All of us

At the UNCED Conference in 1992, nations posed the challenge on how to measure progress in their quest to attain sustainable development. That Conference, gave the United Nations and its agencies, working through the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), the task of developing quantitative indicators that would give a good picture of where countries stand in implementing policies and programmes designed to integrate environmental concerns into economic development and national planning.

The loss of biodiversity is a warning sign to which humankind must react.

Indicators are useful tools in pointing to trends and relationships between environmental, demographic, social and economic data hereby improving informed decision-making, crisis prevention and enhance governmental accountability. The innovative CSD indicator project has mobilized more than 25 countries and 30 UN agencies in a voluntary consensus-driven project to test a working set of indicators and their related methodologies at the national level. Indicators have been used to guide national discussions on sustainable development priorities involving government, academia and civil society. Based on the experience gained, a revised core set of indicators will be presented to the CSD in the year 2001.

For more information
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/isd.htm
or contact
Birgitte Bryld, Focal Point for CSD Indicators of Sustainable Development
bryld@un.org
fax (212) 963 1267

If you want to subscribe to All of us, write your e-mail address on the next box, choose "in" and push the "send" button.

If you want to cancel your subscription to the magazine All of us, write your e-mail address on the next box, choose "out" and push the "send" button.