French-speaking Summer University on

sustainable development and information systems¹

Saint-Etienne, France, 5th - 9th July, 1999

Statement of Saint-Etienne

Representatives of country sharing the usage of French coming from Africa, Indian Ocean, Caribbean islands and Europe, representing about twenty countries, and various sectors administrations, academics and NGOs, participating in the first Summer University of French-speaking community on sustainable development and information systems adopted, at the term of their works, the resolution, recommendations and following commitments :

1 - Resolution

We share all the same vision: information is a key resource for the implementation of sustainable development. We share the analysis made in chapter 40 of Action 21, which is devoted to information for decision-making: "everyone is a user and provider of information, considered in the broad sense. That includes data, information, appropriately packaged experience and knowledge. The need for information arises at all levels, from that of senior decision-makers at the national and international levels to the grass roots and individual levels. The following two programme areas need to be implemented to ensure that decisions are based increasingly on sound information : a) Bridging the data gap; b) Improving information availability. ²"
We take into account the proposals of various conventions on the importance of education, awareness and exchange of information: articles 13 and 17 for Convention on Biological Diversity, articles 6, 5 and 12 for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and articles 19 and 16 for United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa... We grant great importance to georeferenced data, and to the fact that the obligations inferred by conventions with regards to information can contribute to the construction of a coherent information system.

We consider that necessary information for sustainable development, as well as the knowledge that is closely connected to it, is one of the essential public goods within the meaning of the recent study of the UNDP³ , and that it is advisable to analyze its limits. "All public goods, whether local, national or global, tend to suffer from underprovision. The reason is precisely that they are public. For individual actors, it is often the best and most rational strategy to let others provide the good-and then to enjoy it, free of charge. At the international level, this collective action problem is compounded by the gap between externalities that are becoming more and more international in reach, and the fact that the main policy-making unit remains the nation state. ⁴ "

The production of the public good "information" requires an implication of the various levels (international, national and global) and of various private and public sectors.
It requires adherence to strong ethics of the co-operation to the service of equity and responsibility, in order to avoid any tendentious use.

In this context the implementation of information for the sustainable development rests on essential principles:

it must be produced in quality and in sufficient quantity by numerous public actors (administrations, training and research organizations...), private actors (associations, business...), NGO's etc...
it must be accessible as much by traditional means, in writing, through networks of dissemination of information and knowledge (education system, journalists...) as by the modern techniques of communication (Internet) and representations (GIS...) directly and through resource centers which must also apply to the local populations.
the use of the various languages is a need to actually reach the stakeholders of the sustainable development at the grass roots level, as well as to guarantee and develop a cultural diversity and a variety of proposals and solutions. The use of the various languages means both the full use at the international level, of the various working languages from the United Nations and at the regional and national level, of the various spoken languages.
the modern techniques of processing, analysis, shaping and transmission and access of this information must be widely accessible at all the levels, from the international level to the level closest to the field.
the information system must at the same time allow the top-down and bottom-up exchanges, but also horizontal communication through the establishment of networks, in particular of experience sharing, using attractive and educational procedures. By horizontal communication, one understands also the south/south exchanges.

This approach, allowing the organization of a coherent and diversified information system, has a cost of which it is advisable to take charge for the long run. Much too often, indeed, information systems, implementation of networks, constitution of data bases and so on are financed in their initial phase without their updating and their moderation being taken into account in the financing and being guaranteed for the long term.
Thus, in a perspective of creation of public good and reduction in the cost of access to information, establishing an integrated system of information and communication on sustainable development requires:

1. the development of a spirit of co-operation between all the stakeholders
2. the involvment of the international, national and local organizations
3. the implementation of a standardization of the communications protocols, data formats, thesauri, even of software whose durability is guaranteed in the public domain.

The specialized thematic networks seem the most capable of being implemented and operated with efficiency at national and sub-regional level but raise two types of problems:

1. The concept of sustainable development is necessarily cross-sectoral and privileges the tools for integration. Mechanisms of exchange must thus ensure coherence between specific problems and networks (climate, biodiversity, desertification, water, agriculture, industry, cities...) and allow the installation of tools of gouvernance of the sustainable development: indicators of sustainable development, local Agenda 21 procedures, process of participation in each thematic networks... For example, common work on information is proposed in the Convention to Combat Desertification that recommends "the conduct of joint programmes, particularly in the fields of research, training, systematic observation and information collection and exchange ⁵ ".
2. The problems of implementation, the use and the control of the software, the hardware, the connectivity... will be not be solved with more ease than through systems of technical co-operation, and the installation of common platforms, in a coherent and efficient policy to strengthen capacities.

2 - Recommendations

Recommendations to the international organizations providers of data:

1. The diffusion of electronic information must be performed in the working languages of the United Nations, among which is French. A reorganization of the international sites is necessary to ensure a real multilingual access and a correct referencing by the international search engines. The use of common reference frames of meta-information would facilitate the access to information by search engines specialized on a topic or a language.
2. It is necessary to guarantee a free access to essential information for sustainable development and to give a priority to the use of free software in the projects to take part in the construction of a collective capacity and an equitable access to information and the data-processing tools. This proposal applies to the information readily available but implies also their collection when they are not.

Recommendations to the international financing organizations: 3. The information component is essential for the management and the evaluation of any development project. thus, Any project must secure sufficient financing for the collection, the processing and the transmission of information among all the stakeholders involved in their implementation.

4. Information and awareness must be carried out closest to the grassroots stakeholders and local populations. The NGOs, journalists and teaching staff should play this role each one in their field. They must be recognized in the organization of the information systems and the access to the resource centers, they must have access to information and tools that enable them to assume this role. The NGOs must receive the financial supports necessary to their mission.
5. The strengthening of capacity with respect to electronic information must be coherent on a territory. This is why, an assessment of needs as well as capacities of the countries to face them, must be a precondition to the next discussions which will be carried out in preparation of the Commission on sustainable development of 2001 which will be devoted inter alia to information for decision making.

Recommendations to the French-speaking organizations 6. Programs of equipment and the projects regarding French-speaking Info-highways must grant a particular attention to projects related to sustainable development and a synergy must be required between the various projects and those that relate to the environment and development.
7. Specific financing should be brought to make available in electronic format the documents of conferences, working groups, experts meetings... on the environment and development, which are held in French language.
8. The representation of the French speaking stakeholders in the leading, deliberative and technique authorities of the multilateral bodies is essential. In the same way, the access to information and financing of these same organizations is the condition of sustainable development of the French-speaking countries, particularly the least advanced. Finally the access of French speaking NGOs to the international networks of NGOs is also essential. The French-speaking intergovernmental organizations will support the initiatives and will formulate the strategies necessary on these points.

3 - Commitment of the participants

In addition to the commitment on principles stated in the resolution,

9. We, participants to the present Summer University, commit ourselves to cooperate through the various existing tools and programs in French language: the Connection and Exchange Network on French-speaking Environmental of Information (RELIEF)⁶ , in particular the glossary of the terms of reference of sustainable development and the Virtual University of Sustainable Development...
10. We will extend training through the creation of a network of exchange on the strengthening of capacity in terms of information systems, and will perennialize the organization of the Summer school by setting up a follow-up and steering committee and programming the next session during summer 2000. Mechanisms of exchange of competence will be installed.
11. We commit ourselves to cooperate to bring more compatibility between databases (experts, events, environmental sources data, experiments, gray literature...) in order to facilitate exchanges and to avoid redundancy to reinforce the overall effectiveness.
12. We commit ourselves to cooperate and to share experiences, documents as well as educational tools for the benefit of the general public, children, students and various professional and associative organizations. A particular emphasis will be set towards the local populations as users and managers of the resources.
13. We commit ourselves to setting up networks of creation of knowledge, research and exchanges to develop a French-speaking approach of sustainable development compatible with the particular values and notion that are conveyed by the French language and by the various cultures that use this language.

Done in Saint-Etienne France on July 9th, 1999

1   Unreviewed draft of translation of an original version in French language : Université d’Eté Francophone sur le développement durable et les systèmes d’information, http://wwwv1.agora21.org/univ-ete-fr/index.html
2   Agenda 21 § 40.1. Rio 1992
3   Global Public Goods, International cooperation in the 21st century, edition by Inge Kaul, Isabelle Grunberg, Marc A. Stern, published for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) New York Oxford Oxford University Press 1999
4   http://www.undp.org/globalpublicgoods/Executive_Summary/executive_summary.html
5   United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa, Part II General Provisions, Article 8 Relationship with other conventions
6 Project granted by the Fonds francophone des Inforoutes