January 18th, 2004, 9:30am – 11:00am

New Standard Engineering (NSE) Grounds, Bombay Exhibition Grounds Western Express Highway, Goregaon (East), Room B62

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Report

25 people from various non-government organizations and initiatives participated in the seminar. They came from Bangladesh , Brazil , Denmark , East Timor, Estonia, Fiji , 7 different states of India , Italy , and the USA .

Introduction and presentation

The seed awards initiative was presented by Minu Hemmati.

Comments on the seed awards initiative

Juan Mayr (Member of the United Nations Panel on UN - Civil Society Relations; former Environment Minister of Columbia ) said that he believed "the seed awards initiative has great potential. It is a well shaped initiative, particularly because it is looking at the local efforts." He also expressed his appreciation of the name "seed awards", "because it is seeds that you support, and need to support when partnerships are being formed - you prepare the soil, you nurture the seeds, you water them, you take care of their growth, starting with the grassroots". Juan also said that he saw the seed awards initiative as "part of the overall support system for sustainable development partnerships".

Satu Hassi (Chair, Green Party Parliament Group, Finland ; former Environment Minister of Finland) expressed her "best wishes for the seed awards - I hope this seed will grow!" She also shared her experiences at home in Finland and Europe as much as with working with developing countries, that often environmental protection and economic growth & job creation were still seen as conflicting. "To show that all aspects of sustainable development - economic growth, particularly creating employment for poor people, environmental protection and social justice - can indeed be achieved at the same time, that is of vital importance. Publicizing concrete, physical examples will very much help to raise awareness of sustainable development and how to achieve it."

General Discussion

During the discussion following the presentation and comments, participants expressed their appreciation of the initiative, raised a number of questions and made suggestions. Lars Friberg and Minu Hemmati responded on behalf of the seed awards initiative.

One great challenge the initiative faces is effective outreach to raise awareness of the seed awards among local actors. Several participants underlined how important it was to translate the seed awards material into additional languages. One idea was to ask local residents to provide translations, which in many cases would cut the costs. Also, relying exclusively on the Internet for outreach and/or the application process would limit the number and kind of groups that would be reached. Participants suggested to also use print and other media, and to allow for submissions and other correspondence by post. As one participant put it: “I have to walk 25km to the closest Internet connection, I can only do this every second week, for people in my situation I hope that you will excercise some understanding with deadlines.”

Participants pointed out that the global approach of the seed awards might become difficult, in terms of outreach to the local level; verifying submissions; and the “distance” that a local level partnership initiative might experience between what they were doing and a ceremony held at CSD in New York. A layered approach was suggested (first regional, then global), and regional partners to work on verifying submissions.

Those in the audience who had previously encountered the debate around partnerships agreed that while the discourse on partnerships has been diluted (or even perverted), this does not diminish the importance of working in partnerships, and the need for supporting the partnership approach. Participants also supported the notion that many institutions - including governments, international agencies, international NGOs, business, etc. - need more information about what partnerships are and should be, and increase their understanding of the partnership approach.

Speakers' bios:

Ms Satu Hassi , MP, has been a member of the Green Parliamentary Group in Finland since 1991. She is currently the vice chair of the Environment Committee and a deputy member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. She has previously worked on issues of transport, communications, legal affairs, defence, commerce, and Nordic and European relations. From 1999 until 2002, she served both as the Finnish Minister of the Environment and Minister at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Mr Juan Mayr , former Colombian Minister of Environment is a crusading environmentalist and a self -taught photographer. Between 1993 and 1996, Mayr was elected vice-president of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). In August 1998, Colombian President Andres Pastrana Arango appointed him Minister of the Environment. In addition to his national activities, in February 1999 he was elected President of the Extraordinary Session of the Convention on Biological Diversity until January 2000. He is currently serving as a member of the UN Civil Society Panel, appointed by Kofi Annan and due to submit its report by June 2004.