[Aidwatch] RIO+20 and Beyond

Thu Jul 12 04:04:57 PDT 2012

Dear supporters

Last month saw the world’s leaders, development agencies and civil society
organisations gather in RIO for the UN conference on sustainable
development<http://www.uncsd2012.org/index.html>.
The aim of the conference was to find development paths to reduce poverty,
advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more
crowded planet in order to “get the future we want”.

Australia’s contribution<http://www.uncsd2012.org/index.php?page=view&type=510&nr=692&menu=20>to
the conference was to push mining as a means of sustainable
development
and advocate for aid to be used to promote private financing. With other
countries also promoting sustainable initiatives that had little to do with
sustainability and much to do with profit, it is little surprise that the
conference outcome document was routinely criticised by civil
society<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jun/23/rio-20-earth-summit-document>as
lacking actions and commitments necessary to produce a truly
sustainable
future.

In this edition of the AID/WATCH e-bulletin we’ll give you the run down on
AID/WATCH’s response to the RIO+20 summit and the increasing use of the aid
program to promote mining. We also have updates of our other activities
over the past month and some upcoming events for your diaries.

*This issue:*

·         *Rio+ 20 and “sustainable mining” <#1387a38deb1daffa_RIO20>*

·         *AID/WATCH event: after RIO+20 <#1387a38deb1daffa_aidwatchevent>*

·         *Promoting the aid effectiveness
debate<#1387a38deb1daffa_PromotingAidEffectiveness>
*

·         *AID/WATCH turns 20!!! <#1387a38deb1daffa_AidwatchTurns20>*

·         *AID/WATCH on Twitter <#1387a38deb1daffa_AidwatchTwitter>*

·         *And finally... <#1387a38deb1daffa_AndFinally>*

*RIO + 20 and “sustainable mining”*

In conjunction with Friends of the Earth Sydney and Quit Coal, AID/WATCH wrote
a letter to new Foreign Minister Bob
Carr<http://www.aidwatch.org.au/news/aidwatch-open-letter-to-bob-carr>outlining
the position that we thought Australia should take at the UN
RIO+20 forum on sustainability to ensure a truly sustainable future, and
also raised some concerns over the pro-mining and pro-market position
that Australia
had taken in its
submission<http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&nr=692&type=510&menu=20&template=529&str=Biodiversity>to
the forum.

AID/WATCH particularly took issue with three aspects of the Australian
submission:

1)      Why Australia was advocating aid to promote private financing
against UN efforts to protect sustainability

2)      Why Australia was promoting market mechanisms against UN efforts to
secure government action

3)      Why Australia was promoting “sustainable mining” but not action on
climate change

 (Read our full letter to Bob Carr here:
http://www.aidwatch.org.au/news/aidwatch-open-letter-to-bob-carr)

As our recent article on mining and aid in New
Matilda<http://newmatilda.com/2012/07/02/sustainable-mining-pull-other-one>highlighted,
mining as a means of development is becoming an increasingly
important part of the Australian aid budget. Since the Review of Aid
Effectiveness in 2010, multiple AusAID documents have outlined the agency’s
emphasis on economic development as a means to poverty reduction, and
promotion of mining industries as a key part of that development. In
October 2011 the government committed $127 million to the Mining for
Development Initiative<http://www.ausaid.gov.au/aidissues/mining/Pages/home.aspx>that
is extra to aid money already being spent on mining-related
initiatives.

Whilst there can be a relationship between economic growth and poverty
reduction it is by no means naturally causal, and as our article points out
mining is renowned for driving greater disparities between rich and poor,
destabilising economies, human rights abuses and environmental destruction.

AID/WATCH thought that the idea of “sustainable mining” (and let’s not
forget that this is an industry that is centred around the destruction of
the environment to extricate finite resources) was such a joke that we
decided to hand deliver our letter on RIO+20 to Bob Carr’s office in
suitable clown-like attire. (See news coverage of our ‘sustainable mining
what a joke!’ action
here<http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8487382/clowns-in-sydney-anti-mining-protest>
).

To carry on the discussion of how environmental justice and sustainability
can be advanced through the aid program post-RIO+20, AID/WATCH and Friends
of the Earth are hosting a forum next week in Sydney and encourage all of
our supporters to come along and get involved in the debate.

*AID/WATCH Event: After Rio+20 and Copenhagen: advancing environmental
justice*

The recent failure of the Rio+20 conference to agree on a real and just
framework to reverse the environmental crises we face was the latest in a
series of unsuccessful UN conferences, including the yearly international
climate talks.

Join Friends of the Earth Sydney and AID/WATCH to hear speakers that
attended the official Rio+20 conference and the People’s Summit reflect on
what went wrong at the conference and a discussion on how we should engage
with UN conferences on climate and environment in the future.

Can we, as FoE International suggests, reclaim the UN from corporate
capture with democratic participation? What should we demand of the
Australian Government? Or do we need alternatives to international
negotiations to achieve global environmental justice?

*Speakers: *Lee Rhiannon (Greens Senator for NSW), Mehreen Faruqi
(Associate Professor of Sustainability, UNSW), Kylie Benton-Connell (FoE
Sydney)

*When: *Wednesday 18th July 2012

*Time:    *6.30pm – 8pm

*Where: *Newtown Neighbourhood Centre

*Cost: *     Free

https://www.facebook.com/events/491932797488486/

*Promoting the aid effectiveness debate*

* *

AID/WATCH recently presented at two events to promote a vision of
development effectiveness based on human rights and social and
environmental justice.

The first of these was at the One Just World
forum<http://www.onejustworld.com.au/>in Albury where AID/WATCH was
part of a panel discussing how issues
associated with poverty and marginalisation can be addressed through the
aid program. *See the video here*:
http://www.onejustworld.com.au/forums/are-we-making-a-difference

Chairman James Goodman was on hand at the IQ2 debate in
Melbourne<http://www.iq2oz.com/events/event-details/2012-series-melbourne/july.php>to
highlight that the amount of money the Global South spends on debt
repayments far outweighs that of aid dollars, to advocate for a ban on food
speculation and promote policies to tackle climate change. Read James’
piece that appeared in *The Age* outlining AID/WATCH’s position here: *As
Long as the Rich can Speculate on Food, the World’s Poor go
Hungry<http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/as-long-as-the-rich-can-speculate-on-food-the-worlds-poor-go-hungry-20120630-219ja.html>
.*

* *

*AID/WATCH turns 20!!!*

In 1992 AID/WATCH was started in a living room with a small group of
dedicated activists who decided to investigate and challenge how and where
Australian aid dollars were being spent. Since then AID/WATCH has tackled a
number of major issues, lobbied relentlessly and instigated some major
policy reforms.

To celebrate some of our past achievements and welcome the next 20 years
for AID/WATCH we are holding a birthday celebration at the Red
Rattler<http://redrattler.org/>in Marrickville, NSW, on Thursday, 6
September 2012.

We’ll be back in touch with invites and details soon, but you can invite
yourself to the event and keep up to date by going to our Facebook event
page: https://www.facebook.com/events/376377932429912/

*AID/WATCH on Twitter*

Perhaps it is just the impending birthday that is making us feel old, but
AID/WATCH have decided to embrace the GenY zeitgeist and has joined the
Twittersphere. Add us on Twitter to keep up to date with all the latest
news on aid and development: http://twitter.com/AID_WATCH

*And Finally...*

* *

Many thanks to all of you who contributed to the end of financial year
appeal. As the only independent monitor of Australian aid, we do not take
government funding and rely solely on contributions from people like
yourself to continue to do the work that we do.

If you missed out on the appeal, don’t feel bad, you can become a regular
AID/WATCH donor from as little as $5 dollars a month:
https://www.egive.org.au/website/index.php

AID/WATCH
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