Opening Statement

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to welcome you to Geneva for this second meeting organized this year by ITU/BDT, in close cooperation with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the Observatory of Sahel and Sahara (OSS). The objective of our meeting is to promote and encourage a partnership between the African countries on one hand and the world international and regional organizations concerned and the private sector interested on the other hand, for the implementation of an African Environmental Information System on the Internet “SISEI”.

I am pleased to convey to all of you the best wishes for successful work from both Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, the ITU Secretary-General and Mr. Hamadoun Touré, the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau.

The presence in our meeting this morning of Mr. Marcel Boisard, Director-General of the UNITAR and of Mr. Chedly Fezzani, Executive Director of the OSS is a great honor for all of us and a tangible indication of the importance these two organisations also attach to our common Initiative.

ITU involvement in the world efforts towards the protection of the environment, is a tangible reality since the early 90’s. Indeed only two years after the Earth Summit of June 1992, the 1994 Buenos Aires World Telecommunication Development and the Kyoto ITU Plenipotentiary Conferences adopted Resolutions on telecommunication support for the protection of the environment.

These Resolutions reflected then the already growing concerns of the telecommunication community regarding the disturbing degradation of the environment and basically took their roots from Chapters 35 and 40 of Agenda 21, adopted at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, dealing respectively with science for sustainable development and information for decision-making and the need for concrete and specific solutions to environmental issues by application of appropriate telecommunication and information technologies.

It is not my intention today to go with you through all the various related activities conducted by ITU since 1994.

Let me only say that in straight line with the Buenos Aires and Kyoto conferences, the second Telecommunication Development Conference (Valletta, 1998), has emphasized further the role of telecommunication and information technologies for environmental protection and sustainable development  through a series of activities.

Considerable success was achieved because the  ITU was always keen to encourage dynamic cooperation between all parties concerned, i.e. the National Telecommunication Regulators and Operators, the Private Sector represented by the Telecommunication Manufacturers and Systems Operators and the International and Regional Organizations, in particular UNDP, UNEP, UNITAR and OSS, among others.

Our present meeting is therefore another concrete step in the process engaged by ITU to promote world partnership, to foster better awareness of the environment issues and to enhance further the possible contribution of telecommunication technologies for the protection of the environment and achievement of sustainable development, with special focus on Africa this time.

Africa is known to have natural resource potential but faces many factors that have adverse effects on this potential. Although it is generally agreed that there is environmental degradation in Africa, there is not enough reliable information to proceed with assessments of the levels of the problems.

In recognition to this fact, Africa like many other regions, has become increasingly aware of the need to fully integrate environmental information into development planning and decision-making.

Consequently, African subregions and their member states expressed the need to generate commonly accessible databases related to agriculture and environment.

The proposed Environmental Information System on the Internet (“SISEI”) is a reply to this need and can lead to better exchange, circulation and access to environmental data and information useful to governments, NGOs, the private sector, etc.

The “SISEI” is therefore for Africa the key tool for better knowledge and good management of environmental information and sustainable development.

I am confident that your discussions during the coming two days, will result in a sound strategy and a dynamic partnership for a concrete implementation of a project that the African Continent is definitely in critical need to have as soon as possible.

Of course, this will require the mobilization of appropriate financial resources. Thus I would like to address especially the representatives of the funding institutions and of the private sector, first to thank them for having responded positively to our invitation and for being present with us today and secondly to tell them how much we count on their inputs to improve the content of the SISEI project and to develop the best financial conditions for its successful and rapid implementation.

I wish you all therefore a lot of success in your work.

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