World Summit on Sustainable Development
USDA Involvement in Partnership Initiatives
Partnerships for Sustainable Development
At the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), nations of the world acknowledged that sustainable development will only be achieved with the involvement of all stakeholders, including governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, private sector, and community groups. "Partnerships for Sustainable Development" substantially helped to create a positive momentum throughout the Summit. More than 220 partnerships (with $235 million in resources) were identified in advance of the Summit and around 60 partnerships were announced during the Summit. Many partnerships are still evolving.
The U.S. Government believes it is important to continue to build on the momentum created by the Summit. Voluntary and practical partnership initiatives can facilitate integrated actions and contribute significantly to the implementation of sustainable development at all levels. The United Nations (UN) maintains a partnership website and encourages partners to continue to post new proposals.
Partnerships Involving U.S. Department of Agriculture
The U.S. Government announced four "signature actions" - Water for the Poor, Clean Energy, Cutting Hunger in Africa, and the Congo Basin Forest Partnership - as well as many other partnerships varying from HIV/AIDS health issues to rural housing to geographic information and learning to integrated natural resource management. Information on these and other partnerships launched by the U.S. Government at the Summit can be found at the U.S. Department of State's WSSD Reference Document website.
The USDA and other U.S. government agencies will continue to pursue partnerships
in the future as a means of implementing sustainable development domestically
and internationally. USDA is committed to identifying additional partnerships
in the future as a means to further implement the goals defined in the
Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. These partnerships will strengthen
sustainable development activities domestically and internationally by
making global connections and implementing concrete actions on the ground.
- Initiative To Cut Hunger in Africa
- Congo Basin Forest Partnership
- White Water to Blue Water
- Geographic Information for Sustainable Development
- My Community, Our Earth
- Global Exchange of Conservation Stewardship Practices
- Global Food for Education
- Food and Trees for Africa
- EcoAgriculture
- Environmental, Economic and Social Equity
Community
Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management
Initiative to Cut Hunger in Africa
The U.S. and NEPAD (The New Partnership for Africa's Development), together with national and regional trade, industry and science and technology partners announced an initiative to enhance African farmers' access to technology and markets. As a significant step to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of severely malnourished people by 2015, the U.S. will increase financial commitments to boost agricultural productivity and trade in Africa by over 25 percent. These investments will focus on increasing small holder agricultural productivity. The initiative establishes regional platforms in West Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa to empower African farmers by enhancing their access to technology and markets.
A longer description of this partnership is available on State Department's WSSD website. For additional information, visit U.S. Agency for International Development (US-AID)'s World Food Summit website or email Jeff Hill (US-AID).
Congo Basin Forest Partnership
The U.S. and governments in the Congo Basin, along with other governments, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, U.S. and international business and trade groups, launched the Congo Basin Forest Partnership. The goal of this Partnership is to promote economic development, poverty alleviation, improve governance, and conserve natural resource conservation through support for a network of national parks and protected areas, well-managed forestry concessions, and assistance to communities that depend upon the conservation of the outstanding forest and wildlife resources of eleven key landscapes in six Central African countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo). This is part of a larger Forest Partnership, which includes Latin America and Asia.
A longer description of this partnership is available on State Department's WSSD website . For additional information, email Jan McAlpine (State Department).
The White Water to Blue Water initiative, led by the U.S., will build capacity for integrated, natural resource and ecosystem-based management of watersheds and marine ecosystems with a focus on the wider Caribbean Basin. The partnership will improve national capacities of coastal states to manage entire watershed areas, including agricultural lands, forests, fresh water resources, and coastal areas, as well as to promote better regional and cross-border coordination between states, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations
A longer description and additional information is available on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s White Water to Blue Water website . Additional is also available by emailing Tom Laughlin (NOAA).
Geographic Information for Sustainable Development (GiSD)
This initiative brings together U.S. government agencies, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, and academia to improve the quality and availability of data needed to understand better and monitor the environment. Recent applications of data from satellite earth observation systems, Global Positioning Systems, Geographic Information Systems, and database management can help decision-makers address sustainable development problems in Africa, including food security, sustainable agriculture, natural resource management, disaster mitigation, and poverty alleviation. More than 100 GISD-related projects are currently underway in Africa.
For additional information, visit the GISD website or email Bob Ford (US-AID).
My Community, Our Earth (MyCOE)
The partnership is using maps, images, and graphs to help secondary, college, and university students worldwide learn about sustainable development issues such as biodiversity, deforestation, pollution, food production, fresh water supply, health, rural development, and urbanization. It aims to increase awareness about the value of geographic information systems technology, especially satellite images. This partnership is organized by Association of American Geographers, National Geographic Society, Environmental Systems Research Institute (a geographic information system and mapping company), and UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) and is sponsored USDA, US-AID, State Department, Inter-American Development Bank, ERDAS, 3M, Columbia Eartrhscape, and others. Nearly 500 volunteer mentors have registered to help over 2000 students from more than 90 countries develop projects.
For additional information, visit the MyCOE website or email Misty Allred (Association of American Geographers).
Global Exchange of Conservation Stewardship Practices
Peer-to-peer learning is a proven educational technique to assure adoption of conservation practices on the ground. This public/private, international partnership, led by USDA, will develop a global exchange of conservation stewardship practices by mobilizing trained, volunteer practitioners from around the world. The exchange will build capacity by facilitating peer-to-peer exchanges (e.g. farmer-to-farmer) for short-term, site-specific and project-specific community- and watershed-based activities in sustainable agriculture, natural resource management, and watershed conservation practices.
A longer description of this document is available. For additional information, email Adela Backiel (USDA-Office of Chief Economist).
This multilateral school feeding pilot program may help as many as seven million school children, especially girls. The 2002 Farm Bill provides $100 million in fiscal year 2003 to continue the pilot program. The United States is reviewing the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the program in meeting its educational and food aid objectives. There are currently 18 active projects in the African countries.
For additional information, visit the Global Food for Education website or email Babette Gainor (USDA-Foreign Agricultural Service).
Food and Trees for Africa Partnership
Following a tree planting event at the Thuthukani Clinic in Midrand, South Africa to celebrate South Africa's Arbor Week, USDA Deputy Secretary James R. Moseley established a partnership between USDA, the Government of the Republic of South Africa, and Food and Trees for Africa (a pan-Africa NGO) to expand a community garden at the Clinic. USDA involvement could include the Foreign Agricultural Service, Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, and Forest Service. The first step is for NRCS to develop a plan to address community needs at the Thuthukani Clinic.
For additional information, email Marc Safley (USDA-NRCS).
The Stakeholder Forum's Implementation Conference was designed to develop concrete collaborative action plans aimed at implementing sustainable development in the areas of food security, energy, health, and fresh water. The EcoAgriculture subgroup developed a partnership to create an effective and results-oriented mechanism that promotes sustainable land management, including sustainable agriculture, and improved biodiversity.
EcoAgriculture is sustainable agriculture and associated resource management systems that embrace and simultaneously enhance productivity, improve rural livelihoods, enhance ecosystem services, and increase biodiversity. On-the-ground project activity will focus on identified biodiversity hot spots. Potential partners agreed to have an EcoAgriculture Conference in late 2003 to refine knowledge and technology knowns and unknowns and identify projects for action; identify on-the-ground activities that support, evaluate, and disseminate information about successful projects; and create web oriented information and multifaceted training and information.
For additional information, visit the Stakeholder Forum's Implementation Conference website on Food Security or email Carol Kramer-LeBlanc (USDA-FAS).
Environmental, Economic, and Social Equity Community Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management
The Community Indicators project is being led by the newly formed Global Caucus on Community-Based Forest Management. This project is intended to help local people achieve community well-being within the context of a sustainably managed forest environment. Partners from Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the United States are working in forest communities to develop, collect data on, monitor, and report on criteria and indicators for sustainable development. The purpose of the partnership is to exchange strategies for process, research, monitoring, policy, working with volunteers, investing in natural resources and people, and reporting about sustainable development expressed by indicators. A partnership workshop is being planned as a side event for the XII World Forestry Congress, to be held September 2003 in Quebec City, Canada.
For additional information, contact Wendy Hinrichs Sanders (Great Lakes Forest Alliance)
