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STATEMENT BY MR. O. A. EDACHE, DIRECTOR OF AGRICULTURE, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, ON BEHALF OF THE GROUP OF 77, AT THE HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT OF THE EIGHTH SESSION OF THE COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, ON RIO +10 New York, 26 April 2000 Mr. Chairman, The Group of 77 and China would want to thank the Bureau for the energetic and constructive work in giving clearer focus to issues surrounding Rio +10 preparatory process. The Group is of the view that the ten-year review conference should be held at summit level outside New York in a developing country. Therefore, the process of selecting a venue should be resolved by the developing countries among themselves. The Group firmly believes that Commission on Sustainable Development should be transformed into a preparatory committee, with equal and total participation of all Member States, under the leadership of each succeeding bureau up to the year 2002. If this will create difficulties, the General Assembly should appropriately authorize a full-fledged preparatory committee to that end. It is critically important that a trust fund should be established to facilitate the participation of developing countries particularly the least developed countries in the preparatory meetings as well as the Rio +10 conference in 2002. It is essential that the national preparatory processes should commence immediately so that their input could be integrated into the United Nations preparatory committee. The national preparatory processes should include all major groups as recognized in Agenda 21 and should review the implementation of Agenda 21 with focus on successes, failures and problem areas. It should similarly identify priorities for the future work of the Commission on Sustainable Development. It is equally important that regional preparatory processes should be established to determine regional priorities which would inform the global process. In this regard, the following inputs should form an essential part of the global review: · Reports from governments including national councils and focal points for sustainable development · Regional reports · Reports from regional UN bodies · Reports from convention secretariats related to Agenda 21 The Group recognizes that the lack of implementation of various recommendations on sustainable development of our environment stems largely from lack of financial resources and heavy burden on developing countries, most of which have been saddled with heavy debt burden and economic difficulties. The main source of financial flows provided for in Agenda 21, that is, Official Development Assistance, has failed to meet the target set in Rio. The preparatory meeting must therefore address the issue of adequate, predictable, and reliable financial resources to support environment and sustainable development in a holistic manner in all its aspects. It is necessary that UN bodies involved with environmental issues, such as, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) be given a role to facilitate the preparatory process under the overall coordination of the Commission on Sustainable Development. Such an environmental body should be heavily involved in organizing conferences and dialogue at sub-regional, regional and inter-regional levels. In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, the Group of 77 would not agree to any proposal that will manifestly or indirectly be interpreted as a re-negotiation of Agenda 21. We should therefore target the review conference as a place and time to recommit ourselves to the faithful implementation of Agenda 21. I thank you. |