Improving access to sustainable development information

Agenda 21 recommends that countries and international organizations should consider undertaking surveys of information available in the private sector on sustainable development and of present dissemination arrangements. This would enable determination of gaps and how those gaps could be filled by commercial or quasi-commercial activity, particularly activities in and/or involving developing countries where feasible. Whenever economic or other constraints on supplying and accessing information arise, particularly in developing countries, innovative schemes for subsidizing such information-related access or removing the non-economic constraints should be considered.

Sustainability is a multivariable issue involving physical, chemical, biological, socio-economic as well as political dimensions with humans as the major driving force. Sustainable development requires wide participation from and consultation with various stakeholders. The use of spatial information and appropriate decision support tools has become essential in raising awareness, providing scenarios, reaching consensus and making decisions on a wide range of sustainability issues. Similarly, such information and tools are also indispensable for evaluating the progress, assessing the trends and monitoring the impact of responses to environmental pressures by human beings.

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

The Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) is an evolving, informal partnership of public, private and not-for-profit organizations. Partner organizations are committed to sharing information, experiences and resources to promote broad access to, and effective use of, knowledge and information as tools of sustainable, equitable development.