World Summit on Sustainable Development:
SMART'ly Turning Rhetoric to Reality

David Collins
Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey

2,595 words

The nations of the world expressed the political will for Sustainable Development (SD) at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) that was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26th August to 4th September 2002. This will was summarised in a Plan of Implementation, a document that contains hundreds of commitments, objectives, promised actions and targets.

However, analysis shows that of the five hundred and thirty-one commitments made therein only seventeen are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely). Seven out of these seventeen SMART commitments were announced for the first time at the Summit (the other ten were pre-existing commitments such as the Millennium Development Goals). Five of these seven were commitments to produce documents. One was a commitment to eliminate destructive fishing practices by 2012 and the other was a commitment to halve the number of people who do not have access to basic sanitation by 2015.

The remainder of the commitments are political statements with no binding implications. Some contain 'get-out' clauses such as 'if possible' or 'aiming to achieve'. The majority (83%) contain neither a date nor a specific commitment that can be measured. Around ten per cent are stated as things that 'should' be done.

Although there will be actions carried out in areas, countries or regions that will affect the lives of millions or billions of people it appears that the political will of the WSSD was not very SMART. It is suggested that the creation of a global body held accountable to manage commitments on sustainability would be an effective mechanism for achieving our commitment to sustainability.

This paper - World Summit on Sustainable Development: SMART'ly Turning Rhetoric to Reality - is available online.