Canadian National Civil Society Consultations

Preparations for the Hemispheric Summit on Sustainable Development, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, December 1996

How did the Civil Society National Consultations come to be?

The Fundación Futuro Latinamericano (FFLA), the coordinators of civil society input to the Summit invited the IISD and FOCAL to host a national consultation in preparation for the Summit. The objective of the Canadian National Consultation was to build consensus positions and recommendations among representatives of civil society on the issues they consider of major importance regarding sustainable development in the hemisphere.

Participation:
Formal letters of invitation with background material about the Summit were sent to more than one hundred thirty (130) people. Approximately seventy (70) attended in person or via tele-conference. Participants were representative of business, industry, non-governmental organizations, academic society, aboriginal groups and governmental organizations. 42% were women and 10% were indigenous. Although a significant number of participants were bilingual, the francophone community was underrepresented and there was less participation by environmental organizations than had been expected.

Context:
A pre-consultation survey was conducted asking participants to assign priorities to a list of issues prepared by FFLA and the national coordinators. From this list, eight (8) issues emerged as the most prominent for discussion at the Canadian National Consultation. Working groups were formed on the following eight topics: Trade and Sustainable Development; Biodiversity; Water; Sustainable Livelihoods and Poverty Eradication; Indigenous Peoples; Forests; Pollution Prevention and Control; and Communication, Education and Public Participation. Two issues, energy and indicators/measures, were not sufficiently high on the priority list to convene working groups but were none-the-less highly ranked. The working groups consisted of between ten (10) and eighteen (18) individuals. Resource people and recorders were assigned to each group.

Reports:
The recommendations that were brought forth from the Canadian national civil society consultation to the OAS meeting in Washington in July.

The summary report of the civil society input into the OAS meeting.

Review and Recommendations, by Nola-Kate Seymoar, Ph.D., International Institute for Sustainable Development

Other Sites:
North-South Center: Post Summit Activities and Documents
Summit of the Americas Center
El Deber (Bolivian Newspaper with Summit Coverage)

Related Upcoming Meetings

Bolivia Summit Prep Comm, October 21-24, 1996 Washington DC, USA
Bolivia Summit Prep Comm, November 18-19, 1996, Washington DC, USA

For additional information or to comment on the Canadian civil society recommendations please contact:
Nola Kate Seymoar
Email: nkseymoar@iisdpost.iisd.ca
Telephone: (204) 958-7752
Fax: 204-958-7710