Towards Earth Summit 2002	Annual Report 1999 NGO Steering Committee  to the United Nations Commission on  Sustainable Development
Home	Site Map                                Issue Caucuses             Major Groups              Steering Committee
What's New?	Earth Summit 2002            OUTREACH                     Translations                  Links

Section One:     Co-Chairs’ Introduction

Section Two:     Steering Committee Activities at CSD-7, 1999

Section Three:    Preparations for CSD-8, 2000

Section Four:     Management Committee Decisions

Section Five:     Southern Clearinghouse Report

Section Six:        Northern Clearinghouse Report

Section Seven:     Management Committee Members, 1999-2000

Section Eight:     Steering Committee Members, 1999 - 2000

Co-Chairs’ Introduction

CSD 1999 was probably the most successful ever from the NGOs point of view. Over 600 Major Groups representatives attended the session B the largest number ever at a CSD other than UN Special Session in 1997 and, due to the issue of tourism being on the agenda for the first time, CSD-7 saw the largest number of ‘new’ NGOs participating. As you will see from the reports from the caucuses we were successful in many of the areas where we put our energy. The two areas we would particularly like to highlight are the Dialogues and Earth Summit 2002 (see below).

The CSD NGO Steering Committee is composed of NGOs representing regions and issue based caucuses, and representatives of the Major Groups. The Steering Committee acts as an information provider for all and as such is a place for NGOs to collect together in an open, democratic and transparent way. As such the CSD NGO Steering Committee is one of the most advanced NGO governance structure that exists around any UN process.

We worked very closely with the Chair of the 1999 CSD, the Rt. Hon Simon Upton, especially in preparation for the Dialogue Sessions. During 1998 and 1999 there were regular meetings between Nicky McDonald of the New Zealand Mission and Megan Howell, the Director of the Northern Clearinghouse. This ensured that the Chair was kept up to date with NGO preparations. And that NGO suggestions/positions were taken into account early in the process.

We have worked closely with the Chair of CSD 2000, Minister Juan Mayr of Columbia. There have been two meetings between the Minister and NGOs, and regular meetings with the Colombian Mission.

Earth Summit 2002

NGOs were able to introduce this issue onto the CSD’s agenda for discussion, by working with governments via the Ministerial segment. The outcome of this is that CSD 2000 will have to address the modalities of Earth Summit 2002. The Steering Committee played a key role in helping facilitate this early discussion, which will be vital to ensuring a successful Summit in 2002. NGOs and Governments recognised that if 2002 was going to be significant then they need to start discussing why and how and where, now.

The Steering Committee held its first meeting on 2002 at the CSD in 1998 and followed this up with one at the UNEP Governing Council in Nairobi in 1999 and the CSD in 1999.

The Steering Committee is committed to facilitating NGO preparations for Earth Summit 2002. At the CSD it organised a side event addressed by Chip Lindner (Former secretary to the Brundtland Commission) and Adnan Amin (Director of UNEP office in New York). Other invited speakers were unable to attend, as the CSD was at that point taking its first ever vote, on the issue of environmental damage in Kosova.

In September, many Ministers of Environment met in Ghana to prepare for the CSD. This was the seventh of a series of these types of meetings organised by governments to prepare for CSD sessions. For the first time the Ministers met with NGOs. Set up by the Steering Committee and enacted by our colleagues in Ghana, the meeting focussed mainly on 2002 preparations. We would in particular like to thank our colleague Dorothy Gordon for organising the Ghana NGO side, and Minister Avoka the Ghana Environment Minister for his support.

Dialogue Sessions

The Dialogue Sessions were another of this year’s great successes and were developed further than the Industry Dialogues of 1998. The Dialogues grew out of an idea suggested by NGOs to the General Assembly in October 1996. The original idea came from the Habitat II process in Istanbul, where the Major Groups each presented what they thought were the key issues in the Habitat II debate to Committee 2 of Habitat II. In 1997, the CSD copied the process. The Dialogues have since been developed into the more interactive and outcome-oriented process that we have today. This evolution was begun under the direction of Joke Waller Hunter, then Director of the UN Division on Sustainable Development, and has continued with the help of the Steering Committee, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the International Chamber of Commerce.

The 1998 Industry Dialogue Sessions were successful in that they created an ongoing multi-stakeholder process looking at voluntary initiatives. A workshop was held in February in Canada and the CSD agreed to give the process another year to develop. One of the other outcomes that we reported on in our last Annual Report was the workshop on water as a social and economic good, planned to be held in Argentina with the WBCSD. The workshop didn’t happen, as there were no funds to enable the Steering Committee to get NGOs to the event. It is in the process of being reorganised to happen at the Dutch Ministerial Conference in the Hague in March 2000. We hope to be able to report on it at CSD 2000.

If we thought that the 1998 Industry Dialogues were successful then the 1999 Tourism Dialogues were to show how much more is possible. The preparation for the Dialogues was coordinated for the NGOs by the Steering Committee Co-Chairs Esmeralda Brown and Felix Dodds; for trade unions by Lucien Royer of ICFTU; for local government by Jeb Brugman of ICLEI; and for industry by Geoffrey Lipman and Elizabeth Simon of WTTC and IHRA.

The success of the Tourism Dialogues was in great part due to the support that Simon Upton and his team gave to the preparatory work. One of his staff, David Taylor, convened a meeting of the different stakeholder groups in London on the March 1, 1999 to see if there could be some agreement on what the outcomes from the Dialogues might be and where the main differences would be. This enormously helped the final outcome and helped facilitate more trust between the stakeholder groups.

The two days of Dialogue Sessions were an enormous success. This was also due to excellent chairing by Mr. Simon Upton. Having a chair who challenges the stakeholders about their positions ensures that the views have to be rigorously thought through. The agreements that came out of the two days were then used with the CSD Intersessional document and the outcomes of Tourism from the High Level Ministerial to develop the final text. This was an enormous leap in Major Group involvement in the United Nations. Instead of the work and expertise of the Major Groups being part of a side show, or having to work exclusively in the corridors, we are now seeing the work incorporated into the negotiations. This is a significant breakthrough! The CSD is one of the very few fora where Industry has been persuaded to come to the table openly and therefore it offers a great chance to have some form of accountability. It is hoped that this approach can be transferred into other UN processes. The Dialogues for 2000 are on Agriculture and there will be four stakeholder groups involved in the process. For NGO Steering Committee the preparation is being co-ordinated by the two Co-facilitators of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Caucus, Linda Elswick and Gordon Bispham. There has been already an extensive outreach to NGOs interested in this issue to involve them in next years CSD.

The vital lesson on the Dialogues has been that their success has been dependent on all the different parties working together in the lead-up. That trust was built up and that there was a clear understanding that we were looking to have a constructive ‘dialogue’ aimed at getting positive outcomes. The Tourism caucus report later in Annual Report goes into more depth.

Publications

The Steering Committee has over the last year introduced a series of publications to help explain the work of the Steering Committee and help NGOs and others work effectively at the CSD. During 1999 we have produced eight key publications:

• the CSD NGO Steering Committee Guidelines 1999;
• the CSD NGO Steering Committee Guidelines 2000;
• new CSD Briefing for new NGOs at the CSD;
• the Issue Caucus booklet 1999 - listing NGO issue-based caucuses and their members;
• the transcript of the 1998 Industry Dialogue Sessions;
• the NGO Diary for CSD 1999;
• the Annual Report for 1998-1999;
• the Annual Report for 1999.

The Steering Committee this year had its web site redesigned by Megan Howell. The site is updated regularly with NGO papers, steering committee matters and other CSD information. The web site can be found at <www.csdngo.org/csdngo>. We have set up list servers for each of the issues being discussed at the CSD. This enables the NGO Caucuses to prepare for the CSD well beforehand and to enable organisations working on a particular issue to work together. As the listservers are publicly listed, it is possible for any interested group to join and participate.

Training

With a large number of new NGOs attending the CSD we instituted a programme of training for these NGOs to enable them to participate as fully as possible from day one. We also offered and completed training for the industry representatives from WTTC and IHRA who were new to the process.

Translation

This year has been the first chance the Steering Committee has had to fund translation. Due to the grants from the European Union, Norway and the Government of the Netherlands the Northern Clearinghouse has been able to translate key documents into three languages - Spanish, French and Russian. As mentioned in the Northern Clearinghouse Report, we have contracted EcoAccord of Russia to outreach to NGOs in countries in transition. The increased participation of these NGOs is a priority area for the Northern Caucus.

Travel Funding

The Steering Committee still struggles to raise funds for the participation of NGOs from developing countries and countries in transition. This year funding was made available by the UK, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand and the Division on Sustainable Development for southern NGOs participating in the CSD Intersessional, CSD-7, and the General Assembly Special Session on Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Some NGOs from developing countries were also brought by their partner organisations in the north. We were unable to secure any funds for countries in transition and this resulted in only one representative out of 600 from that area of the world.

Clearinghouse Operations

Funding for the ongoing work of the Steering Committee has continued to be problematic. Although we have secured funding for the Northern Clearinghouse from the Governments of Norway and the Netherlands and the European Commission, support is granted on a year by year basis, making it difficult to plan ahead. We are also very thankful to the support given by the Office of the Under Secretary General Nitin Desai, who have provided office space to the Northern Clearinghouse, and the support UNDP’s Civil Society and Global Governance Department who have financially supported the telephone conferences that the Management Committee has had throughout the year.

We have excellent staff in both Clearinghouses. In the Northern Clearinghouse, the Director Megan Howell left after the CSD to return to New Zealand to complete a masters. We would like to record again our great appreciation for the work done by Megan in establishing the Clearinghouse and we wish her good fortune with her studies. Her place was taken by Mita Sen who had been working at WEDO as the Environment Officer. She took office in June and has been working on preparations for the CSD in 2000. We would also like to thank Toby Middleton of UNED-UK for his work in supporting the Dialogues and Carine Wilhelmsen for her work on the production of the Diary.

Despite the lack of funding, the Southern Clearinghouse has managed to maintain some semblance of operations. We appreciate the generous in-kind contribution of the Southern Diaspora Research and Development Center, which provided us access to office space, materials and equipment. It lent us staff support in the person of Marva Moore, who helped to coordinate the operations of the Clearinghouse for the year, while Dr. Waldaba Stewart continued to donate his services providing individual and group counseling, orientation and training to Southern NGOs. We also thank the United Methodist Office of the UN for its more than generous support in terms of communications and office equipment access.

Elections

The CSD NGO Steering Committee was established to help NGOs and other Major Groups work effectively at the CSD. In particular, it ensures that we have a regionally (over 60% from developing countries) and gender balanced (50% of the members of the Steering Committee are women and 50% are men). It is only by doing this that we can try and ensure that all voices are heard.

One of the key advances made by the Steering Committee this year has been the introduction of a similar process to that of the Dialogues for the preparation of caucus papers. Caucus Co-ordinators have been asking organisations to draw up draft position papers for NGOs to work on. This should ensure that NGOs make their input early enough to the UN and government preparatory processes, and that it is transparent how NGO positions are being developed.

The CSD in 1999 was by far the best CSD yet, and we are looking forward to building on that success for CSD 2000. We are reaching out more and more to a greater number of NGOs from around the world to involve them in the CSD process. With the use of internet and fax we are able to involve many more in the preparatory process.

As Co- Chairs of the Steering Committee we are committed to working to see the Rio dream realised, to see not only governments and UN Agencies realise their responsibility but also to understand and to fulfil what our responsibility is.

 
Esmeralda Brown and Felix Dodds

Co-Chairs CSD NGO Steering Committee

Steering Committee Activities at CSD-7, 1999

The Steering Committee caucuses were active on all the agenda items at this year’s CSD (oceans, tourism, consumption and production, education and corporate responsibility). The Tourism Dialogues were a major focus for NGOs in the lead up to the Commission meeting, and during the first week.

We started out after the 1998 CSD without a tourism caucus, so the Co-Chairs took responsibility for setting up an active tourism caucus. This was achieved by collecting a database of over 300 NGOs associated with tourism and then mailing them a questionnaire. This resulted in an active caucus of over 120 organizations many of whom had not been associated with the CSD process before.

Over 600 representatives of Major Groups attended the CSD and CSD Intersessional making it the most successful in terms of attendance.

Enacting the Guidelines agreed at CSD 1998 by the NGO community had an enormously positive impact on preparations and on active participation in the CSD by NGOs.

2.1 Tourism Dialogues

The Tourism Dialogue Session represented a great opportunity for NGOs and other Major Groups participating in the CSD. The Dialogues offer for two days the opportunity for Major Groups to put in front of governments their expertise and to dialogue with other stakeholders and governments on a particular issue before it is finally discussed by governments.

After the initial statements of each of the Major Groups (NGOs were represented by the CSD NGO Steering Committee, Industry was represented by the World Travel and Tourism Council and the International Federation of Local Government by the International Local Environmental Initiatives and trade unions by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions).

One of the key outcomes from the Dialogues, that came from NGOs, was the setting up of a multi-stakeholder group under the World Tourism Organisation it could examine financial leakages in the tourism industry and make recommendations next year (in the finance session). Another was on preparing a joint initiative to improve information availability and capacity building for participation on tourism for 2001. A third suggested area of work by the NGOs for developing a plan to ensure Indigenous Peoples and other local communities land, water and other resource rights did get through to the final text but may be discussed by the group. The actual work will be before next CSD. The modalities of the multi-stakeholder work will be co-ordinated in WTO.

The Dialogues do create a peer group review within a stakeholder group before they submit their initial paper and between the stakeholders and governments during the dialogue sessions. The Chair of the CSD Simon Upton did, as his predecessor, challenge ideas put forward therefore ensuring that they were well thought out.

2.2 Negotiations

2.2 (a) Tourism

The negotiations started the second week and were chaired by the Pakistan member of the CSD Bureau, Mr. Navid Hanif. The key elements that were agreed upon were the outcomes from the Dialogue Session and the High Level Session on Tourism and the Intersessional document used to develop the final text. Governments seemed to accept this and it is hoped that it will become a standardised approach for the future. One of the key outcomes for the NGOs was:"9. Invites the United Nations Secretariat and the World Tourism Organization, in consultation with major groups and other relevant international organizations to jointly facilitate the establishment of an ad hoc informal open-ended working group on tourism to assess financial leakages and determine how to maximize benefits for indigenous and local communities; and to prepare a joint initiative to improve information availability and capacity building for participation, and address other matters relevant to the implementation of the international work programme n sustainable tourism development. "This enables an ongoing group to be established and therefore a focal point for the development of more collaborative work.

2.2(b) Sustainable Production and Consumption

In particular, NGOs focused on a number of themes which they then lobbied on at the Intersessional and Commission meetings, including (1) consumer information (e.g., right to know and labeling of genetically- engineered food; negative impacts of advertising on communities), (2) public and private investment (e.g., unsustainable subsidies), (3) producer responsibility (e.g., Extended Producer Responsibility, the effectiveness of voluntary initiatives and agreements, the accountability of biotechnology), and (4) national policy frameworks on production and consumption and the use of the revised UN Consumer Guidelines.

NGOs lobbying on these issues were pleased at various decisions, such as the CSD's Resolution on Voluntary Initiatives, encouraging the Multi-stakeholder Review Steering Committee process to continue its work, the G77's call for greater scrutiny of the impacts of advertising on developing countries, and the acceptance of the revisions to the UN Consumer Guidelines, which SPAC Caucus members have been working on for the past few years. The next question for the Guidelines is to what degree governments will actually use them.

Many NGOs, on the other hand, were frustrated with hearing how production and consumption is an "overriding" and "cross-cutting" issue, yet there seemed to be little overall progress in raising the discussion beyond familiar rhetoric, with virtually no talk anymore of "national policy frameworks." Instead we saw the greater attention given to the topic and dialogues on tourism. Whereas at Rio the issue of population and consumption faced off as a critical north-south dialogue, we watched the topic of population be given an entire summit process at Cairo while the discussion of production and consumption and the resulting ecological debt issues have been reduced to a minor side-issue, given token attention by the great powers. For many NGOs, the marginalization of SPAC at CSD mirrors the marginalization of sustainable development in the wider world of national and international policy.

In the next two years, SPAC Caucus members will work with other issue caucuses to address the production and consumption dimensions of those issues (food, trade and investment, energy, forests, information), while at the same time organizing NGO experiences and insights into the SPAC Watch assessment planned for 2002.

2.2 (c) Consumer Guidelines

These were agreed at the CSD in April; the text had consent from all groups. The success of this was based on the work done by the EU at the CSD in 1998. Much of this is directed at national government but local government could play a key role in educating the public and industry about the agreement.

2.2 (d) Oceans and Seas

The debate on Oceans and Seas concentrated on a few issues. One of the main successes of the CSD process was the push to get enough countries to announce dates for the ratification of the UN Straddling and Migratory Fish Stocks Agreement. By the CSD we were 11 short, and all the European Union countries are expected to ratify before the end of the year. Much discussion on the floor and in the corridors was on the need for a new place to discuss oceans and seas to ensure better co-ordination. Ideas put forward included an oceans conference, a high level symposium and an annual open-ended working group of the General Assembly. NGOs objected to the last one as it excluded them and favored a process under the CSD. The CSD agreed to a process under the General Assembly. The modalities of this will be discussed during the General Assembly in the autumn. One way of involving Major Groups would be to adopt the Dialogue process at the beginning of the Ad Hoc Working Group Meeting. On oil platforms and tankers it was suggested this be dealt with under the UNEP Regional Seas process. There was a very important breakthrough with the issue of flag States and flag of convenience shipping. The CSD invited IMO as a matter of urgency to develop measures in binding form where IMO considers it appropriate to ensure that ships of all flag States meet international rules and standards so to give full and complete effect to UNCLOS, especially Article 91(nationality of Ships), as well as provisions of other relevant conventions. In this context, the Commission emphasized the importance of further development of effective Port State control. NGOs were very keen to move forward the debate on maritime anti-fouling paints. The Commission recommended that IMO develop a framework to approach this. FAO has been asked to strengthen its global monitoring of fish stocks. UNEP has been asked to explore the feasibility of a conference to address sewage as a major land based source of pollution.

2.2 (d) SIDS

On September 27-28, 1999, the United Nations General Assembly met in a Special Session to review and assess the progress made in the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

The Special Session was unique and significant in many ways. First, there was evidence of a much-improved level of coordination among the NGO Representatives of the South and between Representatives of the South and North. Second, issues on the agenda were dealt with professionally, effectively and with dispatch. Third, the level of mutual respect and collaboration in evidence between the official delegations and the NGO delegates was unprecedented. Fourth, the special needs of the Small Island Developing States was a central feature of the Session thereby ensuring that the needs of these highly vulnerable countries remained a focus of the UN Special Session. Fifth, the NGOs assumed an equal status at the UN General Assembly when, for the very first time NGO representatives addressed the General Assembly.

NGO representatives from the Caribbean, Indian and Pacific Oceans spoke on a full range of issues confronting SIDS.

One major contributing factor to these positive features of the Special Session was the high level pre-Session organizing by the Southern Caucus of the NGO Steering Committee, including the excellent briefing materials and the business-like approach to the planning meetings. Another critical factor was the presence among the NGO representatives of persons who have been attending the CSD meetings for sometime, thereby ensuring a mature and experienced engagement of the issues on the agenda by the NGOs in attendance..

The net result was that only one issue (the transboundary movement of toxic and hazardous substances) remained to be resolved before the final statement of the Session was concluded. Another important result of this high degree of consensus was that the critical issue of "new and additional financing" for sustainable development now stands out as the final test of the commitment of the global community to a partnership in the interest of ALL the peoples of the Earth.

2.2 (e) Energy

At the Intersessional and at the 7th Session of the CSD, the Energy & Climate Change Caucus gave suggestions to governments concerning the terms of reference for an Ad Hoc Open-Ended Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Energy and Sustainable Development, which was mandated by UNGASS in 1997 to be the focal point of a two-year preparatory process for the CSD focus on energy at the 9th Session of the CSD in 2001. The Intergovernmental Group was formally established toward the conclusion of CSD 7. In the final terms of reference, NGOs and civil society are encouraged to participate in the work of the Intergovernmental Group, which the Caucus is doing, and encouraging all NGOs to do so as well.

The first session of the Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Energy and Sustainable Development will be on 6-10 March 2000, in New York. The Group's co-chairs are Iran (South) and Austria (North). A second session will take place at or about the same time as the Intersessional in February-March 2001.

Members of the Caucus also attended the meeting in early April 1999 of the Energy Sub-Committee of the ECOSOC Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which prepared a report which will be part of the input into CSD9. The Energy Sub-Committee will have another meeting in August, 2000, in New York, when it provide further input in the preparatory process for CSD9.

Members of the Caucus gave suggestions to UNDP and DESA concerning outreach to NGOs and civil society with regard to the World Energy Assessment, which is being considered as part of the preparatory process for CSD9.

During CSD7, as it has done annually since CSD 3, the Energy & Climate Change Caucus sponsored several meetings and side events, including a talk on "Oceans and Climate Change" by world-renowned scientist Prof. Wallace Broecker of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory."

2.2 (f) Education

At the CSD last year governments were unhappy with the UNESCO report on the implementation of the work programme from 1996. They instructed UNESCO to report again to the 1999 CSD on what they were doing to implement the Work Programme. The CSD NGO Education Caucus did an analysis of the UNESCO Report with a recommendation that it be rejected again. The European Union supported the NGO proposal and the text agreed in a meeting between UNESCO, the EU and the CSD NGO Education Caucus was what was eventually agreed by the CSD. This calls for: UNESCO to report to CSD 2000 on progress in implementing the 1996 and 1998 CSD Decisions; UNESCO to collaborate with NGOs in the implementation of the 1996 and 1998 agreements.

To follow up the outcome from the last CSD UNESCO called a meeting of the NGO Education Caucus Coordinators and the CSD NGO Co-Chairs in Paris in September. On behalf of the Education Caucus and the Steering Committee David Woolecombe from Peace Child International and Trevor Harvey, the Northern Co-coordinator, attended. The outcome was a proposal by UNESCO to set up a joint group to work on the implementation of the 1999 CSD agreement.

2.2 (g) Voluntary Initiatives

In 1998 the Commission on Sustainable Development in its 6th session agreed to take over the proposal launched at the dialogues session on Industry by the NGO Taskforce on Business and Industry to further develop information on the role of Voluntary Initiatives and Agreements, particularly related to their role in sustainable development. To this end a multi-stakeholder steering group was founded consisting of member organisation of the Taskforce on Business and Industry on behalf of the NGOs, Trade Unions, Business and Industry, the CSD Secretariat and UNEP.

In March 1999 the steering group organised an intersessional expert working meeting in Toronto, Canada hosted by the Canadian government to further develop a framework for a possible review of Voluntary Initiatives and Agreements (VIAs). At CSD 7 the results of this Toronto Meeting were published in a Secretary Generals Report and were endorsed by the CSD. There the CSD decided that it was of interest to continue with the process of reviewing VIAs. Of particular importance were the development of a toolkit to support effective VIA development and implementation, and to generate information on the specific relevance for VIAs on developing countries. Furthermore the initial mission to review the role of VIAs in sustainable development was reconfirmed.

Since then the original steering group has met regularly in telephone conferences and in some instances in subgroups in face to face meetings.

A report has to be generated on progress achieved by CSD 8, with the intention to end this process in 2002 during Earth Summit III.

The CAR Caucus was founded to provide a direct link with the important work of the CSD NGO Steering Committee. Both the northern and the southern chair are members of the steering group.

Further information can be obtained from Pieter van der Gaag (pjvdgaag@anped.antenna.nl) or Jagit Plahe (jplahe@cheerful.com).

2.3 Training, resources, Information and Support Provided to NGOs

Training for NGOs new to the CSD - For the Tourism NGOs a mailing was sent out to explain what the CSD was and how they could input to it. In addition an updated CSD Briefing was produced and distributed by email, on the web and in printed form at the CSD Intersessional and the CSD.

A pre CSD Strategy Session was run at the Church Centre before the Intersessional and before the CSD. The sessions included:

• Introduction to the CSD and the Steering Committee by Felix Dodds and Esmeralda Brown (CSD NGO Steering Committee Co-Chairs) and Zehra Aydin-Sipos (CSD Major Groups Focal Point, UN DSD);
• How to lobby sessions were organized in small groups with steering Committee members facilitating;
• For the CSD here were working groups set up under each of the four sub sections of the Dialogues to prepare for the Dialogue Sessions;

Resources - The Church Centre was booked for the two weeks of the CSD. Due to the high number of side events in the UN Basement, the Church Centre was used quite heavily for NGO presentations, caucus meetings and side events. The Division on Sustainable Development supplied a photocopier and the Northern Clearinghouse rented computers for NGOs to use.

Information and Support - As well as Sunday training sessions, morning Strategy Sessions were held daily during the CSD. Members of the Steering Committee took it in turn to stay after a morning session to run extra orientation for new people just arriving. The morning sessions had a rotational co-chair system with gender balance and regional balance over the two weeks.

2.4 Steering Committee Elections

2.4 (a) Regional

The Northern Caucus had held consultations on how to ensure that we build in a collective leadership and a changing leadership within the Northern Caucus- this consultation had been undertaken by the 1999 election Co-ordinator Mark Tollemache, he was succeeded by Richard Jordan who oversaw the 1999 elections in the Northern Caucus.

It was agreed by the Northern Caucus that there would be term limits introduced for the Northern Co-Chair and regional representatives. This would be a term limit of 3 years starting from 1999. The Regional Representatives and Management Committee elections took place on Wednesday the 28^th of April followed by the Co-Chair election. Felix Dodds was returned as Northern Co-Chair, unopposed for the year 1999-2000. The Northern members of the Management Committee were all re-elected these were Victoria Elias, Doug Hunt, Karen Medica and Jan Gustav Strandenaes, .

The Southern caucus held elections for its Regional Representatives, Management Committee Members on Monday the 26^th of April.

Esmeralda Brown was returned as Southern Co-Chair, unopposed for the year 1999-2000. The Southern Members of the Management Committee are Velda Dhanoolal, Peace Shalom Rudo Mungwashu, Carol Kalafatic and Bremley Lyngdoh.

2.4 (b) Issue Caucuses

The elections for the issue based caucuses were operating to the new guidelines agreed at CSD 1998.It was generally thought that the elections were smother this year helped also by the publication of the Diary by the Steering Committee. The Diary had many of the elections in and so in a busy timetable made it easier for people to plan. The elections were also printed in the daily Outreach newsletter. One problem did arise concerning proxy voting when someone leaves before the election. The Management Committee has been asked to address the issue and come with recommendations to the next CSD.

2.5 Outreach

Outreach is an independent NGO newsletter which came out seventeen times during the CSD Intersessional and CSD-7 in 1999. It prints views of NGOs and other Major Groups and gives an insight into the main issues being discussed in the corridors. Outreach was published with the support of the Government of Norway, the Norwegian ForUM for Environment and Development and the World Federation of United Nations Associations.

2.6 Steering Committee meetings

The Steering Committee met thrice during the CSD Intersessional and twice during the CSD.

The meetings at the Intersessional dealt with:

• access to travel funding
• preparations for the Dialogues
• reports from both Clearinghouses.

• the financial statement for the year;
• the Annual Report;
• reports from both Clearinghouses.

• the election results;
• that Michael Strauss take on the position of media co-ordinator for the Steering Committee;

The Steering Committee’s Media Coordination office expanded its efforts in 1999 to increase media coverage of CSD activities and environmental and sustainable development issue areas, by national and international news media. The effort focused on publicizing NGO positions at high-level press conferences, and on building coalitions with other non-governmental sectors to reach the press with a coherent message.

Our strategy is to increase mainstream coverage to help build political momentum that can push governments towards progressive policies, and can encourage individual people to move toward more sustainable patterns in their own daily lives

Michael Strauss was formally elected Steering Committee Media Coordinator at the February SC meeting. He was nominated by Waldaba Stewart, outgoing chairman of the Media Committee, who announced he was stepping down from his position after several years of providing energy and motivation to NGO communications. Michael emphasized the value of working together as coalition to attract media attention from a wide range of countries and news organizations, and stressed the importance of NGOs not only criticizing destructive practices, but of putting forward a positive vision of what a sustainable future could be.

NGOs presented a series of press conferences at CSD 7 on the two major issue areas – Over-Fishing and Tourism. The press conferences in New York where held in the highly accessible UN Press Conference Room – thanks to our continuing cooperation with the UN Department of Public Information [DPI] and the Division of Sustainable Development [DSD].

Major Press conferences were held to react to the Dialogue Sessions on Tourism [21 April], and as a ‘CSD wrap-up’ [30 April]. The Tourism press conference included NGOs from Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as representative of Labor Unions and Local Authorities. The concluding NGO press conference presented speakers from North America, Latin America, and Indigenous Peoples Organizations. Overall, CSD 8 gained moderately wide coverage – despite the severe ‘competition’ from the crisis in Kosovo. News articles on NGOs and the issues appeared in newspapers in New York, London, Vancouver, St. Louis, Toronto, and others. Reports were broadcast on UN Radio, the BBC World Service, and National Public Radio [U.S.].

The Steering Committee Media Coordinator continued to assist individual NGOs to obtain news interviews and contacts with journalist from their own geographic regions. The Media office also helped organized a pre-CSD press briefing in the UN correspondents lounge on sustainable fisheries [15 April]. The media office also provided support for NGOs at other UN meetings, particularly the Conference on SIDS.

The Steering Committee also began focusing on broader coverage outside the UN press corps. In September the media coordinator met with journalists and participants in a BBC hosted conference in London on Media and Sustainable Development. It also started bringing together NGOs for a broad based -public media campaign on environment and consumption issues.

The 1999 activities were supported logistically by the Southern Clearinghouse [January - February] and the Northern Clearinghouse [February - November]. The 1999 media activities were also supported by Earth Media, an independent media consultancy that works with NGO coalitions on environmental, economic development, and social justice issues. Earth Media provided communications advice, as well as in kind contributions of staff, office, and production services to the Steering Committee for on-going media activities and for specific projects.

The NGO Steering Committee and the Dialogues

The CSD NGO Steering Committee initially suggested the idea of the Dialogue Sessions in 1996 at the General Assembly session. It had originated as an idea during the U.N. Habitat II process.

The U.N. Division on Sustainable Development coordinates the Dialogue Sessions and the CSD Bureau decides which Major Groups are invited to participate and the structure of the papers that are requested.

In 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 the CSD NGO Steering Committee was asked to coordinate the NGO input to the Dialogue Sessions. This has been organized through the Management Committee as follows:

1) We conducted outreach to find NGOs involved in the particular issue concerned;

2) We requested NGOs to offer to become paper coordinators;

3) We always had a northern and a southern coordinator, and where possible have shown gender balance;

4) The role of the paper coordinators is well known and encompasses the following:

a) producing a first draft of the paper together;

b) circulating the paper for comment (listservers, fax);

c) collecting comments and producing a revised paper;

d) submitting this paper to the U.N. via the Co-Chairs.

The papers appear as a paper of the CSD NGO Steering Committee when the U.N. publishes and we always produce a disclaimer which says:

"The NGO papers were co-ordinated by the NGO CSD Steering Committee. The papers do not represent the views of all NGOs or the Steering Committee but those that participated in the process. They offer a framework for discussion on the 4 topics for the Dialogue Sessions." The NGO papers are not a negotiated position but a contribution to the dialogue sessions.

We believe that the Dialogues are a very important development at the CSD as they allow for the different stakeholder groups to produce their views in an interactive way within the CSD formal sessions. They also allow a debate to occur between the stakeholders and governments which can produce important initiatives (e.g. the review of Voluntary Initiatives, the WBCSD workshop on water as a social and economic good).

The Dialogue Session in 2000 will be on Agriculture. The CSD NGO Steering Committee are already working on preparations for that through their Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Caucus. Join their list server by sending a blank message to <safs-subscribe@egroups.com>

Preparations for CSD-8

To help caucuses and others to prepare for CSD 2000, the Management Committee agreed to ask the Issue Based Caucuses to prepare papers before the end of the year. The format of each paper included 4 sections: Problems (1 page); Solutions (1.5 pages); Institutional Action (1 page); and Possible Partnerships (0.5 page).

The following caucuses: Education, Energy Finance, Forests, and Freshwater caucuses were asked to prepare their position papers using the above-mentioned format. The Agriculture Caucus is already working on the drafting the Dialogue papers.

Education Caucus

To follow up the outcome from the last CSD UNESCO called a meeting of the NGO Education Caucus Coordinators and the CSD NGO Co-Chairs in Paris in September. On behalf of the Education Caucus and the Steering Committee David Woolecombe from Peace Child International and Trevor Harvey, the Northern Co-coordinator, attended. The outcome was a proposal by UNESCO to set up a joint group to work on the implementation of the 1999 CSD agreement.

Forest Caucus

At present the Co-Chairs of the Steering Committee are acting Co-Coordinators of the Caucus. Work is going on in preparation for the Intergovernmental Forum on Forest meeting at the end of January in New York. This meeting will agree a paper to go to the CSD. Some of the Forest NGOs met in Ottawa in December to prepare for the IFF. The outcome from this meeting was

Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Caucus (SAFS)

The Caucus has been mainly preparing for the Dialogue Sessions. This is how they have approached the four sections. (* indicates invited)

1. Choices in agricultural production techniques, consumption patterns and safety regulations: Potentials and threats to sustainable agriculture.
This topic should elicit stakeholder views, concerns and proposals on issues such as advances in biotechnology and the use of genetically modified organisms; 'chemical' versus 'organic' production methods; pest management options, mono-culture versus diversified agricultural systems; regulatory and voluntary frameworks to prevent adverse effects; sustainable use of resources (water, energy) etc.
South: Third World Network (TWN):
Contact: Chee Yoke Ling
North: Rural Advancement International* OR German NGO Forum Environment & Development*
Reviewers to date include: Iza Kruszewska, ANPED, UK; Martin McLaughlin, Center of Concern, USA; Barbara Dinham, Pesticides Trust, UK* (details on northern author(s) being worked out with Hope Shand and Rudi Buntzel)

2. Globalization, trade liberalization and investment patterns: economic incentives and framework conditions to promote sustainable agriculture.
This topic focuses on the economic aspects of sustainable agriculture. The discussions should elicit views of stakeholders, both positive and negative, regarding access to markets, equity and poverty, agricultural subsidies, pricing for agricultural commodities, enabling economic policies and frameworks such as positive and negative incentives, mechanisms to protectthe poor against adverse effect of globalization etc.
South: Oxfam GB, Kenya
Contacts: Thomas Barasa, Agricultural Economist and Programme Officer, Food Security and Land, Oxfam and Wallie Roux (Namibian researcher studying effects of current and pending international trade agreements on the Namibian meat industry - both commercial and development sectors)

North: Steve Suppan, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)

Reviewers: John Madeley, UK*; Third World Network; Carol Kalafatic, Indigenous Focal Point; SAFS Caucus; Sandy Gauntlet, Indigenous Peoples' focal point for the Underlying Causes of Deforestation and Forest Degradation project

3. Best practices in land resources management to achieve sustainable food cycles

This topic aims to link the dialogue with the sectoral theme of CSD-8. Discussions should aim to distill and disseminate useful experiences in dealing with land rights, land tenure, urban sprawl and human settlements dynamics, protection of biodiversity and forests, creative and empowering partnerships etc. The discussions here could focus on a small number of best practice cases each stakeholder group brings to the table.

South'North: Miguel Altieri, Chair; NGO CGIAR Committee (NGOC) (several networks)

North: Jules Pretty, Centre for Environment and Society, University of Essex/Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, UK

Reviewers: ILEIA, Netherlands*; Sandy Gauntlet, Indigenous Peoples' focal point for the Underlying Causes of Deforestation and Forest Degradation project

A separate paper focusing on the issue of land rights and land tenure has been requested from the Popular Coalition, which coordinates a Knowledge Network on Civil Society Initiatives in Land Reform and Tenurial Security in Developing Countries.

South: The Popular Coalition to Eradicate Hunger and Poverty (several networks)

Contact: Bruce Moore, Coordinator c/o IFAD

North: Peter Mann, World Hunger Year/IPSA, USA;

Reviewer: Eric Holt-Gimenez*, University of California, Santa Cruz

4. Knowledge for a sustainable food system: identifying and providing for education, training, knowledge-sharing and information needs.

This topic should elicit concerns, views and proposals regarding how to utilize traditional and community knowledge resources, education needs of agricultural communities and consumers, how to take advantage of emerging information technologies in education (such as distance learning), training needs to bridge the technology/information access gap etc. )

North: Christian Castellanet, GRET, France (with offices in Africa, Asia, Latin America and in Europe)

South: Andres Yurjevic/Juan Sanchez Barba, Consortium for Agroecology and Sustainable Development (CLADES), Latin America*

Reviewers:

Serghiy M. Fedorynchyk, Ukrainian Environmental Association 'Zeleny Svit (Green World),

Kyiv Miguel Angel Nunez, Institute Para Production y Investigacion de la Agricultural Tropical, Venezuela*

The 4 stakeholder groups for the Dialogues in 2000 are:

- for NGOs the NGO Caucus on Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems

- for Workers and Trade Unions the ICFTU

- for Business and Industry the International Agri-Food Network

- for Farmers International Federation of Agricultural Producers

Freshwater Caucus

The Dutch Government will be hosting a major Ministerial Conference on freshwater between the 18-22nd of March, 2000 in the Hague. UNED-UK have been given a contract by the Dutch Government to organise an NGO event which is meant to bring together representatives of diverse NGO-groups (environment, nature, health, development cooperation, human rights, fair trade, etc.) from around the world, to discuss the World Water Vision and the Framework for Action and to position themselves as partners in the advancement of sustainable water management. The caucus is working to utilise the opportunity that the meeting has for preparing for the CSD. The caucus will be also hosting with industry a workshop on water as a social and economic good following up the decision of the CSD Dialogues in 1998 that such a meeting should happen.

Tourism Caucus

The NGO Tourism Caucus has developed it’s mission statement.

The NGO Tourism Caucus focuses on the participation of peoples and communities in the process of tourism development. Set up in 1998 in preparation for the 1999 7th session of UN-CSD, which discussed tourism as it is understood by the different stakeholders, the Tourism Caucus refers back to Agenda 21 and the concept of sustainable development. In this process it has expressed the collective experiences of Southern and Northern NGOs on the impacts of tourism and would like to have wider representation so that the industry led perspective is balanced by the peoples concerns and priorities:

• land, water and resource rights,
• peoples and communities
• customs and cultures
• biodiversity
• traditional wisdom
• the right to determine ones own future.
• the just demands of those who work in the industry

• monitoring the implementation of the CSD-7 outcome
• facilitating multi-stake-holder processes
• the follow-up to Earth Summit 3, in 2002
• investigating opportunities to relate to UN/Intergovernmental organizations that are working on tourism or affect tourism, such as the World Trade Organisation.
• promoting a code of ethics which will allow for debate on the manner of Tourism production and consumption.

In the caucus meeting on the last Friday of CSD 1999 it was decided that the priority of the coordinators work would be to answer the needs of NGOs to informed participation in tourism development. This would be done by:

• Creating a list of possible groups/organizations interested and informing them on the tourism caucus and the opportunities to join the information sharing process.
• Offering information resources (UNEP/VSO/WWF/others)Offering access to information on the CSD process and other relevant material by creating a very simply accessible newsletter service, with general information available to all and more regionally based information available to groups concerned.
• Exploring the possibilities of enhancing and creating access to this information for local groups.
• Exploring the possibilities to contribute to the process of building capacities for informed participation for local groups. Next to a website, also a (for older computers and bad telephone lines) more easily accessible email facility should serve this purpose.

• Representation in Steering Group (at Intersessional and at CSD)
• Overseeing/ensuring transparency and facilitating NGO participation in multi-stakeholder process
• Relating to Roadmap (UNED-UK site) and all actions by the UN & other international bodies.
• After consulting with caucus members it was decided that the coordinators would also be the
• preliminary representatives in the Ad Hoc Multi Stakeholder Working Group which the CSD called the WTO upon to organize.

The co-facilitators of the women's caucus put out an outreach to women's organizations immediately after the CSD in April this, calling for groups to become involved on the upcoming issues, to hold national and regional meetings and to provide input into the caucus' preparations for next year. A list server has been set up and has now over 120 subscribers. The women's caucus web-site has been developed..

After identifying the gender sensitive areas under each of the upcoming issues, members volunteered to draft 10+ position papers regarding these areas (2-5 pages). The list of upcoming position papers is available on the caucus web-site. The papers are now underway, being put out on the list server and on the women's caucus web-site for discussion and dissemination.

The Women’s Caucus hope’s that other caucuses will use the material in order to gender mainstream all our efforts regarding the upcoming issues. The position papers are also being used for lobbying purposes in general.

Agenda 21, Chapter 24 (point 2.c) contains a recommendation to governments to issue strategies towards the "full participation of women in sustainable development and in public life" by the year 2000. The Women’s Caucus hopes to work with the CSD Secretariat on a background paper for CSD-8 providing information about Governments' responses to this recommendation. Due to the ongoing preparations for Beijing+5 in 2000, relevant material from Governments and NGOs ("alternative reports") is and will become available; information on implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, Section K. Women & the Environment will be most relevant.

For additional information on the women’s caucus please contact Chief Bisi Ogunleye (cowan.b@akure.rcl.nig.com and pam@wedo.org) and Minu Hemmati (minush@aol.com).

Management Committee Decisions

The Management Committee is composed of the two Co-Chairs, four representatives from the South and four from the North. It is empowered to deal with management, organisational and budgetary issues between meetings of the Steering Committee. The Management Committee members are listed in section seven of this report.

The Management Committee met by phone conference four times in 1999. The first meeting, on January 28, 1999, discussed the following agenda items:

• Minutes of the Previous Meeting, 5 November 1998
• Matters Arising from the Minutes
• Review of Issue Caucuses
• Review of Dialogue Preparations
• Structure of Annual Report
• Sharing of Employment Procedures
• Preparations for CSD Intersessional
• Clearinghouse Update
• Other Business

• Dialogue Speakers
• Dialogue Facilitators
• Other Business

• Minutes of last Steering Committee
• Matters arising
• Paper on Proxy Voting
• Discussion on Robert Pollard's paper on ngo@un.proposal
• NGO Caucuses Membership review
• Lessons from CSD 1999
• Dialogue Sessions for 2000
• Other Business

• Matters arising- Discussion on misuse of email lists
• Discussion on Steering Committee's relationship with UNEP
• Position Papers for 2000
• Minutes of last Management Committee meeting
• Discussion on Robert Pollards paper on ngos@un
• Discussion on Pieter van der Gaag's paper on SC influence over Caucuses (presented at 4/29/99 SC meeting)
• Dialogue Sessions for 2000/ report from Linda Elswick & Gordon Bispham
• Report on SIDS special session (Sept. 27-28, 1999)
• NGO Millenium Forum- update from Esmeralda
• Clearinghouse update
• Any other business

• Preparations for CSD-7

• Preparations for CSD-8

• Was an election held at CSD-6?
• Is there gender and regional balance between the Co-Coordinators?
• Has the Caucus submitted a Statement of Purpose?
• Are at least ten of the members’ organisations with ECOSOC accreditation?

Southern Clearinghouse Report

5.1 Southern clearinghouse Activities, 1999

Attendance records were set by Southern NGOs at CSD-7 and Intersessional meetings, up from previous years as almost 1/3 of NGOs registering with the Steering Committee hailed from Southern countries

Through support from Northern governments and the Division of Sustainable Development, several NGOs representing Small Island Developing States (SIDS) participated in the Intersessionals, the CSD-7 Session, and the subsequent UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on SIDS, held at the end of September 1999. Contributions from the Swedish Development Agency (Sida) also facilitated the participation of several Regional representatives and additional representatives from the International Network of Small Island Developing States and Indigenous Peoples (INSNI).

INSNI is part of the Southern Caucus and, along with the Clearinghouse, also hosted the NGO orientation and strategy sessions for UNGASS.

At the Special Session in September to review the implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action for SIDS, Southern NGOs again made history. For the first time ever, NGOs were allowed to address the UN General Assembly. Three NGOs representing the Caribbean Sea, the Pacific and Indian Oceans were able to articulate the specific concerns of their regions and general SIDS issues to UN delegates. A report on their input is given elsewhere in this publication.

Under the leadership of the Southern Co-Chair, the Southern Clearinghouse accomplished the following:

CSD-7 Session and Intersessional Meetings

• Accommodation
• Arranged hotel accommodation for participating Southern NGOs;
• Arranged other housing accommodation with volunteer hosts for Southern NGO delegates coming with limited or no resources.
• Communications
• Organized and mailed/faxed materials to Southern Steering Committee members and other NGOs;
• Consulted by telephone, fax, and e-mail with Southern NGOs regarding CSD issues.
• Hospitality
• Arranged for use of meeting space, facilities and equipment by Steering Committee members and other NGOs, at the Church Center for the UN;
• Provided space for Caucus meetings and NGO events at the Church Center.
• Liaison
• Helped coordinate meetings of NGOs with the World Bank representative to the UN, representatives of the European Union, the Group of 77 and China, and other UN agencies and officials;
• Orientation
• Assisted with planning and organizing orientation sessions for CSD NGOs;
• Provided additional orientation to new Southern NGO delegates on an individual and group basis, and guidance and support in general.
• Support Services
• Prepared and maintained 1999-2000 Directory for CSD NGO Steering Committee.
• Assisted Southern NGOs in the preparation of their written presentations to the Dialogue Sessions;
• Provided media and communication, computer and general office support services to NGOs;
• Provided translation and interpretation for NGOs with English comprehension difficulties.
• Travel Arrangements
• Developed proposals and requests for funding to cover travel, accommodation and per diem expenses for Southern NGOs, submitted them to foundations and governments, and followed up on status;
• Coordinated and cooperated with the Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) on the participation of Southern NGOs;
• Arranged for travel documentation and accreditation of some Southern NGOs.

• Communications
• Obtained and disseminated UN information and materials related to the CSD in general, and relevant UN conferences and meetings, to Southern Steering Committee members, regional networks and other NGOs;
• Pooled information from NGO Networks re CSD-related work and shared with UN, national and regional groups; helped ensure that NGO contributions at varying levels were channeled to the appropriate CSD officials and country mission delegations based in NY.
• Hospitality
• Assisted NGOs and Networks in organizing facilities for NGO participants in various sessions and meetings throughout the year;
• Assisted southern NGOs, attending various UN meetings, with accommodation.

• Had ongoing consultation with the CSD Secretariat on CSD issues;
• Maintained contact with government representatives from the Group of 77 and China.
• Liaised with Conference of NGOs (CONGO);
• Liaised with NGLS.
• Liaised with the office of Assistant Secretary-General for the UN Millennium Assembly on ‘The UN for the 21^st Century’.

• Developed and submitted funding proposal for the Clearinghouse to US foundations, Northern governments and donor agencies.

• Participated in the weekly Department of Public Information (DPI) meeting at the United Nations;
• Attended briefings and presentations organized by UN agencies (UNDP, UNEP, UNICEF, UNIFEM, and others);
• Attended meetings of ECOSOC Committee on NGOs;
• Attended conferences, consultations, meetings, round tables at UN agencies and with ECOSOC NGOs;
• Met with different governments on issues pertaining to NGOs;
• Participated in or monitored unofficial consultations at the UN;
• Spoke on behalf of Southern NGOs at the UN Open-Ended meetings regarding Southern participation at the UN.
• Attended CONGO consultations on NGOs relationship with the UN;
• Represented CSD Southern NGOs on the Executive Committee, Steering Committee and the Consultative Council planning the NGO Millennium Forum.

• Chaired first meeting of NGOs with the new CSD Chair, Juan Mayr;
• Carol Kalafatic, Indigenous Peoples’ representative on the Steering Committee, and the Southern Co-Chair met with the CSD Chair with reference to specific concerns of Indigenous Peoples’ NGOs and nations;
• Participated in other meetings of NGOs and the CSD Chair;
• General Assembly Session from September - December 1999;
• Meetings at the office of Ms. Gillian Sorensen, Under-Secretary at the UN re NGO access to the United Nations - 1999;
• Finance for Development meetings;
• NGLS briefings.

Lack of adequate funding for support services for Southern NGOs limited operations and outreach at a time when we needed to broaden our scope of activities. It also affected broader participation of Southern NGOs. Communication with some Southern regions remain a challenge, due to technological and financial difficulties, thus affecting dissemination of information in a timely fashion.

However, we do wish to acknowledge our appreciation and gratitude for the support and in-kind contributions of others, particularly the Southern Diaspora Research and Development Center most importantly for loan of its staff, and to both the Center and the United Methodist Office for the UN for access to office equipment, materials and facilities.

5.2 Financial Report of the Southern Clearinghouse

January - December 1999
 

Southern Clearinghouse Budget and Expenditure
Item	Budgeted	Actual
Staff Salary: Coordinator*	$ 30,000.00	$ 18,200.00
Secretary*	20,000.00	0.00
Benefits	10,000.00	0.00
Space	18,000.00	6,000.00
Mailings	12,000.00	600.00
Tel/fax/e-mail/regional conference calls	10,000.00	3,000.00
Publications (incl. Annual Report)	5,000.00	0.00
Photocopying/Printing	15,000.00	3,000.00
Intersessional Expenses	10,000.00	0.00
Sub-Total	130,000.00	30,800.00
Accounting and Fiscal Services (9%)	11,250.00	0.00
TOTAL	$ 141,250.00	$ 30,800.00

* These responsibilities were shared by four staff persons from the Southern Diaspora Research and
Development Center, working part-time, for different periods.
 

Income of Southern Clearinghouse, 1999
Donors	Cash / In-kind Gift
Southern Diaspora Research and Development Center	$ 25, 700.00
United Methodist Office for the United Nations	4,100.00
Personal Contributions	1,000.00
TOTAL	$ 30,800.00

Northern Clearinghouse Report

6.1 (a) 1999 Activities up to and including the CSD in 1999

1999 was a very good year for the Northern Clearinghouse.

In brief the Northern Clearinghouses work programme included the following:

• Providing support to the Steering Committee and Management Committee: preparation for and follow up to the 4 Steering Committee Meetings and 4 Management Committee meeting. Publishing the CSD NGO Steering Committee Guidelines; provision of information to Steering Committee members; working with Caucus Coordinators to help them understand and fulfil the guidelines;
• Preparations for CSD7 and the CSD Intersessional: Editing and producing NGO Guide to CSD; organizing and facilitating the pre Sunday meetings; provision of administrative and information support, hiring of computers and space for NGOs during meetings. (Organizing support for the Dialogue teams). Liaising with the CSD Bureau, the CSD Secretariat, assisting in the co-ordinating of the Dialogue process.
• Maintaining Channels of Regular Communication: Using the main NGO list servers csdgen and csdsteer and the issue caucus list servers tourism and oceans as the main outreach forum for preparing NGOs.
• Publications: For the CSD the Northern Clearinghouse produced:
• A Diary of events:;
• the first Annual Report;
• the issue caucus booklet;
• NGO CSD Steering Committee Guidelines

The Annual Report was distributed to all NGOs but also to governments and relevant U.N. agencies, so that they could see the work we do and the way we organize.

The issue caucus booklet had contains key information in it such as the caucus aims and objectives of the caucuses and the organizations that are members. This ensured that information was available to all on membership, developing transparency within the NGO caucus structure. a transparency of who had become members of each of the NGO Caucuses.

The Procedural Guidelines agreed at the CSD in 1998 came into force effect and we the Northern Clearinghouse made copies available to all NGOs and other relevant organizations information so they could understand how we operate. ensured that all NGOs had a copy so that they understood how we operated at the CSD.

The Northern Caucus made the decision to prioritise outreach- the development of measures to increase the participation of NGOs from Eastern Europe. Out of the 600 NGOs and Major Group representatives at the CSD only one was from Eastern Europe. A second priority was to try and find funds to source funds and expertise to translate key documents into french and spanish. key documents.

6.1 (b) 1999 Activities from CSD to end of the year

After what many NGOs believe was the most successful CSD from an NGO perspective the Steering Committee we began to prepare for the CSD which looks to be the most difficult.

To remind people the issues being discussed at the CSD in 2000 include:

• financial resources/trade and investment/ economic growth
• land resources
• agriculture
• forests
• Day of Indigenous Peoples
• a report on progress on the energy adhoc working group
• Earth Summit 2002

• Web and Internet Development: The Northern Clearinghouse redesigned the web site for the Steering Committee and introduced the opportunity for organizations to sign up to the list servers for the different caucuses. Also introduced was a clearer site design, and. On the web site we introduced a translator programme that enables some conversion of files were also introduced. a babel fish programme that enables some language convertion of files.
• Languages: Fulfilling the Northern Caucus instructions for outreach to Eastern Europe, the Northern Clearinghouse issued a contract to EcoAccord from Russia. The EcoAccord contract includes mailing over 500 key NGOs in Eastern Europe to prepare them for the CSD. This will be done in Russian and they will be translating key documents. Another contract was issued to Margarita Pacheco (Consultants in Urban Environment, Switzerland) for translation of key documents into French and Spanish.
• Working with issue based caucuses: The Clearinghouse has worked to help the Caucuses enact the Management Committee decision that all Caucuses should produce preparatory position papers based on the model used for the Dialogues. It is hoped these will be mailed out to governments in January.
• Liaison with CSD Actors: The Northern Chair and Clearinghouse Director have met with key government officials and UN officials on a regular basis.
• "The Dialogue Records": The report on the 1998 CSD Dialogue Sessions on ‘Industry and Sustainable Development’ has been completed by Michael Strauss and our editorial team. Fifty draft copies were printed in September, and circulated for comments to Dialogue participants, in preparation for the book’s publication in 2000. The completed text would be available to NGOs, governments and academics free of charge in soft - cover copy, on diskette, or via the Steering Committee and the UN DSD web sites.The book contains the verbatim text of the four dialogue sessions, analysis and commentary, a forward by former CSD Chair Habito, and a directory of dialogue participants and organizations. The Dialogue Records is a project of the Steering Committee’s Northern Clearinghouse, Earth Media, and the Norwegian Forum. It’s been funded primarily by a grant from the Foreign Ministry of Norway. Contact earthmedia@igc.org for more information

Megan Howell, who was employed as the first Northern Clearinghouse Director, left after the CSD. She had completed 15 months as the Director and overseen much of the improvement in information dissemination that the Steering Committee now has achieved. Her place was taken by Mita Sen, the former Environment Officer at WEDO. She took up her position in June 1999.

Carine Wilhelmsen joined the Northern Clearinghouse staff to assist in the lead-up to CSD-7. She produced the CSD-7 Diary and began development of the Northern Clearinghouses reference library.

6.3 Northern Clearinghouse Finances

6.3 (a) 1999 Finances and Fundraising

The Clearinghouse has been successful this year with obtaining all the three grants that it requested. These have been from the European Union, Norway and the Netherlands. The full funding has enabled us to complete the work we identified in the 1999 work programme and to be able to take on the instruction from the northern caucus for outreach to Eastern Europe and translation into Spanish and French.

We were successful in requesting travel funds from Sweden, the UK, and the Division on Sustainable Development and through NGO sponsorship of southern partners.

We had hoped to set up the Northern Clearinghouse as a 501(c)(3) Status non profit organization in the US. This year but ran out time. We would hope to complete this early next year. This will then enable us to take the funds out of UNED-UKs accounts.

6.3 (b) 2000 Finances and Fundraising

The three agreed funding sources for the Northern Clearinghouse were approached for funds for the 2000 year.

6.4 Northern Clearinghouse Accounts, 1999
 

Expenditure of Northern Clearinghouse, 1999
	Budget	Expended
Benefits	4,000.00	4,170.00
Salary	35,000.00	34,277.00
Space	2,000.00	1,180.00
Mailings	4,500.00	1,773.51
Tel/Fax	2,500.00	2,120.86
Publications	10,000.00	13,586.00
Dialogue Records	17,800.00	17,800.00
Internet	3,000.00	3,540.42
CSD Intersessional	4,000.00	3,751.86
CSD	5,000.00	4,636.86
Other	4,700.00	5,369.85
Translation	12,000.00	9,100.00
Travel	4,000.00	4690.93
TOTAL	108,500.00	105,997.00

 

Income of Northern Clearinghouse, 1999
Dutch Government		$ 35,000.00
European Union		37,500.00
Norwegian Government		18,200.00
Dialogue Records (Norway)		17,800.00
TOTAL		$ 108,500.00
Contributions in Kind and Third Party Payments, 1999
UNDP	4 telephone conference calls	3,000.00
TOTAL		$ 3,000.00

 

Management Committee Members, 1999 - 2000
 
 

AFRICA

East Africa  Samuel W. Munyi   Kenya Tourism Concern  P.O. Box 22449, Nairobi, Kenya  Tel: + 254 2 535850  Fax: + 254 2 557092 (tel/fax)  Jagjit Plahe  Eco News Africa  P.O. Box 76406, Nairobi, Kenya  Tel: + 254 2 721099 / 761655  Fax: + 254 2 725171  jplahe@iconnect.co.ke  West Africa  Chief Bisi Ogunleye   Country Women Association of Nigeria /WEDO  P. M. B. 809, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria  Tel: + 234 34 241945  Fax: + 234 34 241001  cowan-b@akure.rcl.nig.com

Central Africa  Ndameu Benoit Anthony  Centre for Environment and Development  P.O. Box 3430, Yaounde, Cameroon  Tel: + 237 22 38 57  Fax: + 237 22 38 59  ed@cedcam.org  URL: www.cedcam.org  Personal bndameu@cedcam.org  North Africa  Dr. Ibrahim Magdi  ENDA-Maghreb  196 Quartier O.L.M.  Rabat-Souissi, Morocco  Tel: + 212 7 756414 /15  Fax: + 212 7 756413  endamag@mail.sis.net.ma  Mustapha Chouikha   Youth Ending Hunger  Villa B7 SPRIC, 2070 La Marsa, Tunisia  Tel: + 216 1 746446  Fax: + 216 1 746446  blup@altavista.net  cmustapha.wforum@mailexcite.com

Southern Africa  Rudo Shalom Peace Mungwashu  ZUNA/ Womens Operation Green 96-2020  c/o Chinhoyi National Park  P. Bag 7713, Chinhoyi , Zimbabwe  Tel: + 263 67 22550  Fax: + 263 67 25676  kushcoms@yahoo.com  Mary Banda   Women and Youth Rural Development Network  176 Dubu Street, New Brighton, South Africa  Tel: + 083 301 6716  Fax: + 3589 1352173

ASIA

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 

EUROPE 

YOUTH (By Regions)

SOUTH ASIA  Bremley W. B. Lyngdoh  Consortium of Indian Scientists for  Sustainable Development  B3/77 Safdarjung Enclave  New Delhi 110029, India  Tel: + 91 11 6194484  Fax: + 91 11 6194472  brem007@hotmail.com; brem007@usa.net  SOUTHEAST ASIA   Ery Damayanti  Green Indonesia Club  JL Ahmad Yani II / 24, Bogor 16161, Indonesia  Tel: + 62 21 798 2667   batavia@jakarta.wasantara.net.id  WEST AFRICA   Oluwole Oshota  International Youth & Students’/ISMUN  BD 39, Federal Low Cost Housing Estate, Ipaja  Lagos, Nigeria  Fax: + 234 1 2691746  oshota@hotmail.com; registry.niv@undp.org.ng  CENTRAL AFRICA  Ndameu B. Anthony (Interim)  Centre For Environment and Development  B.P. 3430 Yaounde, Cameroun  Tel: +237-22-38-57  Fax: +237-22-38-59   bndameu@cedcam.org; URL: www.cedcam.org

CARIBBEAN   Colville King  National Youth Council of St. Vincent & the Grenadines /Caribbean Federation of Youth  PO Box 318, Frenches Gate, Kingstown, St. Vincent  Tel: +1 784 456 2323  Fax: +1 784 456 2323   nycsvg@caribsurf.com; colvillek@hotmail.com  SOUTHERN AFRICA   Nomvelo Thandekile Sibanda  Students Partnership Worldwide  P.O. Box 1799 Bulawayo 86A  Lunene P. O., Lunene, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe  Tel: + 263 09 69617 / 531717  Fax: + 263 4 481151   spw@spw.icon.co.zw  INDIAN OCEAN   Oomar Karbary  Council of Students &Youth of Mauritius  P.O. Box 401, Port Louis, Mauritius  Tel: + 230 2080145  Fax: + 230 2409964  CENTRAL AMERICA   Alicia Casa  Juventud y Participacion  P.O. Box 6222150 Moravia  San Jose, Costa Rica  Tel: + 506 280 6601  Fax: + 506 280 6601

WESTERN EUROPE   Linda Docter  Dutch National Youth Council for Environment & Development, The Netherlands  Tel: + 31 0 30 231 6833  Fax: + 31 0 30 236 4850   linda.docter@njmo.nl; Url: www.njmo.nl  NORTH AMERICA   Amadi Ajumu  December 12th Movement International Secretariat  456 Nostrand Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11216 USA  Tel: 1 718 398 1766   D12M@aol.com; binda@figaro.ae.katowice.pl  Gary Pupurs  AIESEC  2337 Woodridge Way, #1B,  Ypsilanti, MI 48197 USA  Tel: +1 734 741 4747  Fax: +1 630 214 7327   garyp@flashmail.com; Url: www.aiesec.org

NGO COMMITTEE ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Richard Jordan
Global Education Associates
P.O. Box 1562, Madison Square Station
New York NY 10159, USA
Phone: + 1 (212) 382 3535
Fax: + 1 (212) 870 2729
richardjordan@mailcity.com

Pat Scharlin
Rainforest Alliance
50 Sutton Place South, Apt. 14-C
New York NY 10022-4130, USA
Phone: + 1 (212) 308 4666
thunder@pipeline.com

THE EARTH COUNCIL
Maximo Kalaw
Apartado 2323-1002
San José, Costa Rica
Tel: +506 256 1611
Fax: +506 255 2197
eci@terra.ecouncil.ac.cr