LA21=1+1+1

I was invited to share my thoughts with stakeholders from Klang on 1st December 2010 regarding the above topic. I am preparing my presentation now. We always talk about 1+1 in referring to the instant coffee bag mixed with either sugar or milk or sometime the ingredients for some household care products.


So, what is 1+1+1 then? My immediate response is to refer to the tripartite partnership between government, community and business or the 3 dimensions of development, namely economy, social and environment. The discourse should have lead the participants to refresh on ways to achieve sustainable development at local level.


Stakeholder partnership and participation is important as without a true collaboration, the planned actions cannot be implemented at all. It is always mistakenly that whatever discussed and agreed upon by all stakeholders will be carried out by the local authority. It is the synptom of "I am telling what should you do" and "Please do it as what we have agreed" and "We are CBO and hence no capacity to do it" and "Please provide me this and that for me to do it". Real spirit of partnership and participation means pooling in and sharing of resources for actions be done. It is a concept of everyone does things that he is good at and collectively to achieve the results, and hence the glory of achieving it. Having said this, I observed that many do not realise the beauty of partnership. Sometime although it is intended of doing things under partnership spirit, it turned out to be another one sided event or equality in partnership was not significant. So 1+1+1 in partnership becomes a big challenge to realise.

Balancing and integrating 3 different dimensions for development is critical and important. Any action will have impacts on different dimensions of development too. Thereby, consider other dimensions when a specific programmes is carried out becomes another big challenge. Presently the structure of mechanisme, governance system and mind set of stakeholders are very segmented and tend to confined to every one's own cocoon. We are not very comfortable to step out from our comfort zone and make changes or step into other territories that we might not familiar with. For example, to ask the businesses to consider environmental conservation as art of their company mission. Similarly to ask NGO to take profit as one of the bottom line in achieving effectiveness of programmes. Likewise asking the Government to account public environmental cost in approving a project. Obviously, we have not crossed the line of integrating these dimensions as ONE. Many time, we provide something with noble objective without realising that this might have affected other dimension. For example, to enhance greater interaction between society and public sector, a big gathering serving plenty of food is held. It is nothing wrong perhaps, becomes an issues only if food wastage is there and unfriendly kitchen utensils are used. Unfortunately it happens almost everyday. So 1+1+1 in the sense of developmental dimension refers to detail and holistic planning to integrate different dimension so that the meaning of sustainable development is realised.

It is easy said than done as nobody would like to step into other unfamiliar territories. However, for the way forwards and the sake of sustainable development or LA21, it is essential and important.