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Mr. Nsanjama. There is, again, a particular view in the past few 

 years where we are seeing a — presentation of our democratic proc- 

 ess passing through, where the local peasant has worked a bit — 

 one works there, ourselves. But, again, before that, it was difficult. 



Mr. Gejdenson. And you think it is better now. Is there a cor- 

 relation between democratic developments and concern for these is- 

 sues? 



Mr. Nsanjama. No particular order. Mr. Chairman, a probably 

 quick example in Botswana, which is, as you know, one of the most 

 highly democratic countries in Africa, local people — it was — but the 

 local community stopped the draining of Okavango. Democratic 

 process allows people to make representations of government and 

 governments are able to listen. If they desire to listen. 



Mr. Gejdenson. Does it make sense to ask the State Department 

 or AID to have an African meeting on sustainable development en- 

 vironmental issues or do we first need an agenda first? 



Mr. Nsanjama. Yes. 



Mr. Gejdenson. Is somebody working on that in your organiza- 

 tions? What kind of things ought to be invested in Africa — looking 

 toward coordination afterwards? 



Ms. Vedder. Again, there are some attempts at this taking 

 place. But it is not done on an overall basis. No one is coordinating 

 all the agencies at this point. For Central Africa, there has been 

 an initiative on the part of the Biodiversity Support Program and 

 the State Department to bring a number of partners together to 

 discuss where one might go and how one might coordinate in 

 Central Africa. 



Ms. McMeekin. I think again, as we have all three said, there 

 is hope, and people are trying. There are some positive signs, and 

 bits and pieces of things are being done. Ms. Vedder and I were at 

 a meeting this morning with the World Bank to discuss the second 

 phase of the Global Environmental Facility Funding. That is a very 

 promising step. There was not any such meeting for the first phase. 

 There are lots of things that are happening here and there. 



But, I think that we still have a mentality of the kind of "flavor 

 of the month" funding or hit-or-miss funding that is one of the rea- 

 sons for what you refer to as stepping over each other in the field. 

 The funding is still so cryptic and so limited that everyone rushes 

 to the same sources when money is available. And when we get to 

 the point of understanding that on the African continent, more 

 than 95 percent of the people depend entirely on the food they 

 grow, then we will begin to understand that all of these other is- 

 sues are absolutely beside the point, unless we find a way to main- 

 tain the biodiversity and the natural resource base. 



Mr. Gejdenson. Ms. Vedder. 



Ms. Vedder. I think there are a couple of opportunities coming 

 up. One is in the development of biodiversity strategy for Africa, 

 which is possibly being planned both by the State Department and 

 by AID: possibly separately, possibly together. The World Bank and 

 GEF may be doing separate strategies, though it looks like they 

 may join to do it together. So, there are some possibilities of strate- 

 gies coming together and including various agencies, as well as 

 NGO's. 



