SPAC AT THE CSD-13 IPM

The Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting (IPM) to the 13th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-13) was held in New York between February 28 and March 4, 2005. The themes focused on during the IPM were freshwater, sanitation and human settlements.

Sustainable production and consumption (SPAC) is a cross-cutting issue that is supposed to be taken into account through all CSD sessions. In spite of this, the issue was addressed in a perfunctory manner in the official documents put out prior to the IPM. However, SPAC was raised several times during the discussions, particularly in relation to freshwater issues.

BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS
SPAC did not receive any significant mention in the Secretary General Reports on water, sanitation and human settlements. However, several NGO documents did make a point of emphasizing SPAC:

The NGO background paper, published in the SG report "Major Groups Priorities for Action" (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/csd13/major_groups.htm ) emphasizes the importance of the cross cutting theme "Sustainable Production and Consumption"

The paper "Freshwater Priorities for Action" calls for fair financing so that water consumption is available even to the poor. The paper also calls for the removal of agricultural subsidies that encourage over-consumption. The Priority Points have been published in Taking Issue and is available at http://sdissues.net/sdin/docs/csd13/TakingIssue,2005-03-02.pdf  

NGO OPENING STATEMENT
The Opening Statement made by NGOs on Monday, Feb 28th 2005 specifically mentions "over-consumption of resources" as an obstacle to achieving targets on freshwater, sanitation and human settlements. The opening statement is available at
http://www.sdissues.net/SDIN/docs/csd13/NGOStatement,2005-02-28.pdf

FRESHWATER CAUCUS
In discussing issues that need to be brought to the forefront at IPM and CSD-13, the Freshwater Caucus mentioned the issue of over-consumption of water. This could be an issue that the SPAC Caucus could take up in detail. If anyone is currently working (or has worked) on water/SPAC issues, could they please write into the SPAC list-server?

SIDE EVENT ON CONSUMPTION, WATER AND FOOD
The government of Sweden organized a side event titled "Let it Reign: The New Global Water Paradigm for Global Food Security" introducing a draft report of the same name. Produced by SIWI, IWMI, IUCN and IFPRI, the report examines the inter-relationship between consumption/production, water and food. The report finds that food consumption trends drive food production trends - and this has been highly water intensive. It states that water is
"key to food production" and makes predictions about the levels of water needed to produce food for a rapidly growing global population. Finally, it makes policy recommendations to "let the new water paradigm for global food security reign" including those for governance, capacity building and awareness raising, financing etc.

CHAIR'S DRAFT
The draft created by the CSD Bureau Chair John Ashe from the proceedings of the IPM (available at http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/csd13/ipm_chairstext.pdf ) calls for end user efficiency improvements in order to reduce unnecessary water consumption. It also stresses the need for water conservation techniques, along with information exchange and dissemination, technical assistance and training as a part of broader efforts to promote SPAC.

NEXT STEPS
Some aspects of the inter-relationship between SPAC and freshwater have been captured in the Chair's draft text, and are, as such, issues that could be taken up for discussion during the main session of CSD-13. How can we, the NGO community, ensure that "SPAC & Freshwater" receives greater attention during the main session of CSD-13?

The NGO community should arrive at CSD-13 armed with concrete examples of policy actions and projects on SPAC and Water that have been advocated for and implemented by civil society. NGOs should also consider (i) what governments should do in order to make good on their policy commitments on the issue of SPAC & Freshwater and (ii) what support the NGO community needs from governments in order to facilitate their own work on SPAC & freshwater. These recommendations on SPAC and Freshwater should be incorporated in NGO statements, position papers and interventions made during the main session of CSD-13.

-Veena Ramani
Program Associate, Integrative Strategies Forum