Let’s solve own problems

The outcome of the UN summit on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was low and quite unambitious for a world which is awash with poverty, hunger and diseases.

But this was not unexpected with leaders from major world economies such as the US, Britain and Germany keeping away from the summit in favour of attending to domestic or regional issues.

The summit was held while developed countries, including most of Europe and the US, are facing serious economic challenges and hardly have the time to consider any proposals that could further slow down production.

Poor countries had wanted strict timelines on carbon emissions, concrete commitments of green technology transfers and financial commitments, but these expectations were only met with generalities and vague promises.

But this disappointment is no reason for poor countries to sit back and do nothing waiting for the next talks while the various indicators of development including health, environment, food and poverty get worse.

The answer lies in accelerating homegrown solutions to solve these problems while still searching for less donor-dependent remedies.