BPoA: Mauritius 2004, Pacific Regional Preparations

Pacific Type II Partnership/Initiatives, National Assessment Reports, Regional Assessment
and Draft Pacific Position.

1. The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) met from 26 August - 4 September 2002, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Summit’s goal was to hold a ten-year review of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) to reinvigorate global commitment to sustainable development and look at pragmatic ways of improving implementation.

2. The Summit reached agreement on the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) and Declaration for Sustainable Development as well as catalysing a number of significant commitments and partnership/initiatives called Type II outcomes. The Pacific Leaders launched 14 Pacific Umbrella Initiatives as part of these type II outcomes, as a basis to improve coordination and implementation in the region.

3. One of the important targets in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) relevant to the region was the “full and comprehensive 10 year review of the Barbados Program of Action in 2005 (BPoA+10)”. This review process was seen as an opportunity to not only review the implementation of the BPoA, but also to spring board implementing the outcomes of the WSSD, and reinvigorate the commitment of Pacific SIDS to the implementation of Sustainable Development. As a result of this, Pacific SIDS began developing their National Assessment Reports (NARs) for the review and mandated the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific (CROP) to assist with developing a
Regional Assessment and Pacific Position, as Pacific input and a platform for the Pacific SIDS to negotiate in the BPoA+10 process.

Development of the Type II’s

4. The Type II outcomes of the WSSD consisted of a number of voluntary partnerships and Initiatives, otherwise referred to as Type II Partnership/Initiatives. These were to add value to the implementation of the WSSD Plan of Implementation, basically by doing three things:

5. At the WSSD, the Heads of Governments from the Pacific Launched a set of Umbrella type II partnership/Initiatives as a platform for implementation of Summit outcomes in the region. These Umbrella Initiatives were put together on the basis of the Pacific Regional Submission to the WSSD, various PIC consultations and needs reflected in
National Assessments (NARs) in the lead up to Johannesburg. The current list of initiatives are listed below.

6. The Pacific SIDS added the following objectives for Type II Partnerships/Initiatives:

To attract new Partners and new resources;
To facilitate direct flows of financial assistance to countries and communities;
To provide mechanisms for better coordination of regional and international efforts;
To provide better visibility and understanding of activities, their intent, status and future directions
.
7. The process for refining these initiatives and linking with national needs and priorities, as they are reflected, will be a continuous one as the Initiatives work through the best options for management, coordination and monitoring. A Matrix of the Umbrella type II Initiatives , their facilitators and coordinating committee’s and network of interested partners was developed soon after the Summit and used as a basis to further the interest of the type II’s collectively to a point where they would develop along their own paths, with minimal collective/joint monitoring. Facilitators for each of the Type II’s recognized in March 2003 at a regional consultation funded by NZAID, that they would develop their respective Initiatives along their own paths, and thus developed roadmaps for each of the Initiatives long term development.

8. The Pacific Regional Consultation in March 2003 (‘Nadi Meeting’), provided an opportunity to get feed back from both Pacific Countries and possible donor partners on the expectations of these Umbrella type II partnerships. It was noted during the meeting that there would be a significant amount of work that needed to go into developing these initiatives effectively to ensure that they would in fact provide for better ways to deliver assistance to the National level, than the current mode of operandi.

9. The March 2003, consultation highlighted the possibilities that these forms of partnership could provide for improvement in coordination amongst the many interested partners in the region. With the many similar interests that organizations, institutes and donors currently operating in the region, these partnership initiatives set out a course for reducing duplication of efforts, and promoted combining resources, sharing and building on experiences and ultimately providing a more efficient and effective way to service the needs of Pacific SIDS and returns on partner investment.

10. Whilst the Nadi meeting provided the opportunity to engage stakeholders at the National level and Regional level, there remained the need to harness some of the opportunities for these partnerships at the International level. During the CSD11 session, April 2003, Pacific Island Forum missions in New York addressed this International link, by developing a “Road Map” for their commitment to promoting the Pacific Type II’s to non-traditional donors in an attempt to harness new resources and bring new partners to the table for assisting with Sustainable Development in the Pacific Region.

11. The two years that will have lapsed between the WSSD and the BPoA+10 in Mauritius January 2005, provide a fair timeframe to look at the lessons learned in developing these Umbrella Initiatives, and to provide for some best practices upon which to improve the development, management, coordination, implementation and monitoring of partnerships in the region.

12. During the CSD 12 and SIDS PrepCom, April 2004, some facilitators will be presenting on a few of the type II’s that have developed significantly since the WSSD. These include the, Water, Energy, Ocean, Capacity Building, Tourism, and Vulnerability Initiatives and this will provide an opportunity to highlight some of the best practices of these initiatives that will be compiled for the International Meeting in Mauritius. It is important to note that many of the other Initiatives have also developed significantly however due to the limited time, and the specific themes of the CSD12 there is limited opportunity to update on all type II Initiatives at this event. For a full and comprehensive update of individual Initiatives please contact the Facilitators for each initiative.

13. The continued overall monitoring of the Pacific Type II’s is currently being modified to be incorporated into the new Pacific SIDSnet website which is being housed at SPREP. Similar to role the www.pacificwssd.org website played as a clearing house mechanism for Pacific SIDS in the lead up to the world summit, and later to house the 14 type II Initiatives, it is aimed that the Sidsnet Pacific Website will replace this website and amongst other things, serve as the hub for monitoring the Pacific Type II partnerships. It is envisaged that the Pacific SIDSnet website will house a web page with access to all the Pacific Type II Partnerships and their progress and perhaps become, to the Pacific, what the UN CSD Partnerships database is to the Globe. This should avoid the Pacific partnership/initiatives being lost amongst the 500 or so partnerships being registered on the UN Partnerships database.

14. SPREP has received 8 Pacific SIDS National Assessment Reports (NAR’s) for BPoA+10 to date , most of which are still in draft form. Many NARs developed for the WSSD were developed with the intention to be used for input into the BPoA+10 as well. All NARs are aimed to be finalized in time for showcasing at the International Meeting in Mauritius.

15. Many Pacific Island Countries in their National Assessment Rerports have noted the importance of an enabling environment that provides a framework for collaboration and communication amongst key stakeholders involved in Sustainable Development and the need for better integrated decision making. As a result the opportunity to use these NAR’s as the basis for developing National Sustainable Development Strategies (NSDS's) by 2005 (JPOI target) is being advocated at all levels. A fundamental outcome of the making of NSDSs shall be the institutionalizing of a coordination committee/commission from taskforces set up to develop NAR's. At the Nadi Meeting participants asked about the possibility of melding the required NSDSs within national planning processes. This was taken up by the Forum Economic Ministers Meeting(FEMM) and SPREP meetings in 2003. The FEMM meeting held on 9-10 June 2004 discussed such options for policy development through presentation of a possible framework for national planning that integrates the principles of sustainable development..

16· Given the effective multi-stakeholder consultation process in formulating these NAR’s it stands to reason that there is already a sense of ownership of this document amongst a wide range of stakeholders at the National level, this would hopefully spill over to the ownership and collective implementation of a NSDS if it were based to some degree on the NAR’s.

17· There are other activities currently underway that could assist with this process or at least contribute to it significantly, and should be encouraged to act in collaboration, such as the development of the National Capacity Self Assessments (NCSA), GEF requirement for all future funding.

18. The Regional Assessment has been developed on the basis of the Pacific National Assessment Report produced for the WSSD and those prepared for the BPoA+10 as well as other relevant regional reports and documents. It is still in draft format to be finalized in time for production to be presented at the International Meeting in Maurtius 2005.

19. The Regional Assessment follows the agreed template as finalized during the Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting, 4 – 8 August, 2003, Apia, with one extra chapter. The additional Chapter 7 “Furthering Implementation of BPoA and New and Emerging Concerns (Draft Pacific Position)” comprises what has become the Draft Pacific Position. This chapter presents the main barriers to implementation as highlighted throughout the assessment, and aims to give a comprehensive view of priority areas that need addressing in order to move the sustainable development agenda of the region forward. Chapter 7 has gone through a CROP working group edit 5th Dec, an intensive drafting meeting with 7 PIC’s 9th Dec 2004, comments by some partners and finally a meeting of all PIC’s in the Bahamas at the SIDS Inter-regional meeting, Jan 2004.

20. The “Draft Pacific Position” offers a strategic approach to improving the implementation of Sustainable Development in the region. It is envisaged that the Regional Assessment and Draft Pacific Position will contribute greatly to the development of a Regional Sustainable Development Strategy or Action Plan that aims to better coordinate the various regional organizations in their delivery of assistance and service to PIC’s.