- How did your participation in the Generation J'burg capacity-building project in 2002 influence you professionally/personally? Was there anything during the programme that you remember in particular, that left a mark on you?
It would be impossible to describe in full detail how the program influenced me. In general, it was refreshing, and worth participating in such a program which was second to none of my previous experiences and so left a lasting impression. I have learned that alone, the implementing programs/projects would not be able to accelerate sustainable development; end poverty, reach out to the “have not” populations or protect the fragile ecosystem. Advocacy, campaigning, and catalysing wider action is critical as leverage to push policy change in a desirable direction. This direction would produce speedy and paramount results for the problems human being face today, especially those in poor countries, as well as all forms of life and the whole Cosmo of nurturing life in a sustainable way. I learned to work as an activist campaigning for positive change which rendered a record of proven result. The program was beautifully crafted, first teaching theory followed by a practical real world situation such as the preparatory meetings III and IV in New York and Bali, Indonesia and the actual summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. The program also had an internship program where I had the chance to be the first African to work with Greenpeace organization, particularly in EU office, Brussels, Belgium. The staff in the Brussels office could not believe when I broke the news that I had been accepted to work in their campaign “Protecting ancient forest”.
The program enabled me to interact with a number of wonderful professionals and activists who do everything possible to pursue positive actions for the world and humanity. It was a wonderful life experience to be counted among them representing the Hbf-Africa CSO which influenced the rest of my life. I was also a media person for Hbf reporting daily on day to day happenings of the preparatory meetings and during the summit which was covered in the Hbf newsletter of the summit.
- Do you think the Rio and the Rio+10 summits and processes have had an impact on your city/country/region/the world? Do you think there is progress towards the objectives adopted in Rio 1992 and in Johannesburg 2002?
Yes. I can mention some of them. While I was a delegate of Greenpeace for the Seventh Ordinary Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP7-CBD) in Den Haag, I presented a paper as a panellist on one of the parallel events. I crafted the title to be catchy -as I learned from our facilitator-Johanna Breinstein-“Your last cup of coffee-Save it or Delete it”. As you know, Ethiopia (my home country) has given the gift of the best coffee to the world. Ethiopia is the only country which has a natural genetic pool of hundreds of coffee varieties, which are grown together with the remaining natural closed forest of Ethiopia. Natural coffee grows under the shade of trees, so without forests, coffee plants will be wiped out forever. It is true some countries in Latin America and Africa grow coffee which are domesticated and monocultures taken from Ethiopia, which are very vulnerable to weather calamities and pest infestation. If one viral flu breaks out the remaining coffee will disappear, except those in Ethiopia as there are huge varieties that have survived every such disastrous through evolution. Thus, to protect the remaining forest and to protect the coffee, as a win-win solution, the richest countries who took note of the paper clearly demonstrated the fact and they cannot stomach waking up and having no coffee. With this background, the German and the Dutch Government allied with the Hbf born campaign, and now the coffee area in South Western Ethiopia-Keffa (where coffee comes from) has become a UNESCO international protected biodiversity area with protection from intervention. Had this not been the case, the forests with the coffee plants, would have been subjected to individual investor developments for tea plantation. See UNESCO/Ethiopian coffee/biodiversity/site. In addition, I am proud to report more than 20 Ethiopians have done their PhDs in different universities in Germany to study the eco-physiology, anatomy, morphology, economy, genetics, of these coffee sites.
Post World Summit of Sustainable Development (WSSD), I was invited to speak on behalf of the African CSO to the House of the Parliament, Ottawa, Canada, in September 2002. I presented a paper “Your life style may be at stake but our life survival is in danger” this is a lobby paper to persuade Canada to sign the Kyoto protocol so that it would come into force. Fortunately, Canada signed and the Kyoto protocol came into force, though it is sad to note that the future of Kyoto seems unrealistic and the current conservative party of Canada withdrew in Durban. I recall with my joburg fellow-Kanikar Katikatchiwala-Thailand, Hbf arranged for us to speak as panellists on the Globe Europe-The European Parliamentarian meeting. I called my paper “it is always 9-11” in my country, referring to the number of people who died during the brutal attack in New York, which we all condemned, and because in Sub Sahara Africa twice the number of people who died in 9-11 (i.e., 6000) will die every day due to climate caused malaria. Kindly note that the use of the language in the title was only discussed in the panel in a clear way to avoid confusion and avoid holes for those who might have wishes to twist the words and meanings for their own purposes.
I was working for four years as a central coordinator of the biggest Environment Network in Africa called “Africa Biodiversity Network (ABN)” based in Addis Ababa with some logistical support from London-Gaia foundation. I joined ABN after the Hbf capacity building program, as they knew that the program had invested new skills for me. The network has more than 1000 members-60 CSO-in 17 African countries. I cannot list exactly which investments of my capacity lead to harvested result. The late Honourable Noble Laureate Prof. Wangari Mattai was one of the members the coordination group. The network were partly responcible for the prize that she gained for the first time as the first lady African in the Environment field,. I was also awarded a medal by the Federation of World Peace and Love, USA, during the WSSD for my contribution as a civil activist. I initiated and established 5 NGOs while I was in Ethiopia-most of whom are working to include “strategic” advocacy activities. One of the NGOs work had been recently published in UN-Habitat, where I had helped them develop a strategic plan and raise funds over five years. For your note only, I got a chance to shake hands of my human hero-Honourable N.L.President Nelson Mandela-my passion for activism, during the WSSD.
- What are, according to you, the most important barriers to fulfilling the objectives of the Rio and Rio+10 processes? Do you think the Rio+20 Summit will address the shortcomings of the previous summits/processes? Do you think the official proposals for Rio+20 incl. the focus on Green Economy, Sustainable Development Goals and for strengthening global sustainable development governance go in the right direction?
Lack of political will from some developed countries and those economically highly advancing countries. These include the USA, Australia, Canada, Japan and China and India. The three agendas are appropriate. We should attach accountability on global governance issue. Climate change should be given priority, Green economies should be endowed with huge billion dollar fund, the government of developing countries should be held accountable by respective CSO through horizontal accountability procedure. Their (CSO) participation in decision making process should have equal involvement with a democratic governance system. Green economies should be monitored rigorously by an independent entity. UNCSD should be a parallel organization of the UN in a similar way to economic and social division. Development and environment funding & implementing institution structure like the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) should be structured. Sustainable energy for all should be a priority of green economies which has not been given sufficient attention so far, 75-90 per cent of people in Sub Sahara Africa are still cooking food in an ancient way, which has huge disastrous effects for women, the environment, children, development and deterioration of the ecosystem.
- Are you still working towards the achievement of the Rio and Rio+10 objectives in your professional or personal life? How?
I am now a second year PhD student in the University of British Columbia, Canada. We do not have disaggregated research based scientific information relating to climate change and its impact for sustainable development in poor countries. However, climate change is disproportionally affecting those poor countries. I wanted to study and research on “Effects of climate change on local livelihood (with particular emphasis on energy security)-Case study of Tanzania”. However, since I have seen the results and witnessed what one or few can achieve through policy change via advocacy/catalytic effect, I will be working as an activist for African people and the world. I look forward to re-engaging with Hbf while I am studying (in the next two years) and reciprocate what I harvested from their program. Last, Hbf personally helped me to travel to 69 countries at least, during and post the capacity building program. However, my pleasure of success has not been without challenges, since activist cannot always enjoy freedom and security at home.