Posted By Halina Ward
on 28 October, 2009
When in 2008 the government of Madagascar agreed a deal with Korean Daewoo Logistics for the company to access 1.3million hectares of agricultural land to grow maize and palm oil for export, protests, political crisis and ultimately the fall of the government and the cancellation of the deal followed. Madagascar’s citizens were not consulted.
In this guest post, IIED’s Lorenzo Cotula suggests that the ’land grab’ phenomenon is a key issue of democracy and sustainable development.
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Over the past year, large-scale land acquisitions for agrifood and biofuel investments in Africa, Asia and Latin America have made headlines …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 9 October, 2009
It’s not very likely that business as usual within the democratic process will deliver sustainable development. So there are great hopes pinned on the English and Welsh Sustainable Communities Act 2007, which entered into force in October 2007.
The Sustainable Communities Act began life as a Private Members Bill which received cross-party support.
The Act is designed to promote the sustainability of local communities. The basic idea is that local authorities who have opted into the Act make proposals which they consider could contribute to promoting the sustainability of local communities. The radical part is that proposals may include …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 7 October, 2009
I came across two interesting new UN documents whilst in New York earlier this week. Both are dated September 11th 2009; 9/11.
The first is a Guidance Note of the Secretary General on the United Nations Approach to Democracy. This has emerged out of consultations within the Inter-Agency Working Group on Democracy of the Executive Committee on Peace and Security, and sets out ‘the United Nations framework for democracy’.
The second document is an ‘advanced unedited copy’ Report of the Secretary General on climate change and its possible security implications. The summary of the latter identifies ‘democratic governance’ as …
Posted By Halina Ward
on 6 October, 2009
Conversations in the US this week have prompted me to reflect on the potential for the idea of the ‘consumer-citizen’ to drive democratic innovation for sustainable development.
The Consumer Citizenship Network describes a ‘consumer citizen’ as “an individual who makes choices based on ethical, social, economic and ecological considerations. The consumer citizen actively contributes to the maintenance of just and sustainable development by caring and acting responsibly on family, national and global levels”.
Alternatively, in a 2006 paper, Martin Powell, Shane Doheny and Ian Greene describe another approach in which the citizen is understood as a consumer of public …
