PIED 5230 SEMINARS The significance of UN Summits on Environment and Development David Mkwambisi (PhD) University of Malawi

Objectives An overview of Environmental ‘mega’ conferences Introduction to Policy formulation Malawi environmental policy formulation and development Group discussions on Malawi case study The influence of mega conferences on national development goals Areas for improvement Essay question

UN Summits UN Environmental Summits 1972 UNHCE Stockholm 1982 Nairobi Stockholm WSSD Johannesburg, RSA 1992 The Earth Summit Rio de Janero-Brazil

Un Summits Funding Planning Where? Who? Why Attendance Who? Why Numbers Stakeholders North Vs South Coordination Before and after Govt NGOs Media Coordination Implementation Regional Organisation e.g SADC Problem identification Global vs National National priorities and local conditions Political Social etc Political And other factors

Gill Seyfang and UN Summits UN Environmental Summits Setting a global agenda Facilitating joined-up thinking Endorsing common principles Providing global leadership Building institutional capacity Legitimising global governance

National Policy formulation No Environmental Policy Before 2005 Environmental Policy After 2005 UN Process NEAP 1994 GoM

NEAP Process

Summary on Malawi case Global problem National and local problem How is the process initiated? What was the formulation process? Who was involved? What issues did it covers? Who funded the process? The role of parliament Implementation constraints Vertical vs horizontal policy integration Greening the economy Monitoring and Evaluation

UN summits and Malawi: Group discussion Setting a global agenda Facilitating joined-up thinking Endorsing common principles Building institutional capacity Legitimising global governance In two groups, let is discuss whether UN Summit faciliate sustainable Development at country and local level In relation to Gill’s paper and the Malawi case study

Essay Question Outline how UN environmental policies have influenced local-level development practices and critically assess the value of international policies in enabling sustainable management of environmental resources upon which the poor’s livelihoods depend.

Essay points UN environmental policies Local-level development practices International policies and sustainable development International policies versus national policies Policies in general and sustainable development

Group discussions on difficulties of cross-sector policy implementation From this briefing, newspaper article & your general reflections … List the factors that you would envisage as affecting the local-level implentation of international environmental policy agreements Compare your lists to others around the room & discuss the most important in groups of 3 or 4

Difficulties of cross-sector policy implementation They are donor driven failing to recognise local capacity Environmental Ministries are not well funded Parliament can not understand the technical issues Policies and regulations are not followed with action

Difficulties Poor coordination between Ministries/ departments and within Ministries/department Summits resolutions/recommendations and local capacity Too many environmental issue ( Fisheries, water resources, forestry, agriculture, energy and mineral resources, tourism, land use, biodiversity, research, pollution, policies, health and sanitation etc.) Illiteracy levels

National policies versus UN summits Are UN summits effective or not? In which ways have they been effective and where can we improve?