|
Bad environmental policies, hinder poverty reduction
2005-09-20 08:07:10
By Editor
World leaders have been urged to focus on the sustainable and friendly use of the environment and resources as a new alternative to reducing poverty.
This is the position of the country’s civil societies announced by Tanzania Coalition for Sustainable Development (TCSD) in Dar es Salaam at the weekend on the world MDGs Summit that was held in New York last week and which TCSD participated.
It was also revealed that massive destruction of environment in the world, particularly in developing countries, had caused high level of poverty, thereby giving credence to the conception that halving global poverty as specified in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)is next to impossible.
TCSD also emphasized that sustainable use of environment presents an only viable route for the poor to break out of poverty.
The New York meeting that ended last week was convened to address ’’Environment for the Millennium Development Goals’’ theme, organized by members of the Poverty-Environment Partnership (PEP), a network of more than 30 development and environment agencies and organizations (which includes TCSD), formed to address the link between poverty and environment in the context of the MDGs.
The key sponsors of the conference included UNDP, UNEP and governments of Denmark, Germany, Sweden and the UK, as well as IUCN-The World Conservation Union, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED World Resources Institute and WWF International.
The MDGs’ seventh goal, (MDG7) that specifically addresses the environmental context calling for its (environmental) sustainability, is among the goals articulated by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan based on the outcomes of the Millennium Summit in September 2000.
We concur with TCSD on its position that in part blames the increasing poverty in Tanzania on the poorly formulated policies and frameworks on the protection of environment and elimination of poverty.
However, it has been noted that since the articulation of the MDGs, there have been a growing concern among some Tanzanian experts that the MDG7 has not received sufficient support or attention.
We think that political attention and commitment to tackling the environmental challenges in meeting the set goals should be enhanced.
This commitment should include developing and presenting evidence on the economic importance of the environment to poverty reduction and pro-poor growth.
In addition, environmental issues need to be mainstreamed across government agencies, as we think it is not only a lack of will but also the absence of knowledge and awareness that is a major impediment to progress.
Even the relationship between nature and people continues to be misunderstood, because it has just been observed that the poor are the first to be affected during disasters, whether they occur in Indonesia or New Orleans. We cannot rule out, for example, that Tanzania is free from disaster.
All in all, it is sad to note that the whole concept of sustainable development has been increasingly sidelined rather than mainstreamed.
|
