Civil society makes itself heard” “

The world summit on sustainable development in Johannesburg in South Africa, to be held from 26 August to 4 September, has long captured the attention of a hundred or so Catholic associations in France, but has aroused some misgivings on the part of the Catholic Committee against famine and for development (CCFD), the first French NGO for development. The French government, too, took a long time before demonstrating its own interest in the summit. The Jo’burg 2002 Collective. A collective to prepare for the Johannesburg summit was set up in France in June 2000, on the initiative of the 4D association (“Dossiers and debates for sustainable development”), Called the Jo’burg 2002 Collective, it gathers together roughly one hundred NGOs, environmental associations, human rights groups and development agencies. Led by an executive committee representing 13 umbrella organizations, Jo’burg 2002 is a collective for the representatives of various local, national, European and international institutions to exchange ideas on what is at stake at the summit. Recognized as interlocutor of the public authorities, it participates in the French Committee for the world summit on sustainable development. Real aid for development. “The French NGOs represented within the Jo’burg 2002 Collective affirm that the pursuit of a type of production- and consumer-geared development, privileging the unchecked liberalization of the market, may only reinforce the negative tendencies”. They propose instead “a planetary social contract”. “Changes in attitude, individual and collective, in particular in terms of the equitable management of natural and human resources”, are necessary, in the view of the Collective, and demand coordination between the associations of international solidarity in the protection of the environment. Governments are urged to implement specific measures. More particularly, “the French government and the European Union are urged to equip themselves with the necessary resources for the implementation of the action programmes signed up to ten years ago and those signed in future”. To respect the pledges made in terms of public aid to development, this translates, in real terms, into an allocation of 0.7% of gross domestic product. The delegation to the summit. At the present time the Collective has indicated seventy persons belonging to its member organizations who will go to Johannesburg as part of its delegation; they include seven members of the Catholic Committee against famine and for development (CCFD), which had hesitated several months before deciding to associate itself with the collective in March 2002. Comprising 31 movements and associations and represented by local committees in each diocese, the CCFD has now decided to formulate proposals on economic solidarity, debt relief, funding of development, international agricultural trade, access of populations to productive resources (water, land), right to food and food sovereignty. In charge of this programme, Catherine Godard is one of the seven members of the CCFD who are preparing to go to the summit in Johannesburg. Godard had not participated in the summit in Rio in 1992 and this conference in South Africa, which represents a first experience of its kind for her, seems to her too enormous in scope. “That’s why, instead of risking dispersion, I prefer to focus on the issue that is the specific competence of the CCFD and I hope to meet people who are working on the same issue at the Forum of the NGOs that will be held in tandem with the official summit”, she explained to SirEurope. The government’s commitment. As far as the French government is concerned, in spite of its belated preparation, only begun in 2001, both the previous and the current government has affirmed its own commitment to sustainable development and its desire to achieve tangible results. “In response to international public opinion we cannot fail to assume responsibility for a defeat in Johannesburg”, declared President Jacques Chirac during his address on 14 July, Bastille day, day of national celebration in France. “I think we will succeed in making progress, in particular in some essential spheres such as that of water resources. But – Chirac complained – our American friends are lagging very far behind and this doesn’t simplify matters”.