*EPF207 09/03/2002
Ministers Reach Agreement on Most Summit Goals
(Agreement includes goal to increase access to sanitation) (940)

By Jim Fuller
Washington File Staff Writer

Johannesburg, South Africa -- Officials at the World Summit on Sustainable Development report reaching agreement on virtually all of the issues making up an action plan to tackle world poverty.

The officials said September 2 that the provisions agreed upon during three days of around-the-clock ministerial negotiations include many of the toughest issues facing the summit -- including a commitment to set a goal for reducing by half the proportion of people without access to proper sanitation by 2015, efforts to significantly reduce the current rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, and efforts to promote good governance and corporate responsibility.

These and other issues make up the summit's plan of implementation -- a 71-page text that will likely determine the environmental agenda for the next 10 years, and is expected to be a model for any legally-binding treaties that emerge in the future.

"Each major substantive area that you think of -- forests, fish, oceans, agriculture, water, sanitation -- all those things have specific actions and concrete activities that we have now agreed to undertake in this plan of action," said U.S. negotiator Jonathan Margolis in an interview. "So it's a huge step forward by the international community coming together on sustainable development."

Assistant Secretary of State John Turner said reaching agreement on most of the issues in the plan of action was "a real breakthrough." He added that the United States "has been a leading force in molding the document, finding compromises and taking some very positive steps forward."

Summit Secretary-General Nitin Desai said most of the summit's objectives have already been met, including having the international community reaffirm its support for implementing Agenda 21 -- the blueprint for sustainable development outlined at the Rio Summit 10 years ago -- and the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals.

"The summit was also intended to accelerate implementation of sustainable development, and from the announcements of significant new resources and partnerships, that has happened," he said. "And lastly, we sought to put sustainable development back on the international agenda and in the global consciousness, and without question, that too has happened."

U.S. officials said one of the most significant developments was reaching agreement on the goal to cut in half by 2015 the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation. "That was a big issue for the international community; there was a lot of interest in seeing it go forward," Margolis said. "We were able to help forge that agreement, so that's a big step."

The new commitment on sanitation comes as a companion target to the already agreed-upon goal of halving the proportion of people who lack access to clean water, which is one of the Millennium Development Goals that has been reaffirmed in Johannesburg. The new commitments also call on governments to provide the resources and technical assistance needed to embark on action programs to meet the goals.

Jamal Saghir, director of the World Bank's Energy and Water Division, told a plenary session at the summit that some 1,100 million people still lack access to clean drinking water, 4,000 million people have no waste disposal, and more than 7 million children die each year from water-related diseases. He said sanitation is becoming a huge challenge in rural areas, where populations are swelling with the shift from urban centers.

Turner said another major accomplishment at the summit was the reaffirmation of commitments made at the Doha WTO trade talks in November 2001, where the United States was instrumental in relaunching negotiations on agricultural trade liberalization, and at the Conference on Financing for Development last March in Monterrey, Mexico, where President Bush announced a new compact for development.

Under the compact, the United States will increase its core development assistance by 50 percent over the next three years, resulting in a $5,000 million annual increase over current levels. These additional funds will go into a Millennium Challenge Account that will fund initiatives to help developing nations that demonstrate good governance, that is, a strong commitment to ruling justly, investing in people and promoting economic freedom.

Margolis called Doha and Monterrey "stepping stones on the road to development" leading up to the world summit. He said that the agreement by summit delegates to reaffirm commitments made at the previous two meetings creates "a continuum ... a common approach underlying the basics of trade and finance that leads to strong development." The agreement also completes the good governance package at the summit.

During the summit, hundreds of partnership initiatives also have been launched by governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international organizations and the private sector to address sustainable development issues.

Turner said the United States has announced partnership packages that include about $10,000 million in pledges to alleviate poverty, fight hunger, increase housing for the poor, increase access to fresh water and clean energy, and promote health care and education.

"Other governments, NGOs and business groups have agreed to join the United States in this kind of partnership effort -- to get beyond the text, to get beyond the planning -- to take action," Turner said. "I think we've laid a lot of groundwork here for what has to be a long-term sustained commitment to development."

The summit ministers also agreed to reaffirm the so-called "Rio Principles," including the precautionary principle and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. The precautionary principle asks people to take action before the effects are seen, as in the case of ozone depletion in the upper atmosphere. The principle on differentiated responsibilities is in recognition that countries have different responsibilities for solving common problems, such as reducing global warming, where greater burdens are placed on the more industrialized countries.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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