Assessing costs and financing in developing countries to implement Agenda 21

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

The secretariat of UNCED has estimated the average annual cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities in Agenda 21 in developing countries to be over US$ 600,000 million, including about US$ 125,000 million on grant or concessional terms from the international community. These are indicative and order-of-magnitude estimates only, and have not been reviewed by governments. Actual costs will depend on, inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes governments decide upon for implementation.