sustainable development 20 years on from the ... - José Eli da Veiga

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Planning exercises can enable stakeholders to reach broad consensuses and <strong>development</strong> can be oriented
towards the aspirations of society as a whole. When defining key points for planning in priority areas,
decision makers should include a gender dimension in order to analyse the impact of action taken on the
lives of men and women.
Likewise, <strong>development</strong> planning should incorporate risk management (including climate change
adaptation) in order to formulate actions that protect life, promote human security and build up the
region’s resilience.
(c)
Conduct land-use planning in regions and cities
Land-use planning and strategic management in both rural and urban areas are key to integrating
the three pillars of <strong>sustainable</strong> <strong>development</strong> —environmental, social and economic— into activities in
those areas, in accordance with the intended use of the land and its limitations, with a view to preventing
or mitigating the risks involved for human security. Such planning should be carried out at the national,
regional and local levels of government with the involvement of the private sector and civil society.
(d)
Carry out strategic evaluations of sectoral policies (on energy, agriculture, infrastructure,
integration, urban <strong>development</strong> and fiscal matters, for example) to ensure that such policies
are not working at cross-purposes and to identify possible unwanted effects
Certain methodologies, such as the strategic environmental assessment, ensure that
environmental considerations are taken into account in strategic decision-making (policies, strategies,
plans and programmes). The region’s countries have recently begun to incorporate the strategic
environmental assessment into their legal frameworks. In Chile, for example, under Act No. <strong>20</strong>.417,
promulgated in January <strong>20</strong>10, strategic environmental assessments must be carried out when drafting
regional land-use plans and regulatory plans at the municipal level, as well as other general normative
policies and plans that could have an impact on the environment or sustainability, for example,
infrastructure and fiscal plans.
(e)
Adopt <strong>sustainable</strong> <strong>development</strong> goals
Establishing a series of clear, simple and widely disseminated goals could help to steer public and
private sectors towards taking action in line with set priorities and within a clear time frame. Detailed
goals could be defined at the international, regional, national and even local levels. International or
regional goals would have the advantage of being internationally recognized and would have the potential
to generate shared learning experiences and prevent competitive imbalances. National goals, on the other
hand, could be more specific and give priority to the aspects of the international goals that are relevant at
the country level.
In order to be feasible, the goals must be clearly defined and simple, easy for the general public to
understand and based on indicators that can be monitored effectively. That will necessitate a solid
statistical base, as addressed under guideline 5 below. If the goals are to be fully accepted, various
stakeholders must be involved in their formulation and monitoring.
It is vital that public institutions at all levels, <strong>development</strong> banks and other financial institutions,
as well as civil society organizations and the private sector, take on these goals, which will require a
concerted awareness-raising effort.