The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide - Democrats Against UN ...

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The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide GOVERNMENTS? Local governments are powerful actors in their local economies. They build and maintain infrastructure that is essential for economic activity. They set standards, regulations, taxes, and fees that determine the parameters for economic development. Local governments procure large numbers of services and products and can influence markets for goods and services. And like private enterprises, local governments serve as public enterprises to produce “products” that are sold on the market. These products include environmental services (e.g., water, waste management, and land use control), economic services (e.g., transportation infrastructure), and social services (e.g., health and education). Just as sustainable development requires private sector corporations to reform their production and management approaches, sustainable development requires that local governments change the ways that their municipal corporations are organized and operated. This reform must ensure that municipal services can be sustained and equitably distributed for future generations. Achieving this objective requires a strategic planning approach that equally factors long-term community and ecological and economic concerns into the development and provision of today’s municipal services. Sustainable development is a program to change the process of economic development so that it ensures a basic quality of life for all people, and protects the ecosystems and community systems that make life possible and worthwhile. 1.0.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF SYSTEMS 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). The different components of municipal service systems allow us to make effective use of resources, including both natural resources, such as potable water, and human resources, such as skilled labor. The sustainability of municipal service systems, therefore, depends upon the support of the ecosystems (watersheds, coastal fisheries, forests) and social systems (families, neighborhood organizations, kinship networks) that provide these resources. If municipal service systems undermine these resources, then they will ultimately fail. The strategic planning approach presented in this Guide, therefore, specifically aims to develop municipal service systems and ensure that these systems 1) will equitably distribute their services and 2) can be sustained because they are both economically viable and able to contribute to community and ecological development. In this light, sustainable development in local terms can be defined as follows: Sustainable development is development that delivers basic environmental, social, and economic services to all, without threatening the viability of the ecological and community systems upon which these services depend. 1.1 The Local Agenda 21 Mandate In June 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopted Agenda 21, the global action plan for sustainable development. Chapter 28 of Agenda 21, entitled “Local Authorities’Activities in Support of Agenda 21” states that Because so many of the problems and solutions being addressed by Agenda 21 have their roots in local activities, the participation and cooperation of local authorities will be a determining factor in fulfilling its objectives. Local authorities construct, operate, and maintain economic, social, and environmental infrastructure, oversee planning processes, establish local environmental policies and regulations, and assist in implementing national and sub-national environmental policies. As the level of governance closest to the people, they play a vital role in educating, mobilizing, http://www.idrc.ca/openebooks/448-2/ (12 of 180)18/10/2010 12:47:23 AM
The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide and responding to the public to promote sustainable development. The approaches presented in this Guide are being tested and evaluated by hundreds of local governments throughout the world. Chapter 28 of Agenda 21 also contains a direct call to all local governments to create their own action plans for sustainable development. These “Local Agenda 21” action plans translate the principles and mandates of Agenda 21 into concrete service strategies for each local community. Chapter 28 states that: By 1996, most local authorities in each country should have undertaken a consultative process with their populations and achieved a consensus on a “Local Agenda 21” for the community. Hundreds of local governments, working with their national and international associations of local government, are engaged in Local Agenda 21 planning activities. National campaigns for Local Agenda 21 exist in Brazil, Colombia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. The European Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign was created in 1994 to assist European local governments to establish Local Agenda 21 processes in their communities. In addition to the participants in these campaigns, individual local governments have established Local Agenda 21 planning processes in Peru, Ecuador, the United States, Canada, Poland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Greece, Senegal, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, India, Thailand, and Papua New Guinea, to mention a few countries. With support from the International Development Research Center, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme, the US Agency for International Development and other sources, ICLEI has established an international research program to document and evaluate these Local Agenda 21 sustainable development planning efforts. The program, called the Local Agenda 21 Model Communities Programme, is a collaboration among fourteen local governments to develop the standards, methods, and guidelines for sustainable development planning at the local level. 1.2 How to use the Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide This Guide is presented as a preliminary and introductory guide on the planning elements, methods, and tools being used by local governments to prepare their Local Agenda 21s. By drawing general conclusions from the work that is already underway at the local level, it recommends a general sustainable development planning approach. A theoretical, step-by-step sequence to be followed is provided in order to clarify key planning issues. While it is recommended that all of these steps be considered, the actual approach will have to be tailored to local circumstances. Furthermore, while these steps have a certain logical sequence, they are not presented here as a strictly chronological “recipe” for action. In many instances, the key elements of a sustainable development planning process are to be undertaken simultaneously. At all times, the Guide attempts to recommend approaches that could be applied in both rich and poor communities. Methods that may be effective in developed countries, but may not currently be appropriate in the developing world, have not been included in this Guide. The Guide also does not provide detailed technical descriptions of key planning methods that are already provided in existing manuals and documentation. The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide uses figures, boxes, and case studies to help illustrate how different concepts and methods have been applied at the local level. Worksheets and checklists are provided for readers to use in their local planning process. A reference list of publications, manuals, and contacts for further information about specific methods or Local Agenda 21 campaigns at the national and regional level is also included. The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide is not a comprehensive final guide on Local Agenda 21 and sustainable development planning. The approaches presented in the following pages are being tested and evaluated by individual local governments and by the Model Communities Programme. The conclusions of these tests and evaluations will be used to prepare more detailed reports on specific methods and tools, as well as to prepare future editions of this Guide. http://www.idrc.ca/openebooks/448-2/ (13 of 180)18/10/2010 12:47:23 AM
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