Capacity Building

The Program's mission is to promote capacity building of NGOs and associations to identify, plan and implement environmentally sound small scale community development schemes and will conduct training to strengthen the ability of the members to advocate on environmental issues of concern to the African people. The organisation will organise short courses, training programmes, seminars and workshops on a range of subjects related to environment and sustainable development.

We believe that a focus on people and human resource development is critical to alleviating poverty, promoting sustainable development, and fostering democratic societies in Africa. CAF will provide training in advocacy approaches and methodologies and will produce related materials and publications.

We aim to:

• Empower a core group of members of environmental NGOs who will then transfer this knowledge to other environmental associations;
• Empower NGOs with skills in public outreach and advocacy for the issues they identify as crucial for sustainable development;
• Improve understanding of the international environmental processes and its use in relevant national and local processes;
• Strengthen the NGO community as a whole by increasing its professionalism and effectiveness;
• Strengthen domestic and regional networks among NGOs for mutual support and developing common positions about environmental issues;
• Enable NGOs to adequately prepare for participation in international meetings as well as in the follow-up phase of monitoring and implementation of recommendations from these meetings;
• Provide policy packages on key issues to enable participants to understand the present state of international negotiations regarding environmental conservation and sustianbel development.

Bridging the Information and Communication Gap

Sustainable development is a very simple idea that is about ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for future generations to come. Sustainable development is all about recognising that economic, social and environmental goals cannot be pursued independently. Focus on just one area can lead to negative impacts on the others, or at very least missed opportunities. It means meeting development that take into consideration:

• social progress which recognises the needs of everyone;
• effective protection of the environment;
• prudent use of natural resources.

Sustainable development requires significant changes in the mind-set whether it is about changing the way goods are produced and consumed, the way we set our political and social priorities, or about the way we sense the dangers to the planet's ecosystem. In other words, sustainable development is about learning to make better decisions than we have made in the past.

The framework underlying the sustainable development concept is based on the Brundtland definition - to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This very general definition is then expanded into four broad aims:

• a healthy economy should be maintained to promote quality of life while at the same time protecting human health and the environment;
• non-renewable resources should be used optimally;
• renewable resources should be used sustainably;
• damage to the carrying capacity of the environment and the risk to human health and biodiversity from the effects of economic activity should be minimised.

There is a need to promote environmental education and awareness to educate and inform all stakeholders and the public that irrational depletion of national natural resources is destroying the basis of prosperity for future generations and that as forests disappear, land becoming infertile and water is exhausted or polluted, it is the poor of today, especially children and women, who suffer most. There is an urgent need to improve public awareness and understanding of environmental issues with a view to promote the conservation and wise use of natural resources at the community level.

Environmental information is a key element in achieving a good level of public involvement and participation in the process of sustainable development. Africa has enormous resources in their natural biodiversity and traditional knowledge systems that have the potential to be harnessed for sustainable economic development. Effective management of these resources calls for a change in the attitudes of the public an the civil society in order to identify, assess and record these resources.

International organisations have identified lack of community awareness and understanding as probably the most significant barrier to sustainable development. The lack of conscious environmental education and awareness has hampered local sustainable initiatives. Education and information dissemination is key if we are to learn to make the right decisions today and in the future.

Objectives

• to provide the opportunity for individuals to be actively participating towards the resolution of environmental problems;
• to support the development of capacity of African NGOs and associations to respond to environmental issues through improved environmental education processes and training activities;
• to support the development of capacity of African NGOs and associations to access, use and develop appropriate environmental education resource materials;
• to increase environmental awareness by gathering, processing, disseminating and exchanging regional and international information on environmental and development issues;
• encourage the generation of new ideas from communities to achieve sustainable development;
• educating the general population of the basic principles of sustainable development;
• creating and enhancing awareness of the linkages between sustainable development and poverty alleviation.

To do this, we will:

• organise seminars, workshops and training programmes.
• promoting the sharing of best practice and case studies relating to sustainable development.

Through its web site and e-mail lists, Conserve Africa Foundation facilitates the dissemination of information between NGOs and associations that are active in the area of environmental conservation. For example our organisation played a key role in providing information to African NGOs and other interested parties in Africa about the follow-up of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which took place in South Africa in August-September 2002.

This consisted of searching and collecting information on the Internet and disseminating it through e-mail lists that contain the e-mail addresses of most African NGOs, which were involved in the Rio process. In this manner, the majority of African NGOs were kept regularly informed about the development of the follow-up of the Summit.

The information covered articles and discussion papers on environmental issues essential to the follow-up of Johannesburg Summit. Documents relating to the Johannesburg preparation process, at the national, regional level and international levels were also disseminated to the lists including technical information, government positions on key issues, suggestions for fundraising for participation; sharing of information about the campaigns of the various NGOs and networks, requests for information from other NGOs, etc.