Report (Part 5): Sustainable Development Convention 2002

Track 6: Rural Development

Time: 31 October 2002, 11:00 Location: Salle A Chair: Mr. Peter Sissons Presenters/ Participants: Erik Orskov (Green Network), Stephen McCoy (NOOR), A.K. Basu (Holistic Development)  Reporter: Makoto Fujiwara (ICVolunteers) Languages: English Key words: Green Network, Noor Eye Clinic, Youth for Christ, Holistic Development, Panchayat

As a continuation of Peter Sissons' interview sessions, three project representatives in Track 6, Rural Development category were interviewed on stage.

The first interviewee in this session was Erik Orskov of Senior Advisor of Green Network, a network of six public environmental authorities and about 250 private companies. Green Network is an example of private-public partnership, and it facilitates the cooperation between the two sectors. "10 years ago, it was more like commands," explained Orskov, the traditional attitude of the public authorities. "But it has changed to dialogues." The companies in Green Network now subscribe voluntarily to the environmental standards that are tougher than the obligatory ones. 

Next, Stephen McCoy of Youth for Christ Geneva described Noor Eye Clinic project. Based in Kabul, Afghanistan, Noor Eye Clinic helps the blind people to cope with their lives, and helps other people from going blind. The ambitions of the projects are two-fold, McCoy explained. In short term, they wish to raise the funding to put a roof in the Eye Clinic. Currently, there is no roof. In long term, they would like to rebuild the Clinic with better equipments with new technologies, and develop a sustainable training program, where the local doctors will train the young people. Peter Sissions asked, "being a Christian organization, did you have any difficulties during the Taliban regime?" McCoy explained that Youth for Christ joined the Noor Eye Clinic relatively recently, but the Eye Clinic project itself was started in 1966 by Howard Harper and it was considered essential to the community and allowed to operate even during the Taliban regime.

Finally, A. K. Basu explained Holistic Development. It is knowledge based multilevel decision support software for development planning in rural areas of India. India recently has gone through a major constitutional change by creating the institution of self-governance, called Panchayat. "The village counsels have more power than the president," said Basu. The project would offer information technology and systems for the Panchayat representatives. Its ambition is "to provide decision making back up for the people," explained Basu. The preliminary work for the project is completed, and he wishes to look goods with advanced knowledge to learn from them, as well as the funding.

Conclusions
This session show-cased three interesting projects in the area of sustainable rural development and regional planning.