Bonn consultation

The final of six public consultations for ERD 2011/12 took place in November 2011 in Bonn, Germany. They were conducted in the framework of the Bonn2011 Conference on the water, energy and food security nexus, a three-day event organised by the German Federal Government. It provided the ERD’s authors and contributors the opportunity to discuss key messages and policy suggestions in the report ahead of the final review and publication in Spring 2012, in the run-up to the Rio+20 Conference.

The broad messages from the ERD team in Bonn were:

• Access to water, energy and land is crucial for growth and poverty reduction, but global and interrelated environmental pressures threaten to undermine the development prospects of the poorest countries and people.
• All countries, individually and jointly, urgently need to recognise and address in an integrated manner the rapidly growing scarcity and increased pressures on three resources which are fundamental to human development and economic growth: water, energy and land. This involves a WEL-nexus approach to policy-making and management.
• Joint action is required by a variety of actors, ranging from governments to business, international organisations (including the European Union) and civil society, to promote inclusive and sustainable growth.

Read more about the consultation

You can’t aways get what you want … or can you?

With the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20 Conference) fast approaching on 20 June, the world is reflecting on what has been achieved so far and how the ongoing challenges can be tackled.

“We are deeply concerned that around 1.4 billion people still live in extreme poverty and one-sixth of the world’s population is undernourished, [while] pandemics and epidemics are omnipresent threats,” notes the Rio+20 Preparatory Committee in its so-called “zero draft outcome document” entitled The Future We Want.

“Unsustainable development has increased the stress on the Earth’s limited natural resources and on the carrying capacity of ecosystems. Our planet supports seven billion people expected to reach nine billion by 2050,” the Committee continues. 

The 19-page document has sparked debate on The Guardian newspaper site and elsewhere. In a blog, ODI’s Dirk Willem te Velde had this to say on the zero draft: “To galvanise people, firms and governments into action, we need much more debate and acknowledgement of the severity of these new challenges for the poor.”

He said the ERD’s Bonn consultation has (see above) highlighted the considerable pressures on the world’s natural resources, including land and water. By 2030, the demand for energy and water is expected to grow by 40% and for food by 50%.

“The resulting environmental pressures often affect the prospects of the poorest most severely, as they are often the first to lose from environmental degradation and, because they lack access, are often the last to benefit from scarcity-induced price increases for land or water.”

In this issue of ERD News, we asked Dr te Velde to elaborate on how natural resource management fits in the sustainable development ‘big picture’ and to explain the so-called ‘water-energy-land’ nexus in the framework of the ERD’s third edition, and what roles public, private and international players can play in delivering both sustainable and inclusive growth for all regions, rich and poor.

Read the Q&A

ERD 2010 helps to put social protection on the EU development agenda

Social protection has risen up the list of the EU's development priorities. Indeed, the Agenda for Change adopted by the European Commission in October 2011 recommends that “the EU should focus its support for inclusive and sustainable growth on (inter alia) those sectors which build the foundations for growth and help ensure that it is inclusive, notably social protection”.

The Commission is preparing a Communication on Social Protection in EU Development Cooperation which is expected to be adopted in the second half of 2012. It seeks to explain the role of social protection in underpinning inclusive and sustainable development, and the role of EU development cooperation in supporting the strengthening of social protection policies and systems. The Commission welcomed contributions from citizens, public authorities and stakeholders in Europe and third countries. More on the consultation

This is directly in line with the first priority ‘Make social protection an integral part of EU development policy’, outlined in the ERD 2010 policy recommendations. Indeed, the ERD 2010 “has contributed – along with other factors and actors – to raising the profile of social protection on the EU development agenda”, notes Françoise Moreau, Head of the Policy and Coherence Unit in the Commission’s Development and Cooperation DG.