Lead Partner: Environment General Agency - Environment General Agency - Environment General Agency
Geographical Scope: Regional
- Africa Summary: The main objectives of the initiative are:
♦ To critically assess successes and failures in implementing Rio decisions in each member AU country
♦ To focus on the identification of accomplishments and areas where further efforts are needed to implement Agenda 21.
♦ To ensure that all members of African Union must have a safer more prosperous future by dealing with environment protection economic development and social development issues inbalanced manner.
♦ Accelerated economic and social development of Africa with better care for environment
♦ Awareness raising at regional, national and local level and further promote Agenda 21 in Africa. [more]
Lead Partner: Government of Italy - Ministry of Foreign Affairs - International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB)
Geographical Scope: Regional
- Africa Summary: The initiative intends to set-up a global research and training programme, specifically directed to African scientists, in collaboration with the Institute for Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine (IDDMM) at the University of Cape Town (South Africa), with the aim of finalising a feasibility study fro the set-up an African Regional Centre for Infectious Diseases.
The initiative is also in line with the "Cape Town Declaration" and the "Cape Town Initiative", endorsed by the Governments of South Africa and Italy, in March 2002, during the State Visit to South Africa of the President of the Italian Republic, which identifies the essential role of science and technology for sustainable development.
[more]
Lead Partner: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) - United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP)
Geographical Scope: Global Summary: Main objective of the Partnership is to lift the threat of imminent or medium term extinction faced by the four main kinds of great apes (bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans.
The immediate objectives leading to the achievement of the Partnership's goal include;
- To promote the Global Strategy for the Survival of Great Apes and Their Habitat;
- To determine the potential of sites, monitor populations of great apes and establish a database of great ape population information;
- To collate and analyse existing projects and initiatives at different levels, in order to identify gaps and set priorities in action and to encourage coordination and cooperation;
- To encourage range States to prepare and implement national action plans for the survival of great ape populations and their habitat and ensure that they have the necessary resources to do so;
- To prioritize the use of resources for optimum effectiveness and identify funding areas that are currently neglected and underfunded;
- To promote and enforce a legal framework for the survival of great apes and their habitat in the countries concerned;
- To identify and support income-generating initiatives for the benefit of communities living in and around great ape habitat and protected areas, with due consideration for indigenous communities and to ensure, where it becomes imperative to resettle indigenous people in conformity with United Nations guidelines, that compensation is paid with international support;
- To educate and raise awareness among local populations;
- To help generate new and additional funds for the survival of great apes and their habitat and to ensure that the international community in the widest sense (donor States, international organizations and institutions, non-governmental organizations and representatives of private business and industry) provides effective and coherent support to the efforts being made by the great ape range States.
Lead Partner: Nile Basin Initiative Secretariat
Geographical Scope: Sub-regional Nile Basin Summary: (Vision); To achieve sustainable socioeconomic development through the equitable utilization of, and benefit from the common Nile Basin water resources.
Objectives;
1. to develop the Water resources of the Nile in a sustainable and equitable way to ensure prosperity, security and peace for all its people
2. to ensure efficient water management and the optimal use of the resources
3. to ensure cooperation and joint action between the riparian countries, seeking win-win gains
4. to target poverty eradication and promote economic integration
5. to ensure that the program results in a move from planning to action
[more]
Lead Partner: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Geographical Scope: Global Summary: This is a civil society led, government supported, FAO facilitated undertaking.The preliminary focus of the SARD Initiative has currently been focusing on three themes, which were discussed in the International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Mountain Regions (Adelboden, Switzerland, 6/2002), in the SARD Electronic Forum (6/2002-present) and in a number of local consultations in different regions of the developing world and among some of the NGOs/CSOs attending the World Food Summit: five years later (6/2002). Sub-Initiatives can be organized around the following or other thematic areas of action, based on the interests, priorities, commitment and resources of specific partners involved:
* Access to resources
* Fair conditions of employment
* Good Agricultural Practices for SARD
Given the critical mass of Mountain Governments supporting the SARD Initiative in the Adelboden Declaration, the relevant sub-Initiatives outlined in the Adelboden Plan of Action, and that 2002 is the International Year of the Mountains, it has been proposed that the Initiative should begin with a mountain focus, subject to the interest and resources of concerned stakeholders. The Initiative may capitalize on other key conferences and International Years, for instance, 2003 is the International Year of Fresh Water. [more]
Lead Partner: Government of Italy - Ministry of Foreign Affairs - International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB)
Geographical Scope: Regional
- Africa Summary: The initiative aims at ensuring a thorough involvement of African countries, through their competent ministries, offices and research institutions, in the activities implemented by the Biosafety Unit, on a basis similar to the one that has allowed the implementation of a series of activities that are being already successfully implemented with the Italian Ministry for the Environment. The objectives mentioned below will be reached through the implementation of programmes that will have to be complementary to the projects being implemented by other intergovernmental organisations, and in particular those mentioned above which are part, together with the ICGEB, of the Inter-Agency Network for Biosafety (IANB).
The initiative is also in line with the "Cape Town Declaration" and the "Cape Town Initiative", endorsed by the Governments of South Africa and Italy, in March 2002, during the State Visit to South Africa of the President of the Italian Republic, which identifies the essential role of science and technology for sustainable development.
The initiative will therefore pursue the following objectives:
* protection and exploitation of genetic resources;
* technical cooperation in the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity;
* identification of research priorities (definition of the priority traits for viable crops: improvement of the nutritional value, resistance to insects, pesticides, high salinity, other stresses);
* testing facilities and field trials (containment, availability of land);
* genetically modified organisms: procedures for risk assessment and management, national legislation(s) and public information;
* international instruments: the Cartagena Protocol, the Biosafety Clearing House, Risk Assessment Searching Mechanism.
to collapse the Summary of Partnerships.