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REPORT JAKARTA, INDONESIA, 3 - 5 SEPTEMBER 2001 1. The United Nations General Assembly in its fifty-fifth session has adopted General Assembly Resolution 55/199 to organize the World Summit on Sustainable Development, a ten-year comprehensive review of the implementation of Agenda 21, in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002. Within the framework of the preparatory processes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the government of Indonesia in close cooperation with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs supported by the governments of Japan and Australia organized the Regional Forum on Business Opportunities and Sustainable Development : Partnerships Strategies in Jakarta, Indonesia from 3 to 5 September 2001. The Forum chaired by H.E. Mr. Makmur Widodo, Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the United Nations in New York and attended by 108 participants representing governments, businesses, non-governmental organizations from the Asia Pacific region and beyond as well as regional and international organizations. 2. This Forum provided unique opportunities for business leaders, government representatives and non-government organizations to discuss business opportunities and sustainable development as well as developing public and private sector partnerships strategies to support the implementation of sustainable development. The outcome of this Forum provides important contributions to the regional and global preparatory processes for the comprehensive review of the implementation of Agenda 21 as well as valuable substantive inputs in the pursue of ensuring full implementation of sustainable development agenda within the framework of the preparatory meetings of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. OPENING SESSION3. The Forum was officially opened by the State Minister of Environment of the Republic of Indonesia, H.E. Mr. Nabiel Markarim, who among others remarked on the economic problems faced by countries in the region following the Asian financial crisis and how these in turn fed into poverty-related social problems and continuing environmental degradation. He noted that while effective enforcement was still a problem, partnerships between business, NGOs and government, however, have helped to raise awareness on the importance of sustainable development. He called for the spirit of Agenda 21 to be renewed at the WSSD in 2002 and pointed out that economic development cannot be sustained if environmental development and social development are not also maintained. He said further that developing countries are facing constraints ranging from a lack of access to financial resources, lack of institutional and human resources capacity as well as lack of environmentally friendly technologies. He also noted the need to strengthen the role of NGOs and businesses in the implementation of Agenda 21. 4. In his keynote address, the Director General for Foreign Economic Relations of the Department of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, H.E. Ambassador Dr. Makarim Wibisono, underlined the significant opportunity available for representatives of businesses and non-governmental organizations in developing their views and inputs into the preparatory processes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. He further reiterated that the aim of the Forum was to identify effective partnerships models that can allow agencies of the United Nations system, governments, businesses and NGOs to work together towards ensuring the implementation of sustainable development. 5. The Forum discussed many interesting issues related to business opportunities and sustainable development and partnerships strategies for sustainable development. It provides opportunities representatives of businesses, government officials and non-governmental organizations to exchange views and develop their recommendations to the preparatory processes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The key issues discussed covering among others new insights into partnership strategies for effective implementation of sustainable development and the business opportunities that sustainable development can provide. The forum also simulated a useful dialogue between the Forum participants from NGOs, industry and governments. 6. Among those who made presentations at the forum was the Chairman of the Bureau of the Preparatory Committee of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, H.E. Prof. Dr. Emil Salim, who outlined the stage of preparatory process of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. He also pointed out that implementation of Agenda 21 had broken down particularly in developing countries because of a lack of financial resources, a lack of technology and a lack of human resources and institutional capacity to implement Agenda 21. He further identified the following key issues that the WSSD will need to address: 1) The need for policy integration to overcome policy failures, in particular the lack of dialogue between different sectors at the national and international levels. 2) The need to overcome market failures, in particular where markets fail to respond to social and environmental signals. 3) The need to address institutional failures, noting particularly that “sustainable development governance”, not environmental governance”, was needed. 4) The need to address the resource gap of funds, skills and capacities between developed and developing countries. 5) The need to set clear targets at WSSD regarding what should be achieved by 2012. PLENARY SESSION7. Ms. Joanne DiSano, UN Director for Sustainable Development Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, introduced the background paper on the principles underpinning effective partnerships for sustainable development. She underlined the fact that the paper provides a framework and emphasizes the importance of inputs from business and NGOs through the Forum for adding substance to the framework. A number of speakers from business representatives, NGOs and representatives of Chamber of Commerce and Industry also made their presentations both at the plenary and working groups meetings. 8. Mr. Masayuki Sasanouchi, Toyota Motor Corporation, gave a presentation on Toyota's perspective of partnership. Through WBCSD's project on sustainable mobility, Toyota's key message is that science and technology play an important role in socioeconomic development as well as human development. He described Toyota's on‑going dialogue with other stakeholders, which is considered vital to the success of the project. 9. Mr. A. A. Pranatadjaja from Unilever highlighted in his presentation the need for partners to have common interests when forming partnerships with other stakeholders. In particular he emphasized the link between multi‑national companies and small‑medium enterprises through capacity building training to assist them with access to finance, skills development and access to markets. 10. Mr. Ismid Hadad and Ms. Emmy Hafild representing the “Indonesian NGOs Working Group for Rio+10” presented their views on issues of partnership. Partnerships have to have context, purpose and direction. NGOs and the business community need to treat each other as equals, and be seen as equals by government and civil society. NGOs view the government as facilitator and consider that the business community should negotiate directly with the community. 11. Ms. Dewi Motik from KADIN (Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry) said that there is clear evidence of lack of understanding on sustainable development by both the government agencies and the business community. Enforcement for environmental laws needs to be given the same priority as other laws such as those relating to corporate governance. 12. Following the presentations, an initial discussion session followed. A number of participants noted that it was important for companies and governments to find common interests for partnerships between them to work. For business to be involved in sustainable development, there has to be an equitable financial benefit. 13. Participants noted that the role of Government in partnerships is to provide a sound and transparent framework to enable a peaceful and stable environment for business operations. It is important for legislation to be in place and for effective law enforcement to support the legislation. 14. Participants noted that partnerships should be aligned with the objectives of effective implementation of sustainable development. Stakeholder dialogue is the key to ensuring this alignment and needs to be a continuous process. NGOs have an important role to play in partnerships business as they can bring broad community support to projects and often have creative inputs based on local knowledge and understanding. WORKING GROUP SESSIONS 15. In addition to the plenary session, two working groups discussions were held chaired respectively by H.E. Mr. Kiyotaka Akasaka, Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations, discussed partnerships strategies for sustainable development and Mr. Gerry Morvell of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, discussed business opportunities arising from sustainable development. 16. In the initial plenary discussion, a number of participants noted the importance for companies and Governments to find common interests in order to ensure that partnerships between them to work and the objectives could be reached. For business to be involved in sustainable development, there has to be an equitable financial benefit. Participants further noted the following key issues as follows : Partnerships Strategies1) Achievement of sustainable development objectives requires partnerships involving governments, corporations, non-governmental organization and institutions. Partnerships should be based on a joint commitment, mutual trust and shared responsibility, while respecting specific interests and roles of all parties involved. Partnerships can create incentives for businesses to go beyond compliance with rules and regulations. 2) The role of Government in fostering partnerships needs to be enhanced and in this context, governments should provide a sound and transparent framework to enable a peaceful, stable and conducive environment for businesses to participate in partnerships. The role of government also includes providing social capital or an infrastructure of public goods on which partnerships can build. To encourage partnerships, government should providing a supporting framework by : - Setting appropriate fiscal policy; - Providing education facilities, and; - Providing effective law enforcement and compliance systems. 3) Partnerships should be aligned with the objectives of effective implementation of sustainable development. Stakeholder dialogue is the key to ensuring this alignment. NGOs have an important role to play in partnerships strategy as they can bring broad community support to projects and often have creative inputs based on local knowledge and understanding. 4) Partnerships should be based on a joint commitment, mutual trust and shared responsibility, while respecting specific interests and roles of all parties involved. They should provide mutual gains for all parties and reflect that all have a contribution to make. Viable partnerships must include a direct dialogue with people. Governments should establish and support platforms for such a dialogue. Successful partnerships require a number of conditions such as: (i) stable economic environment; (ii) political will; (iii) flexible and inclusive approach; (iv) adaptability to evolving circumstances and new challenges. 5) While sustainable partnerships has a strong potential in making sustainable development work at the national, local and corporate levels, it should not be seen as a replacement for the implementation of Rio’s commitments to international cooperation, in particular in financial resources, technology transfer and capacity building. Partnerships are a promising mechanism to use in progressing sustainable development although not a fail-safe mechanism as yet. 6) Freedom of information from government and corporations and its reliability and accessibility are essential. Governments have an important responsibility through: (i) legislation; (ii) promoting education and accessibility of information; (iii) support to media. 7) Partnerships can promote a culture that (i) encourages corporate ethics based on social and environmental responsibility, (ii) raises the awareness of the general public; (iii) educates consumers so they opt for more sustainable choices. 8) More work is needed to determine (i) what is a genuine partnership; (ii) which actors are most appropriate (e.g. individual companies or business associations), (iii) when and where partnership is the most effective solution; (iv) opportunities for replication and dissemination of good practice. Business Opportunities and Sustainable Development1) Traditionally, businesses take advantage of business opportunities because they are profitable. If businesses are to take advantage of the opportunities presented by sustainable development, they will need to factor environmental and social considerations into their decision-making. For some time, the “triple bottom line” approach – business reporting in terms of social and environmental as well as economic performance – has been seen as one way of moving towards this goal. However, business needs to move beyond “triple bottom line” to embrace multi-stakeholder dialogue. The challenge in this regard is to develop a clear framework for dialogue, and encouraging multi-stakeholder networks may be one way to achieve this. 2) Business representatives consider environment as opportunities, not simply as costs and they could simultaneously contribute to, and benefit from, sustainable development activities. Opportunities for business exist in many sectors. In rural areas, better resources management, food production and clean water are priorities. In urban areas, housing, sanitation and transport are high priorities for sustainable development and will provide many business opportunities. Other sectors where business opportunities exist include energy supply, waste management, climate change, education and skill development. 3) Businesses operate within a community context. It is important that they take some responsibility for engaging local communities, including indigenous communities, through knowledge and capacity building and raising awareness. Engagement of local communities is crucial to address the problem of social inequality, which is emerging as a major issue for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. In this regard, successful businesses will be those who respond to the opportunities and challenges presented by cultural and ethnic diversity in many countries. 4) Industry needs certainty in government processes to be able to make effective decisions to embrace sustainable development. The role of government in encouraging business opportunities includes setting appropriate fiscal policy, providing education facilities, and effective law enforcement and compliance systems for ensuring good governance and good corporate governance. The latter includes measures to counter unregulated logging and mining. Both business and government, however, need to address the short-term approach to decision-making when the global community is facing long-term challenges. 5) While in many cases, businesses will naturally respond to profitable opportunities, appropriate frameworks for risk capital management are vital in facilitating sustainable decision-making processes. In the case of developing countries, special efforts may be needed to give those countries better access to risk capital. 6) International conferences should provide for active involvement of partners from the private sector, NGOs and other major groups and encourage multi-stakeholder dialogue and inter-action. Partnerships come in a range of modalities and vary widely in kind. A successful partnership will be self-sustaining over time. CLOSING17. On the third day, a plenary session was held for the conclusion of the Forum with the reports of the Chairperson of the working groups and the presentation of the Chairman’s Summary of the whole proceeding. OTHER MATTERS18. A presentation on the preparations of the WSSD in Johannesburg was delivered by Mr. Moss Mashishi, CEO of the Johannesburg World SummitCompany. Jakarta, September 5, 2001 |