World Summit of Sustainable Development    

Preparation For WSSD

     International Preparations
There are four international preparatory meetings (PrepComs) before the Summit. The first, an organizational meeting, was held in May 2001. The second two will focus on a review and assessment of implementation of Agenda 21. The fourth PrepCom is a Ministerial-level meeting to finalize the Summit agenda and expected outcomes for the Summit. In addition:

  1. Regional meetings are occurring throughout the world in 2001 organized around the 5 regions of the United Nations (U.N.). The U.S. and Canada are included in the regional process for the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The purpose of the regional processes is to conduct regional assessments and identify key sustainable development issues for the Summit. The results of the regional meetings will be submitted to the Secretariat for input into the Summit agenda. The UNECE adopted a ministerial statement in September 2001 that defined the regional goals and priorities for the summit: the text is available at http://www.unece.org/env/rio+10/.
  2. Global Roundtables of invited experts are being organized by the CSD Secretariat to provide a non-governmental view of progress in implementation of Agenda 21 and priority actions for the future. One was held in Colorado in June 2001.
  3. Many national governments have established National Councils on Sustainable Development to organize both government and civil society preparations for the Summit.
The dates and places of key events:
  • Prep Com 2: January 28 - February 8, 2002 in New York City, New York, USA
  • Prep Com 3: March 8 - 19, 2002 in New York City, New York, USA
  • Ministerial Prep Com 4: May 6 - 17, 2002 in Bali, Indonesia
  • Summit: August 26 - September 4, 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa
Domestic Preparations
U.S. Government preparations for WSSD are being led by the National Security Council (NSC) with involvement from the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and other Federal agencies through the Policy Coordinating Committee (PCC) on International Development and Humanitarian Assistance. A sub-PCC on WSSD is led by the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) at State Department. An interagency working level group is also chaired by OES, State Department.

In addition to this formal structure, interagency processes are being used to identify priority sectorial issues for WSSD (e.g. freshwater resources, forests, etc.).

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