Sustainability Indicators for Swaziland

indicators | social | economic | natural resources | institutional

INSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN SWAZILAND

Integrated Decision-Making | Major Groups | Science | Information | International Law

INTEGRATED DECISION-MAKING

Decision-Making

The Department of the Environment is under the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Communications. The Department of the Environment acts as the Secretariat of the body dealing with environmental issues known as the Swaziland Environment Authority (SEA). The SEA was established through an Act of Parliament in November 1992 - the Swaziland Environment Authority Act.

Presently, implementation of environmental legislation is the responsibility of several ministries and government departments, including the SEA, the Ministries of Economic Planning and Development and Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, among others.

Setting up the Authority is probably the most significant achievement of the Government of Swaziland, since it has laid down a firm foundation for coordination and overseeing the implementation of environmental programmes. As a new organization, the Authority has still to establish various mechanisms, legislation and partnership agreements with other bodies before it can fully address much of its mandate. However, major achievements to date include:

  • Drafting and gazetting of environmental audit assessment and review regulations as contained in Legal Notice No. 58 of 1996 (updated in 2000);
  • Review of the first EIA statements prepared under the new Regulations
  • Ratification and participation in a number of environmental conventions including:
    • Convention on Biodiversity - ratified in 1994
    • Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer - ratified in 1992
    • Convention to Combat Desertification - ratified in 1996
    • Framework Convention on Climate Change - ratified in 1996
    • Convention on Prohibition of Chemical Weapons - ratified in 1996
  • Preparation of an Environmental Issues Paper
  • Coordination and Preparation of the National Swaziland Environment Action Plan (SEAP)
  • Conducting Environmental Awareness campaigns throughout Swaziland

Legislation, regulations and policy instruments

However, the Swaziland Environment Act, 1992, supersedes all other environmental legislation in the country. The main function of the Authority is to coordinate the government's effort to incorporate environmental factors into Swaziland's development process. In addition to this crucial role, the Authority has wide ranging responsibilities to:

  1. Coordinate all environmental issues in the country
  2. Monitor environmental quality
  3. Set environmental standards
  4. Develop environmental policies
  5. Implement and enforce mechanisms to ensure that environmental consideration is taken into account in the authorization and management of development

MAJOR GROUPS

Participation of the broader cross-section of the population in decision-making is encouraged. Public participation effectively allows people to have a say in future policies that will affect them and to attain a sense of ownership, which is an important ingredient for the success of environmental programmes. In general, the analysis and approval of programmes rest with the decision-making authority of the Government. However, if the authorizing agency encounters problems or is in doubt about its analysis, then the issue at hand is forwarded to SEA for further classification and analysis. It is at this stage that the public becomes most directly involved.

Capacity 21’s mission in Swaziland is to develop and implement the Swaziland Environment Action Plan (SEAP). SEAP includes an extensive analysis of the country’s environmental problems, an action plan, an implementation strategy, a monitoring and evaluation plan, and a recommended policy and strategy framework. The two-volume Swaziland Environment Action Plan is the main output of the programme. It includes an extensive analysis of the environmental problems experienced by the country, an action plan, the implementation strategy, monitoring and evaluation plan and a recommended policy and strategy framework.

A Programme Implementation Committee (PIC) co-ordinator has recently been hired to initiate the implementation strategy, which seeks to prioritise environmental issues identified by the SEAP process and to select a number of priority actions to be undertaken over the next five years. These issues are organised under five broad programme areas:

  • Capacity Building for Effective Environmental Management
  • Environmental Education, Public Awareness and Participation
  • Management and Use of Biodiversity
  • Resource Management for Increased Productivity
  • Waste Management, Pollution Control and Environmental Health

Cross-sectoral PICs - comprising government ministries, NGOs and the private sector - have been formed to steer each programme area. All PICs are now operational, and some have begun to implement required activities.

Capacity 21’s biggest contribution has been in raising public awareness of environmental issues and promoting participation by all sectors of society. Previously in Swaziland, environmental issues were not discussed. Now, all sections of the local media report on environmental stories.

SEAP has brought together people from diverse professions, experiences and sectors to recommend solutions to the country’s environmental problems. These include the ongoing tree planting in Mankayane (to combat erosion) and World Environment Day celebrations; a well-attended function at Sithobelweni to combat land degradation (attended by all levels of society, from the prime minister to primary school children); and Pigg’s Peak celebrations to welcome the new century with an environmental theme.

The PICs’ commitment to the environment has shown that given proper organisation and a clearly articulated vision, large financial resources are not necessary to achieve targets. However, PIC activities have exposed the lack of environmental information in the country. The country does not have a uniform structure for bio-waste disposal, and is yet to establish a biodiversity data unit. Finally, the lack of a legal instrument to establish the SEAP committees has resulted in "teething" problems.

Women

The following strategies are aimed at eliminating the gaps and offering equal opportunities to all citizens irrespective of their sex:

a) Institutional Strengthening

  • Strengthen the existing institutional arrangements dealing with gender relations. The gender office in the ministry of Home Affairs should be strengthened to support the advancement of gender issues.

b) Legislation

  • Implement and review appropriate legislative reforms to remove all forms of discrimination against women.

c) Awareness

  • Ensure better understanding of civil and customary laws
  • Raise people's awareness that education is a human right for all groups. Children should have the right to continue at school irrespective of sex. Ensure equal access to education and training for both boys and girls in formal and informal levels.
  • Integrate gender issues in the curriculum as part of the development studies.
  • Ensure smooth mainstreaming of gender issues in development agendas to remove hostility reaction from male counterparts.

d) Transparency

  • Promote a culture of transparency in recruitment and promotion in the public and private sectors. This will guarantee that females are also afforded the opportunities which they deserve on the bases of merit.

e) The Family

  • Encourage, promote and strengthen the family unit.
  • Develop mechanisms to strengthen and encourage the extended family unit in order to promote a sense of belonging; to instill values in children (such as self-respect); and prevent undesirable social occurrences (such as crime, street children, drug abuse and abandonment of the elderly).

 

Children and Youth

National Youth Policy

Within the Government, the Ministry of Youth co-ordinates the national youth policy of Swaziland in cooperation with other youth-serving ministries and youth organizations, especially in partnership with the Swaziland National Youth Council (SNYC), the major non-governmental youth coordinating body. All citizens are eligible to vote. The government recognizes the rights of national youth movements to organize on a non-governmental basis for non-political purposes. The National Youth Policy is still awaiting ratification by the Parliament.

Of 15 major international legal instruments adopted by intergovernmental bodies of the United Nations system relating to the human rights of youth, the government of Swaziland has ratified or acceded to the following two: Night Work of Young Persons: Industry (ILO/1948); and Convention Against Discrimination in Education (UNESCO/1960). The international goals for Youth and Development in the 1990s were adopted by Swaziland at the World Summit for Youth in 1990. 

Swaziland signed and has ratified the Convention in the Rights of the Child in January 1990 though has not signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict nor the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. 

Swaziland signed the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare in July 1992.

Indigenous People

No information is available.

Non-Governmental Organizations

No information is available.

Local Authorities

No information is available.

Workers and Trade Unions

No information is available.

Business and Industry

No information is available.

Scientific and Technological Community

No information is available.

Farmers

No information is available.

SCIENCE

No information is available.

INFORMATION

No information is available.

INTERNATIONAL LAW

Decision-Making

Legislation, regulations and policy instruments

The Government of Swaziland has ratified the following relevant international agreements since 1992:

  • Convention on Biodiversity - ratified in 1994
  • Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer - ratified in 1992
  • Convention to Combat Desertification - ratified in 1996
  • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - ratified in 1996
  • Convention on Prohibition of Chemical Weapons - ratified in 1996
This information was provided by the Government of Swaziland to the fifth session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. Last update: 1 April 1997.

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This page was last updated on 03 February 2004