Questions the relevance and success of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.
Alexandra is a poor suburb of Johannesburg, but it's within sight of the prestigious Sandton Convention Centre. The venue was the home for what was billed as the most important international conference of this century: the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which opened on 26 August 2002.
In THE ROAD FROM RIO, life in Johannesburg is seen through the eyes of Nankie, a DJ on the community radio station Alex FM. She's excited by the prospect of delegations from around the world flying in to her hometown to debate the world's environmental problems and new ways to create a global society without the class divisions that have continued to widen, leaving the power and wealth in the hands of a covetous few.
The "Jo'burg Summit" took place 10 years after the Rio Earth Summit, and a full 30 years after the first international conference on the human environment, which convened in Stockholm in 1972. But as world leaders prepared for the meeting, hard questions were being raised. What could the conference really hope to achieve? And why-when governments have failed to deliver on so many of the promises they made at Rio-should the world believe they'd be any more sincere this time around?
With the support of the European Commission Directorate General for Development to promote better understanding of development issues; the Directorate General for the Environment; and the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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