Desai aims for Bali Commitment<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali<\/p>\n
With negotiations at the fourth preparatory meeting in Bali
\nongoing, the United Nations Secretary General for the World
\nSummit on Sustainable Development, Nitin Desai expects delegates
\nto produce a strong action plan for implementing sustainable
\ndevelopment principles. He calls it the Bali Commitment.<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post's Berni K. Moestafa interviewed him on
\nWednesday to get his views on the Bali Commitment. The Following
\nare excerpts:<\/p>\n
Q:How do you describe the progress thus far?<\/p>\n
A: I will use the phrase many here are using, slowly but
\nsteady. It means the pace in terms of the numbers of paragraphs
\netc., which have been agreed upon is slow. But what has been done
\nis very definite: Things are being finalized and decided.<\/p>\n
What are the main issues being negotiated?<\/p>\n
The whole issue is the form in which the commitment will be
\nstated. How firm will the targets be? How firm is the language
\non the programs? These are very important things which are being
\nnegotiated. But once they come to an agreement, then a lot of
\nthings fall in place. Like the language of finance, once you fix
\nit in one place, a lot of other things get cleared up.<\/p>\n
I would say at this stage some basic issues are being hammered
\nout, then we will be at a stage to ensure consistency.<\/p>\n
People are negotiating in different (working) groups and
\ncontacts (groups). Then when everybody comes together, you'll
\nhave to decide on what is the formulation that should be used
\nthroughout. That's the sort of thing we start doing on Friday.<\/p>\n
What are the chances for a strong document?<\/p>\n
I don't know about that. A lot of countries support the idea
\nof time definite goals, the NGOs are clearly in favor.<\/p>\n
The negotiations should conclude by Friday. What do you expect
\nthe delegations do?<\/p>\n
What I expect from them is to clear up as many things as
\npossible, so that when we start on Friday we have some well
\ndefined areas of the differences which we shall resolve.<\/p>\n
So certainly the text which will come out on Friday will have
\nfewer alternatives than the text which is being looked at now.<\/p>\n
We are working on the assumption that we complete our work.
\nBut there is a lot to do, on the political declaration, on the
\npreparation for Johannesburg and what is it that we need to do,
\nto put some credible program of implementation between Bali and
\nJohannesburg.<\/p>\n
My hope is that we really do complete our work by the weekend
\non the program of action. The Bali commitment as I call it.<\/p>\n
Is the NGO's participation going the way that you expect?<\/p>\n
Yes, this is a very long tradition in the UN. As you can see,
\na lot of them are here, they are very vocal, they speak up and
\nthey are very critical quite often but that's the whole point.
\nThey are expressing an important point of view governments should
\nlisten to.<\/p>\n
Is the forum provided for the NGOs sufficient to get their
\nmessage across to the governments?<\/p>\n
There is much more interaction than normal since the multi-
\nstakeholders dialog that we were having over the past three days.
\nThat's much more intensive, in fact they are right there in front
\nand the documents are freely available, they can meet with
\ndelegates. So there are a lot of opportunities for them.<\/p>\n
Will there be any change from here to Johannesburg?<\/p>\n
The program of action will be decided here. What will be done
\nnow is on the political declaration. Bali will give the outlines,
\nthe elements, but the actual drafting and discussion on that will
\ntake place in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n
But the main product of the Summit is what we think will be,
\nis what I call the Bali Commitment.<\/p>\n
If it is strong enough, we'll call it the Bali Commitment.<\/p>\n
And if the program is not strong enough?<\/p>\n
We'll still call it Bali something, perhaps the Bali Program.<\/p>\n
Many people say the implementation (of the 1992 Rio
\nDeclaration) was too weak and they fear this could happen again.<\/p>\n
Yes, so I think a lot of focus here is on what we need to do
\nto keep up the pressure. This sort of thing falls under the name
\nof accountability and responsibility. Much of the discussion on
\nthe institutional issue here is on that. And I expect this will
\nremain an important dimension between now and Johannesburg.
\nPeople will correctly ask: Okay, how do we ensure that this gets
\nimplemented? What do we need to do beyond Johannesburg? So this
\nis very correct and we will see a lot of discussion here also on
\nthe follow up mechanism which focuses on this. This will be a
\nmajor item. We call it the accountability and responsibility
\nmonitoring discussion.<\/p>\n
And after Johannesburg?<\/p>\n
I think the main thing is we really have to make sure that we
\nimplement what will be decided in Johannesburg. The real beyond
\nJohannesburg, is to make sure that we actually meet the promise.
\nBecause the whole point of Johannesburg is implementation. This
\nmeans we have to really make sure that we get to the sources, we
\nget the program in place, that we assist the countries in need of
\nassistance, that we help the countries in formulating their own
\nplans. All of these things you will have to take up. So there is
\na lot of work beyond Johannesburg to do. The work is with the
\ncountries, the UN is not a negotiator. It is there to facilitate.<\/p>",
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