Importance of tourism in poverty elimination addressed at Earth Summit

At the Johannesburg Earth Summit earlier this month, Mr Francesco Frangialli, Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organisation, addressed the heads of state on behalf of the tourism sector. He specifically identified the importance of tourism, particularly eco tourism as a vehicle to help in the central global problem of poverty elimination in developing countries.

He said that the central question for the future is harnessing international tourism to contribute to poverty elimination, noting that tourism has become the main source of GDP and foreign exchange in the world’s poorest countries.

Mr Frangialli said that tourism in these countries opens up opportunities for small businesses, benefits farming, fishing, handicrafts and construction, as well as being a particularly effective job creator for women and indigenous communities.

He announced a new initiative called ST-EP (Sustainable Tourism-Eliminating Poverty) together with UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development). Later the initiative was presented to 600 summit participants with several ministers of tourism. The substance of the presentation is as follows:

Sustainable Tourism – Eliminating Poverty
STEP is an initiative to provide a new framework to link the emerging practice of sustainable tourism with the paramount global challenge of poverty elimination.

So that our sector, which is one of the most powerful socio-economic catalysts, can play an even more important and constructive role in the world’s poorest countries and improve living conditions for people earning less than a dollar a day.

It is spearheaded by WTO – as the international agency responsible for Tourism development; in close collaboration with UNCTAD the agency concerned with the world’s poorest countries and hopefully involving other interested parties.

It is being framed to respond to the global context of an evolving world order – where developing states and sustainability are becoming focal points in international trade and aid policies; where social issues are becoming the great priority in triple bottom line sustainability and where poverty alleviation is becoming the overriding concern of the international community.

It reflects the World Tourism Organization¡¦s commitment to build on its Global Code of Ethics recognized by the UN Assembly to incorporate the same fundamental drivers for

…into a framework that we call liberalization with a human face.

STEP is one manifestation. It is a mechanism to raise substantial sums of money, to drive new research and on the ground programs. Programs which will advance sustainable tourism and attack poverty.

Here’s how it is planned to evolve:

First – attracting significant new funds for this endeavour, via a Charitable Foundation. New funding, because we all know that existing resources are totally inadequate and that tourism cannot compete against financing the deep-rooted challenges such as health, education and child welfare.

The Foundation will seek funding from private sector sources directly and indirectly linked to tourism, from individual and institutional philanthropy sources – as well as public sector funds for entrepreneurship: agricultural transformation, service capacity building and the like.

Second – mobilizing the research community. We envisage annual distribution of a significant sum for new research which reveals key linkages between sustainable tourism and elimination of poverty and which identifies model approaches capable of replication. The focus will be on practical research not theoretical: the grants will be promoted widely to secure maximum interest from the global research community – both tourism and social development.

Third – sustainable operations. Our model foresees another even more significant annual sum to be made available to seed small and medium sized projects in the world’s poorest countries. Projects, which follow the STEP principles identified from the research programs and possibly, certified in their sustainability performance.

The UN’s Millennium Development Goals and the WTO Global Code of Ethics will be integrated into the goals of the STEP Foundation and inculcated at the heart of both our research and operational frameworks, but the single point of focus will be the link between Sustainable Tourism and Poverty Elimination

We do not see ST-EP becoming another ecolabel but what we do believe is that ecolabel organizations will effectively incorporate ST-EP principles into their own systems. And certification programs will be easily able to report on performance. We will encourage people who want to use the logo along with their own and in this way they can send a marketing message to consumers.

Finally we will look to an Annual Global Awards Ceremony to promote the STEP vision and its champions.

If the donor community can be effectively mobilised and if this process can be simply and routinely repeated on an annual basis, in five short years we can have a substantial body of research and thousands of funded projects, making a difference where it counts – at the community level.

We envisage that so-called ‘eco’, ‘responsible’ or ‘community’ tourism based projects will be at the heart of this system. Why? Because the essence of such schemes must be community and people based actions which have issues such as poverty alleviation, social development, inclusion and the like at their core.

While the STEP framework will be spearheaded by WTO and UNCTAD, it will require buy in and involvement from donors and stakeholders – the private sector, government and civil society.

We have sounded a cross section of these and have received very positive encouragement – in some cases support for putting in place the framework. Similar reactions were given by African Tourism Ministers at WTO’s Commission this year and at the High level LDC Ministerial in Benin.

We intend to intensify the process of collaboration following the WSSD launch by the Secretaries General of WTO and of UNCTAD. Other UN agencies will be our first port of call along with regional bodies such as NEPAD and SADC.

We plan to deliver the finished product in 2003 at WTO’s next Assembly. A funded, research driven but action oriented conveyer belt, to raise socio-economic levels for people, countries and communities most in need. To do so with the minimum of impact. And in a way which tangibly delivers on our own Global Code of Ethics and the UN Millennium Development Goals

The essence of STEP is its lucidity – we know that we live in a complex world, but if the model can be kept simple, transparent, honest and inclusionary we are sure it can make a real difference.

This presentation, given at the WSSD by WTO Special Advisor Geoffrey Lipman, represents the state of the project in September 2002. It incorporates elements presented to the African Commission of WTO, The Quebec Summit and the Benin High Level LDC Meeting.

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