AFRICA

News

DAKAR DECLARATION

Mar. 2005: African Ministers highlighted the importance of SPAC in the Dakar Declaration for Enhanced partnership in the Implementation of the Action Plan of the Environment Initiative of NEPAD. The Ministers called for concrete support for the activities and programmes that would form part of the African regional strategy under the Marrakech Process.

SCP CONFERENCE IN NAIROBI

Feb. 2005: The Second African Expert Meeting, held in Nairobi, Kenya, (17-18 February) identified the priorities and concrete activities that have been and could be carried out in the region in the area of water, energy, urban environment, and renewable resource based industries.
Meeting report

GHANA: CLEANER PRODUCTION CTR

Feb. 2005: A national roundtable on sustainable consumption & production was held in Accra, Ghana based upon the theme: "Institutionalisation of Ghana Cleaner Production Centre for the promotion of Sustainable Consumption and Production in the West African Sub-region". The workshop aimed at setting up a Cleaner Prduction Center in the country. Details, as reported by the Accra Daily Mail, are available here.

AFRICAN ROUNDTABLE REPORT RELEASED

June 2004: The report of the First African Expert Meeting on Sustainable Consumption and Production has been released and is available here . The objectives of the meeting, among others, were to consider a regional framework for promoting sustainable consumption and production, as contributing to poverty alleviation, economic development and environmental protection. the meeting was also to contribute to an understanding of how Africa would benefit from the Marrakech Process. The participants organized themselves into four thematic working groups and two regional working groups and prepared reports. The participants also agreed on a Casablanca Statement on Sustainable Consumption and Production which will be submitted to the 10th regular session of the AMCEN.

AFRICAN ROUNDTABLE ON SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

May 2004: The third African roundtable on sustainable consumption and production patterns (ARSCP - 3 ) was held in Casablanca, Morocco, between 17-20 May, 2004. Details about the meeting are available here .

UPCOMING EVENT -

THIRD AFRICAN ROUNDTABLE ON SPAC

The third African roundtable on sustainable consumption and production patterns will be held in Casablanca, Morocco, between 17-20 May, 2004. The meeting will be conducted in two parts. Part I is titled "Institutionalization of the African Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ARSCP)". It will focus on reviewing the current status and best practice in the area of sustainable consumption and production and will lay down the basis for institutionalizing the ARSCP. Part II is titled "African Forum on the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production" and is supposed to provide the African regional contribution to the Marrakech process on sustainable consumption and production .

The brochure of the ARSCP-3 is available here .

AFRICA AND THE MARRAKECH PROCESS

Two regional meetings on sustainable production and consumption will be organized in Africa as a part of the African regional contribution to the Marrakech process on sustainable consumption and production. This was announced at the side event on the Marrakech process held at CSD-12. The 1st meeting will be held on May 19-20th 2004 as a part of the third African roundtable on sustainable consumption and production (ARSCP-3 ). The objectives and agenda for the meeting are available here . A follow up meeting will be held in Tanzania in December 2004. It is planned that the meeting reports will be presented during the 2004 session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN ).

INTERNATIONAL EXPERT MEETING

ON SPAC

An international expert meeting on sustainable production and consumption was held in Marrakech Morocco between June 16th and 19th 2003. A report of the meeting , the background documents and other related links can be found at www.icspac.net .

CALL TO INVOLVE CIVIL SOCIETY IN NEPAD IMPLEMENTATION

The African civil society declaration at the African ministerial conference on the environment (AMCEN) called for increased participation of the civil society during implementation of the Environment Action Plan of NEPAD. The declaration, which was made on June 9th 2003, called for the rapid implementation of the NEPAD Environment Action Plan and its integration with other development initiatives like the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.

AFRICAN MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE CONSIDERS SPAC AGENDA

The African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) has approved an action plan for implementing the environmental initiative of the New Partnership for Africaâ€Ts Development (NEPAD). The draft action plan (the finalized version has not been released as of the date of posting) aims to "ensure that the continent is able to confront its short-term economic growth challenges without losing site of the long-term environmental, poverty eradication and social development imperatives." The plan is organized in clusters of programmes and projects that will be implemented over 10 years. Of the programs listed, SPAC has received the following notice:

- Waste management (5 projects)

- Support infrastructure (3 projects)

- Sustainable production and consumption (6 projects)

- Networking and information dissemination (3 projects)

- Atmospheric pollution (3 projects)

( Details of projects )