In the four years since the Rio Summit, there have been many
initiatives to promote sustainable development. Indicators are useful
tools to gain insight regarding the progress made in achieving sustainable
development. Agenda 21 calls for countries, international organizations
and non-governmental organizations to develop and use indicators of
sustainable development.
Building on many national and international initiatives aimed at
developing and using indicators, the Commission on Sustainable Development
in 1995 adopted a work programme on indicators for sustainable
development. The work programme includes an initial set of 130 indicators.
To facilitate the use of these indicators and to test their
practicability at the same time, methodology sheets have been developed
for each of them. This publication presents these methodology sheets.
It is essential to get feedback on the indicators and the methodology
sheets. We, in the CSD secretariat, look forward to your reactions and
comments. The goal is to have a good set of indicators for sustainable
development by the year 2000. We count on the users of this publication to
contribute to this goal.
On behalf of the United Nations, I would like to thank all of those who
have participated in the process of making this publication possible.
Joke Waller-Hunter
Director
Division for Sustainable Development
Department for Policy Coordination
and Sustainable Development
|
