UN Economic and Social Development
Division for Sustainable Development

CSD-11

The Commission will now function on the basis of two-year "Implementation Cycles", including Review and Policy Years. The Review Year will evaluate progress made in implementing sustainable development goals and identifying obstacles and constraints, while the Policy Year will decide on measures to speed up implementation and mobilize action to overcome these obstacles and constraints.

For the first two-year cycle (2004-2005), the CSD will focus on water, sanitation and human settlements, followed by energy, climate change, atmosphere and industrial development issues in the 2006-2007 cycle. In every cycle, a number of cross-cutting issues will be addressed, such as poverty eradication, changing unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, health, education and sustainable development in a globalizing world, as well as means of implementation.

The years 2016-2017 will be devoted to an overall appraisal of the implementation of Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.

CSD-11 also took a range of decisions on other practical issues relating to its future programme and methods of work. These included: enhancing the role of regional and sub-regional inputs to the CSD process; making reporting mechanisms more effective; promoting greater collaboration and cohesion between sustainable development activities undertaken by the UN system and other international institutions; and strengthening the involvement of major groups in the activities of the CSD.

Building on work undertaken through the WSSD process to encourage partnerships between governments, major groups and other stakeholders for implementing sustainable development initiatives on the ground, delegates also agreed on a set of criteria and guidelines for partnerships wanting to be recognized by the Commission, and decided that such partnerships should report regularly on their progress.

The Commission elected H.E. Børge Brende, Norway's Minister of Environment as Chairman of CSD-12.