Global Networking

The Environment Liaison Centre International (ELCI) is an information and communication network of more than 850 non-governmental and community-based organizations in over 100 countries, all working towards a more sustainable world.

ELCI was established in 1974 as a non-governmental organization initiative to monitor the activities of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and help non-governmental organizations and UNEP to work together more effectively. This goal is reflected throughout ELCI's programmes.

Members of the ELCI network are central players in a global process of sharing, learning and growth: sharing their information and ideas, learning from each other's experiences and contributing to a growing environmental movement worldwide. ELCI members contribute to and benefit from ELCI in many ways.

Over 75 per cent of ELCI's members are from developing countries, making it the world's largest network of southern non-governmental organizations.

Networking and advocacy

ELCI networks create ways for non- governmental organizations and community- based organizations to offer concrete and constructive input into four specific fields that are the subject of major United Nations Conventions or Conferences:

desertification;
biodiversity;
women in environment and development; and,
the urban environment.

All of these issues rank highly on the intergovernmental agenda, either in the form of conventions or global action plans. Members work to bridge the gap between these international processes and people at the community level by sharing information and experiences and advocating in favour of grassroots interests at intergovernmental policy meetings.

ELCI serves as the global focal point for the Reseau International des ONG sur Desertification (RIOD, International Network of Non-governmental Organizations on Desertification), a group of non-governmental organizations working together to help implement the Desertification Convention.

ELCI coordinates the International Liaison Group (ILG), a network of non-governmental organizations dedicated to the implementation of the Convention on Biodiversity. Like RIOD, ILG campaigns for the needs and interests of local communities by sharing information through focal points, circular letters and strategy meetings.

Women in Environment and Development (WED), a network of non-governmental organizations working on gender issues, monitors follow up to the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing September 1995, to ensure that the Conference recommendations are implemented. The WED Programme also integrates a gender perspective in all ELCI programmes and networks.

As a lead-up and follow-up to the Habitat II Conference on Urban Settlements in June 1996, the Urban Environment Network works with many organizations to share information and experiences on how community groups can participate in local processes to improve urban living environments.

Participants in the networks communicate regularly to tell each other what's happening in their area, develop common positions for effective cooperation and advocacy, and make global agreements relevant for local communities.

ELCI studies how non-governmental organizations and governments around the world are cooperating with each other. Because tangible partnerships are extremely hard to build, the goal is to find out what has worked, why it has worked, and how successful partnerships can be replicated around the world.

Research and monitoring

ELCI researches, monitors and supports the networking needs of organizations involved in the four networks (desertification, biodiversity, women in environment and development, and the urban environment) and tries to solve the problems involved in building partnerships toward common goals. ELCI also works to strengthen links between non-governmental organizations and the United Nations Environment Programme.

Networks must be actively and continuously sustained in order to be effective. ELCI researches, monitors and supports the networking needs of organizations involved in the issue-based networks and examines the potential and constraints involved in building partnerships toward common goals.

For example, the Earth Summit gave non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations a major role in implementing Agenda 21, but very little is known about the extent of civil society's impact. ELCI researchers work to find out what the input of non-governmental organizations has been and how it can be improved.

Building local capacity

ELCI focuses on strengthening national and local level action for sustainable development in two major ways:

first, by promoting and disseminating through networking activities alternative technologies that can improve people's lives in concrete ways; and,
second, by identifying and supporting local community leaders all over the world.

Three networks are concerned with building local capacity in the areas of alternative technology.

ELCI coordinates a network of organizations working in analog forestry, an innovative agroforestry system in which farmers establish a tree-dominated ecosystem similar to the land's original vegetation and earn money from the ecologically-sound and marketable products that they grow.

Through its Green Pesticides Network, ELCI helps promote natural alternatives to chemical pesticides.

And through the Traditional Medicine Network, ELCI researchers help to share the vast and invaluable knowledge that rural people the world over have developed and collected on the medicinal properties of local trees, shrubs and flowers.

Finally, the Eco-volunteer Programme, a joint initiative of ELCI, the United Nations Volunteers and the United Nations Development Programme, is designed to tackle local environmental problems.

The programme provides communities with a small amount of financial support for training and exchange visits, and helps share their innovations, ideas and experiences with volunteers in other communities and countries.

The Eco-volunteer Programme supports community action by identifying grassroots leaders, giving them access to information and training services and linking them with other Eco-volunteers around the world.

Sharing information

Networking requires efficient communication. ELCI members receive and contribute to several issue-specific periodicals, including the quarterly Ecoforum journal. They receive advice on how to use electronic communications systems and work with the media, and have free access to ELCI's database of environment and development organizations.

Effective information sharing is essential in making a solid connection between and among ELCI's various programmes and constituencies. Through existing networks such as UNEP's Infoterra, through modern and traditional media and through publications, ELCI members, partners and programmes share and build on their ideas and experiences.

An intensive pilot communication network in east and southern Africa is exploring the most effective way to exchange information and influence policy and action at all levels.

ELCI pioneered email communication in Africa and continues to play a major role. ELCI is a partner in a pilot East African electronic communication system that offers subscribers email facilities, access to conferences and technical advice.

The ultimate goal is to increase access to the Internet on the part of southern non-governmental organizations.

ELCI members have free access to ELCI's extensive database of over 8,000 non- governmental organizations, institutions and community groups working on environment and sustainable development. As well as this, members supply the database with information about their own programmes and activities to encourage cooperation with other organizations that have similar goals.

If you think that your organization could benefit from involvement with ELCI activities and could offer meaningful input into ELCI networks or programmes, please contact the membership administrator for guidelines and further information on becoming an ELCI member.

Further information

Environment Liaison Centre International, PO Box 72461, Nairobi, Kenya. Fax: 254-2-562175. Email: elci@elci.gn.apc.org or elci@elci.sasa.unep.no.