In Partnership with

National Committee for Supporting

the Participation of Non-Governmental Actors

in the COP

Civil society organisations have official observer status in the United Nations system. But thanks to their contribution to the negotiations on the Rio conventions, they have been promoted to the ranks of full partners of the governments that are party to this convention. At the moment, they are still not signatories to the conventions, but they are not very far from acquiring equal rights in negotiations of internal treaties and the Conferences of Parties.

During the first Conference of Parties on the Convention to Combat Desertification, held in Rome in October 1997, a special "open dialogue" organised by NGOs formed part of the official programme of work at a plenary session. This is probably the first time that NGOs have had such a opportunity to address themselves to official delegations in a plenary session.

The session dealt with partnerships between actors for the implementation of the Convention to Combat Desertification. It was jointly-organised by a work group comprising members of the RIOD network and the Convention Secretariat. The NGOs used the opportunity to stress the need for partnerships between the various segments of society in order to carry out action programmes to combat desertification. They held exchanges with the governments on the different aspects of these partnerships.

The session lasted 2 hours and featured presentations based around a case study of partnership in Argentina. The case study was presented by government and non-government representatives from Argentina. Each gave their sector's views of the on partnership and obstacles to it. The session's opening and closing speeches were given by NGO representatives. The vice-president of the Conference of Parties presided over the session, he was assisted by a professional facilitator and an NGO representative.

Small groups made up of NGOs representatives and official delegates were randomly formed win order to facilitate exchanges on partnerships and prospects for the future. Some of these groups were subsequently invited to present their reports in the plenary session.

The open dialogue session with the delegation was a major event in the Conference of Parties. Without doubt, it made a significant contribution towards greater recognition of the role of civil society in the implementation of the Rio conventions.

The Party countries deemed the exchanges with non-governmental so fruitful that they expressed the wish to see a similar procedure applied for the next Conferences of Parties. This wish was formalised by a proposed resolution from Argentina requesting the inclusion of two half-day open dialogue sessions with NGOs in future official agenda. Moreover, the resolution also asks NGOs to develop their ideas for institutional mechanisms for large-scale partnerships. The resolution was unanimously adopted, it is enshrined in decision 27/COP.1 (inclusion of activities of non-governmental organisations within the official).

The open dialogue with the official delegations was not the only activity performed by NGOs at COP 1. The other activities included, for example, an NGO forum featuring several workshops.

The judgement made of the NGOs activities overall was generally a favourable one. Firstly, the NGO community can take encouragement from the fact that their status as full partners of governments has been confirmed for the implementation of the Convention. However, NGOs must not now simply bathe in glory, rather the strides made at COP1 should be an extra motivation boost for improving the participation of civil society in COP2.

The purpose of this guide is to draw the lessons from the last Conference of Parties with a view to proposing a new strategy of participation by non-governmental actors.

It deals in succession with:

• the pre-conference activities (international meeting of rural producers; global forum on bio-diversity; and the NGO preparatory meeting),
• the activities planned for during the Conference of Parties (open dialogues with delegations; the RIOD retreat; NGO forum; exhibition; publication of Eco, etc.),
• the strategy to be adopted to ensure that our participation is successful

The previous guide recalled the status of NGOs and the procedures for their accreditation, similarly, the new text recommends greater mobilisation of the NGO community for the Convention's implementation.

The United Nations Organisations and specialist institutions, as well as any States that are members of these organisations or hold observer status to these organisations, and are not party to the Convention, can be represented at the sessions as observers. Any national, international, governmental or non-governmental body (such as NGO and other representatives of civil society) with skills in the fields covered by the Convention may be admitted to the COP as observer except the in event of one-third of the Parties present making an objection to this. The admission of non-governmental organisations is governed by the internal regulations of the Cop (Article 22.7).

In addition, these observers (including NGOs and other non-governmental actors) can, when invited by the President, participate, but cannot vote, in debates during any session on the agenda.

This is how NGOs previously accredited to session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for the elaboration of the Convention to Combat Desertification, were accredited for the first COP. Before each Conference of Parties, a list of further organisations requesting accreditation is submitted by the Permanent Secretariat to the Bureau.

Non Governmental Organisations who do not submit their application form to the Convention Secretariat in time cannot expect to be accredited for second Conference of Parties (Dakar), as the deadline will have expired. These organisations can hope only to be accredited for future conferences (3 & 4).

The alternative for these organisations who would like to attend the COP is to attempt to get accreditation under the auspices of an organisation that already has it. IN such cases, the person wishing to attend should not be identified under his own organisation but under the one that is hosting him.

Non Governmental Organisations have observer status. This means that they do not have the right to vote. They can however, participate in discussions and exert an influence by making direct plenary presentations, with the permission of the COP Bureau, of position papers. Experience gained during the negotiations shows that the most effective method is to proceed via official delegations from countries Party to the Convention by conducting proximity lobbying. This method has proven to be very efficient. This issue is dealt with more comprehensively in Chapter related to the strategy for NGO participation in COP2.

The National Council on Rural Consultation and Co-operation will organise, from 26-30 October 1998, i.e. one month before the Conference of Parties, a World Forum for Producer Organisations from signatory countries to the Convention. This will be the first such forum concerning this Convention. It reflects the awareness that rural producers organisations have of the important place the Convention assigns them by the new programmes to combat desertification at national , sub-regional and regional level.

Efforts to inform and sensibilise NGOs, especially members of the RIOD network, of their new role as partners of Governments and local communities in the framework of Urgent Actions for Africa (UAA) is largely to thank for this awareness in more and more countries. This is why the forum will also include members of the NGO community and other categories of actor. The representatives of RIOD-Africa and Senegal are members of the National Organisation Committee.

The forum is organised with the support of the Permanent Secretariat of the Convention, CILSS and the Club du Sahel.

Date: 26 - 30 October 1998

Location: Hotel Ngor-Diarama

Objectives:

Participants: Peasant movements from Africa, Asia, Latin and North America and Europe, NGO, ecological movements, development partners, etc.

Co-ordination: NCRC (Mamadou Cissokho, President, and Samba Gueye, General Secretary)

The UICN will organise, on the eve of the Conference of Parties, global fora on bio-diversity for governmental and non-governmental actors. The last such forum was held in Tokyo before the Conference of Parties on Climate Change. A similar forum will be organised by UICN in Dakar as a prelude to the second Conference of Parties on the Convention to Combat Desertification which is to be held 30 November to 11 December 1998. It will be the 12th such forum but the first on combating desertification.

Dates: 27-29 November 1998, or 4-5 December 1998

Location: Same as COP II (Meridien Président)

Objectives:

The adoption of a resolution that includes two half-days of dialogue represents a significant opportunities for NGOs to make their desertification-related messages heard at the highest international decision-making level.

This demands that NGOs and other categories of actors make suitable preparations to ensure that their contribution to the Conference of Parties will be up to the standard expected of them.

Hence, an international preparatory meeting for the Conference of Parties on desertification will be held. Originally, this meeting was going to be part of RIOD's overall meeting which was scheduled or October 1998. However, now that this has been postponed till March 1999, the preparatory meeting will have to be held separately before the Conference of Parties. This idea was also well received by the Convention Secretariat.

By organising the meeting in close to the Conference of Parties, we hope to minimise costs. No international transport will be paid for since participants will use the same tickets that the Convention Secretariat will send them to attend the Conference of Parties. With these tickets, they will arrive in Dakar just before the preparatory meeting. Expenses will be extended to cover the 28th and 29th of November.

Dates: 28-29 November 1998

Location: Hotel Ngor Diarama

Contact: ENDA TW, Tel: 221 822 59 83 / 822 24 96, fax: 221 821 75 95

CONGAD, Tel: 221 824 41 16, fax: 221 824 44 13

Objective: the overall objective is to encourage each NGO draw up notes reflecting the general positions of non-governmental in relation to each issue on the agenda. Emphasis will be on the themes to be defended during the two half-days of open dialogue with official delegations. These two half-days will be on 3 and 10 December 1998. Discussion between the NGO community decided that these themes should concern traditional knowledge and the experience learned from conducting national action programmes to fight desertification.

The ultimate objective is to contribute to decision taken by Party countries on, among others, raising financial resources.

Part of the meeting will be devoted to a "warm up session" in order to bring all participants up to the same awareness level. For this, resource persons will be selected from amongst the participants to give presentation to the "big novices".

Participants: NGOs from Africa, Asia, Latin and North America, and Europe, associative movements, and development partners.

Co-ordination: Masse Lo, Emmanuel Seck, ENDA TW

Several activities are scheduled. These include:

The Conference of Parties agenda stipulates that he first open dialogue session will take place on 3 December from 15:00 to 18:00 hours; the second will be at the same time on 10 December.

The December 3 session will focus on the them of traditional knowledge and its role in national anti-desertification strategies.

For the first theme, non-governmental actors (rural producers, women and youth movements, non governmental and community organisations, etc.) should speak of their impression of participation in action programmes and propose strategies for strengthening the participative approach.

Both themes were already looked at in the first Conference of Parties. The decision to review them illustrates their importance to the implementation of the Convention.

The respective co-ordinators of each session will soon set everyone information regarding the number of presentations that can be made at each session. All presentations should be submitted in time to have them translated. No presentation can be made if the preparation team is not informed of it in time. Other elements concerning presentations will also be made available in ample time.

Everyone agrees that the first experience in Rome was conclusive even if the sessions did not convince the Parties to take more decisions or resolutions. This time, the ULTIMATE OBJECTIVE MUST BE TO PROPOSE SEVERAL DECISIONS OR RESOLUTIONS ON, AMONGST OTHER THINGS, THE PARTICIPATION OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ACTORS AND THE EFFECTIVE RAISING OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES.

Based on the lessons of the first COP, we should concentrate our efforts on precise aspects and avoid commotion in the plenary room. WE CAN CAPTURE the attention of any assistant without having to resort to the methods employed during the last COP, by, for example, combining several forms of expression. The way in which the two session will run minute by minute will be determined through consultation with the designated co-ordinators. One thing is sure: we must not put the audience to sleep with successive monologues; Richard Ledgar reminds us of this in his note on the open dialogue session in Rome.

To effectively mesh the various presentation in the time allotted to us, we should form a co-ordination team and designate a facilitator like at COP1.

The team's work method and the terms of reference will be inspired by the experience of COP1.

RIOD has no resources of its own for its members to meet up outside of the negotiations session for the Convention. So the Convention's meetings give members the chance to discuss between themselves on issues regarding the strengthening of their network and preparation of new activities. However, past experience has shown that discussions on RIOD's own problems tend to overshadow discussions on the actual themes of the day; this seems to be what happened during COP1 in Rome. This is what gave rise to the idea of a RIOD retreat for the weekend of 5-6 December 1998.

THIS AIMS TO ENSURE THAT RIOD DISCUSSION BE CONCENTRATED ON THOSE TWO DAYS, thereby leaving working days for discussing the issues on the COP agenda.

The focal points will have the opportunity to present reports on the consultations underway in their region for the general RIOD meeting to be held in Dakar in March 1999. In addition, the activities for the period between the end of COP2 and the general meeting will be planned.

The meeting's agenda will soon be sent to the NGOs participating in the Conference of Parties.

During the COP1, the NGO forum served as an arena for numerous parallel workshops such as: women, desertification and poverty eradication; local experience and traditional knowledge; forming partnerships; communication in the fight against desertification. Each of these workshops, which lasted one to two hours, saw several thematic presentations.

The presentations were relatively well attended. The main lessons to be learned, however, was that the audience was basically just made up of NGO members, whereas the aim was to create an inter-action with the governmental actors that are responsible for co-ordinating anti-desertification programmes in their countries. It is not that the governments are not interested in these workshops, but simply that there are several events competing for their attention at the same time.

In the light of this observation, we recommend adopting a new strategy for holding NGO fora. THIS STRATEGY ENTAILS ORGANISING LESS WORKSHOPS SO THAT THOSE THAT DO TAKE PLACE HAVE A BIGGER IMPACT AND ARE STAGED AT THE MOST OPPORTUNE TIME IN RELATION TO THE OFFICIAL AGENDA.

In the name of innovation, we propose holding a workshop on the theme: RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST DESERTIFICATION.

A circular for deciding upon the workshop themes will be sent to the people selected by the Convention Secretariat to attend COP2. A deadline will be set for the submission of the proposed texts of presentations. Each workshop will have a co-ordinator, a president and a facilitator. The names of these co-ordinators will be sent in due course via circulars.

The fact that the COP1 workshops did not attract as wide an audience as expected means that this time we should put greater EMPHASIS ON THE PERMANENT EXHIBITION: DESERTIFICATION IN DAILY LIFE.

A circular letter has already been sent to RIOD members and other networks with a view to gathering their support proposals. The elements to be displayed can take different forms:

• printed documents (books, bulletins, reviews, or any other publication)
• audio-visual material (cassettes, documentaries, etc.)
• posters, photos, etc.
• traditional technologies
• modern technologies (of renewable energies, rational energy use, etc.)
• others to be suggested

Emphasis should be placed on elements that non governmental actors are involved in promoting or using as part of their anti-desertification projects. These can be part of projects already carried out, or ones that are underway or planned for the future.

To facilitate the material organisation of the NGO's contributions to the permanent exhibition, which is the responsibility of the National Organisation Committee (NOC) of COP2, we invite you to send the list of the elements that your organisation intends to exhibit.

A letter has already been sent to the NOC requesting that it reserves enough space for non governmental actors' exhibition supports.

The 'Eco' newsletter has been published regularly since the Rio conference during the negotiation session of the various conventions on the environment. As part of the desertification convention, the RIOD NGOs are responsible for this publication. The newsletter is a vector of non governmental actors' opinions on the issues at hand. It is a lobbying tool which has been used by all parties, both from the North and South. The articles are edited or collected in the evening and the newsletter is produced during the night or very early in the morning so that it can be distributed as soon as official work gets underway, even on the first day. It comprises 4 pages and appears daily. The information contained in the newsletters is much sought after by the delegations.

An editorial team is currently being selected. It will be made up of both French and English speakers in order to preserve the polyglot appeal of the newsletter. The editorial team could be backed up by reporters that may be nominated during the running of the conference session. These reporters could also benefit from the collaboration of official delegates of can access session that are not open to NGOs and other observers. These would preferably be NGO representatives that are part of an official delegation.

The make-up of these groups will be made known to everyone in due course.

The strategy to follow will be revised for the final time at the preparatory meeting of 28-29 November, i.e. just before the COP gets into swing. What should this strategy consist of?

During the traditional negotiation sessions of the convention , NGOs held three daily meetings. This allowed for the continuous discussion of all the agenda's subjects. The first meeting (9:00 - 10:00) were used to take stock of the previous days work, re-assign participants to workgroups for gathering information. The afternoon meeting (14:00 - 15:00) was used to get up to speed on the work group's progress and, usually, for meeting with development partners and influential people. The evening meeting (18:00) was devoted, amongst other things, to preparing the following day's negotiations and the Eco newsletter.

This approach varied along with the Convention's sessions. But what remained true was that the morning and afternoon meetings were generally well followed, but the evening one was somewhat lax.

FOR COP2, THE MORNING AND AFTERNOON MEETINGS COULD BE HELD. If necessary, adjustments will be made during the preparatory meeting.

The thematic groups will be formed and their co-ordinator designated during the preparatory meeting of 28-29 November 98.

The lobbying to get NGO's resolution proposals adopted with be based on the approach work in the corridors with the official delegations. The NGO representatives featuring in official delegations will be identified so that they can act as our relays. There will also be declarations made during the plenary sessions, backing up previous activities. Finally, the Eco newsletter will, as ever, be the popular part of the lobbying strategy.

The schedule for these activities will be communicated to the COP participants.

In our July circular, we gave informed you of the postponement of the general meeting till March 99. The reasons for this were also explained. This postponement changes nothing as regards the meeting's preparation process. On the contrary, it will give countries more time to carry out their national consultations.

The RIOD retreat was conceived to allow Cop participants to take stock of the preparations for the meeting in their region and to plan the activities to be conducted between COP2 and the March 99 meeting.

The next circulars will look at the activities performed in preparation for this meeting. Let us remind you of the proposed composition of the Support Group for preparing the meeting:

Africa: Ide Djermakoye, Jacqueline Nkoyok