THE HAGUE CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

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WHAT SHOULD GOVERNMENTS DO NOW?

• THE HAGUE CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY
  AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
• 9-12 MAY 2004, THE PEACE PALACE
• Mersie Ejigu
• PAES

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(No Transcript)
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Findings of the PAES four country study

• Where there is potential or actual environment
  induced conflict, there is governance deficit
  (state failure)

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Governance deficit (state failures)

• Power grab by interest groups/biased policies
• Vertical and horizontal policy disconnect
  (national level policies and local practices/
  national policies and strategies lack harmony
• Local people or communities do not trust their
  governments and clear signs of erosion of state
  legitimacy

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Governance (state) failures (cont.)

• Governments lack capacity (human and
  institutional), and at times the willingness to
  take timely actions that could have prevented
  conflicts planning gtgt implementation gtgt
  monitoring gtgt drawing lessons gtgtimprove policies
  and actions gtgt planning
• No strong enforcement mechanism for existing
  policies and legislation, e.g., illegal logging

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Governance (state) failures (cont.)

• Wasteful and environmentally unfriendly
  procurement practices lack of transparency and
  accountability
• Crisis oriented management practices

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What can be done?

•   Integrating environmental security concerns in
  development policy
• Integrated assessment and management of
  environmental risks arising from conflicts,
  natural and manmade disasters and disease, etc.
  in an integrated and proactive manner.
• Developing environmental security sensitive
  PRSs and a moving to the formulation of
  national sustainable development strategies

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What can be done? (cont.)

• Promote cross sectoral understanding of
  environmental insecurity its sources and
  consequences
• Strengthening and developing state capacity
• Developing gender insightful natural resources
  management policies

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What can be done?

• Strengthening and effectively using traditional
  knowledge, systems and institutions of conflict
  management
• Enhance regional cooperation and integration as a
  way to reduce inter-state conflict, e.g., SADC,
  IGAD, NBI, LVEMP

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What can be done?

• International community
• take into account environmental security concerns
  in designing their conflict management programmes