Rio+20 (15/06/2012) – Blessing Manale, Deputy Director General of Communications for South Africa Department of Environmental Affairs says that within the constraints of their current resources and their competition social and economic challenges, developing countries are leading the way on sustainable development.

In South Africa major work is taking place on solar, wind and hydropower, while Brazil continues to lead the way on the biofuel revolution. But to continue in this direction, the Rio+20 conference must put finance back on the table – without finance agreements, progressions on technology and capacity transfer the talks will be doomed.

And as the countries talks about the potential for new Sustainable Development Goals and the future of the Millennium Development Goals – many of which have not yet been reached – Manale says poverty must be at the forefront of talks. Poverty reduction means so many things for Africa, including access to education, addressing problems such as malaria and child mortality, as well as addressing access to green jobs for countries’ citizens.