National Strategies for
Sustainable Development
What are National Strategies for Sustainable Development
and why are they important?
Strategies for sustainable development provide an overarching framework
within which to link disparate sectoral policies and focus them upon
the common vision of sustainable development. They address the priority
problem areas of a country and are characterized above all by their
balanced consideration of economic, social and environmental aspects
and their long-term perspective.
A crucial commitment
In 1992, at the Earth Summit, world leaders agreed to develop national strategies to move towards sustainability in their countries. This agreement can be found in the Preamble of Agenda 21, which emphasizes the crucial importance of these strategies — and that their successful implementation is first and foremost the responsibility of Governments.
Ten years later, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the United States and other countries signed off on the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, where they committed themselves to "take immediate steps to make progress in the formulation and elaboration of National Strategies for Sustainable Development and begin their implementation by 2005". This commitment can be found in Para 162 (b), Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, 2002
Towards a Sustainable America
In 1993, the United States did begin a process to develop such a strategy with the launch of the President's Council for Sustainable Development. However, in 1999 at the National Town Meeting for a Sustainable America in Detroit, the PCSD closed its doors after delivering its recommendations. To date, these recommendations continue to gather dust, while the problems grow increasingly worse. It is time to re-open the book on creating a sustainable America.
See the 2002 US national report on progress towards sustainable development, submitted to the United Nations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, for a more recent presentation. However, it is also important to note that the PCSD process tended to run parallel, not integrated with the work of the US delegation to the Commission on Sustainable Development.
What are other countries doing?
The European Union now requires all its members to develop national sustainability strategies.
Other countries around the world are also taking serious steps to develop their national sustainability strategies. In 2001, the government of Ghana hosted an International Forum on National Sustainable Development Strategies, assessing progress on this commitment.
The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Stratos Inc and the Environmental Policy Research Center has been conducting research on different country sustainability strategies. Their report National Strategies and Initiatives on Sustainable Development: A 19 Country Analysis of Strategic and Coordinated Action will be released in July 2004.
The Rio+10 project, organized by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, provides assistance to developing countries for their national sustainable development strategies.
Other information about international progress in developing national sustainability strategies can be found in their country reports to the United Nations.
Resources for developing national strategies
There are a number of different resources available to
countries and policymakers in developing national sustainable development
strategies. One of the prominent sources is the Division
for Sustainable Development, UN Department for Economic and Social
Affairs (DSD, UN DESA)
The aim of the NSSD.Net website
is to "provides tools to assist in promoting dialogues on national
strategies for sustainable development and providing necessary background
information and reference material in support of these dialogues."
This resources is supported by the UK and Swedish governments.
http://www.nssd.net/index.html
Other resources include:
Sustainable Development
Strategies: A Resource Book
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2002
The DAC Guidelines:
Strategies for Sustainable Development: Guidance for Development Cooperation
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2001
