§ Dr. TongeTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what progress has been made towards the implementation of national strategies for sustainable development for developing countries; and which countries have strategies in place. [56668]
§ Clare ShortDFID has been supporting the development of National Strategies for sustainable development (NSSDs) initially through working with colleagues at the OECD/DAC to produce policy guidance on this topic. This work has been taken up by the United Nations who have now developed their own policy guidance. This will be a priority issue at the World Summit on sustainable development later this year.
One conclusion of work so far is that developing strategies is more of a process than preparing a document that sits on a shelf. Moreover, the label does not matter. If a national strategy adheres to an agreed set of principles or characteristics of strategic processes for sustainability, then that strategy in effect becomes a NSSD. In this way, poverty reduction strategies that exhibit these characteristics (such as the integration of environmental, economic and social considerations) can be considered NSSDs.
As a consequence, it is not easy to quantify how many NSSDs are in place because they are identified by characteristics not labels.