Issue 19: September 2002

W. Bradnee Chambers is a senior researcher on Multilateralism and Sustainable Development at the UN University Institute of Advanced Studies. These are his personal views.

Strengthened international organisations
required for World Summit success

By W. Bradnee Chambers

The World Summit on Summit Development (WSSD) begin at the end of August amidst chaotic preparations and dire predictions of failure. 

Since the last world summit in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, environment and development problems have steadily worsened. More than 8 percent of children in developing countries still die before the age of five, and in some of the poorest countries, one in five children die before their first birthday.

In many developing countries, poor health conditions prevail as a result of contaminated water, poor sanitation, severe indoor air pollution, malaria and other infectious diseases, and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Seventy-five percent of the world’s energy comes from burning fossil fuels, increasing CO₂ emission levels by 1 percent each year, despite reduction commitments being established since the adoption of the Climate Change Treaty. 

The 14 hottest years since 1860, when systematic measuring began, have all occurred in the past two decades. The loss of 2.5 percent of forests globally each year, along with the threat of extinction of 24 percent of mammals and 12 percent of birds, leads experts to the estimate that we are losing one major drug every two years that could have come from such species. If this current development continues, biodiversity will be threatened on up to 74 percent of the land area by 2032. 

In the same time period that we see little or slow progress, we also see a proliferation of organizations created to improve environmental issues and sustainable development. But why is it that, with the level of international cooperation and institutional responses increasing, we still do not see better indications of improvement? The answer is simple: the institutions we have crafted to address these problems are weak and, to a certain extent, inconsequential to solving sustainable development problems. 

Strong institutions are a precondition for building any kind of international cooperation. Yet, in the sustainable development world, global institutions are perhaps amongst the weakest and most poorly coordinated. There are over 500 environmental treaties that address highly interrelated issues in the natural ecosystem, such as water, soil, atmosphere, and forests, but the secretariats of these treaties are spread around the world, cooperate only superficially and governments implement these treaties separately at the national level. The Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which is supposed to be the premier UN body on the environment, is still not a full-fledged UN agency and has a smaller budget and staff than most national ministries of environment. 

The concept of sustainable development stresses the notion of balancing environment, economy and society, but in reality there is no coordination or overall framework for these sectors to cooperate effectively. And so economic organizations like the World Trade Organization end up having differences with environmental treaties or there is lack of coordination with social institutions like the World Health Organization.  No one organization is obliged to cooperate for sustainable development as each has their own mandate and contracting parties. 

The UN regional institutions, which one would expect to be able to work on the ground at a more practical level, are also weak. The UN coordinates its environmental action through UN social and economic regional organizations that were created in the late 1940’s, long before the environmental movement began. 

In 1945, when the UN Charter was signed the environment was not even a concern. Out of the necessity to solve environmental issues that know no boundary, UN organizations and treaties evolved and were created in an impromptu manner. More than 55 years later, we have hundreds of institutions working on the environment within a weak and ineffectual global organizational system. 

Serious reforms are needed.  In a new report, experts at the advanced studies division of United Nations University, the Tokyo based UN think-tank, examines how changes in international institutions – and better coordination between them – can help improve environmental quality and promote development.  There is an irony that scientists routinely conduct environmental assessments on the ozone layer or climate but there has never been a major assessment of our sustainable development organizational framework. 

Strong institutions are an important key to solving the world’s most pressing sustainable development concerns. WSSD will be a strategic meeting where progress on these issues could be made. But before considering major reforms or creating yet another weak organization, the WSSD should call for a comprehensive and independent assessment of the current sustainable development governance framework and how it could be strengthened.

More WSSD coverage:

UNU submits final report to WSSD

UNU announces new initiatives on Inter-linkages, mountains

Slow progress on sustainable development linked to disagreement over approach

Initiative on science for sustainability to be unveiled

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