Strategies
Strategies for sustainable development - broad, long–term plans of action aimed at achieving the goals of sustainable development – are increasingly being developed by national governments and a range of organisations throughout the world.
The international community first recognised the need for strategies for sustainable development at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. At that Summit, Heads of Government from around the world adopted Agenda 21, a blueprint for action on sustainable development for the 21st century, which included a call on all countries to develop national sustainable development strategies.
In 1994, the UK became the first country to publish such a strategy: Sustainable Development, the UK Strategy. A revised strategy – A Better Quality of Life – was published in 1999.
The UK Government launched its current strategy Securing the Future in March 2005 in parallel to One Future – Different Paths, the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations’ shared framework for sustainable development. The UK strategy covers England and all non-devolved issues. Scotland is currently consulting on its next strategy and Wales produced its revised sustainable development scheme – Starting to Live Differently – in 2004. Northern Ireland is aiming to launch its first sustainable development strategy and supporting indicator set in 2005.
Strategies for sustainable development are not only used at the level of national government. They also provide strategic visions of sustainable development for:
• International organisations - European Commission is currently reviewing the EU strategy;
• Business – Business and Sustainable Development, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and Forum for the Future offer strategic advice on sustainable development in business;
• Individual government departments – some departments have sustainable development strategies, such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In addition, the UK Sustainable Development Strategy has committed all government departments to produce focussed sustainable development action plans by December 2005;
• Regions – England’s nine regions have high-level frameworks that set out their objectives and priorities for sustainable development. These are often called regional sustainable development frameworks (rsdfs). In some regions rsdfs take the form of an Integrated Regional Strategy;
• Local government - local authorities are under a duty to prepare Sustainable Community Strategies – reshaped Community Strategies with a greater sustainable development focus. These should promote or improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of the area, as well as contribute to the achievement of sustainable development in the UK and beyond.
A good strategy cannot be effective on its own. It will need to have strong delivery, monitoring and scrutiny mechanisms. The Sustainable Development Commission will be a key player in assessing the UK Government’s progress against its Sustainable Development Strategy and the UK Shared Framework. Securing the Future commits the UK Government to expanding our role to act as an independent ‘watchdog’ for sustainable development.
» Go to the National Strategies for Sustainable Development website for more on national sustainable development strategies.
