DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT TARGET 12 Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, nondiscriminatory

trading and fi nancial system (including commitment to good governance, development, and poverty reduction, nationally

and internationally)

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161 TARGET 13 Address the special needs of the less developed countries (including

tariff and heavily indebted poor countries and cancellation of offi cial bilateral debt; and more generous offi cial development assistance for countries committed to reducing poverty)

TARGET 14 Address the offi cial needs of landlocked countries and small island developing states (through the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the outcome of the 22nd special session of the General Assembly) TARGET 15 Deal comprehensively with debt problems of developing countries

through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term

TARGET 16 In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth

TARGET 17 In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries

TARGET 18 In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefi ts of new technologies, especially information and communication

2 0 0 1 : I n t e r n a t i o n a l C o n fe re n c e o n Fre s h Wa t e r, B o n n

In December of 2001, the International Conference on Fresh Water was held in Bonn, Germany. The Ministerial Declaration for this conference, while noting “that 1.2 billion people live a life in poverty without access to safe drinking water, and that almost 2.5 billion have no access to proper sanitation,” indicated that “governments, the international community, the private sector, the nongovernmental organizations and all other stakeholders need to base their action on the following: governance, funding gap, role of the international community, capacity building and technology transfer, gender and next steps.”

Concerning governance, the ministers stated that the “primar y responsibility for ensuring the sustainable and equitable management of water resources rests with governments. Never theless, the ministers urged “the private sector to join with government and civil society to contribute to bringing water and sanitation ser vices to the unser ved and to strengthen investment and management capabilities.” (See < http://www.water-2001.de/>.)

2 0 0 2 : C o n fe re n c e o n F i n a n c i n g fo r D eve l o p m e n t , M o n t e rrey

Leaders from developing and developed countries discussed matching commitments and action at the 2002 International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, so that political and economic reform by developing countries would be suppor ted by developed countries in the form of aid, debt relief, investment, and trade. The heads of states and governments declared: “We…have resolved to address the challenges of financing for development around the world, par ticularly in developing countries.” Since that conference many of the problems of financing remain.

Source: World Bank (2005), p. xxii

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2002: World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg

In August and September of 2002, the largest gathering of heads of states and governments and delegates from countries around the world – both developing and developed—met in Johannesburg, South Africa, to work out a plan of action to save planet Ear th from unsustainable development. The heads of states and governments signed a political declaration making a commitment to the achievement of sustainable development. The conference delegates agreed upon a “Plan of Implementation” introducing actions including pover ty reduction, changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, protecting and managing the natural resource base, meeting the challenges of globalization, and protecting human health.

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While the conferences and summits elicited a multitude of promises and pledges, accomp- anying action and the required financial resources did not seem to be for thcoming. The situation necessitated revisiting the complex issues to begin redressing the problem. The environmental policies and legislation that were initiated in the 1970s after the Stockholm Conference were reviewed: (i) to make them enforceable in practice, and (ii) to address the issues of pover ty, trade, financing, and other matters related to the entire environmental picture.

S u s t a i n a bl e D eve l o p m e n t Po l i c y D e f i n e d

One crucial area that is missing in the UN’s list of issues is a sustainable development policy. What is a sustainable development policy and how is it defined? The book Our Common Future, based on the Brundtland Repor t, defined sustainable development as “ensuring that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sustainable development policy comprises institutional and environmental safeguards that will protect the environment and the economy as a whole, as well as another set of guidelines and principles on economic and social sustainability. Each of these policy components, in turn, will rest on different sets of policies as depicted.

I n s t i t u t i o n a l S a fe g u a rd s

Many feel that the most impor tant of the four principles of sustainable development is institu- tional safeguards, because it enables the other three (economic sustainability, social sustainability, and environmental safeguards) to be in place. Institutional safeguards consist of good governance, disclosure of information, anticorruption, and inspection policies. Many of the countries of the world have problems of rampant corruption. According to an International Monetar y Fund (IMF) repor t, as much as 10% of the GDP of a countr y is wasted by corruption. As a countermeasure, the World Bank and ADB have set up policies on anticorruption and inspection. According to their inspection policies, a project can be stopped, even if it has been approved, if the stakeholders make a complaint about violation of some of the policies of the institution financing it.

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E nv i ro n m e n t a l S a fe g u a rd s

Environmental safeguards integrate environmental dimensions into a development project at the planning stage. An EIA is a mandator y requirement for many major development projects. Monitoring has also become mandator y so that a project’s adherence to its stated goals is obser ved.

E c o n o m i c a n d S o c i a l S u s t a i n a b i l i t y

Economic sustainability depends on a set of sector policies in various areas, including energy, forestr y, water, agriculture, and fisheries. Some of these sector policies are discussed in this chapter. Social sustainability hinges on such policies as gender, involuntar y resettlement, indigenous people, cooperation with NGOs, and pover ty reduction. These social policies are addressed in Chapter 8.

To make development sustainable, social and economic sustainability policies must go hand-in- hand with the policy on environmental and institutional safeguards.

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As stated earlier, environmental management implies management of development activities within the assimilative capacity of the environment. Consequently, an environmental policy comprises an umbrella policy related to monitoring the overall environment, setting environmental standards, and setting policy and guidelines for EIA. Beyond this, environmental policy essentially comprises a set of sector policies on the environment. For the purpose of illustration, three sector policies for environmental sustainability will be considered: water, energy, and forestr y.

Wa t e r Po l i c y

Table 6-1 is a summar y of the state of the world’s water supply. It shows that (i) on a per capita basis, availability of fresh water in this world is lowest in the Middle East and Nor th Africa, followed by South Asia; (ii) the percentage of population having access to an improved water source is lowest (55%) in Sub-Saharan Africa; and (iii) agriculturally, the percentage of fresh water is ver y high (from 63%-93%), the highest (93%) being in South Asia.

Six unique characteristics of water as a sector must be noted before an effective water policy can be developed. The first is water’s unitar y nature. Water is a peculiar commodity because it is a liquid compound of oxygen and hydrogen (H₂O) that is absolutely essential to maintain life, ecosystems, and agricultural and industrial activity. Its unitar y nature implies that it can be easily substituted from one source to another. Second, water is not distributed equally over the globe. It is highly variable in location, and its location is in natural hydrologic units that do not necessarily follow geographical boundaries. Third, water is a diversified sector in terms of both supply and demand. On the supply side are surface water, groundwater, rainwater, and seawater. On the demand side water is provided for drinking, sanitation, irrigation, drainage, navigation, fisheries, and hydropower generation. The four th characteristic is related to the second one: water has a

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highly multidimensional institutional framework. At the national level, even if there is a ministr y dealing with water, it is a sector dealt with by several—ministries—fisheries, agriculture, shipping and navigation, health (for the domestic water supply), and energy. Fifth, water is not a simple economic good; sometimes it exhibits the attributes of a public good and sometimes that of a private good. Within a hydrologic unit, fresh water may be limited, but almost any quantity can be traded between users and uses, or it can be impor ted from another hydrologic basin, at a cost.

And, finally, water has ver y impor tant cultural, religious, and political dimensions. Most ancient civilizations originated along riverbanks. In Thailand, water is worshipped during the Songkran and Loy Krathong festivals. In India, the Ganges is sacred; bathing in the Ganges, even though it is polluted, is believed to clean people spiritually as well as physically.

Based on these characteristics, ADB has developed a water policy for Asia (see http://adb. org/Documents/Policies/Water/default.asp?p=wtrrefs), the core elements of which are as follows:

• Promote effective national water policies and action programs. • Invest in water resource management in priority river basins.

• Improve water ser vices through autonomous and accountable providers. • Foster the efficient and sustainable use and conser vation of water in society.

• Increase the mutually beneficial use of shared water resources within and between countries. Table 6-1. State of the World’s Water Supply

REGION