SDNP/China Story
SDNP China: Helps to Implement Agenda 21
To a greater extent than most other SDNP projects,
the project in China is an integral part of its host country's
Agenda 21 (comprehensive programme for action agreed to by most
countries at the 1992 Earth Summit) initiative. This alliance
is what gives the programme its special character. "Technically,
there are many organisations that provide IT training in China,"
says SDNP National Co-ordinator Wang Qiming, "but only our organisation
does IT training combined with sustainable development."
Launched in 1997 with UNDP grants totalling US $340,000, SDNP
China has trained 150 government workers in four training courses,
with two more courses planned for this year. Participants from
the Government include civil servants at the national level and
those from 16 pilot cities with local Agendas 21, as well as representatives
from 40 counties and townships known as "sustainable communities."
All of these government trainees are working on implementing Agenda
21 at their respective levels. Among other things, they are preparing
web sites to provide the public with information on local resources
and sustainable development issues.
"National Agenda 21 co-ordinates the implementation of China's
sustainable development strategy," Mr. Wang explains. "So we have
lots of communication with each government department, particularly
those dealing with natural resources, environment and legislation."
These agencies, he points out, already have access to the Internet.
Where they need help is in learning how to use the Internet effectively
to find information relevant to their work, and this is the focus
on SDNP's training. In addition, SDNP has trained people in a
number of government agencies in content preparation and the production
of web sites. "We now have ten ministries whose data can be searched
on the web," says Mr. Wang.
Newly active NGOs
But it would be inaccurate to say that SDNP China trains only
government employees. Mr. Wang notes that in recent years a groundswell
of concern has focused public attention on environmental issues.
"In China in the last couple of years, people are concerned about
the environment," he says. "For instance, Beijing is the worst
city for air pollution in the world. The people know that, and
they want to know how to improve it." So about 30 percent of the
people SDNP China has trained are academics, researchers, and
representatives of nine NGOs based in Beijing, including the Chinese
Society for Sustainable Development, the Environmentally Sound
Technology Centre, and the Economic Monitoring Centre which provides
"neutral" monitoring of China's economy.
The rise of NGOs in China has coincided with the proliferation
of Information Technology (IT), and represents a sharp departure
from conditions of the last 50 years. "The NGOs in China working
on environment and development are new," says Mr. Wang. "They
provide their own independent monitoring indicators on their own
web sites. The Government has to accept this. In fact it's quite
normal now. Multi-information is available on the Internet. Nobody
can stop that."
In another dramatic break with tradition, Mr. Wang says that
Chinese NGOs are now finding they can arrange for funding via
the Internet, both from the Chinese Government and from abroad,
in order to create their own activities. "They are searching for
co-operation and partnerships," he says, "and they also provide
information about their activities in China." For instance, one
NGO is working on eliminating the environmental pollution caused
by the ubiquitous plastic bags used to wrap "quick lunches." Another
is monitoring automobile emissions in Beijing. "They can provide
their recommendations to the government through the Internet,"
says Ms. Wang. "Actually, the government encourages NGOs who are
concerned about the environment and development, because that
is the way we seek the participation of the whole society."
Before SDNP came along, Chinese NGOs and research organisations
were already compiling databases on various sustainable development
topics, but none were available on the Internet. That has only
been accessible in China since 1997. Now they are. "We encouraged
the NGOs to get on the Internet and connect to each other to share
their information," says Mr. Wang. "That's the primary goal of
SDNP."
This year, the two training courses run by SDNP will be advanced
courses in areas such as how to create a Common Gateway Interface
[CGI) between a database and one or more web sites. Participants
will be drawn from the most qualified trainees from the Government
and NGO sectors.
Promoting information-sharing
To further promote information-sharing within China, SDNP has
organised formal workshops on information-sharing and brought
together government agencies and Chinese research institutions
to discuss what kinds of mechanisms would be best for sharing
information within China. "It's not Internet, it's Inconnect,"
says Mr. Wang. SDNP China also promotes access to the Internet
on the part of the general public by providing a fully-equipped
centre in the SDNP office at the Beijing Environmental Training
Centre for anyone who cares to drop in. "We have a national node
here, our own server" says Mr. Wang. "We have the software and
the hardware and ten computers. So we provide remote access for
users who would like to get onto the Internet."
In fact, SDNP has a number of servers, including an FTP server,
a web server, and a database server. It has set up the first Geological
Information Survey [GIS) Internet server in China. On this server,
information on natural resources (agriculture, forests, mineral
deposits), the environment and natural disasters, including "a
huge amount of diagrams" is available to the Chinese public for
the first time.
Innovations in IT and Metadata on Sustainable Development
Mr. Wang is obviously proud of the project's accomplishments.
"We provide the training course, the training materials, and we
publish a book on IT use through China's scientific press," he
says, noting that SDNP China also invited researchers to use their
facilities to set up the first GIS standards for China and to
create metadata standards for the first time in China. "We initiated
this idea in China from the international community. We provided
the data standards, we organised a meeting with the government,
the State Development Planning Commission and the Ministry of
Science and Technology to which we are attached, to release these
standards and use them on all projects in China containing GIS
information. So now it's accepted."
SDNP China is also working with the Massachusetts Institution
of Technology (MIT) to set up a mirror site of the Global Systems
for Sustainable Development (GSSD). "We are working on translating
their interface into Chinese so they can have the Chinese mirror
site here," says Mr. Wang. "People can access it by keying in
Chinese words, and this software can do the auto-translation into
Chinese and English. On the parallel search for information when
it comes back, they will ask if you want to have it translated
into Chinese or if you want the original English information.
Then the software will do the auto-translation back into Chinese."
However, he points out that the software for these automatic translations
still needs improvement, and SDNP China is working on this during
the current year.
A Sustainable Development web-browser
Like other SDNP projects in countries such as Lebanon, SDNP China
found that commercial Internet browsers are not always as user-friendly
as they might be. "The difficulty is that Yahoo provides too much
information," says Mr. Wang. "You may search for sustainable development
in China, and they provide you with thousands of articles. You
really don't know which one you want."
So to help people find their way through the tangled web of the
Internet, SDNP China has created its own Sustainable Development
web site navigator. "We collected 400 web sites from around the
world related to sustainable development," says Mr. Wang. "We
put them into classified groups, like capacity-building, environmental
technologies, human settlements, cleaner production, global issues
on SD. This helps people so they can easily access the information
they want."
SDNP is also compiling a database of information on China from
100 databases around the world, such as FAO's data on China's
food production, UNDP's data on China's development, or the US
Geological Survey's geological data on China. This newly compiled
database will be accessible on the Internet soon.
A mouthpiece for sustainable development
Mr. Wang feels that SDNP China's greatest accomplishment so far
has been in promoting sustainable development in the context of
Agenda 21. "SDNP is an integral part of the implementation of
Agenda 21," he says. "We are not independent. I think our greatest
accomplishment is that people are now aware that the sustainable
development strategy is essential to China's future development.
And they know about this strategy through government documents
such as the national Agenda 21 document," -- documents which are
available to them through SDNP on the Internet both in both English
and Chinese." This information provides tools that people at the
local Agendas 21can use for their own purposes."
Another important element is the credibility associated with
SDNP's web sites because of their affiliation with UNDP and the
Chinese government, which according to Mr. Wang is highly trusted
within China. "People believe our web sites," he says. "The news
or the information has authority. If we were an NGO, or if we
are funded by foreign countries, the government officials would
not trust us."
Working toward self-sufficiency
UNDP funding for SDNP China is due to expire in mid-2000, and
Mr. Wang is seeking ways for SDNP to become self-supporting. Because
of its close ties with the Chinese government, particularly the
Ministry of Science and Technology with which it is affiliated,
support appears to be forthcoming. "Last year the Ministry of
Science and Technology approved a US $2.5 million project for
us to continue SDNP's work," he says. "We are responsible for
managing this project, co-ordinating with ten different Ministries
and encouraging them to put their data onto the Internet. That
is the follow-up to SDNP and it's very important. Without SDNP
the Chinese government wouldn't be launching a big follow-up project
like this on information-sharing."
Additional funds are being sought from the European Union, which
is supporting a 15 million ECU (European Currency Unit) project
on China's environmental management for sustainable development.
"In terms of dollars, quite a large part of this project involves
exchanging information between the European Union and the States
on environmental issues," says Mr. Wang.
But he is also convinced that SDNP China can become a money-making
venture through what he calls "the transfer of environmentally
sound technologies," in other words, charging people to access
information about the growing number of activities in China designed
to produce new technologies that will support environmental sustainability.
"This will provide the Chinese people with information on where
to find technologies that are environmentally friendly," he says.
"There is a market there." He cites examples such as research
on detergents that do not contain phosphorous or technologies
that use all parts of a given crop, including the stems which
can be made into cardboard and building materials. "There are
a lot of new technologies, such as energy efficiency and clean
investments, new materials, construction and also medicine, which
are very interesting to the Chinese people and which we can put
on different servers," he says. SDNP already charges users of
its ISP 50 cent an hour, but Mr. Wang points out that this discounted
price ("to stimulate them") will have to be increased.
Another plan for income-generation would be to provide technical
assistance and help with web site design to the 16 cities and
40 "sustainable communities" whose representatives have already
been trained by SDNP. These communities did not have access to
the Internet until SDNP trained their employees and the local
Agenda 21 projects provided the hardware they needed to access
the Internet, through a US $70,000 grant from SDNP. With all these
possibilities, it would seem that SDNP China's work is far from
over, despite the important contribution it has already made.
Maybe it's partly a coincidence, but when Mr. Wang looks back
on the two-year SDNP project, he is struck by the huge increase
in the level of Internet use in China. "I have to say that since
1997, the Internet has spread out to the whole country," he says.
Agenda 21
Agenda 21 is the comprehensive programme for action agreed to
by delegates from most countries of the world at the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development ("the Earth Summit")
which took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It provides a blueprint
for action in all areas relating to sustainable development of
the planet, from now into the 21st century. There is a growing
consensus all over the world that development must meet the needs
of the present generations without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their needs. Agenda 21 calls for changes
in the economic development activities of all human beings - changes
that are based on a new understanding of the impact of human behaviour
on the environment. The call for sustainable development is not
simply a call for environmental protection, but is in fact a call
for a new concept of economic growth - one that provides fairness
and opportunity for all the world's people, without further destroying
the world's scarce natural resources and carrying capacity.
Sustainable development is a process in which economics, finance,
trade, energy, agriculture, industry and all other policies are
so designed as to bring about development that is economically,
socially and environmentally sustainable.
For more info: info@sdnp.undp.org
Technical Terms:
Metadata:
Metadata are descriptive information about data and information
resources. Typically, they describe, point to, or otherwise complement
the information content of the data to which they are related.
Metadata provide concise aid in locating desired information on
a variety of topics, and help make such information easily accessible.
Metadata may describe a range of information resources such as
digital data images, databases, and printed materials such as
books, memos, or maps.
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