A Global Dialogue on Sustainable Development: Rio +20 Earth Summit
Abstract
The main goal of this project is to collate the voices of South Africans and Africans living in the country through interviews, focus groups and/or public meetings to learn what people are thinking about the sustainability of the future, and their methods of adapting to their environmental challenges. The focus will be on tabulating existing adaptation strategies of communities, bearing in mind that the voiceless are not always powerless. In the face of their daily challenges, women and villagers find innovative ways of coping, and going beyond coping, to adapt to the global changes over which they have no direct control. Through questioning these communities about their modes of adaptation to the challenges in their natural and social environments, we hope to develop a rights agenda that builds sustainable government at the local and the global levels. The project will provide a platform for a number of marginalised communities (including the African voices within South Africa) to have their thoughts and concerns heard about the present and the future, and their attempts to sustain their own development. The specific objectives are to: Assemble the voices of ordinary South Africans and Africans living in South Africa gathered through participatory sustainability hearings and present these at the Rio+20 Summit: Inform the public in general and public policy in particular by generating knowledge and debate around Rio+20 in line with South Africa's National Framework for Sustainable Development (2002); Collate existing HSRC research findings on this field and develop an HSRC research agenda on sustainability issues, building on existing research/projects in areas such as the green economy and sustainable cities, climate change, food security and energy (nuclear power); Use the Rio+20 platform to establish and consolidate links with institutions from the global south working on these issues and disseminate findings in South Africa and beyond; Make visible the voices of African immigrants on issues related to sustainability and the green economy in South Africa and their host countries.
