WHAT IS AGENDA 21?

Agenda 21 is a blueprint for sustainable development into the 21st Century. Its basis was agreed during the "Earth Summit" at Rio in 1992, and signed by 179 Heads of State and Government.

At Rio an undertaking was given that local councils would produce their own plan - a Local Agenda 21. This would involve consulting with the community, because it is the people in the area who have the local knowledge needed to make sensible decisions for their future.

Agenda 21 is a guide for individuals, businesses and governments in making choices for development that help society and the environment. If we do not tackle the issues it concerns, we all face higher and higher levels of human suffering and damage to the world we live in. Note how it goes further than just looking at the environment - social factors are seen as very important as well.

Agenda 21 is a huge document, with 40 chapters in 4 sections. It deals with:

1. Social and economic dimensions;- developing countries; poverty; consumption patterns; population; health; human settlements; integrating environment and development.
2. Conservation and management of resources:- atmosphere; land; forests; deserts; mountains; agriculture; biodiversity; biotechnology; oceans; fresh water; toxic chemicals; hazardous radioactive and solid waste and sewage.
3. Strengthening the role of major groups:- women; children and youth; indigenous peoples; non-governmental organisations; local authorities; workers; business and industry; farmers; scientists and technologists.
4. Means of implementation:- finance; technology transfer; science; education; capacity-building; international institutions; legal measures; information.

Discussion and action on Agenda 21 is going forward at global level with a series of summits, involving governments: Social Development (March 1995), Cities (1996); and world conferences (Human Rights, Women, Population, Climate and Global Warming, Food).

As a result of this series of summits and conferences, something very important has happened. People are realising that for sustainable development in the community they have to look past the obvious things in the environment and pay more attention to social and cultural issues. The need to allow women to play a full part is emerging as something vital. These aspects are part of the peace-making process in the widest sense - peace between people along with peace with the planet.

The Social Summit (Copenhagen, March 1995) really brought this out. It produced a Declaration and Programme of Action for Social Development, which stresses the need for full participation of all people in decision-making for their future, and which contains a series of 10 commitments agreed by the governments. These are

• An enabling environment for social development;
• The goal of eradicating poverty;
• The goal of full employment;
• The promotion of social integration;
• Equality of men and women;
• Education;
• Speeding up the development of the least developed countries;
• Ensuring that structural adjustment programmes include social goals;
• A better resourcing for social development;
• A better framework for international co-operation for social development.

The national Bahá'í body of the U.K. has asked its local communities to help with their Local Agenda 21s. The Bahá'í community is thinly spread here but it does have a good information network on the Agenda 21 process, partly because the Bahá'í International Community is one of the non-governmental organisations that takes part in Summits and Conferences, and helped to hammer out Agenda 21 at Rio. So we offer you this information sheet to give a brief outline of the process and encourage you to become involved in your areas of interest. We have a range of information available and will be providing more on key groups (e.g. women, children and youth) and issues (e.g. unemployment), to give people working with these groups and issues an idea of the level and direction of international discussion and commitment to action.

For further information contact your local Bahá'í community.

This information sheet prepared by Pippa Cookson (Belfast).

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