and the pacific regional preparatory meeting was held from 27-29 November 2001, in Phnom Penh Cambodia. Ministerial meeting West Africa was held in Cairo from 24-25 October, 2001. Latin American and Caribbean Ministerial meeting was held in Rio de Janeiro from 23-24 October.

African preparatory conference was held in Nairobi on 18 October 2001. European Ministerial Conference was held in Geneva from 24-25, September 2001. In addition to this, a series of sub regional consultative meetings were also held. The sub regional meeting for South Asia was held in Colombo in November 2001.

National preparatory committee for the WSSD were established to undertake country-level reviews, raise awareness, and mobilize stakeholder. National preparatory committees of each country were requested to submit two documents containing information relevant to WSSD; a country profile and a national assessment report. The four PREPCOM sessions used all these national, sub regional and regional consultation meetings in preparing the documents for consideration by the WSSD.

The WSSD adapted two major documents: The Plan of Implementation of the world Summit on Sustainable Development and the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development. A set of partnership initiatives to strengthen the implementation of Global Sustainable Development Agenda was also developed as type II outcomes to the Summit, which will be complementary to the major outcomes. These decisions of the summit will have mixed impacts on the developing countries. This paper reviews the outcome of the WSSD with respect to economic and environment development in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan priorities

Sri lanka believe in the middle path to its sustainable development which includes five major paths: path to social and economic development; path to environment management and protection; path to integration and participation by major groups; path to implementation and capacity building; and path to international commitments. In order to follow these path without barriers, Sri lanka recommended that World Summit should;

* Recognise that peace, security and political and macro economic stability are prerequisites for sustainable development in all countries in the region.

* Recognise the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility" in international cooperation to achieve global sustainable development.

* Recognise good governance at the domestic and international level and respect for human rights and cultural diversity is essential for sustainable development.

* Recognise that access to safe drinking water and sanitation, access to transportation and energy should be basic needs for sustainable development.

* Recognise poverty eradication is the greatest challenge for global sustainable development so that the world solidarity fund should be established with a time bound action programme to improve basic sanitation, safe drinking water, energy and access to economic activities for the poor.

* Note that availability and access to technologies to all is a pre-requisite for global sustainable development. Restrictions of access to latest technologies will increase the gap between poor and rich, which impede sustainable development. Therefore, the global community should work towards making all technologies available for those who need such technologies on a phase out basis.

* Recognise equitable globalisation has harsh impacts on the region. Therefore developed countries should work towards reducing such impacts on developing countries through adopting good governance, sustainable trade and improving access to financial market information.

* Note that education and capacity building of civil society including women empowerment is a vital component and sustainable development. Therefore, providing access to basic education to all global citizens should be the responsibility of entire world.

* Recognise that developing countries have not been able to participate in the international law making process effectively as the process is moving too slowly. inspired political leadership and genuine intense cooperation across all regions and sectors will be needed to put both existing and new policy instruments to work. There should be a level playing field for both developed and developing countries in the international law making process. At present the participation of developing countries is very ineffective. Even among the developing countries only few countries participate effectively. Therefore there is no justice in the international law making gas at today, as most developing countries do not have capacity to participate in the international law making both in terms of financial as well as human resources.

* Recognise that it is the duty of developed countries to build the capacity of developing countries and create a level playing field in international treaty negotiations. Until such situations is created, global sustainability cannot be achieved.

Immediate priorities of Sri Lanka Poverty

Poverty, environmental degradation and ongoing internal conflict that has gripped the country, have been identified as three major critical national issues, which are interconnected and have a strong impact among one another. Hence action to resolve the situation will need to focus on all three issues as a whole. Approximately 13% of the GDP is utilised for foreign debt repayment and 6% for defence. As such the financial resources required to meet other national priorities are limited. This creates a vicious circle and precipitates further increase in conflicts, poverty and environmental degradation. It is estimated that 13% of the population in the country are under the poverty line, with incomes below US $ 300/annum. 4.31% of the national budget is allocated towards providing assistance to the poor.

The enormity and complexity of the multifaceted issue of poverty jeopardizes the process of sustainable economic growth along with human development of a country. The rapid population growth within a fragile resource environment, lacking supportive institutional bodies results in large-scale poverty incidence and environmental degradation. It is mainly a consequence of the absence of a proper source of sustenance, which has led the poor to be trapped in the vicious circle of debt and landlessness.

But in short by raising the pro-poor pattern of economic growth, while strengthening institutions that reinforces equity and broad-based participation can ameliorate the level/depth of poverty of a country. A combination of economic incentives, community level empowerment and good governance, enhancement of skills and creation of new employment opportunities and increasing the accessibility of modern technology can be more effective instruments of poverty eradication than mere enforcement of laws and regulations. Therefore, the problem of poverty can be reduced in the medium and long-term, through greater pro-poor economic activities and development also more equitable sharing of the benefits of development.

Sri Lanka's strategy for combating poverty is mainly three fold: (1) achieving economic growth and development to create employment and improve the standard of living: (2) achieving human development through the provision of improved health and education services. (3) meeting basic needs protecting vulnerable groups and ensuring human rights direct interventions aimed at those who have not benefited from growth related policies. Creating opportunities for the poor to participate in economic growth, strengthening the social protection system, and empowering the poor and strengthening governance have been identified as key strategies by the Framework for Poverty Reduction.

Sri Lanka's open market economy maintains a combination of liberal trade and investment regime, within a reasonable measure of fiscal and monetary discipline required to generate productive and remunerative employment. In this view, Sri Lanka has established a range of bilateral and multilateral trade accords to expand the international market access. The government has carried out feasibility studies to develop infrastructure required to link the poor regions with dynamic markets in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan government has promoted small and medium scale enterprises which account for nearly 90% of industrial establishments and 70% of employment in the manufacturing sector. These enterprises are a main source of employment for low income, rural and urban households. About 80% of all industrial activities being located in and around Colombo had led to large- scale urbanisation. To overcome this problem, the government has re-located industrial zones in rural areas. Sri Lanka is proud of its high rate of literacy and high standard of health services compared to many other developing countries. To further improve the standard of education in Sri Lanka a set of educational reforms has been introduced with the assistance of the World

Bank. The government has encouraged expansion of private health care services due to its inability to meet the increasing demand and to provide high quality services for all. A National Environment Action Plan (NEAP) 1998-2001 has been formulated for innovative environmental management necessary for poverty reduction through sustainable approaches.

Extensive array of social protection

The government with the assistance of and in co-operation with international, non-governmental and local community organisations provides an extensive array of social protection services aimed at assisting the poorest groups. Of them, the Samurdhi Programme is the largest welfare programme in the country, which provides cash grants to some 2.1 million families and another grant to 82,000 families under the infant nutrition programme. It also operates a range of compulsory savings, a Samurdhi Bank society and national youth job creation and village development programmes. The Resettlement and Rehabilitation Authority of the North was established in 1996 to address the problems arising from conflict-related impoverishment. Furthermore, with the realisation of some of the shortcomings in the past, strategies of reducing poverty the government with the assistance of the UNDP and the World Bank, initiated action to prepare a more comprehensive poverty reduction framework in the year 2000.

The Framework for Poverty Reduction formulated in year 2000 has identified several factors for poverty in the country: a) Lack of assets especially land; b) imperfect property rights system and fragmented holding sizes; c) lack of effective technologies for rainfed farming, particularly in non-irrigation areas of the dry zone; d) weak institutional arrangements and practices, especially with regard to land tenure; (e) non-competitive product markets for farm produce; e) limited technology adoption and utilisation in rural industries; f) poor production standards and low product quality in rural industries; g) high capital costs; h) raw materials and resource bottlenecks; i) limited access to production and marketing information; j) shortfalls in physical infrastructure, such as inadequate power, energy and communication; k) the absence of high mobility roads and a transport network linking villages, towns and cities; l) Non-availability of the rule of the law within the reach of the poor; m) lack of clear delegation in administrative authority.

An expeditious solution through peace negotiations to the current conflict will bring an end to the human suffering experienced by the people in the North as well as the South. A peaceful settlement also creates opportunity to implement stable, consistent, and predictable macro-economic policies to promote a high level of domestic and foreign private investment to generate sustainable sources of employment for the poor. There also should be a significant increase in infrastructure investments to link the poor regions to the dynamic markets. Furthermore regulatory streamlining, simplification of administrative procedures, accessibility to long-term credit and new technology are needed to promote the formation of new small enterprises. Not only raising the incomes from agricultural ventures but also raising the gains from off-farming employment can uplift the rural poor out of absolute poverty. Politicisation of poverty alleviation programme leads to bypassing the poor and depriving the poor of intended benefits. Thus there is a need to be empowered along with effective institutional governance.

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