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This
event coincided with the Conference of Ministers of Environment
& Forests of all States of India which was inaugurated by the
Hon'ble Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi and the Guest of
Honour was Mr. Prakash Javadekar, Minister for the Ministry of
Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of
India. A newspaper clipping released by the Government of India
indicating the set-up of the Green Haat on this occasion is
enclosed.
On the one
side, the Conference of Ministers was inaugurated on 6th morning
itself at a separate venue (Vigyan Bhawan). The GEF/UNDP SGP was
invited to support and create an atmosphere to reflect the Prime
Minister’s agenda/campaign of “Clean India” (“Swachh Bharat”).
The GEF/UNDP CEE SGP organized 41 school children who attended
the PM conference and waved the specially designed flags with a
variety of messages on supporting the climate-friendly actions.
These flags can be seen in many of the photographs that are
being attached. one copy attached. The GEF/UNDP SGP standis were
displayed on prominent locations and 1500 copies of the
re-designed booklet on “Low Carbon Lifestyles” by GEF/SGP were
distributed to ALL the State Ministers and high-dignitaries who
participated in the 2 day Minister's Conference.
A kiosk for
calculating the carbon foot-prints by individuals was displayed,
with a volunteer helping the participants how to calculate their
own carbon foot-prints. This kiosk was made during the
Commonwealth Games and a full programme (Cool Calculator –
Together We can - Harnessing the Power of Green Lifestyles in
Youth) was supported on this by Intel which can be seen at the
website www.coolcalculator.org. This was developed in
partnership with MoEF&CC-GoI, GEF, UNDP, SGP, CEE and Intel.
On the other
hand, the Biodiversity Green Haat was set up from 6th April 2015
at the front lawns of the MoEF&CC and was opened up for public,
with no entry fee. A total of 43 partners, exclusively of GEF/UNDP
SGP NGOs from all over the country put up 34 stalls. They
displayed and sold non-timber forest produce – both
agro-processed and crafts, herbal and medicinal products and
forest-based food items. The United Nations Information Centre
has linked up their schools program and are partnering with us.
Mrs. Kiran Mehra-Kerpelman, UNIC Director for India and Bhutan
along with her staff and Mrs. Karuna Singh, Director-Earth Day
Network visited on the first day (6th April) and two brochures
were released by them. The GEF/SGP National Coordinator from
Kabul, Mr. Aimal Khaurin specially came to learn how to
organize, manage and coordinate such a high-level function.
The Green Haat
was formally inaugurated by the Minister-MoEF&CC, GoI, Mr.
Prakash Javadekar on 7th April 2015 at 8.45 am by cutting the
ribbon. Mr. Jaco Cilliers, UNDP RR a.i. and Country Director,
along with Dr. Preeti Soni, Head-Energy & Environment Unit also
graced the occasion. Amongst the Government officials, the
Secretary, Mr. Ashok Lavasa and the Additional Secretary, Mr.
Hem Pande visited each and every stall and interacted with the
NGO partners on how do they function and how such events will
help them. The local media also captured the interviews of the
Minister, MoEF&CC and Jaco Cilliers.
Jaco Cilliers also released a brochure “CEE and UN” on the work
CEE has done with UN. Jaco and Preeti were also treated with the
traditional food prepared on the occasion. The NGO partners were
very happy to greet such high dignitaries and garlanded them. A
newspaper clipping for the Minister inaugurating the function is
enclosed.
The occasion
was used as an opportunity to pass the massage to the generation
we borrowed the earth from; to save and protect environment, use
local materials etc...EVERY DAY 150 school students joined in
the GREEN BUILDING and the HAAT to support the cause of
environment and encourage the use of local healthy food products
in day to day life.
Some of the
Environment & Forest Ministers from different States who came to
participate in the Conference also visited the Green Haat. These
Ministers came to know the work being done by the GEF/UNDP SGP
partners in their States which will benefit our partners to link
up the subsidies/government schemes for up-scaling their
activities. The daily visitors to MoEF&CC from the corporate
sector, donors and bilateral/multilateral organizations poured
in great number to support the cause of the NGOs. The visitors
also included teachers from various schools, staff of UN
Agencies, officials of the ministry and other ministries, and
the general public on all the days.
The event has been a grand success and the
NGOs made a brisk sale of more than Rs.11.50 lacs (US $18,550).
The daily footfall was of nearly 2200 people.
A strong
campaign was made to publicize the event by sending more than
2,500 personal invitations to friends, relatives and all the
contacts that we come across on a regular basis. A specially
designed leaflet of Green Haat was placed all over in the
Ministry premises, prominent locations like UN Reception, Notice
Boards of prominent local Conference venues and UN Agencies, and
other donors. Radio publicity was also taken up to have regular
broad-casts (8 slots daily on all the 7 days) inviting the local
public to come and support the cause of community welfare. A
copy of the Leaflet is enclosed.
We have been organizing the Green Haat
at the requests of MoEF&CC for the past 5 years and our NGO
partners have put up stalls at prominent occasions like
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Green Haat
at Delhi Haat (2011) which was
inaugurated by Mr Jairam Ramesh, the then Minister of
Environment and Forests, GOI and attended by CD-UNDP, Ms.
Caitlin Wiesen and Achiem Steiner UNEP as a 40 years
celebration of UNEP and was fully funded by MoEF&CC.
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Green Haat at Delhi Haat (2012)
which was inaugurated by Secretary MoEF GOI and CD-UNDP, Ms.
Caitlin Wiesen and also fully funded by MoEF&CC.
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Green Haat at Delhi Haat (2013)
which was inaugurated by H'onble Jayanti Natrajan, Minister
for Environment and Forests, MoEF GOI and half supported by
MoEF&CC and GEF/SGP.
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Green Haat Access to Benefit
Sharing Workshop of Asia and the Pacific countries at
Chennai in the year 2013; supported by NBA and SGP
The MoEF&CC
provided free space, power and security to the stalls of the
NGOs and have also linked up the programme with the National
Biodiversity Authority for promoting the aims and objectives of
NBA who is supporting the event by contributing 25% of the
cost.
The
following very high dignitaries visited and interacted with each
NGO at their stalls and evinced great interest the way the small
SGP grants supported the NGOs and they came up from small women
groups to the level of sustainability:
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H.E. Mr. Prakash Javadekar,
Honorable Minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change,
(MoEF&CC) Government of India.
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Mr. Ashok Lavasa, Secretary,
MoEF&CC, Government of India
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Mr. Saurabh Chandra, Secretary,
Ministry of Petroleum, Government of India.
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Mr. Sudhir Mital, Chairman,
Competition Commission of India, Government of India
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Mr. Shashi Shekhar, Special
Secretary, MoEF&CC
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Mr. Susheel Kumar, Additional
Secretary, MoEF&CC and Chair-GEF/UNDP SGP and GEF
Operational Focal Point.
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Mr. Hem Pande, Additional
Secretary, MoEF&CC, Government of India
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Mr. Vishwanath Anand, Former
Secretary, MoEF&CC, Government of India
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Dr. Jaco Cilliers, Resident
Representative a.i. and Country Director, UNDP
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Dr. Kevin D. Gallagher, FAO
Representative
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Mrs. Kiran Mehra-Kerpelman,
UNIC Director for India and Bhutan
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Mrs. Karuna A. Singh, Country
Director, Earth Day Network, Kolkata
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Mr. Irene Dabare, Deputy
Country Director and Operations Manager, UNDP
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Mr. A.K. Mehta, Joint
Secretary, MoEF&CC and SGP Focal Point
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Dr. Preeti Soni, Head-Energy &
Environment Unit, UNDP
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Mr. Younus Fakoor, Governor of
Pashtun, Kabul
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Mr. Aimal Khaurin, National
Coordinator, GEF/UNDP SGP, Kabul
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Ms. Shila Ghulam Haider, NGO
Partner, GEF/UNDP SGP, Kabul
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Many other Joint Secretaries,
Directors, Advisors, Deputy Secretaries, and other officials
from the MoEF&CC participated whole heartedly.
The
Minister felt that we should have such events more frequently.
The Secretary and the Additional Secretary assured all support
from the Ministry side whenever we require.
The NGO
partners felt very high and enthusiastic to make full use of
this occasion and to have the maximum visibility and linkages to
the markets for their sustainability. A lot of business cards
were being exchanged (networking) with the NGO partners for
future linkages of their products. The NGOs replenished their
stocks that were exhausted quickly as they had not visualized
such a tremendous response.
Last, but
not the least, a waste-disposal machine was installed from
Ecoman free of cost (who received free publicity of their
product) to ensure that the entire waste that generated from the
Green Haat (including food waste during lunch time) was treated
and converted into manure to ensure that environment-friendly
measures are taken and no unhealthy and unhygienic foot-prints
are left of this Green Haat in the entire premises of the new
building of MoEF&CC which was highly appreciated by not only the
senior officials but the entire staff.
TAKE AWAYS FROM THE
GREEN HAAT:
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The Director, Amity University,
Noida requested the CPM, GEF/UNDP SGP to help them provide
four stalls of our NGO partners in their Campus on 13th and
14th April 2015 which was accepted and the stalls have been
put up. Another 250 USD worth sale happened.
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UNDP wanted one stall of
products of our NGO partners to be placed in their premises
during the visit of Resident Representatives from the Asia
and the Pacific Division on the 13th April which was also
accepted and our NGOs made use of the occasion to show-case
the SGP activities in India. Another 300 USD worth sale
happened.
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MoEF&CC supported the
cause for our three project partners by offering the paper
waste that is generated from their premises to them for
recycling on regular basis. A letter has been exchanged to
this effect with the Ministry to regularize the system. The
NGOs, in turn, will produce office stationery from the
recycled paper and supply at a reasonable price to the
Ministry.
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The MoEF&CC offered to
place a Kiosk of Low Carbon Lifestyles at the Reception area
of the Ministry for the benefit of public.
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Another Kiosk of Low Carbon
Lifestyles will be placed in the Ganga Auditorium of the
Ministry for the children and the visitors to calculate the
carbon emission reduction practiced by them from time to
time.
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The Additional Secretary, MoEF&CC
was so convinced with the waste recycling machine that he is
issuing a communication to the Secretary-Tourism to promote
or rather make essential in all the hotels and restaurants
to use composting methods – mechanically or through
anaerobic treatment to dispose of the waste in their own
premises rather than leaving it to the municipalities to
handle it.
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