Environmental information is the key to policy formulation, priority setting and action planning. Agenda 21, in particular Chapter 40, "Information for decision making", underlines the importance of improved availability of information on all matters related to environment and development. It also underlines the need for improved presentation of data and information in a format that will facilitate decision-making by Governments.

The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, at its third session in April 1995, approved a Work Programme on Indicators of Sustainable Development and asked for its implementation. A major element of this Work Programme is the development of methodology sheets for the indicators included in the list contained in the work programme. Lead organizations have prepared draft methodology sheets, in consultation with various experts in Government, governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Various workshops were organized by Governments, international and non governmental organizations to further the work programme of the CSD. The governments of Belgium and Costa Rica, with the support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), organized a workshop on this topic in Ghent, in January 1995. A scientific Workshop focused on research and development of indicators of sustainable development was organized by the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) in Germany, in November 1995. This was followed by a workshop in February 1996 in Glen Cove, New York, organized and sponsored by the Government of Japan. The Government of Belgium in collaboration with the UN Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development held an additional Workshop in Ghent in October 1996. An Africa regional workshop on indicators was held in February 1997 in Accra, Ghana.

The aim of the work by the CSD on the development of indicators is to provide governments, as quickly as possible, with a set of indicators which they can use as a basis for collecting data and begin to analyze progress towards sustainable development along several dimensions. The objective is to provide governments with a menu of indicators from which governments could choose a core set of indicators to develop and implement national programmes on indicators and at the same time ensure some level of comparability between indicators used in different countries.

The indicators are intended for use at the national level by countries in their decision-making processes. Not all of the indicators will be applicable in every situation. It is understood that countries will choose to use from among the indicators those relevant to national priorities, goals and targets.

The selection of indicators is based on pragmatism using Agenda 21 as the main point of reference. All indicators are linked to chapters of Agenda 21. Other criteria used in selecting indicators were that:

• They should be relevant to the main objective of assessing progress towards sustainable development;

• They should be understandable, clear and unambiguous, to the extent possible;

• They should be within the capacities of national governments to implement, given logistics, time, technical and other constraints;

• They should be conceptually well founded;

• They should be limited in number, remain open-ended and adaptable to future developments;

• They should be representative of an international consensus, to

• the extent possible, and

• They should be based on data that are readily available, or available at reasonable cost, are adequately documented, of known quality and updated at regular intervals.

The second phase concentrates on enhancement of information exchange among all interested partners, training and capacity building at the regional and national levels and monitoring the use of the indicators in countries that have shown interest in this process. The publication will now be forwarded to all Governments to assist them in working with indicators in their decision-making processes. As feedback and results from testing, analytical work are discussed, further improvements in the indicators and methodology sheets will be implemented. This includes in the longer run, additional work on interlinkages, highly aggregated indicators and the conceptual framework and compilation of environmental indicators.

Further background information on indicators and indicator initiatives can be found at these sites:

• To find out more about the involvement of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in the indicator pogramme of the CSD, click here.
• Visit gopher://gopher.un.org/11/esc/cn17/1996-97/indicators - this site contains the list of indicators proposed by the CSD, as well as methodology sheets for all indicators.
• Click here to see the South African Draft Report on testing the indicators of Sustainable Development.
• Visit the CSD Indicator Web Site for more information on the indicator initiative by the CSD
• Visit http://www.un.org/esa/agenda21 - this web site contains information on the workprogrammes of the CSD, including sustainable development indicators, reports and documents of the Commission.
• The 1997 South African Country Profile Report to the CSD regarding the implementation of Agenda 21 in South Africa is available at http://www.un.org/esa/agenda21/natlinfo.

Last update: 15/09/98
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