poverty-environment policy confusion

["Naresh Singh" <naresh.singh@undp.org>]

The Brundtland commission statement that poverty was both a cause and a
result of environmental degradation while polically astute inthe context
in which it was made, leads to naive policy conclusions and misdirected
research,when generalised.Such instances include the now famous downward
spiral poverty trap.Significant evidence has since been poduced which
show that even where the trap seems to be obviously at work closer
examination shows a multiplicity of factors not least among them being
the greed of local elites and foreign investors, the perverse impact of
subsidies,even the unintended impacts of programs targetted to the
poor.It has therefore become necessary and urgent that senior policy
makers including ministers of                        
economicdevelopment;finance;environment;social
affairs,labour;agriculture;forestry;industry;energy;and tourism become
aware of these issues in ways in which they can do something.While a
well prepared ministerial meeting and/or a meeting of donors might be a
useful kick-off, a focussed policy/action research agenda with strong
support from governments and donors;but grounded in the actual situation
of selected countries could be a way foward.There is a lot of pertinent
stuff already on-going and it will be important for participants in this
conference to share these as well as ther own views on the issues raised
in the resource paper and those not raised.