27 August to 01 September 2006
Speech
SPEECH NOTES FOR, DEPUTY MINISTER REJOICE MABUDAFHASI
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT DIALOGUE
3RD GEF ASSEMBMLY
29 AUGUST 2006, CAPE TOWN
Program Director
MEC for Environment, Planning and Economic Development,
Ms Tasneem Essop
Excellencies
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Deputy Minister:
Rejoice Mabudafhasi
Almost four years ago, the World
Summit on Sustainable Development called upon
all nations of the world to develop national strategies
for sustainable development , and two years later
the on , in implementing that call our cabinet
gave us a mammoth task – to coordinate the development
of a National Strategy for Sustainable Development.
Today after three years of consultation
we have a draft strategy that is responsive to
our national development context and priorities,
but clearly outlines our commitment to meet the
global challenges of reducing poverty, growing
our economy and maintaining the integrity of our
natural resources.
The NSSD provides a framework
to guide all South African entities on what sustainability
should mean in light of our national development
challenges but equally in a fragile global socio-economic
and political situation.
Based on an analysis of the
current situation and reasonable projection of
relevant and selected trends, it highlights key
areas for strategic intervention, makes recommendations
to tackle priorities, and proposes a coordinated
oversight system to monitor our progress.
Our strategy establishes a set
of principles that we will use to achieve our
sustainable development goals, develops a shared
vision for what sustainable development means
in South Africa, and spells out a mission to achieve
the vision.
We have developed our NSSD well
aware and conscious that it cannot be all things
to everyone, nor can it be a sum of all wishes
and aspirations.
Since the dawn of democracy
we have a growing economy and systematically increasing
fiscal expenditures to address poverty and development.
Our new structures and processes have complemented
the overhaul of public sector governance.
However, we have in certain
instances pursued economic growth and social development
in parallel to natural resource management strategies
– We have opted for “choices and trade-offs” instead
of “integration” leading to an increasing stress
on our natural resources.
Our Natural resources can no
longer cope
The Millennium Ecosystems Assesment,
alerted us to the reality that we can no longer
take our endowment of natural resources for granted,
and we are rapidly using up our natural resources
as we pursue growth and seek to eradicate poverty.
This means that South Africa
has not totally broken away from the natural resource
exploitation model put in place by colonial conquest
and refined during the apartheid era.
Our NSSD say we need to act
rapidly and decisively to change this, through
technology, good governance, better and longer
term planning and efficiency, and in local and
global partnership.
We cannot guarantee Economic
growth and prosperity
As we commit to accelerate our
growth to sustain the first economy and graduate
the second economy, it is clear that we will have
to factor in two fundamental threats
Firstly, increasing levels of
poverty and inequality will have a negative impact
on growth when households start reaching their
consumption limits as a result of inflation on
energy and transport costs.
Secondly, the underlying depletion
of natural resources such as inadequate and inappropriate
energy, rising waste levels, land degradation
and poor air quality will clearly undermine the
capacity for sustained economic growth.
We owe it to the livelihoods
of our communities
We have in the past ten years
witnessed and undergone dynamic changes, both
materially and spiritually, with and improving
sense of an over-arching identity, increasing
levels of social cohesion, unity, and pride amongst
South Africans.
The life of the majority of
South African citizens has improved, however,
there are significant threats related to economic
marginalization, the impact of the HIV and AIDS
pandemic, endemic urban and rural poverty, contradict
this positive story, and if not countered, these
threats could overwhelm our victories.
Conclusion
Our strategy needs to make a
difference, and it is for the same reason that
it has a long-term focus on a strategically selected
cluster of issues; it also sets out a framework
for implementation, and proposes a collaborative
process to elaborate a detailed Action Plan defining
roles for the various sectors.
A critical component of this
will be the development of a set of high-level
indicators to measure progress, and an awareness-raising
process to foster a social partnership to monitor
and report on progress.
In the next few days we will
be gazetting South Africa’s first National Strategy
for Sustainable Development for public comment.
We will thus call upon our international
partners to support us as we begin to implement
our National Strategy for Sustainable Development.
Thank You
