burden of deforestation, desertification, erosion of ... - Social Watch

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State shall (…) ensure sustainable exploitation, utilisation, management and conservation of the environmental and natural resources, and ensure the equitable sharing of the accruing benefits.” 2 This is a considerable step forward in a country with so many environmental challenges including desertification, soil erosion, deforestation, water shortage and water pollution. 3 For example, up to 16.8 million people (43% of the population) have no access to an improved water source, 4 while 80% of the arid and semi-arid areas of the country are rapidly becoming deserts, primarily because of the mismanagement of natural resources. 5 Kenya prior to the Constitution: food, financial and fuel crises Accusations of irregularities in the 2007 presidential election triggered a wave of political, economical and social unrest that, in combination with the global financial crisis, ravaged the economy during the years that followed. More than USD 500 million were lost in the stock market on just the first day of 2008, and millions of dollars were also reported missing by business leaders. 6 Targeted violence escalated against ethnic minorities and all around the country people took to the streets protesting against electoral manipulation. This situation drove gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth below zero that year, and the impact of the financial crisis was immediately felt on food prices, trade (with imports and exports declining steeply) and investments as gross fixed investment plummeted from an already dismal level. The social consequences of these multiple shocks were even more dire, with rising unemployment (65% in 2010) 7 2 M. McDermott, “Kenya Grants Environmental Rights in New Constitution,” Tree Hugger, (January 2011), . 3 P. Orengo, “Parts of Kenya Slowly Turning into Desert,” The Standard, (16 August 2010), ; EcoMerge, Kenya’s Soil Erosion Leads to Famine, (31 May 2010), ; Mongabay.com, Kenya Forest information and Data, ; Water.org, Kenya, ; and AllAfrica.com, Kenya: Rampant Pollution of Rivers Worries Ngilu, (23 March 2011), . 4 Water.org, op. cit. 5 P. Orengo op cit.; EcoGeneration, Desertification in Kenya, (29 November 2009), . 6 CNN World, Civil unrest damaging Kenya’s economy, (3 January 2008), . 7 M. W. Muthee, Tackling Youth Unemployment in Kenya, (Washington DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, September 2010), . and sharply increasing income poverty, hunger and malnutrition (with at least 100,000 children at risk of extreme malnutrition). 8 While the poor suffered, owners of real estate, bankers and telecommunications service providers experienced a boom, 9 exposing the folly of neo-liberal capitalism as it cushions the rich from the vagaries of its cyclical crises and punishes the poor with its skewed reward structure. The response to the crisis followed a similar pattern, with immediate and significant capital injection by the State into the financial system, quickly lifting stock prices and boosting high-value real estate businesses while investment in social infrastructure and in the conditions of the poor trickled down slowly if at all. The “light touch regulation” promoted by the World Bank in Kenya and the accompanying mismanagement of capital account policies have ensured that the domestic financial systems no longer support the productive sector and small and medium-sized enterprises. The destabilizing effect of short-term capital flows and the unpredictable behaviour of the market have held the national economy hostage to the whims of itinerant speculative capital. The crisis has exposed the current neo-liberal development paradigm as being driven by the exclusive interests of big business and its multilateral capacity to promote inequitable growth that leads to increased unemployment. Resetting participation boundaries The new Constitution guarantees public participation in governance – the “red meat of politics,” as the saying goes, without which democracy is fatally undermined. It is an approach to citizen empowerment that is becoming a vital element of democratic theory and 8 T. McConnell, “Recession Worsens Kenyan Famine,” Global Post, (2 April 2009), . 9 Kenyan real estate blog, Analyzing the Real Estate Sector in Kenya, ; Kenya Buzz, Kenya’s Very Healthy Banking Sector, ; C. Mungai, “Is Kenyan African Silicon Valley?”, Talk Afrique, (26 February 2011), . Social Watch 131 Kenya practice. Inspired by the spirit of the African Charter on popular participation in development and transformation and equally, in the Kenyan case, driven by the letter of the newly promulgated Constitution, the basic principles underlying the practice of stakeholder engagement inform the ongoing discourse on the management of sustainable societies. As a central principle of public policy-making, “public participation” presupposes that all levels of government seek to build citizen and stakeholder involvement into their respective policy-making processes and activities. This means breaking down the artificial boundaries between legal professionals and ordinary citizens. True citizenship is basically a political relationship, requiring respect for the common good and a specific role in society that is based on responsibility to a polity rather than specific interests. It is time for citizens to reclaim their sovereignty as agents of policy-making that can convert their social development needs away from the hegemonic interests into the popular will. The State should be forced to remove its mask of a neutral executer of the public will and be made to become an instrument in the service of the productive sectors of society and not as a shield for the parasitic interests of the ruling classes. By making popular participation and service delivery the basis of the politics of sustainable development, people will, at the same time, be bridging the widening gap between the tasks that ordinary citizens have to perform and those that are considered the prerogative of the elites. Through participation and collective action, Kenyans will transform themselves into a new revolutionary force. n
epuBlic of korea The Government’s narrow conception of green Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice Kyehyun Ko There are at least two main obstacles to sustainable development in the Republic of Korea: a high dependence on an economic model based on exports and a weak social welfare infrastructure. According to a 2010 report the country had the most highly dependent on exports and imports among the G20, with exports accounting for 43.4% of its gross domestic product (GDP). 1 The same study stated that it is also the most highly dependent on foreign investment among G20 countries (88%). President Lee Myung-bak’s administration in particular has no concern for anything other than the economic needs of big company owners. The Government’s obsession with boosting the export sector has caused deep inequality between large and small or medium-sized businesses. The economy is dominated by a few conglomerates such as Samsung and Hyundai, and the gap between them and their suppliers is increasing. While big conglomerates form the backbone of the country’s economy (e.g., Samsung alone provides 20% of exports), small- and medium-sized enterprises provide jobs for more than 80% of the labour force so their health is crucial to the economy. Yet the number of small companies is decreasing. 2 Among them 46% are subcontractors that have neither their own capital nor independent technology and are therefore subordinate to the big companies. Growing inequalities This situation has led to social and union unrest and also weak domestic demand due to the increasing numbers of non-regular workers and the unemployed. There is a high prevalence of informal or non-regular workers among the small- and medium-sized companies. The country’s unemployment rate for 2011 rose from 3.6% in January to 4% in February, according to figures from the Govern- 1 KBS World, Korea’s dependence on foreign trade, (14 September 2010), . 2 L. Williamson, “South Korea’s small businesses fight for survival,” BBC News: Business, (17 August 2011), . The Government’s plans for economic growth have no regard for social or environmental issues. Its favouring of a neo-liberal model fails to take into consideration the distribution of wealth, the well-being of natural ecosystems or civil society participation. Meanwhile the economy is more and more dependant on foreign markets and investors. The country is failing to provide a minimum standard of living for the poorer sectors of society, a proper welfare system for senior citizens, adequate childcare facilities or a functioning public health system. Basic Capabilities Index (BCI) BCI = 99 100 98 Births attended FIGURE 1 Children reaching 5th grade National reports 132 Social Watch Surviving under-5 CO 2 emissions (metric tons per capita) 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 99+ 0 100 100 99+ ment Statistics Department. 3 Unemployment rates are higher among young people (8.5%), with 50% of recent college graduates failing to find a job . The income gap between informal and formal workers is growing. In 2010 2.1 million workers had earnings below the minimum wage (USD 767 per month). 4 The quarterly Engel’s coefficient (the percentage of food consumption to total spending) posted the highest figure in seven years at 3 BBC News Business, South Korea’s unemployment rate rises to year high, (16 March 2011), . 4 Hong Seock-jae, “S. Korea claims highest rate of low-wage employment in OECD,” The Hankyoreh, (16 February 2011), . Gender Equity Index (GEI) GEI = 59 Education Empowerment Economic activity 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 Source: Trading Economics, . 100 0 13.92%. 5 Engel found that the lower a family’s income, the greater proportion food expenses account for in its household budget. An increasing coefficient suggests greater impoverishment and growing inequality between rich and poor. Environmental issues One of the country’s main environmental concerns is air pollution in the major cities (83% of the population live in urban areas). 6 Sewer discharge and indus- 5 KBS World, Engel’s coefficient highest in seven years, (20 August 2011), . 6 CIA, The World Factbook: Korea, South, (27 September 2011), . 26 100 68 100 84
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SOCIAL WATCH R E P O R T 2 0 1 2 SU
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SOCIAL WATCH REPORT 2012 The right
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Social Watch in the world SW Nation
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• GUATEMALA: CONGCOOP - Coordinac
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Española de la Educación; Movimie
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Social Watch: promoting accountabil
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Global Assembly The Global Assembly
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Table of contents The right to a fu
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The right to a future An overview o
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has similarly led to population dis
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In the current international trade
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Rio+20 and beyond: no future withou
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ated into many other international
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• Emphasizing progressive taxatio
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A compensation scheme to pay off cl
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Rio+20: implementation is the key A
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Sustainable development and a renew
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policies that have only exacerbated
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neoliberal model, it gained even mo
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Thus, the advances of the sustainab
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Networking cities that use new indi
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Green and equal: financing for sust
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fROM AID EffECTIvENESS TO TAx jUSTI
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casions, often reaching agreement.
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The indignados are asking the right
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Green jobs but no justice From the
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Human right to adequate housing and
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have its most negative impacts and
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BASIC CAPABILITIES INDEx 2011 The b
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TeChnICal noTes 1 The following are
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surviving under-5 Birth atended Chi
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education malawi 89 57 32 59 malays
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Achievement Possibility Frontiers (
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promoTIng eConomIC and soCIal rIghT
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Core Country serf Index Country Cor
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From the grassroots: NATIONAL REPOR
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Education and gender equality Accor
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- have gradually put sustainable de
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FIGURE 1 GDP - Real growth rate (%)
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diversified manner and underscored
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was re-opened shortly afterwards wi
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waste water is often polluted by hu
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“Europe is alone with its unilate
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into the atmosphere, with emissions
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The Kyoto Protocol includes an anti
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However, the Government has not tak
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damage and destruction to the fishi
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FIGURE 1 Increase in after-tax inco
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which unemployment decreased, since
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emissions. It is important that emi
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3%, is due not only to its small si
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The national biomass (above and bel
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