Empowerment for African Sustainable Development (EASD)
From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations
14 Antrim Rd, P.O. Box 165
Green Point, 8051
Cape Town, South Africa
Tel: +27 21 434 6012
Fax: +27 21 434 6134
Website: http://www.easd.org.za
Dave MacDevette, Director, dmacdev@icon.co.za
Description
EASD is an African private nonprofit organization based in Cape Town, South Africa. It promotes sustainable development in Africa and globally through information dissemination, capacity building and service provision in the areas of knowledge management, environment, development and poverty alleviation. It mobilizes African expertise on sustainable development and promotes networking.
To achieve the objective of poverty alleviation, it provides expertise in design and evaluation of strategies, programs and projects to alleviate poverty, while achieving significant environmental co-benefits. The same applies to capacity building efforts geared towards the provision of training and coaching for environmental management and sustainable development. It also engages in the development of systems, knowledge bases and training for state of the environment reporting and integrated environmental assessment. In addition, it engages in the provision of sustainable development models to leverage science and technology, the knowledge of the people and the environment to alleviate poverty and promote sustainable development.
Track Record
EASD has offered its expertise in the Program on Environment Information Systems in sub-Saharan Africa (EIS Program). This involved managing the transfer of the Secretariat from the World Bank in Washington D.C. to the CSIR in Pretoria, South Africa. The EIS Program seeks to support the development of African capacity in the management of environmental information through building an effective network and disseminating relevant information, particularly on best practices. The Program has built an effective network of African individuals and Institutions together with the International community and with organizations such as UNEP, UNDP, World Bank, UNITAR, WRI, ITC, OSS, USAID, DANIDA, GTZ, NORAD, UN Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank, the World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the Biodiversity Conservation Information System.
In another World Bank project supporting the development and implementation of an environment program, EASD was involved as a member of an African expert group and helped the Bank revise it strategy for environmentally sustainable development in sub Saharan Africa. This included the production of a paper “Natural Resource Management in Sub-Saharan Africa”. EASD was involved in reviewing and assisting the World Wide Fund for Nature and the South African National Parks Board prepare project documents for the Global Environment Facility project proposal for a Cape Floral Kingdom Biodiversity Project.
EASD has developed a continuous working relation with SADC since the inception of the Environment Information initiative to strengthen and develop environment information systems networking and capacity in the SADC region, which resulted in the initiation of an Environment Information System Data Policy.
EASD partnered with Network for Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa (NESDA) to make the extensive environmental law information resources from IUCN, UNEP and FAO available to a broader international audience using the Internet.
Besides, EASD in collaboration with the Global Water Partnership developed a vision and program of action for the Information and Communication Technology component of the Southern African Project. The Global Water Partnership (GWP) supports among others, integrated water resource management programs by collaborating with governments and existing networks and by forging new collaborative arrangements and encouraging governments, aid agencies and other stakeholders to adopt consistent, mutually complementary policies and programs.
EASD collaborated with the International Rivers Network, Group for Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Monitoring Group, Okavango Liaison Group and Southern Africa Rivers Association to form a network focusing on rivers and dams issues in Southern Africa.
Among EASD’s achievements is a CD ROM knowledge base on the state of the environment in Africa and in the sub-region as well as training manuals and guidelines and information on the indicator process.
The organization also provided advice on knowledge management for the South African Environmental Observatory Network (SAEON, www.nrf.ac.za/saeon/). In 2004, EASD was contracted by UNEP to review the existing financial, administrative and managerial structure of UNEP-WCMC with a view to the long-term financial viability of the centre and provide strategic analysis and recommendations on the strategy, structure and biodiversity information system design for the UNEP-WCMC strategic review process. In the same year, EASD also provided advice as a specialist member on the State of the Environment Review Panel. The panel provides input and review of work done by the project-team throughout the Kwazulu Natal state of the environment reporting project process.
Currently, among other activities, EASD is working with Imagine Houtbay to support the development and implementation of local sustainable development solutions that focus on education, poverty alleviation and environment and development innovations.
Challenges
EASD’s successful implementation of its activities is dependent on the partners; specifically, the level of engagement with other partners creates opportunities for future involvement. As a capacity building organization, it depends on the level of awareness among organizations. EASD thus has to invest in awareness creation of their activities and partnership management strategies to create demand and highlight need for their services. Like other organizations in Africa, EASD requires enormous resources to achieve its vision of sustainable development in Africa.
Opportunities
Regardless of the many challenges that this organization has to face, there are also opportunities which the organization should take advantage of. EASD should still participate in more partnerships in order to access financial, technical and managerial resources which can help it address both common and partner-specific aims. There are many institutions and government departments that work in the area of sustainable development. If the organization works together with government departments for example, it will help them improve service delivery and enable them better manage risk and implementation of their programs in terms of influencing policy.
