INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GOVERNANCE OF COLLECTIVE NATURAL RESOURCES Bukavu, DR.Congo, February 5th-8th, 2012.

The Role of Youth in Advocacy and Governance of Natural Resources in the context of a Green Economy-From Victims to Actors. Paper by: Mr. Allen Ottaro, P.O.Box, 41512, 00100, Nairobi, KENYA Email: allen.ottr@gmail.com Phone: +254721605830 Submitted, 29th December 2011.

Abstract In June 1992, world leaders met in Rio de Janeiro at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Also known as the Earth Summit the conference resulted in the Agenda 21, as a comprehensive plan of actions to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment. Principle 21 of the document states that, The creativity, ideals and courage of the youth of the world should be mobilized to forge a global partnership in order to achieve sustainable development and ensure a better future for all. while Principle 23 states that The environment and natural resources of people under oppression, domination and occupation shall be protected. (1) There is a clear connection between youth as actors in environmental governance that ensures natural resources in post conflict zones are protected. However, youth have often been victims of unsustainable natural resource exploitation in post conflict zones in the Great Lakes region. The next United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or Rio+201, proposes the shift from brown economies to green economies, as well as a new institutional framework for sustainable development. This offers a renewed opportunity for youth to be key actors in advocacy and governance of the natural resources, as leaders in their communities, towards a green economy.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) is being organized in pursuance of General Assembly Resolution 64/236 (A/RES/64/236). The Conference will take place in Brazil on 20-22 June 2012 to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro, and the 10th anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg. It is envisaged as a Conference at the highest possible level, including Heads of State and Government or other representatives. The Conference will result in a focused political document. The Conference will focus on two themes: (a) a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication; and (b) the institutional framework for sustainable development.

Introduction Documented advocacy for the good governance of natural resources can be traced back to the origins and beginnings of the environmental movement in the United States of America. One of the most well known personalities associated with this movement is writer, scientist and ecologist, Rachel Louise Carson, and who I was introduced to early in my Environmental Planning and Management study program. Growing up simply in the rural river town of Springdale, Pennsylvania, her mother bequeathed to her a life-long love of nature and the living world that Rachel expressed first as a writer and later as a student of marine biology. At a very youthful age of 25 and 29 years, Rachel earned an MA in Zoology and became the editor-in-chief of all publications for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Yet it is her book, Silent Spring, which she published while dying from cancer in 1962, and at the height of industrial and chemical pollution and destruction of nature, that won her international critical acclaim and galvanized the environmental movement, shaping the management of natural resources at various levels. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, in 1972, was one of the key milestones of this movement. Among the key outcomes of this conference was the setting up of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. In 1987, the famous Brundtland2 Commission report on Sustainable Development was published. The report coined the concept sustainable development and defined it as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. (2) In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), popularly known as the Earth Summit was held in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. The Earth Summit is widely remembered for having enshrined the Agenda 21 principles into the global sustainable development agenda. Principle 21 of the document recognized the importance of mobilizing youth globally,
2

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland was born in Oslo, Norway, on 20 April 1939. A medical doctor and Master of Public Health (MPH), Gro Harlem Brundtland spent 10 years as a physician and scientist in the Norwegian public health system. For more than 20 years she was in public office, 10 of them as Prime Minister. In the 1980s she chaired the World Commission of Environment and Development (also known as the Brundtland Commission).

recognizing them as actors in a partnership that transcends geographical boundaries, in the pursuit of sustainable development, which includes the management of natural resources. Principle 23, explicitly expressed the need to protect natural resources of populations under oppression, domination and occupation. While post-conflict zones may or may not necessarily be described as being under oppression, domination and occupation, it is accurate to state that the conditions of living in post-conflict zones generally match those described in Principle 23 of Agenda 21. However, post-conflict zones may also exhibit characteristics of great potential in terms of socio-economic growth and a re-birth of society, coupled with a greater sense of ownership and responsibility towards the management of natural resources, as a component that fuels and drives this re-birth. This paper seeks to examine the role of youth as key actors, especially in advocacy and governance of natural resource management in post-conflict zones, and especially in the context of a green-economy, which is one of the major themes for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, to be held, again, in Rio de Janeiro, in 2012. The first part will look at the concept of youth and what defines them. The second part will attempt to dissect the various interpretations of advocacy and governance, looking at how youth have been involved at various levels, and how it has been reflected in the management of natural resources. The third and final part will look at what is being proposed as the green economy and the opportunities it may offer for youth to be more effectively engaged in the management of natural resources in post-conflict zones. Who are the youth? French moralist, Joseph Joubert (1754-1824), once said Ask the young. They know everything. Youth have attracted both criticism and praise in equal measure as regards their contribution to society. Indeed, some sections of youth prefer to be addressed as young adults, in an attempt to shed the negative connotations of irresponsibility as contained in much of the criticisms leveled against them and associated with the word youth. In most African countries, those in the Great Lakes region included, youth have often been referred to as the leaders of tomorrow, implying that their youthfulness translates into inexperience, and therefore the need to wait until they come of age. Using

age as a benchmark, the United Nations defines youth as individuals aged between 15 to 24 years; while the African Union has as its definition, a broader range of between 15 to 35 years of age. However, there are numerous disparities even within individuals of the same age. The African Youth Report 20093 notes that young people have different possibilities in terms of the opportunities and outcomes in society that are available to them. It further states that young people differ not just across countries and regions, but also by such traits as gender, urban/rural status, and disability status. This heterogeneity is starkly evident in Africa. For example, young females in sub-Saharan Africa are much more vulnerable to HIV and AIDS than young males. Young Africans with disabilities face discrimination and considerable hurdles in accessing education, health services and the labour market. (3) It would be safe to conclude that the heterogeneity as described in the report, applies to the reality of young people in the Great Lakes region, and therefore their contribution to advocacy and governance of natural resources would need to be analyzed against that background. Advocacy and Governance Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours. This statement by Dale B. Carnegie (188-1955), American writer and lecturer who wrote books about techniques of influencing people and winning friends, is perhaps an apt definition of what advocacy is all about. But may I propose that even he, would be surprised at just how varied and ingenious methods of advocacy have become. Modern advocacy techniques have assumed different formats-from social media campaigns such as forming Facebook groups, to street campaigning to lobbying governments, not simply to create awareness by effectively communicating issues one is passionate about, but also to

The inaugural African Youth Report provides an in-depth perspective on youth issues in Africa. It builds on recent African initiatives, in particular the Fifth African Development Forum on Youth and leadership in the twenty-first century which was organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Africa Union together with other partners. The resulting Consensus Statement, adopted by a wide range of stakeholders, calls on African governments, partners and young people to take action that will promote not only youth development, but broader economic and social development, and hence, progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

make people care enough to act in furtherance of those interests that are the subject of advocacy. (4) Former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, once said that Good governance at the local, national and international levels is perhaps the single most important factor in promoting development and advancing the cause of peace. While most people would agree with this statement, and especially as to the importance of governance, there does not seem to be consensus on what exactly good governance means or entails. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation4 seems to acknowledge this dilemma when it says that its own definition of governance as summarized by four over-arching dimensions: Safety and Rule of Law, Participation and Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity, and Human Development is not measurable directly, and that it is therefore necessary to determine the most suitable proxy indicators that appropriately reflect this definition of governance. The foundation further adds that the nature of governance is that it is inherently unobservable (5). A clear illustration of this observation, can be identified in the near uproar and sheer varied opinion on the question as to whether or not, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation can indeed promote good governance on the African continent, by its prizes that are targeted at former African heads of state or government. In his paper on Youth and World Governance, an Asian youth leader, Anugraha John, chose to apply French historian, Arnaud Blins definition of governance to articulate his position, where he outlines governance as nothing more and nothing less than the collective management of our planet, in its political and economic aspects, but also in its social, human and environmental ones (6). Like Anugraha, I will, for the purpose of this paper, adopt Blins understanding of governance. Advocacy and governance would seem to be two opposing concepts. Often, where advocacy and governance are used in the same sentence, it would read advocating for good governance, implying that advocacy is meant to fill a gap occasioned by the lack of
4

Established in 2006, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation supports good governance and great leadership in Africa. The Foundation works to: provide a framework and tools by which citizens and governments can assess and measure progress in governance; recognize excellence in African leadership and provide a practical way in which leaders can build positive legacies on the continent when they have left national office; stimulate debate on the quality of governance and major governance issues in Africa and develop leadership and governance capacity in Africa.

or deficiency in, the quality and acceptable standards of governance. If one were to add the word youth to the same sentence, while sharing the common perceptions of youth as representing rebellion, or as a frustrated and excluded lost generation (7)(IIED5), then advocacy and governance would seem to be at extreme loggerheads. However, when it comes to the management of natural resources in post-conflict zones in the Great Lakes region, advocacy and governance and the role that youth can and should play in it, need not create tension. On the contrary, advocacy and good governance together can be a lethal combination to bringing to an end practices that promote the plunder of natural resources such as forests and minerals, while encouraging, nurturing and fostering the sustainable use of those very resources to spur development that creates opportunities for youth; not simply as beneficiaries or job seekers, but as wealth producers and job creators. The reason why youth involvement and participation is so critical, especially in postconflict zones, is the fact that they (youth) have on many occasions borne the brunt of conflict, in a double-edged way, by being engaged as combatants during conflicts with its obvious negative consequences on their personal development, and losing opportunities through destruction of important infrastructure such as schools and telecommunications in the post-conflict period. The finite nature of natural resources, their importance in the reconstruction process and the need to bequeath future generations a planet that can sustain them within planetary boundaries as envisaged in the Brundtland definition of sustainable development, would seem to be sufficient justification for the involvement of youth in advocacy and governance of natural resource management. The fact that the complexity of natural resource management has increased immensely, must be a major concern for policy makers at Rio+20, which will also be Silent Spring +50, indicating that perhaps Rachel Carsons assertions are as relevant today as they were 50 years ago. Even though young people are bound to infuse new thinking and approaches, it is clear that they have not lost memory of past policy commitments, many of which have gone by without being
5

The International Institute for Environment and Development is an independent international research organization, which specializes in linking local to global. In Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, the Middle East and the Pacific, it works with some of the world's most vulnerable people to ensure they have a say in the policy arenas that most closely affect them from village councils to international conventions.

honored. This was affirmed in September 2011 when youth from over 100 countries gathered in Bandung, Indonesia for the UNEP Tunza6, International Children and Youth Conference on the Environment. The young people came up with the Bandung Declaration, in which they point out the fact that governments, businesses and multinational corporations have failed in the quest of reducing poverty, stemming environmental degradation and enhancing equity (8). In their declaration, the children and youth go beyond mere rhetoric and lamentations, by laying out and committing to an action plan and a road map, on the road to Rio+20, summarized as follows: Lobby their governments to make Rio+20 Earth Summit a top priority. Adopt more sustainable lifestyles and reduce their ecological footprints. Educate their communities and raise awareness about sustainable production and consumption. Support the work of young scientists and entrepreneurs that is geared towards Green Economy solutions. Contribute to the global, regional and national discussions on sustainable development. (8) But just what is a green economy? UNEP defines a green economy as one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities (UNEP 2010). Improving human well-being and social equity is a central theme in many if not all postconflict societies, not least those in the Great Lakes region, often because the poor quality of these factors contribute or stoke unrest that leads to conflicts in the first instance. Furthermore, human well-being is dependent on the natural environment, both at a moment
6

In February 2003, the Governing Council of UNEP adopted a long-term strategy for engaging young people in environmental activities and in the work of UNEP. The strategy was entitled the Tunza Youth Strategy. The word TUNZA means to treat with care or affection in Kiswahili (a sub-regional language of Eastern Africa). The overall Tunza Concept, therefore, is built around this theme. It is an initiative that is meant to develop activities in the areas of capacity building, environmental awareness, and information exchange, with a vision to foster a generation of environmentally conscious citizens, capable of positive action. Important by-products of this strategy include the annual Tunza International Youth Conference,

in time and across generations, making the case for youth involvement in the governance and management of natural resources, all the more imperative. Transitioning to a green economy is seen as key in contributing to poverty alleviation, especially for developing countries whose populations, most of which are youthful, rely directly on natural resources. However, the UNEP Green Economy report also recognizes that a green economy cannot be focused entirely on solving environmental problems and scarcity, but that concerns of sustainable development with intergenerational equity and eradicating poverty need to be integrated (9). Some analysts suggest that governments should consider abandoning the language of sustainable development in favour of the more attractive green economy, apparently owing to the fact that civil society has found rallying the public behind the phrase sustainable development an uphill task over the last 20 years. I disagree with this proposition, and instead subscribe to the view of a green economy as a pathway to sustainable development. While it may be true that getting the message of sustainable development through to its intended audience has been fraught with challenges, as evidenced by the low profile of the Commission for Sustainable Development7 (CSD) and the seemingly insignificant impact of UNESCOs Education for Sustainable Development8 (ESD), Rio+20 and the theme of Green Economy in the context of poverty eradication and sustainable development, offers a renewed opportunity and provides impetus for youth to get the sustainable development agenda back on track. Already, young people are showing the way. Besides the Bandung Conference, an impressive initiative dubbed Road to Rio+20, a coalition of more than 60 youth-led and
7

The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was established by the UN General Assembly in December 1992 to ensure effective follow-up of United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Earth Summit. The Commission is responsible for reviewing progress in the implementation of Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development; as well as providing policy guidance to follow up the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) at the local, national, regional and international levels. The JPOI reaffirmed that the CSD is the high-level forum for sustainable development within the United Nations system.
8

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is not a particular programme or project, but is rather an umbrella for many forms of education that already exist, and new ones that remain to be created. ESD promotes efforts to rethink educational programmes and systems (both methods and contents) that currently support unsustainable societies. ESD affects all components of education: legislation, policy, finance, curriculum, instruction, learning, assessment, etc. ESD calls for lifelong learning and recognizes the fact that the educational needs of people change over their lifetime

youth-serving organizations from around the world, has been consolidating a global movement to realize the potential of the Earth Summit 2012. National and regional meetings have been put together by coalition partners to get young peoples perspectives on the objective and themes of the summit. These meetings have produced a series of declarations that were fed into the work of the Major Group for Children & Youth9 and used as a basis for national and regional advocacy efforts. A great deal of diverse and wide reaching advocacy efforts, ranging from caravans, video games, lesson plans, green economy business contests, social media campaigns, publications, TV interviews and even a musical on the theme of the green economy, have been executed. These activities have now evolved into a full-fledged coalition that focuses on marshalling youth around the work already done and planning the follow up to Rio+20, to ensure implementation and accountability in partnership with and through the leadership of youth. (10) Conclusion Advocacy and good governance are important elements in natural resource management. The complex nature of challenges posed in post-conflict zones in the Great Lakes region, with regard to the management of natural resources, calls for even greater concerted efforts to realize positive results. This also implies that long term commitments need to be made, and an undertaking in equal measure, to be faithful and to see through these commitments, to ensure that our natural resource base in the Great Lakes region, serve current and future generations, for the human well-being of all its citizens. Quick actions are needed, but they will not necessarily yield quick results. Quick capital and massive finance to pay for these actions will be required, with no promise of quick and massive returns. Simple understanding to complex problems will be inevitable (10). The youth have shown that they can rise to these
9

The Major Group for Children and Youth is an international network of over 1000 youth leaders from hundreds of organizations, many of which are themselves national networks, that bring together young people with a desire to build a more sustainable world. The focus of the caucus is two-fold. First, to facilitate youth input into the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), the primary international forum concerned with issues of Sustainability, and secondly to foster information sharing and communication between a diverse network of youth organizations who share a common interest in sustainability.

challenges and more. However as noted earlier, the heterogeneity in the character of youth, also means that their participation in advocacy and governance will depend to an extent, on the social tools and infrastructure available to youth in diverse geographical and socioeconomic contexts. Youth in post-conflict zones of the Great Lakes region certainly face more challenges than their counterparts in fairly stable regions. But it is these very challenges, coupled with the determination to secure and transform their societies, driven by the opportunities that the global youth movement on the Road to Rio+20 provides and the possibilities of the contribution of the green economy to natural resource management, that will ultimately empower and channel their energies to be the leaders of the here and now and not leaders of tomorrow.

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