The IUCN Strategies for Sustainable Development Handbook Series This handbook is one in a series being produced by IUCN and its partners to assist countries and communities implement Agenda 21, the action programme of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. The series will include handbooks on national strategies for sustainable development, local strategies, assessing progress towards sustainability, biodiversity action plans, .involving indigenous peoples, and on integrating population and resource use planning; and regular companion volumes of case studies addressing the key issues of concern to strategy implementation. Many international agreements and action plans now call for countries to undertake national strategies. These strategies seek to involve communities in united approaches to sustainable development. Some are sectoral, such as tropical forest strategies, others are thematic, covering topics such as biodiversity, education or climate change. Still others, such as national conservation strategies and national environment action plans, are evolving to become more comprehensive processes, drawing together economic, social and environmental development actions. This handbook is for people involved in strategies. It draws on experiences in different regions of the world to present options and examples of the role of strategies in sustainable development. Originally published in 1995

Both Agenda 21 and the IUCN's Caring for the Earth recommend that every country should prepare and implement a National Sustainable Development Strategy, in order to mobilize and focus the country's efforts to achieve sustainability. This text demonstrates how the task can be approached. Using existing Environmental Action Plans, National Conservation Plans and individual sectoral plans, it shows how strategies need to adopt a participatory process if they are to work successfully.

This book is a cornerstone resource for a wide range of organizations and individuals concerned with sustainable development at national and local levels, as well as for international organizations concerned with supporting such development. While the focus is on integrated strategies for sustainable development, the approaches and methods covered are equally relevant to poverty reduction, environmental and sectoral strategies, program development and review. Agenda 21 called for all countries to develop sustainable development strategies. For such strategies to be effective there needs to be a real commitment. In every country, government at all levels, the private sector and civil society must work together in a true partnership, in transparent ways which enable genuine stakeholder participation. The necessary mechanisms and processes need to be coordinated to enable continuous learning and improvement. This resource book provides flexible, non-prescriptive guidance on how to develop, assess and implement national sustainable development strategies. It sets out principles and ideas on process and methods, and suggests how these can be used. It is based on an analysis of past and current practice, drawing directly from experience in both developed and developing countries. Following a discussion of the nature and challeges of sustainable development and the need for strategic responses to them, the heart of the book covers the main tasks in strategy processes. Individual chapters offer a rich range of guidance, ideas and case studies on: * The nature of sustainable development strategies and current practice * Key steps in starting, managing and improving sustainable development strategies * Analysis of and for sustainable development * Participation for sustainable development * Information, education and communications * Strategy decision-making frameworks and procedures * The financial basis for strategies * Monitoring and evaluation systems.

Developing countries want to join in the globalisation process. However, the increasing complexity of global markets, the new challenges of the multilateral trading system and the competing demands of regional, bilateral and multilateral trade agreemen

First Published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.