The month of April is normally one of reflection for OECS Member Countries in terms of Environmental Management. This is influenced largely by the observance of the St. George’s Declaration (SGD) launched on April 10, 2001. The St. George’s Declaration contains policy guidelines and recommendations on environmental management in the OECS.

Through monitoring and evaluation, the St. George’s Declaration which originally comprised 21 principles has been revised.While the SGD still reflected the priorities of the OECS it needed to make more explicit linkages with other policy commitments especially those contained in regional and global conventions and agreements such as the  Johannesburg Declaration, the Mauritius Strategy and the Millennium  Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals which are driving Development Aid and Development Agendas worldwide. 

Valerie Isaac St Hill, Programme Officer at the OECS Environment and Sustainable Development Unit, OECS ESDU told Participaction there was need to ensure the SGD was linked to the larger OECS process of revising the treaty of Basseterre which established the OECS.“We needed to ensure that the SGD was right in the centre of the OECS region’s ability to respond to these global agreements and declarations. There was a general feeling that the SGD could be made a more strategic tool for environmental management and the revised declaration therefore improved on the original by reorganising the information in it to articulate an overall aim for goals and to include specific and meaningful targets to achieve priority objectives or outcomes and indicators for monitoring progress towards the goals and  the expected outcomes.”

The 21st principle in the original Declaration calls for an evaluation of all guidelines with a view towards a more binding agreement. The OECS Secretariat says this results based framework better lends itself to monitoring and evaluating the SGD’s outcomes, the impact of the declaration regionally and the effectiveness of Environmental Management at the national level.

The revised St. George’s Declaration was accepted by the Member States at the 10th meeting of the OECS Policy Committee which comprises the Council of OECS Ministers of Environment.

Tuesday April 10th 2007 marked the 6th Anniversary of the St. George’s Declaration (SGD). All nine OECS member countries embrace the St. George’s Declaration as their covenant to sustainable development for all in the region. The SGD is a milestone in its historical development, given that it marked the beginning of a comprehensive environmental agenda for the OECS.