Facilitating capacity-building and training programmes for local authorities on sustainable development

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.

Regional Development Agencies will be new business-led bodies in each of the regions of England. Section 4 of the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998 gives RDAs a statutory purpose to contribute to sustainable development in the United Kingdom. They will be the lead bodies at the regional level for co-ordinating inward investment, raising people's skills, improving the competitiveness of business and regeneration activity. They will develop and promote a strategy for their region covering the whole range of their activities.