1. Making Globalisation Work for Sustainable Development

To ensure that globalisation promotes equity and sustainable development:

1. Launch the establishment of a global, multilateral framework agreement on public access to information and participation in decision-making, drawing on existing experience, such as the Aarhus Convention, the Lome and Cotonou Conventions and several regional initiatives, such as the Inter-American Strategy for People's Participation in Decision-Making about Sustainable Development (ISP), consistent with Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration.

2. Improve the capacity of the media in developing countries to raise the awareness of their populations on issues related to sustainable development and the opportunities for public participation in related decisions.

3. Ensure that in the negotiations of Multilateral Trade agreements seeking access to the global marketplace, industries, sectors and countries are no worse of than before the conclusion of these agreements.

4. Ensure that the provisions of Multilateral Environmental Agreements are applied in a transparent, non-discriminatory, equitable and predictable manner in all countries that are party to these agreements with respect to the management of marine and terrestrial resources and in other areas likely to affect relations between countries in the context of globalisation.

5. Ensure that all Transnational Corporations, multilateral and other international financial agencies act in full compliance with these Trade and Environmental Agreements.

 

2. Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Livelihoods

It is essential that efforts at development not only seek to eradicate poverty but ensure that the very processes leading to impoverishment are terminated.

1. Promote sustainable agriculture and fisheries and rural development to ensure: food security, diversification of rural economies and communities; improved access to markets and market information; provide financial and technological support for rural infrastructure and enterprise development among rural dwellers.

2. Provide funding for integrated rural development plans, programs and strategies at national and regional levels with particular emphasis on human resource development, capacity building for local governance, to ensure effective land and water use and access to these resources.

3. Recognize and protect indigenous and common property resource managements systems.

4. Extend secure tenure to urban and rural dwellers and producers in full recognition of their basic right to shelter.

5. Support the establishment of business enterprises that rely on the effective involvement of local communities and their organizations in the design and management of these enterprises as mechanisms for the pursuit of sustainable livelihoods.

6. Ensure that in the design and implementation of integrated plans for the development of communities, the impact of natural disasters is taken into full account and mitigated through such means as proper land use and zoning, appropriate arrangements for mortgage financing, insurance, disaster preparedness and communications.

7. In the pursuit of sustainable livelihoods, ensure that the health needs of the population and its capacity to participate in its own economic development are not compromised by the cost of prevention and care of HIV-Aids.

8. Combine the opportunities for new enterprise development that are associated with the proper disposal and management of waste, to the need for a clean environment that ensures the health and overall well-being of people in communities.

3. Changing Unsustainable Patterns of Consumption and Production

Sustainable development cannot be achieved without fundamental changes in the way that industrialized countries produce and consume and promote these same unsustainable patterns in the developing countries. Urgent actions are required to:

1. Adopt policies and measures in developed and developing countries aimed at changing unsustainable patterns of production and consumption via technological and educational policies which:

a) Raise consumer awareness of the importance of sustainable production and consumption patterns;

b) Improve the role of the media and other public information tools including artistes, in promoting sustainable consumption and production;

c) provide incentives to enterprises to adopt production process that are consistent with the demands of clean production, with special attention to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises;

d) encourage publicly-funded research and development institutions in developed and developing countries to undertake research on sustainable production systems;

e) to enhance corporate responsibility and accountability to the affected communities in both the developed and developing countries.

2. Promote capacity-building and transfer of technology for sustainable production and consumption patterns within and between developing and developed countries.

3. Assist small and medium-size enterprises in developing countries through information and training and credit to grasp the business opportunities arising from increasing consumer awareness of the importance of sustainable consumption and production patterns to their own sustainable livelihoods.

4. Ensure the full participation of local communities and their organizations in the design, promotion and implementation of national and regional policies and programs aimed at achieving sustainable patterns of consumption and production.

5. Institute management practices and technologies that take full account of the carrying capacity and restorative rate of critical marine and terrestrial resources in the use of these resources for meeting human needs. Promote public information and participation in decision-making regarding the use of these natural systems.

6. This approach to the sustainable managements of marine and terrestrial resources is particularly important with regard to sustaining the quality and delivery of water for human consumption.

4. Promoting Health for Sustainable Development

In the context of sustainable livelihoods, issues of health become expanded beyond healthcare delivery systems, to address the need for awareness and management of lifestyle and the broader environment within which human health is nurtured. To this end, actions are needed to:

1. Research, document and build capacity for an integrated approach to health that links the design of farming systems, the location of housing, the management of waste and the dissemination of public information, among others, to the creation of a healthy national and global space within which human beings live and work.

2. Develop strategies for sustainable development that take account of the direct impact of such global diseases as HIV Aids on the youth and other population groups as this significantly affects the prospects for achieving sustainable livelihoods. In developing these strategies, mechanisms and processes of consultation and decision-making will be needed to ensure that the concerns and ideas of youth are taken into full account.

3. Maintain the chemical and biological quality of water resources at acceptable standards by addressing the management of water catchments to ensure that they remain free from potential polluting activities.

4. Allow the knowledge of indigenous people and others with capacity in the areas of traditional health and healing to be kept safely while informing a more holistic approach to the care of the human and natural environment.

5. Recognize this holistic view of health as a fundamental right to a healthy body, mind and environment, as central to the prospects for achieving sustainable livelihoods.

5. Access to Energy (renewable and non-renewable)

1. Promote the application of clean, restorative technologies in the exploration, extraction and use of non-renewable sources of energy. Ensure that income from the exploitation on non renewable resources is maximised and invested in activity that will ensure sustainable livelihoods for future generations.

2. Ensure the rapid development of renewable energy technology that will reduce the dependence on non-renewable energy.

3. Ensure the dispersion and decentralization of energy systems in ways that provide access to rural and urban dwellers and in ways that respond to plans for improving the living conditions through planned settlement of such populations.

6. Biodiversity and Sustainable Management of Ecosystems

1. Strengthen Regional cooperation and encourage better coordination through the regional seas program including raising public awareness of the importance of the protection of the ocean environment and meeting social and economic needs and aspirations.

2. Promote the development and increased coverage of coastal protected areas to conserve biodiversity in the context of the position espoused by the SIDS POA which holds that the sum total of an island system comprises its coastal zone.

3. Promote Regional strategies containing medium actions and early warning systems to mitigate the impact of global climate change.

4. Mobilize and provide funding and technical assistance to support the efforts of vulnerable countries to establish early warning systems and rehabilitate communities following disasters in ways that are compatible with the international commitment to restore and enhance national and regional capabilities for recovery and sustainable development following these events.

5. Establish a global early warning mechanism as the nucleus for an early warning network that will be integrated with national and regional systems.

6. Provide incentives for agricultural enterprises to monitor water quality and use and to improve efficiency and reduce pollution.

7. Assist developing countries that are involved with land tenure reform to promote and support land redistribution and reforms including policy advice in order to enhance sustainable livelihoods.

8. Improve governance and institutional arrangements and the mobilization of resources for infrastructure and services, capacity building, sharing technology and knowledge keeping in mind that the full involvement of local communities is one of the best guarantees of the sustainable management of ecosystems that are central to the survival of the people in these communities.

9. Promote public information and participation in decision-making on sustainable development as a perquisite condition to the success the managements of water and other ecosystems.

7. Managing the World's Freshwater

1. Enact and enforce water legislation and strengthen local water management and service capacities.

2. Improve access to and efficient use of water at the community common watershed and river basin level.

3. Provide development assistance and technical cooperation to build capacities for sustainable water management distribution and use.

4. Assist the efforts of local institutions to develop their own solutions and models for sustainable business related to fresh water, the preservation of catchments and the direct involvement of local communities in the management and stewardship of this resource.

5. Promote and support the effective use of media and other means of information dissemination relating to emerging threats to the preservation and sustainable management of freshwater systems for use by communities that are highly dependent on these supplies for their survival and whose capacity to purchase freshwater is severely constrained by their limited financial and economic resources.

8. Finance and Technology Transfer for Sustainable Development

1. Launch an initiative for the establishment of new financing mechanisms within and between developing countries that are managed by organizations that work with and represent the major social groups in these countries.

2. Establish resource pools that assemble the expertise and knowledge of developing countries in ways that allow these to become available to local communities and their organizations that are engaged in building sustainable livelihoods.

3. Establish a clear role for civil society as a major stakeholder in he mobilization and management of the financial resources needed for sustainable development. That role to include ongoing monitoring and reporting on the effectiveness with which these resources are utilized on the approved development strategies contained in the national plan. Civil society must execute this role which has already been well-defined in several Regional and International Agreements endorsed and signed by Governments.

4. Engage the private sector together with the civil society and government in the preparation of a national development plan that reflects the priorities of the people of the country and which informs the application and use of financial and other resources needed for economic activity.