[Note: The following is scheduled just after the IFG meetings in
Washington to enable linkages between the two.]

"WHAT SHOULD WE DO ABOUT THE UNITED STATES?"
A US NGO STRATEGY MEETING FOR JOHANNESBURG & BEYOND

[Note: This meeting is strictly for US NGOs and citizen organizations
to work out our priorities and ideas for the upcoming Summit. Our
apologies to government and industry folk!] *

Thursday, June 27, 2002
11:00 am to 2:00 pm

National Wildlife Federation
Washington, DC
5th Floor Conference Room
1400 16th Street NW

Organized by the Citizens Network for Sustainable Development

Please RSVP to info@citnet.org and/or 301-770-6375.

WHAT SHOULD US NGOs DO ABOUT THE US?

At the fourth preparatory meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable
Development, held in Bali May 27-June 7, Chairman Salim raised the
question "What should we do about the United States?" Some thought
this was a joke, but many NGOs and others continued to echo this as a
serious question regarding what some believe a lack of seriousness by
the US government in implementing the objectives of the Agenda 21
Program of Action for Sustainable Development, signed ten years ago at
Rio.

REPORT FROM BALI

NGOs who attended the meeting in Bali will briefly report back on
developments in each of the various critical issues: fresh water,
energy and climate, food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture,
health and environment, public participation and right to know,
corporate accountability and globalization, and sustainable production
and consumption. In particular, we will look at how the US delegation
negotiated on these topics.

U.S. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Many believe that one of the important Agenda 21 commitments from Rio
was for each country to produce a national sustainable development
strategy and plan -- with an national office or council to implement
this plan. Ten years later, as the US prepares to attend the World
Summit on Sustainable Development (August 26-September 6 in
Johannesburg), there is no national strategy, no office of sustainable
development, nor any signs of developing such a plan or even to raise
the idea of such a plan with the American public. The "President's
Council on Sustainable Development" is a thing of the past. Yet
today, while billions of dollars are committed not just to military
and anti-terrorism but to subsidies to big energy companies and big
agribusiness, relatively little effort or publicity is directed to the
human security issues of sustainable development addressed by the
World Summit. Nine weeks before the Summit the President still
refuses to commit to attending.

WHAT IS OUR (NGO) PLAN?

NGOs and others from around the world continue to ask what US NGOs are
doing to move our government and fellow citizens towards a greater
recognition of the importance of sustainability in policy and
practice, globally, nationally, and locally.

Just nine weeks away, US NGOs have a major challenge before us: To
agree on a collective US NGO message to Americans and the world
clarifying our priorities and concerns about what our country is doing
to achieve sustainability. As the news media begin to focus its
cameras in the direction of Johannesburg, what message will US NGOs
have for them that makes sense? For an American public hearing very
little about "sustainability" in the mass media, how can US NGOs craft
a message about the World Summit and our challenge here at home in a
way that gets across?

These are some of the critical questions we will ask ourselves next
Thursday in shaping a strategy for the following eight weeks leading
up to Johannesburg.

Again, if you are a US NGO (sorry to our government and industry
friends!), please RSVP to info@citnet.org and/or call 301-770-6375

* Note: In the next few weeks we will organize another Citizens
Consultation with the US Delegation, open to all stakeholders.

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For more information about the World Summit, visit the Citizens Guide
to the World Summit at http://www.citnet.org/worldsummit/ .
If you are not on the USCPC-News listserver and would like to be added
for news about the World Summit, visit http://citnet.org/uscpc/lists.aspx to join.

Special thanks to the National Wildlife Federation, the Citizens Network for Sustainable Development, and the Integrative Strategies Forum.