Estratègies per al desenvolupament sostenible - Generalitat de ...

1. ApproachSustainable development represents great challenges to the way in whichdevelopment is traditionally considered. In Catalonia, work on sustainabledevelopment has been carried out for some time now in the Agenda 21programmes (over 80% of Catalonia’s population lives in towns in which localAgenda 21 programmes are underway). We have a prevailing strategic notionof the Agenda 21 programmes on the lines established by the JohannesburgPlan of Implementation, by which work must start immediately to formulatenational SD strategies and implementation must begin from the year 2005onwards. Recently, the extremely important role that federated, autonomous orregional governments play in promoting SD has also been acknowledged. TheGauteng Declaration, in whose promotion Catalonia played a leading role,expresses the commitment of these governments to promoting appropriate SDstrategies as an integrating and co-ordinating framework for other public policies.Catalonia’s Agenda 21 began with the resolution of Parliament of 27 October1997, which urged the Government of Catalonia to encourage work to drawup, on a participatory basis, the Agenda 21 of Catalonia. This was initiallydesigned as a framework of basic orientation for the construction of the futureof the citizenry and the territory. However, it has developed towards a CatalanStrategy for Sustainable Development (the EcatDS), which requires a broaderframework of design and performance that observes the country’s situation onan integrated, transversal and cross-disciplinary basis, with the active participationof all the country’s population and social and economics agents. It is, moreover,set within the context of strategic reorientation of public structures andperformance. The ultimate objective proposed by the EcatDS is for the countryto have a framework of orientation, renewed and with a global perspective, inorder to assume the new challenges along SD lines.Despite these worthy advances, there is still room for perfection in the Catalanstrategies for sustainable development. The new governmental terms establishedby the recent local elections and by the forthcoming national elections willundoubtedly provide an opportunity for fresh impetus. This study is intendedto broadcast some of the lessons learnt from international experience that areespecially relevant in order to deepen Catalonia’s strategies for sustainabledevelopment. It is based on the experience of different developed and developing127