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DAC Task Force
·
The DTF
was established in 1998 and is the combined perspective of 13 donors led by
the EC and DFID.
·
It was set up to develop policy
and give practical guidance.
The IDT for Sustainable Development & Environment
·
The term NSSD has origins in Agenda 21
from the Rio Conference in 1992. It called upon NSSDs to integrate environmental
concerns.
·
It was taken up by the OECD
in the Shaping the 21st Century document 1996/1997, Rio +5 meeting
of 97.
·
NSSDs need to be in place by
2002.
·
DFID and the DAC Task Force have issued an IDT; this has been
ignored, misinterpreted and confused.
·
NSSDs are not environmental action plans. Because of misinterpretation
and because of the confusion, it is causing problems, we have to find a way
of using it. It is more than just the environment. Some of the difficulties
about this target is there is no international agreement or definition of
what NSSDs are. So, we have an international issue. It is difficult to define
and develop indicators.
·
There is also a leap of faith in IDT. If countries develop
NSSDs there could be a reversal in loss of environment resources. There are
a number of environment issues that need to be developed at the global level.
We do have an IDT which is endorsed by OECD UN families plus a number of donors
working on this issue.
What is sustainable development?
·
The environment is not a synonym
for sustainable development; however, sustainable development is often seen
as an environment issue.
·
For DFID all that sustainable
development entails is: where the “win” “win” is not possible we have
to find ways of ensuring that hard choices on sustainability takes place.
·
These negatives will be: economic political stability, institutional
establishments, cultural etc. It will require a change particularly between
the public and private sector. A negotiation needs to take place to bring
about this change. This balanced negotiation is important because without
it individual countries would not be able to define their development and
needs.
·
Not only is there a need for these sustainable plans, there
needs to be opportunities for stakeholders. To build the capacity to allow
this participation to take place and its accompanying responsibility to make
it possible to happen.
·
The strategic framework and
activities with response to these challenges is our strategy.
Defining NSSDs
·
The DAC High Level Meeting of February 1999 endorsed: “a strategic and participatory
process of analysis, debate, capacity strengthening, planning and action towards
sustainable development” – not starting something new.
·
We are particularly clear about this. There is a plethora of
existing documents and action plans.
·
What NSSDs seek to do is build on what already exists. It tries
to facilitate a better way of working. It particularly tries to build both
a consensus and engage that balance on trade-offs.
·
Strategies are often bureaucratic. There is very little about
consensus building; limited participation and little monitoring.
·
All these issues are what we
mean by strategies.
DAC Task Force
Why
a Task Force?
A task
force was required because of misunderstandings, lack of indicators and agreement.
The way the DAC Task Force is approaching this is to look on the experiences
of others. It was established in June 1998, and includes 13 donors mostly
bilateral, led by DFID and the EC. It is being funded by 8 bilateral donors.
They fund developing country work. They use the experience of developing
countries for guidance.
There
is the risk of focusing on environmental action plans. We hope this will
be a guidance to focus towards NSSDs. Most of the money is being put in a
pool.
Country Dialogues
·
Developed
via country dialogues;
·
They do not help individual
countries;
·
support a learning process;
·
They are working with 8 countries. What is the impact? Who
is involved?
·
In March a number of environmental indicators were agreed.
One is about NSSDs.
·
When the forum started discussing environmental indicators which
NSSDs are in it was supposed to be global. Now the ozone and gas emissions
will be used as global targets.
·
They will help countries find
national indicators for them that might be useful.
·
Countries want to learn from
each other and we hope dialogues will support exchange visits but also to
develop a website.
·
Capacity 21 and members of the Task Force are visiting the Capacity
21 initiative, talking to UNDP and sharing information. It will be for public
access. This communication tool will be very helpful and people can see what
is happening.
International understanding and agreement
·
PRSPs allow potential for thinking and action about strategic planning. Not
just new ones which are being supported by external partners but those developing
countries.
·
We think it would be useful
to move the focus away from labels to achieve IDT.
·
GTZ and IIED are looking at
these issues and are submitting papers by June.
·
What actually constitutes an
IDT?
·
To what extent do they adhere
to the principles of sustainability?
·
Particularly important is: to
what extent do they integrate all 3 levels of sustainable development;
·
Commitment to the principle
in practice: how can we improve on the commitment to these principles.
·
How can we support developing
countries rather than a burden?
·
We need a verification process.
·
How will we know when we are making progress towards the IDT?
Who will be responsible for this verifying? We need an international agreement
or debate. These are some of the issues the Task Force is looking at.
Principles of Sustainability
· PRSPs:
There are a number of common principles i.e. local ownership, strengthening
capacity.
·
DFID and Uganda
have been providing help to go into the PRSP.
