Local Agenda 21 globally

Local Agenda 21 Mandate

'By 1996, most local authorities in each country should have undertaken a consultative process with their populations and achieved a consensus on a local agenda 21 for the community.'

Agenda 21 is a global action plan for socially, economically and environmentally sustainable development. It was adopted at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 (Earth Summit). The purpose of Agenda 21 is to set out principles and programmes to achieve a changed relationship between development, and the Earth's natural resources base, on which all development depends. The conference proposed that the principles of Agenda 21 be implemented at the local authority level. This practical implementation programme is known as Local Agenda 21.

Local Agenda 21 in South Africa

Principles for Local Agenda 21 in South Africa

People-centred development Meeting basic needs Integrated planning and development (i.e. a move from a more sectoral approach) Sustainable development.

As part of the reconstruction and development process in South Africa, the nation's three largest cities (Johannesburg, Cape Town and the Durban Metropolitan Area) all initiated Local Agenda 21 programmes during 1994/1995 in compliance with the Local Agenda 21 mandate. These early programmes catalysed a broad range of activity throughout the country resulting in other towns and cities such as Kimberly, Port Elizabeth, East London, Pretoria and Pietermaritzburg initiating their own Local Agenda 21 programmes. At the provincial level, provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Province initiated provincial campaigns to encourage broadscale local authority involvement in Local Agenda 21 initiatives. In 1998, a National Local Agenda 21 Programme was launched by the Department of Envrionmental Affairs and Tourism in order to support, co-ordinate and network activities throughout the country.