New Voices, Different Perspectives - publication by the AfricaAdapt network highlights excellent work on environment in Africa

There are 920m people in the Global South living on less than $1.25 a day. In a world with resources many times what is required to eliminate global poverty this situation isintolerable.

There has been some progress in Asia but the situationhas changed littlesince the 1980s in Sub- Saharan Africa and in Latin America.

The elimination of poverty in all countries should be a global priority until it is achieved. But that’s only a part of what is required. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) sought to bring a range of issues to the centre of policy- making. They set goals to be achieved by 2015.

A certain amount has been achieved but nothing on the scale hoped for when these goals were first identified. As we look to the period beyond 2015 we should learn from this experience and follow a process that includes three core, interlinked elements:

i) it must involve people, especially those who are vulnerable and/or affected, in the decision-making process in a meaningful

way;

ii) it must seek out and be guided by a development model that has economic, social and environmental sustainability at its core; and

iii) all countries of the world should be incorporated into this sustainable development process.