What will it take to translate global decisions into action at local level?
The Rio Conference in 1992: National Commissions on Sustainable
Development
Finland was among the first countries to establish a National
Commission on Sustainable Development in 1993. It has operated ever
since, surviving several changes of government.
Over the years, our national commission has been led by various
ministers. In addition to representatives from government, local
administration and Parliament, the Commission comprises members
from a wide-range of civil society. The bottom-up participatory
approach has been very successful in building up national integrity,
ownership and policy transparency for sustainable development.
The commission has brought many important themes of sustainable
development into the limelight of national debate. It has been
interpreting the interlinkages between the national and international
sustainable development trends and facilitated mainstreaming of
sustainable development into sectoral policies. Needless to say, the
Commission has had a key role in preparing the Sustainable
Development Strategy of Finland and its evaluation.
Because of the positive experiences from our national Commission, we
are discouraged to learn from the Secretary General´s report for the
Rio + 20 preparations that national Commissions in many countries
have ceased to function. The report also tells us that national
sustainable development strategies are rarely viewed as principal
vehicles for policy coordination.
We think that revitalizing National Commissions on Sustainable
development and the processes leading to National Strategies for
Sustainable development strengthen countries´ capacities to respond
to both national and global challenges. Furthermore, integrating
policies on sustainable consumption and production more explicitly
into National SD strategies could strengthen their role in national
planning.
