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LOCAL AGENDA 21

1.0 DEFINITION

Agenda 21 is a non-binding, voluntarily implemented action plan of the United Nations with

regard to sustainable development. It is a product of the UN Conference on Environment and

Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. It is an action agenda for the

UN, other multilateral organizations, and individual governments around the world that can

be executed at local, national, and global levels. The "21" in Agenda 21 refers to the

21st century. It has been affirmed and modified at subsequent UN conferences.

2.0 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The realities of life on our planet dictate that continued economic development as we know

it cannot be sustained. This is so because present-day forms of economic activity are rapidly

under-mining two other development processes that are essential for human life and

civilization: the process of ecological development and the process of community

development. Ecological development reproduces the biological wealth and climatic

conditions necessary for life on our planet. Community development reproduces

communities, families, educated and responsible citizens, and civilization itself. The

compromising of these processes by current economic activities is destroying both the

viability of human communities in a growing number of areas of the planet and the quality of

human life in many other communities and neighborhoods throughout the world.

Sustainable development, therefore, is a program of action for local and global economic

reform—a program that has yet to be fully defined. The challenge of this new program is to

develop, test, and disseminate ways to change the process of economic development so that it

does not destroy the ecosystems and community systems (e.g., cities, villages,

neighborhoods, and families) that make life possible and worthwhile. No one fully

understands how, or even if, sustainable development can be achieved; however, there is a

growing consensus that it must be accomplished at the local level if it is ever to be achieved

on a global basis.

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3.0 THE IMPORTANCE

Services can only be provided over the long term through the establishment and

maintenance of various service systems. These systems have a number of components, such

as:

• infrastructure (e.g., public transit systems, sewerage systems);

• programs (e.g., health clinics, public safety);

• procedures (e.g., development approval processes);

• management routines (e.g., repeated activities such as waste collection or building

inspections); and

• management interventions (e.g., pollution control).

4.0 THE ELEMENTS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

The scope of municipal planning and management is traditionally constrained by a variety

of factors, including: political jurisdiction; limits in legislative or constitutional authority; the

professional standards of key management disciplines; technology; and financial resources.

While these constraints focus the municipal planning task, they also prevent methodical and

routine consideration of many social, economic, and environmental developments that are

outside the municipal purview (e.g., national infrastructure projects, land markets, labor

legislation, terms of trade). As the impacts of these developments increase (e.g., population

migration, depletion of water resources, loss of industries, youth unemployment), the lack of

methodical consideration of such impacts in municipal planning can severely undermine the

performance of municipal service systems and related infrastructure.

The purpose of sustainable development planning is to broaden the scope of factors

considered in municipal planning and decision making within the context of the legal,

technical, and financial constraints upon municipal activities. The sustainable development

planning approach presented in this Guide combines the principles and methods of corporate,

community-based, and environmental planning to create a public-sector, strategic planning

approach that reflects the imperatives of sustainable development.

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Strategic planning has been used extensively in the private sector to provide corporations and

businesses with long-term visions and goals, and short-term action plans to achieve these

goals. Strategic planning is seen as a means to rally the collective resources of a firm around

specific strategies designed to increase the firm’s competitive advantage in the arena where it

is active.

Community-based planning has been used extensively in the development field to engage

local residents and service users in participatory processes to develop and implement local

service projects and programs.

Environmental planning, with its different assessment methods, was developed in the 1970s

to ensure that development projects take environmental conditions and trends into

consideration, and that the managers of such projects identify and take measures to mitigate

the specific environmental impacts of a development activity.

As a hybrid of these three planning traditions, sustainable development planning makes use

of the different planning methods and tools of each tradition in assisting communities to:

• equally factor economic, community, and environmental conditions into the design of

development projects and service strategies;

• fully engage relevant interest groups and, in particular, service users in the

development of service strategies that meet their needs; and

• create service strategies that can be sustained because they focus on underlying

systemic problems rather than problem symptoms, and because they consider long-

term trends and constraints.

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5.0 COMMUNITY-BASED ISSUE ANALYSIS

Involving local communities in the analysis of development and related service issues is

essential to the optimal solution of problems. Municipal investments are more likely to

succeed and win public support if they are responsive to the articulated needs, concerns, and

preferences of service users. Service strategies can also benefit from the knowledge and

resources that local residents and institutions can themselves contribute to solving problems.

At the same time, the process of issue analysis can be used to educate stakeholders about

technical conditions and constraints for service delivery, such as ecosystem carrying

capacities or financial constraints.

Community-based issue analysis typically involves two components. First, a process is

established to gather and discuss the knowledge and wisdom of local residents about local

conditions. Second, technical assessments are undertaken to provide stakeholders with further

information that may not readily be available to them. Popular knowledge and technical

research are then reviewed together by the stakeholders. Using this information, they aim to

establish a consensus about local problems.

Community-based issue analysis provides two additional benefits. First, the process can help

the local community to establish priorities for action. As resources are very limited in most

communities and not all problems can be effectively addressed at the same time, priority-

setting can be very important for the success of local action plans. The combined use of

technical assessments and participatory issue analysis also permits the community to

establish “baseline” data and indicators against which progress and future changes in

conditions can be measured.

6.0 ACTION PLANNING

Following the identification and analysis of priority service issues, partners can begin the

process of creating Action Plans. The action planning process has three basic components:

• Action Goals: Action goals are the specific aims that the community wishes to strive

towards to achieve its vision for the future. They should translate the Community

Vision into focused directives and resource allocation priorities. They are used to

guide organizations, experts, or professional staff to develop specific programs, and in

this way they serve as an intermediate step between a Community Vision statement

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and specific measurable targets for improvement of conditions related to

sustainability.

• Targets and Triggers: After action goals are established, professional staff should work

with stakeholders to define specific targets to be achieved within specified time

frames. Planning efforts benefit greatly from the establishment of concrete targets.

These targets permit managers to evaluate both the adequacy of actions being taken

and the progress made in implementing an Action Plan. Triggers are unique forms of

targets. They are agreed-upon future conditions that trigger further action by

stakeholders when addressing a problem. For example, a community with air

pollution problems may not be able to agree at present to establish restrictions on

private automobile use, but they could agree that when local roadway use reaches a

certain level they will institute a system of road pricing, such as toll collection.

• Action Strategies and Commitments: It is essential that an Action Plan specifies the

action strategies and commitments of different stakeholders in order for them to work

as partners in achieving the different objectives of an Action Plan. Action strategies

and commitments should be very precise and contain specific projects, time schedules

for implementation, and commitments to allocate money, time, and human resources.

Ideally, these action strategies will include commitments by service users to contribute to

implementation. It is recommended that action strategies be designed to commence

immediately. This is especially important because the sustainable development planning

process will inevitably raise community expectations for action and change.

7.0 IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING

The implementation of partnership-based Action Plans requires adjustments in standard

operating procedures and, oftentimes, some institutional reorganization. Pre-existing

administrative procedures, divisions of responsibility among municipal departments, contract

arrangements, and other practices must be adjusted to allow for the active participation of

service users and partner institutions in the implementation of an Action Plan. While the

municipality institutes internal reforms to support partnership approaches, external projects

and/or service partnerships must be formalized. Agreements that outline the responsibilities

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and investments of each partner are required, including specific work schedules and methods

for ongoing monitoring of work. The Stakeholder Group or municipality may consider it

necessary to establish a new organization or institution to coordinate the implementation of

certain aspects of an Action Plan.

Monitoring begins during the implementation phase; not afterward. Accurate documentation

of both implementation activities and their impacts should be kept regularly, in order to allow

for the evaluation of action strategies, service approaches, and their impacts on local

conditions. Such documentation is extremely valuable, and at times necessary, to identify the

causes of problems that arise during the institution of new service approaches.

8.0 EVALUATION AND FEEDBACK

Monitoring is primarily useful for internal management purposes. Evaluation and feedback

are used for both internal and external purposes. It is necessary to maintain accountability

among the stakeholder participants in the implementation of an Action Plan. Evaluation and

feedback are also used to inform the general public about progress in meeting specific targets,

and to signal when the Action Plan must be altered in the face of change.

An effective evaluation and feedback system provides regular information to both service

providers and users about important changes in local conditions and progress towards targets;

with this information, the actors can adjust their own actions and behaviors. Evaluation

information is used to guide planning and resource allocation (budgeting) processes so that

these processes are kept accountable to the Community Vision and its action objectives. If an

Action Plan fails to correct problems or to satisfy prioritized needs, the feedback system

triggers further planning or action.

In summary, the sustainable development planning approach presented in the Local Agenda

21 Planning Guide is a participatory planning process. It can be used to improve municipal

sector performance, to mobilize and focus resources available in a community, and to address

the sustainable development challenge at the local level. Since the Guide emphasizes

partnership approaches to service delivery, values the concerns of residents and validates

their role and contribution in development, and addresses the need to preserve environmental

and community systems, it will almost certainly contribute to the implementation of Agenda

21.

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