Last February, 1999, NGOs agreed to move forward with the proposed SPAC Watch initiative. NGOs discussed various aspects of initiative at the International NGO Conference on Sustainable Production and Consumption, in Soesterberg, Netherlands. This effort represents collaboration among NGOs in various countries around the world, with the objective to monitor and report on progress by national governments in developing and implementing sustainable production and consumption policy.
Already, NGOs from India, Russia, Ireland, the United States, Chile, the Netherlands and other countries have committed themselves to act as civil society watchdogs to monitor efforts -- or note the lack of effort -- by their governments to follow through on their Agenda 21 commitments made at the 1992 Earth Summit.
In particular, NGOs are focusing attention on the commitment made by the heads of state during the Earth Summit to develop national policy frameworks for promoting sustainable production and consumption practices. With special attention focused on implementation of the newly revised UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection, NGOs throughout the world will be noting and reporting on what steps their governments take beyond the political rhetoric heard at the annual Commission on Sustainable
Development sessions.