Where Are We Now?
July 1, 2002:
We have now gone through nearly all of the preparatory process
for WSSD which began a little over a year ago in New York
at the first WSSD PrepCom.
Since then, most countries have held formal multistakeholder
consultations with their citizens, regional prepcom meetings
have been convened to identify regional priorities, and the
global prepcoms (II through IV) have happened in New York
and Bali (Indonesia).
Going into Joburg, you should know what happened in Bali
and be familiar with the draft Plan of Implementation that
emerged. It's likely that certain sections of that text will
become your main focus, if your reasons for going to WSSD
include lobbying to get certain things added to the official
Type I outcomes.
There are hints of an "informal informal" between
governments this month in NYC to help find common ground and
bridge some of the gaps left in brackets in Bali. It's expected
that a draft Political Declaration may also be discussed,
since it was not finished at PrepCom 4. Now would be a good
time to lobby your government (or other governments through
embassies, if practical), as it's likely the text you're interested
in may change by the time you get to South Africa.
Recent News
If you want to stay on top of WSSD-related news that is relevant
to US NGOs, we suggest you subscribe to the USCPC-News
listserve, as well as visit the US Citizens
Preparatory Committee website to find back issues of the
WSSD News for US NGOs newsletter.
Vocabulary Used on This Page
Since not everyone is familiar with some of these terms,
here are some definitions of words used on this page. You'll
find many more terms defined in the CitNet
Sustainablility Glossary.
Brackets: Language that countries cannot
agree on in negotiations is marked with square brackets [like
this] to identify those passages in text which need to be
further discussed and debated.
Multistakeholder: This refers to a participatory
process where different groups with a stake in the matter
under discussion (stakeholders) are invited to participate
in the process. Agenda 21 defined nine major groups, in addition
to governments, which are represented in the WSSD proceedings.
PrepCom: Preparatory Committee. Generally,
this refers to one of the four interim meetings held in the
past year to help set the agenda and draft documents for the
Summit.
Type I: There are two types of outcomes
expected at the WSSD. The 'Type I" outcomes are the typical
UN documents, official declarations and plans agreed to by
all WSSD member countries. The Type II outcomes, in contrast,
are simply announced global and regional partnerships between
different stakeholders on key WSSD issues. (This is the first
time ad hoc partnerships are being references as official
outcomes in a UN conference.)
|