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UNEP Governing Council Meeting, Nairobi: Statement By Hon. Rugunda

R-L: Hon. Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, H.E. Kijana Wamalwa, Dr. Klaus Toepfer, H.E. President Wade and Mr. Geoffery Howard at UNEP GC, Nairobi February 5, 2003

I am priviledged to welcome your Excellency President Wade of Senegal and Your Excellency Kijana Wamalwa the Vice President of the Republic of Kenya and all of you to the High Level Session of the 22nd Governing Council Global Ministerial Environment Forum.

Your personal presence underscores the importance our Governments attach to the work of UNEP and its Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum.

The GC/Global Ministerial Environment Forum is now recognised as the key Global Environment Forum.
Therefore, I would like on your behalf to express my gratitude to Dr. Klaus Toepfer, the Executive Director of UNEP and his staff for immensely contributing to this great achievement.

The overriding goal of the GC and by extension of UNEP, is to enlist the will of the people, our governments, the civil society, the private sector and other stakeholders in their shared and continued efforts to secure, for the present and future generations of hu-mankind, a clean and healthy environment.

This 22nd session of the Governing Council and 4th session of the Global Ministerial Environment Forum, coming after a very successful World Summit on Sustainable Development (SWWD), is of special significance.

IIt affords us an opportunity to chart a way forward in the implementation of the WSSD decisions and challenges. You will recall that the Summit gave us precise directions on how to achieve sustainable development.

The GC and Global Ministerial Envi-ronment Forum, should therefore take decisions that will contribute towards the implementation of the vision of the Summit.

To respond to these emerging challenges the GC and Global Ministerial Environment Forum has been carefully structured to pay serious attention to critical issues that require our urgent consideration.

Specifically, the GC and Global Ministerial Environment Forum should pay close attention to new regional initiatives especially the New Partnership ofr Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

The highest level of African Political leadership recognises the fact that development can only be sustainable if environmental considerations are factored into the overall plans, including NEPAD.

I should emphasise that there are many other new initiatives throughout the world, and reference to NEPAD and the African situations should in no way detract us from the significance of other important issues and initiatives.

The intricate linkage between environmental degradation and poverty is well known to all of us. Therefore, poverty as an underlying cause of environmental degradations should be addressed.

Let me come back to WSSD and its Plan of Implementation. The plan calls for action, and not just words. It is important that action commences and this action should start soon at the global level by providing necessary resources to propel the implementation of the plan.

In order to move closer to attaining action, this Ministerial Consultation should have a global look and come up with clear directions on the following issues, among others:

Firstly, how to implement the out-comes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development including NEPAD.

Secondly, how to incorporate and implement, within the programme of work of UNEP, the outcomes of WSSD at the regional levels.

Thirdly, how UNEP’s contribution to the acheivement of biodiversity conservation and commitments of WSSD can be used to fight poverty particularly in developing countries, and how to promote sustainable production and consumption patterns.

I wish to emphasise again that our deliberations should be aimed at examining ways and means of implementing the vision and aspirations of WSSD and strengthening UNEP’s capacity to realise the WSSD Plan for Implementation.

I would therefore like to urge you all, to participate actively in the next three days of our consultations.

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