Local authorities, worldwide, are responding to the sustainable development challenge outlined in Agenda 21. They are working with local residents, community organizations, NGOs, businesses, unions, and other groups towards sustainable development at the local level. Their activies and programmes are addressing numerous key issues of sustainability, ranging from waste management to protection of the atmosphere. They are aiding their National Governments to meet obligations under international conventions, such as the Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The following compilation of case studies focuses on the Local Authority response to Chapter 28 of Agenda 21. Chapter 28 specifies that, by 1996, most Local Authorities should produce a 'local Agenda 21' through consultation and consensus with local people and institutions. Through Local Agenda 21 campaigns at the worldwide, regional, national, and local levels, Local Authorities are developing detailed standards and methods for implementing sustainable development at the local level.

At the worldwide level, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) has established a Local Agenda 21 Initiative with Local Authority participants from more than 20 countries in every region of the world. One element of that Initiative is a research programme which is developing and testing tools and methods for local sustainable development planning.

At the regional level, the major local authority networks of Europe—including the Council for European Municipalities and Regions, Eurocities, Healthy Cities, ICLEI, and the United Towns Organization—joined with the European Commission in 1994 to establish the European Campaign for Sustainable Cities and Towns. More than 90 cities and towns have committed to implementing a rigorous Local Agenda 21 planning exercise.

National Local Agenda 21 campaigns continue to be established in partnership with national associations of local authorities. Campaigns are well underway in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. These campaigns have already enlisted hundreds of local authorities to work with their local stakeholders to create Local Agenda 21 action plans.

Even where regional and national campaigns have not been established, dozens of local campaigns have been established by local authorities in Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Tanzania, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, South Africa, and the United States.

As the following cases demonstrate, implementing sustainable development at the local level is requiring the development of new administrative structures. Local authorities are reorganizing their internal structures to facilitate interdepartmentalism and to open municipal planning to public participation. Additional inter-municipal structures are being created to address issues which cross local jurisdictional boundaries. Management procedures are being reformed to ensure compliance by municipal corporations with the sustainable development objectives of the public.

Sustainable development planning, in the Local Agenda 21 context, is also requiring the development and testing of a variety of new planning methods and instruments. All of the methods are being developed to maximize public participation in the planning process. Priority-setting methods include ranking and economic valuation techniques and comparative risk assessment. Auditing methods include State of the Environment Reporting and Rapid Urban Environmental Assessment. Action planning instruments include the development of specific, measurable targets, and "triggers" to initiate planning, review, and investment at future dates. A great deal of effort is being made by Local Authorities to develop indicators in order to measure progress in implementing Local Agenda 21 action plans and to evaluate progress towards sustainability.

The worldwide community of Local Authorities is preparing to report at the 1996 UN Conference on Human Settlements on both the progress and the findings of Local Authorities in implementing Chapter 28. Local Agenda 21 is quickly becoming a worldwide movement. This growing movement will help assure that Agenda 21 remains a household word and a serious commitment to action well into the next century.

The Commission on Sustainable Development, at its second session in 1994, reviewed the first report on the progress achieved in implementing the Agenda 21 chapter on Human Settlements (chapter 7). The review led the Commission to reaffirm the important role of local authorities as a major group in the implementation of Agenda 21 in general and Chapter 7 in particular. Subsequently, the Commission requested "..the Secretary-General, in the context of reporting on section III of Agenda 21, to give special attention to the role of local authorities and to the progress they are making in the implementation of the human settlements objectives of Agenda 21." (E/CN.17/1994/20, paragraph 132k)

The response to this request has led to a set of events including the present set of case studies, a Panel on the Role of Local Authorities involving presentations by Mayors of 6 of the cities, and an exhibition show-casing the 6 cities. In the process of these activities, one additional element of distinction was the linkage made between Agenda 21 follow up and the preparations for the Second HABITAT Conference (Istanbul, 1996). The United Nations Centre on Human Settlements (Habitat), which is currently leading the preparatory process toward Habitat II Conference, will utilize the present case studies in preparing a “best practices” study for Habitat II.

The process of preparing the case-studies, the panel and the exhibition, was in itself an example of the kind of coorperation and collaboration that Agenda 21 requests from all concerned. The preparation of the case studies as well as the were a collaborative effort involving the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), the CSD Secretariat and the United Nations Centre on Human Settlements (HABITAT).

The 14 case-studies cover a diverse set of municipalities ranging from large metropolitan areas to small towns. They have been selected to reflect a balanced geographical view of the activities of local authorities from both the developing and the developed world.

The case-studies have also helped organize a Panel on Local Agenda 21 involving seven Mayors, experts and representatives from governments and inter-governmental bodies. This Panel, focussing on the role of Local Authorities, is a further opportunity to encourage exchange of knowledge and experiences on the local Agenda 21 process between governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental participants in the third session of the CSD.. In addition, on the basis of the case-studies, it was possible to organize an exhibition show-casing the Local agenda 21 related activities of 6 cities.