South African Minister to lead post-Johannesburg implementation

The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) has elected Mr Valli Moosa, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism of South Africa, to lead the Summit follow-up process as Chairman for the Commission’s next session, which will take place from 28 April to 9 May 2003 in New York.

The Commission meeting, which will be the first since the Johannesburg Summit last September, will set the framework for the work programme that will track and ensure implementation of the Summit’s decisions to promote sustainable development. It will be attended by Ministers during its high-level segment.

“At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, last year, heads of State had agreed to make the Commission the high-level forum on sustainable development,” said Mr Moosa in remarks read on his behalf by a South African delegate to the United Nations.

“The challenge for the Commission’s eleventh session would be to translate the outcomes of the Summit into practical modalities for its next decade of work, which should be guided by active participation at the highest political levels and ensure the full involvement of technical experts.”

The Commission was created by the United Nations General Assembly to monitor and report on implementation of Agenda 21, the blueprint for sustainable development adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It meets annually to support and encourage action by governments, business and other non-governmental groups to bring about economic and social changes needed for sustainable development.

The Johannesburg Summit agreed that the Commission should identify constraints in the implementation of Agenda 21 and make practical recommendations on ways to overcome them, and that it would hold negotiations on future action every second year.

The Commission will also serve as a focal point for the discussion of partnerships that promote sustainable development. Voluntary partnership initiatives – by and between governments, civil society and the private sector – were introduced in Johannesburg to complement government action and generate direct results on the ground. More than 300 partnership initiatives were announced in Johannesburg, and the Commission continues to receive additional proposals.

For more information, contact:
Klomjit Chandrapanya
UN Department of Public Information
Tel: +1 212 963 9495
Fax: +1 212 963 1186
E-mail: [email protected]

For more information on partnerships for sustainable development, visit the following website:
http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/html/sustainable_dev/sustainable_dev.html