Sustainable development body
10 September 2003
South Africa is to launch an institute to co-ordinate the country's response to agreements made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg last year.
The department of environmental affairs and tourism will launch the multi-stakeholder South African Institute for Sustainable Development, which will offer support to government departments to meet targets agreed at the World Summit.
The department's director for sustainable development, Blessing Manale, said that the department will develop the institute's business plan by the end of 2003, while functioning mechanisms should be in place by the end of 2004.
"The institute should support government and help to monitor agreements, and also generate some innovative thinking on how the programme can be implemented", Manale said.
Manale was speaking after a high-level meeting of ambassadors, government officials and heads of United Nations agencies in Sandton,
Johannesburg last week for the first anniversary of the World Summit.
The meeting reviewed South Africa's response to the Johannesburg Programme of Action adopted at the Summit, and discussed approaches to implement the country's own Summit targets.
The Johannesburg Programme of Action endorsed the Millennium Declaration goals of halving the number of people living in poverty by 2015, halving the number of people without clean water and adequate sanitation by 2015, curbing the loss of biodiversity by 2010, securing the safe use of chemicals by 2020, and restoring fish stocks by 2015.
Manale said the institute would strive to attract donor funding to South African "flagship" sustainable development initiatives, such as the Alexandra renewal programme, while also supporting and cooperating with agencies such as Telkom and Eskom.
Source: BuaNews
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