World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg 26 August - 4 September 2002

Ten years after the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, the international community will convene in Johannesburg to return to the discussion of sustainable development.

The South African summit will dedicate ample space to the application of Agenda 21, the global action plan for sustainable development adopted in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Agenda 21 contains 2500 recommendations related to economic growth and equity, the conservation of natural resources, the environment, and social development.

The aim of the summit will be to evaluate the progress and results achieved in these spheres during the last 10 years, and to propose concrete actions to put into practice the strategies formulated up to now. "To put plans into action" is the true challenge of the summit, and one of the conditions for its success, according to what has been established in the preparation work in progress. The commissions meeting in New York (PREPCOM 1/2/3) have also underlined the role that different partners of development can play in reaching the objectives of the summit. For this end, the "Type 2" Partnership Initiative has been conceived in the last few months, an informal process that complements dialogue at the governmental level, offering the possibility of proposing initiatives for the execution of Agenda 21 through the association of international organizations, NGOs, the private sector, syndicates and all the partners in development that will participate in the summit.

For more information, please visit the site of the Summit on the Internet: http://www.johannesburgsummit.org