Strategies for National Sustainable Development
A Handbook for their Planning and Implementation

This handbook has been prepared as a collaborative activity between IUCN and IIED. It has involved members of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Strategies and Planning, specifically its Working Group on Strategies for Sustainability and various members of the IUCN Secretariat, and of IIED, particularly its Environmental Planning Group. During the past o years, IUCN, through its field offices, has been working to establish regional networks of people with experience in strategies. Networks in Africa, Asia and Latin America have met a number of times and made important contributions to this handbook, which is one of a series being prepared by IUCN covering various types of strategies and associated methods for sustainable development. This handbook also draws heavily from material included in a series of strategy case studies prepared by the regional networks.

The process of preparing the handbook began in 1988 when IUCN held a workshop in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, to review the experience with national conservation strategies. More recently, members of the regional networks stressed the importance of such strategies and of sharing more widely the lessons of over a decade of strategy experience. Two network meetings were held in May 1992: one in Gland, Switzerland, the other-in San José, Costa Rica, -to set out a framework for the handbook and gather case study material. In November l992, the, Africa network met in Lake Baringo, Kenya, and the, Asia network met in Air Keroh, Malaysia, to critically review an initial draft of the handbook and distil the key lessons learned.

In July 1993, the Africa network met again in Kenya part of a broader meeting of IUCN Eastern African members, and the Latin America network met the same month in Isla Taboga, Panama. They discussed in more detail a handbook on local strategies and various strategy methods. The Asia network came together again in December 1993 in Delhi, India, to focus specifically on monitoring and evaluation; a follow-up meeting on this subject was held in Ottawa, Canada, in April 1994. Those meetings provided the final input to Chapter 9 on keeping strategies on track. They also reviewed the draft of a more detailed handbook on the assessment process, currently being prepared through a two-year programme of field testing.

This handbook reflects the strategy experience in Africa, Asia, Latin America and in a number of OECD countries. It does not specifically address Eastern Europe, although the lessons learned elsewhere are relevant to this region. At the time of the network meetings on which much of the analysis is based, the NEAP process and development of environment funds in Eastern Europe were in early stages. Now there is a rich experience in that region which needs t be shared through the other strategy networks worldwide, particularly as common problems of implementation, financing and monitoring are now being addressed.

Members of the IUCN regional networks who have been involved in the development of this handbook, either through their participation in network meetings, the preparation of case studies or the provision of materials and comments on various drafts include:

Ramón Alvarado, A Anitha, Anil Agarwal, Ishak bin Ariffin, César Barrientos, Stephen Bender, Chitra Deo Bhatt, Robin Bidwell, Ben Boer, Max Börlin, Gerardo Budowski, Frank Bracho, Dulce M Cacha, Richard Carpenter, Juan-josé. Castro-Chamberlain, Ana Cazzadori, Sandhya Chatterji, Patrick M Chipungu, Alecky Chuprine, Barrv Coates, Ralph Cobham, Cynthia Cook, Arthur Dahl, Geoffrey Davison, Jaime Echeverria, Tewolde Berhan G Egziabher, Margaret Evans, Patricia Fernandez Alison Field-juma, Vladimir Flint, Roberto Flores V, Tom Fox, Peter Freeman, Keith Garratt, George Greene Wim Groen, Sterlin Grogan, Arthur Hanson, Carlos Hernandez, Arthur Hoole Saleemul Huq, Nadeem llahi, Antony Judge, GMB Kariisa, Kerry ten Kate, George Khroda, Jerry Kozlowski, Bohumil Kucera, Hubert LeBlanc, Arturo López Ornat, Oscar Lücke, Toziri Lweno, Diego Lynch, Adolfo Mascarenhas, Andrea Maite-Baker Juan Mayr, Lucia Merino, Ajay Mhotra, Lester Milbrath, Roger Morales Victor Morgan, Margaret Mukahanana, David Munro, Fannie Mutepfa, John Naysmith, Kunzang Norbu, Silvio Olivieri, Ayo Olojede, Gene Owens, Jirf Pall, Drona Pkhrel, Carlos Quesada, Syed Ayub Qutub, James Ramsey, MS Ranatunga, Haroun Er Rashid, Walter Reid, Jennifer Reithbergen-McCracken, Carlos Rui Ribero, Arne Schiotz, José Arnoldo Sermeño Lima, Parmesh Shah, Anuradha Shrestha, Murray Silberman,

David Simmons, Naresh Singh, Scott Slocombe, Stuart Stevenson, François Terrason, Eduardo Trigo, Alex Trisoglio, Ted Trzyna, Frank Tugwell, Dan Tunstall, Karma Ura, Edmundo Vásquez, Robert Wabunoha, Ranjit Wijewansa, Brian Wilkes, and Adrian Wood.

Members of IUCN's Secretariat, either in field offices or headquarters, who have contributed in important ways, either as members of the network or through their comment on drafts include:

Marcela Bonilla, Pierre Campredon, Anil Chitrakar, Michael Cockerell, Mark Dillenbeck, Danny Elder, Hans Friederich, Meghan Golay, Mark Halle, Martin Holdgate, John L Hough, Aban Marker Kabraji, Ram Khadka, John McEachearn, Jeff McNeely, Nancy MacPherson, MM Maimbolwa, Peter-John Meynell, Allen Putney, Peter Sutcliffe, Sylvie Wabbes, and Leslie Wijesinghe.

One of the most important activities stemming from the discussions of the regional strategy networks is the IUCN programme currently under way in collaboration with IDRC, to develop framework for assessment of strategies so that they stick to their sustainable development goals. Chapter 9 draws from the initial phases of this work, which involves a special IUCN team, including: Ashoke Chatterjee, Eric Dudley, Tracey Goodman, Tony Hodge, Alejandro Imbach, Ashoke Khosla, Diana Lee-Smith, Adil Najam, Vijay Pillai and George C Varughese.

IIED staff members and associates who have made contributions at various times during the drafting process include:

Bruce Aylward, Ed Barbier, Josh Bishop, Michael Carley, Julian Lewis, Diana Mitlin, Jules Pretty, Nick Robins, Barrry Sadler, Richard Sandbrook, David Satterthwaite, Bryan Spooner, John Thompson, Koy Thomson and Camilla Toulmin.

This handbook was written by an IUCN/IIED team consisting of Jeremy Carew-Reid, Robert Prescott-Allen, Stephen Bass and Barry Dalal-Clayton.

IIED's contribution was assisted by funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Overseas Development Administration of the UK. IUCN's contribution was assisted by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA) through its programme contribution to IUCN.

Publication of this handbook was supported by the UK ODA, UNDP and CIDA.