NCSD
National Councils for Sustainable Development
The UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) was established following the Rio Earth Summit 1992 to ensure effective implementation of the Earth Summit agreements, including Agenda 21. NCSDs can be seen as national level counterparts of the UNCSD, facilitating countries' follow-up of the implementation of Agenda 21 at the national level, and assisting in preparation of national reports to be presented regularly to the UNCSD. Just as the UNCSD provides a forum to coordinate amongst different countries' interests and concerns to negotiate common global sustainable development objectives and targets, NCSDs coordinate amongst the plurality of national stakeholder interests and concerns to develop and carry out collaborative sustainable development strategies, policies, programmes and projects for the common national good.