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The Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Dubai

World Ministers of Environment including the UN Secretary General H.E. Kofi Anan met in Dubai from February 7-9, 2006 to discuss a report on the UNEP Water Strategy.

As Chairperson of the Group of 77 and China, Amb. Agnes Kalibbala stated in the meeting that according to the report presented, UNEP would continue providing support to developing countries and countries with economies in transition in the area of institutional and policy reform in order to meet the targets of the MDGs and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.

She said that while the Group of 77 and China welcomed the report and agreed that this is important, the Group of 77 and China believes that implementation of MDGs and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation targets must not wait for the reforms to be completed but must run in parallel with them.

The concept of "learning by doing" should therefore be promoted by UNEP. The delivery of water services and water resources infrastructure is as important if not more important than governance reform. For this approach to work however, it should be provided with a developmental regulatory framework and financial support to ,water service institutions.

The Group of 77 and China recognize that developing countries are amongst the most arid countries in form of water per person. In order to achieve water security and support social economic development in developing countries, the Group of 77 and China deems it important to support developing large projects such as hydro electric dams.

This is of high priority to developing countries and in Africa, it is a key element of the NEPAD. The Group of 77 and China does, however, realize that large water projects have major impact on people and on their. environment. In this regard the Group of 77 and China, made a commitment to ensure that careful planning and decision making would continuously be done in order to minimize the related social and environmental impact of large water projects such as hydro-electric.

Mrs Kalibbala explained further that during the World Summit on Sustainable Development member States of the United Nations agreed to develop an Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and water efficiency plans by 2005.

At the 8th Special Session of the GCI GMEF ofUNEP in J eju in 2004 Ministers adopted the Jeju initiative which stressed the importance ofIWRM and ecosystems approach in water matters.

At that Session it was widely recognized that a lot of developing countries particularly in Africa would not be able to meet the 2005 targets of developing their IWRM and efficient plans.

During the 23rd Governing Council, UNEP recommitted itself to support developing countries particularly in Africa who might have not been able to meet the 2005 target of developing their IWRM and efficient plans to do so. The Group of 77 and China therefore, were happy' to note that progress was being made in that area.

Despite this, she said, the Group of 77 and China recommend that UNEP should do more work in that area especially in promoting better understanding of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and to explain that it does not address the provision of water service but only deals with management of water resources to ensure that water is available for users.

UNEP should also encourage preparation of IWRM plans that focus on specific challenges in individual countries and that it is not the only single "recipe" that can solve water management problems in developing countries.

The Group of 77 and China also recommends that IWRM plans should take a phased approach which responds to immediate needs rather than developing long term solutions.

The IWRM plans should also address the actual management and allocation of water resources (including infrastructure development needs) and not only institutional reforms.

On financing, Mrs Kalibbala observed that the Group of 77 and China appreciates the work that UNEP is doing in providing financial support to regional ministerial initiatives such as the African Ministerial Council on Water (AMCOW) and similar initiatives in Asia and Latin America.

The Group also appreciates the support from UNEP and development partners in enhancing work on water quality assessment, monitoring and water management in developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

Despite this, she said, it is widely recognized that developing countries are still far behind in achieving the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals due to financial constraints. Additional funds are, therefore, urgently needed to achieve these goals.

In order for these commitments to be fulfilled, additional funds must be mobilized for infrastructure development and not just for "Capacity Building" or not in form of unaffordable loans which are currently burdening many developing countries.

The Group of 77 and China, therefore, expects firm commitments of substantial funds in the form of ODA as evidence that the developed countries and partners are serious in supporting developing countries and countries with economies in transition in meeting these challenges.

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