Search
  1. Home
  2. Africa

Civil society prepares for WSSD

    ABIDJAN

    African civil society groups began a three-day meeting on Wednesday in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, to forge a common agenda for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). The summit is to be held from 26 August to 4 September in Johannesburg, South Africa.

    The Abidjan meeting is also aimed at working out a joint vision of sustainable development in Africa. Organised under the auspices of the African Development Bank, the Network for Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa, and the African Civil Society Steering Committee for WSSD, it plans to examine key themes identified during previous preparatory meetings and conferences.

    These include ending poverty - considered the greatest challenge facing African governments and worsened by the emergence of HIV/AIDS, the need for African civil society to make inputs into the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), governance, the management of natural resources, financing sustainable development, and the relationship between Africa and globalisation.

    Ivorian Minister for Environment Gilbert Bleu-Laine, who declared the conference open, urged participants to look beyond the immediate objectives and seek “strategies that will help develop other sectors in Africa” in addition to the environment.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

    Share this article

    Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

    We need your help to sustain and expand our work. Your donation will support our unique approach to journalism, helping fund everything from field-based investigations to the innovative storytelling that ensures marginalised voices are heard.

    Please consider joining our membership programme. Together, we can continue to make a meaningful impact on how the world responds to crises.

    Become a member of The New Humanitarian

    Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

    Join