Outcomes of the Africa Regional Preparations for Rio+20

1. Outcomes of the Africa Regional Preparations for Rio+20 Regional Commissions’ Side-Event Second Rio+20 Intersessional Meeting New York, USA, 15 December 2011 Josue Dione, Director Food Security and Sustainable Development Division United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

2. Outline • Background • Africa Regional Preparatory Process • Milestones • Highlights of the Africa Consensus Statement • Way Forward to Rio+20

3. Africa Regional Preparatory process Regional preparations spearheaded by ECA jointly with the AUC and AfDB, in strong partnership with RECs, UNEP, and UNDP Objectives of the preparations: • Guide and prepare African countries to collectively articulate their concerns and priorities at the Conference • Ensure these priorities are adequately reflected in the Conference outcomes • Strengthen regional consultative mechanism to support implementation of Conference outcomes

4. Milestones • November 2010: The 11th Session of RCM-Africa provided a platform to raise awareness and mobilize support for Africa’s effective preparation • March 201: Workshop on Institutional and Strategic Frameworks for Sustainable Dev. organized by ECA with AUC, AfDB, UNEP, UNDP • March 201: Workshop on Institutional and Strategic Frameworks for Sustainable Dev. organized by ECA with AUC, AfDB, UNEP, UNDP • July 2011: 17th AU Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea adopted a Decision on Africa’s Preparations for Rio+20, Green Economy and IEG • September 2011: 4th Special Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment also adopted a Decision on Africa’s Preparations for Rio+20, Green Economy and IEG • October 2011: Africa Regional Preparatory Conference for Rio+20 convened at Expert and Ministerial levels adopted the Africa Consensus Statement to Rio+20 • November 2011- The Twelfth Session of RCM-Africa adopted recommendations on Africa’s Effective Participation at Rio+20

5. Consensus Statement • Preamble • Reaffirms commitment to NEPAD and acknowledges the need to achieve its laudable objectives • Calls on Rio+20 to reinvigorate political will and international commitment to the goals and ideals of SD, to move the SD agenda forward at all levels • Calls on Rio+20 to adopt concrete measures, supported by adequate means to ensure accelerated implementation of SD commitments, including those to be adopted at Rio+20

6. Consensus Statement… New and emerging challenges • Expresses concern that Africa’s progress towards SD is being compromised by new and emerging challenges such as: • Climate change • Increasing water scarcity • Loss of biodiversity and desertification • Low resilience to natural disasters • Migration, urbanization • Energy, food, economic and financial crises • Recognizes that some of the new and emerging challenges could provide opportunities, e.g. spurring transition to a green economy • Calls on the international community to provide meaningful support to address new and emerging challenges

7. Consensus Statement… Green economy in the context of SD and poverty eradication • Stresses that transition to a green economy could offer new opportunity to contribute to SD through economic growth, employment creation, and reduction of poverty and inequalities • Highlights the central role of the state in driving the transition to a green economy -- in line with national economic, social and environmental development objectives -- and the critical role of the private sector • Underscores the need to put in place an international investment strategy in order to facilitate the transition towards green economy • Calls for an agreement on the Global 10-YFP to promote SCP as a contribution by Rio+20 to support the transition to green economies • Cautions against using green economy to create trade barriers or new conditionalities on developing countries

8. Consensus Statement… Institutional and strategic frameworks for sustainable development • Urges countries to establish, revive and strengthen national sustainable development strategies and national councils • Reaffirms the role of the ECA in promoting a balanced integration of the three pillars of SD in the region • Calls on ECA, AUC, NPCA, AfDB, and RECs to facilitate consultative processes to monitor, evaluate and scale up the implementation of SD commitments by African countries • Supports efforts to reform ECOSOC and UN-CSD for effective integration of the three pillars of SD • Underscores the need to strengthen, consolidate and transform UNEP into an international specialized institution for the environment based in Nairobi, Kenya

9. Consensus Statement… Means of implementation • Underscores the gaps in fulfilling international commitments on sustainable development in Africa, in the areas of finance, external debt, trade investment, capacity-building, and technology transfer • Emphasizes the need to renew international community’s effort to increase ODA, debt cancellation, technology transfer, and promote equitable trading system, among others • Underlines that Africa needs to: • Capitalize on synergies among means of implementation to ensure the effectiveness of the interventions • Invest financial and human resources efficiently to meet current SD commitments and new commitments from Rio+20

10. Way Forward to Rio+20 • Africa Consensus Statement to Rio+20 tabled for endorsement by the 18th Session of the AU Summit in January 2012 • Finalization and dissemination of the background reports prepared by ECA and partners • Organization of an Africa Day at Rio+20 to provide a Platform for Africa and partners at the highest level to reflect on Africa’s priorities as contained in the consensus statement • AUC, AfDB, ECA, UNEP, UNDP, UNDESA and other partners to consult on regular basis to ensure effective support for Africa’s participation at Rio+20

11. Thank You