How it’s all connected is chronicled here: http://www.un.org/jsummit/html/major_groups/second_intl_survey.html
Except for http://www.iclei.org/, all other embedded links were removed by the UN and are noted by an asterisk*.
MAJOR GROUPS SPECIAL STUDIES
Second International Survey of Local Agenda 21 Initiatives
[A joint project of ICLEI*, Capacity 21/UNDP* and the Summit Secretariat*]
The ‘Local Agenda 21’ approach has been recognized as one of the most proactive and successful ways to adapt the goals of Agenda 21 to the local level. Since the 1992 Rio Conference on environment and development, this approach has generated local action plans, implementation activities and tangible results in balancing the economic, environmental and social needs in hundreds of local communities, towns, and cities around the world.
A joint survey conducted by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives and the Secretariat of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development for the five-year anniversary of Rio Conference in 1997, identified over 1800 Local Agenda 21 initiatives at various stages of implementation and found many more to be in-the-works. The results of the first survey* were submitted to the Special Session of the General Assembly to Review progress in implementing Agenda 21 (June 1997, New York). Governments and other participants of the 19th Special Session of the General Assembly to review progress in achieving Agenda 21 objectives expressed their appreciation of the results of the survey and the information it provided to the inter-governmental process.
This encouraged the World Summit Secretariat, ICLEI and Capacity 21 / UNDP to launch a second international survey for the ten-year anniversary of Rio in 2002. The second survey will measure the scope of Local Agenda 21 activity around the world ten years after the adoption of Agenda 21; assess the impact of on-going Local Agenda 21 activities; identify tangible outcomes of local agenda 21 activities on environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainable development; and, identify regional and global trends in the context of key sustainable development issues. The Second Local Agenda 21 Survey was launched in Fall 2000. The results will be collected and analyzed by the end of 2001 and a Survey report will be available by January 2002. For more information contact Ms. Judy Walker at ICLEI (jwalker@iclei.org) or Ms. Zehra Aydin-Sipos (aydin@un.org)