Local Agenda 21

At the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, representatives from 179 countries signed up to a global action plan called Agenda 21, which recognised the concept of sustainable development.

Chapter 28 of Agenda 21 called on local governments around the world to engage in a process of consultation and consensus building with the communities they served to agree a 'local' Agenda 21 (LA21). Several thousand have done so, so far.

The resultant Local Agenda 21 movement has produced a variety of community processes, partnerships strategies, plans and projects to try and put sustainable development into practice at a local level. A common feature is the recognition of partnership and the involvement of communities in finding solutions to sustainable development at a local level.

The response to the call to develop local agenda 21 processes has been uneven. In countries where campaigns have been run to encourage local government to respond, the take up has been higher.