The document summarizes Philippine Agenda 21 (PA 21), the Philippines' national agenda for sustainable development. PA 21 envisions better quality of life through just and sustainable development. It identifies key actors like business, government, and civil society and their roles. The enhanced PA 21 has five goals: poverty reduction, social equity, empowerment, peace, and ecological integrity. The Philippine Council for Sustainable Development coordinates fulfillment of PA 21 commitments. The CAPACITY 21 project helped build stakeholder capacity to implement PA 21 principles.
The document summarizes Philippine Agenda 21 (PA 21), the Philippines' national agenda for sustainable development. PA 21 envisions better quality of life through just and sustainable development. It identifies key actors like business, government, and civil society and their roles. The enhanced PA 21 has five goals: poverty reduction, social equity, empowerment, peace, and ecological integrity. The Philippine Council for Sustainable Development coordinates fulfillment of PA 21 commitments. The CAPACITY 21 project helped build stakeholder capacity to implement PA 21 principles.
The document summarizes Philippine Agenda 21 (PA 21), the Philippines' national agenda for sustainable development. PA 21 envisions better quality of life through just and sustainable development. It identifies key actors like business, government, and civil society and their roles. The enhanced PA 21 has five goals: poverty reduction, social equity, empowerment, peace, and ecological integrity. The Philippine Council for Sustainable Development coordinates fulfillment of PA 21 commitments. The CAPACITY 21 project helped build stakeholder capacity to implement PA 21 principles.
PHILIPPINE AGENDA 21 The civil society needs to specify its
commitments and contributions to achieving
What is Agenda 21? sustainability in the updated document. Agenda 21 is a program of action into the 21st Government departments need to be imbued century for bringing the Earth into a sustainable with the sustainable development perspective future. It was adopted by the participating with which to handle issues properly. governments of the world in the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), otherwise known as the Earth Summit, What are the Goal Elements of the Enhanced in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992. PA 21? What is Philippine Agenda 21 (PA 21)? The Enhanced PA 21 has five goal elements, Philippine Agenda 21 (PA 21) is our own national as follows: agenda for sustainable development. It is 1. Poverty Reduction: Poverty is a central basically made up of: concern of sustainable development. Consistent with this, the various consultations for the The Principles of Unity updating of PA 21 have yielded poverty reduction The Action Agenda agenda that includes measures to create an The Implementation Strategies enabling economic environment for sustained and broad-based growth; improve employment, productivity and income; and attain food security. PA 21 is the Philippines’ commitment to the 2. Social Equity: Social equity should mean UNCED. It also lays down the mix of strategies allocation of resources on the bases of efficiency that integrate the parameters in the country’s and equity to achieve balanced development. overall development strategy, identifies the Efficiency and equity mean the channeling of intervention areas (or Action Agenda) – from the resources to developing areas where greater national to the regional level – with the economic benefits accumulate and where there is corresponding implementing platforms and plans. greater need, distribution being dependent on the What is the Vision of PA 21? practicality and urgency of needs. PA 21 envisions a better quality of life for all 3. Empowerment and Good Governance: through the development of a just, moral, Empowerment is a precondition of informal creative, spiritual, economically-vibrant, caring, choices. Good governance is a necessary diverse yet cohesive society characterized by precondition to empowerment, as empowerment appropriate productivity, participatory and is to good governance. These two are a defining democratic process and living in harmony within element of each other. the limits of the carrying capacity of nature and 4. Peace and Solidarity: The cycle of poverty the integrity of creation. and conflict goes on as the costs of war escalate What is sustainable development? in terms of various kinds of destruction while Sustainable development as defined in the PA 21 withholding funds for basic services, resulting in (1996) is “harmonious integration of a sound and more poverty and underdevelopment. viable economy, responsible governance, social 5. Ecological Integrity: In general, the path cohesion and ecological integrity, to ensure that towards enhancing the integrity of the country’s development is a life-sustaining process.” ecological domain will have to involve heightened What is the Enhanced PA 21? and sustained implementation of environmental Ten yeas after the UNCED, world leaders laws, as well as the continued pursuit of resource gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa for the conservation, and environmental World Summit on Sustainable Development restoration/enhancement programs. (WSSD) to reinvigorate global commitment to What is the Philippine Council for Sustainable sustainable development. In line with the Development? Johannesburg Summit, the PA 21 was updated The Philippine Council for Sustainable into the Enhanced PA 21, particularly noting that: Development (PCSD) is a multi-sectoral body formed to coordinate and monitor the fulfillment of the commitments of the Philippines to the The rise of globalization and the creation of an external environment of finance, markets, and UNCED, and later, the WSSD. It has technology did not seem conducive to spearheaded the formulation of PA 21. Who are the key actors in sustainable sustainable development. development work? Philippine Agenda 21 (PA 21) recognizes three equity and managing the ecosystems that key actors in sustainable development, and sustain life. their roles in different realms of society. They are: PA 21 was adopted on 26 September 1996, Business, the key actor in economy, which is with the issuance of Memorandum Order No. mainly concerned with producing goods and 399 by then President Fidel V. Ramos which services for people. identified the roles of the Philippine Council for Government, the key actor in polity, which is Sustainable Development (PCSD) and each concerned with democratic governance and sector in the operationalization of PA 21. The security of human rights. action agenda is based on the imperatives of the Civil society, the key actor in culture, which is current national situation and emerging concerned with the development of the social landscape for sustainable development. and spiritual capacities of human beings. CAPACITY 21 project was a capacity-building Philippine Agenda 21 is the nation’s blueprint initiative designed to assist the government in for sustainable development. In concreting the fulfilling its commitment to the 1992 Rio Earth vision, it describes a path for individuals, Summit. Specifically, it aimed to support the families, households and communities; an action PCSD in integrating the principles of Agenda 21 plan for each ecosystem (coastal/marine, into national planning and development. freshwater, upland, lowland, and urban); and across ecosystems in consideration of the interaction of the various lifescapes and The major components of the project were: landscapes found therein. The path is grounded on respect and active advocacy for the (1) formulation of the Philippine Agenda 21 empowerment of the various social groupings of (PA21); (2) documentation of sustainable society to manage the economy, critical development practices; (3) human resource resources, society and culture, politics and development; and (4) conduct of the Information, governance and in the arena of foreign relations. Education and Communication (IEC) programme. These components were aimed at Philippine Agenda 21 advocates a fundamental developing stakeholders’ capacity to fulfill their shift in development thinking and approach. It mandate and perform their tasks in pursuit of departs from traditional conceptual frameworks sustainable development for the country. that emphasize sector-based and macro concerns. Philippine Agenda 21 promotes The Capacity 21 Project has linked several harmony and achieves sustainability by government agencies (such as the emphasizing. Department of Education, Culture and Sports, the Department of Social Welfare and A scale of intervention that is primarily area- Development, the National Economic and based. The national and global policy Development Authority, the Department of environment builds upon and supports area- Environment and Natural Resources) with based initiatives. several youth organizations from PO and NGOs in the preparation of the Philippine Agenda 21. Integrated island development approaches where applicable. This recognizes the This is a catalytic project that assisted PCSD archipelagic character of the Philippines members and other stakeholder groups in which includes many small island provinces. building their capacity to integrate principles of sustainable development and the Philippine People and integrity of nature at the Agenda 21 into their development plans and center of development initiatives. This programmes. One objective of the project is the implies the strengthening of roles, upgrading and strengthening of the institutional relationships, and interactions between and and technical capabilities of PCSD towards the among stakeholders in government, civil promotion and sustenance of advocacy efforts in society, labor and business. Basic sectors sustainable development. That objective will be have an important role to play in achieving pursued through the HRD component of the project which is designed to develop whilst enhancing the capability of national competencies, knowledge and the skills institutions like DENR and the League of Cities necessary for the formulation, integration, of the Philippines (LCP) to support LGUs in monitoring and evaluation of the Philippine EPM. Through the financial support from the Agenda 21. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UN-HABITAT, the three year programme was implemented through a Project Sustainable development is development that Management Coordinating Unit (PMCU) meets the needs of the present without established in the DENR, in partnership with the compromising the ability of future generations to LCP. meet their own needs Tagbilaran City Environmental Management economic development that is conducted without Office (TCEMO) was assisted by three part- depletion of natural resources. time coordinators for (1) solid, toxic and hazardous waste, (2) Air quality and traffic, (3) Coastal resources, water quality and liquid GOVERNANCE FOR PHILIPPINE AGENDA 21 wastes on temporary assignment to the office. Over time these City environmental The GOPA 21 with the support of the management tasks have gradually been lodged Philippines-Canada Development Fund was within the City Planning and Development implemented from 1999 to 2002 in order to Office. strengthen the capacities of stakeholders at the LGU level in collectively addressing the SD Successfully promoted the involvement & issues. Its overarching goal is the integration of participation of key stakeholders in LGU SD and PA21 in the decision-making structures decision making on priority environmental and processes among LGUs. GOPA 21 was concerns, and facilitated the establishment of implemented in nine pilot sites in the Visayas broader partnerships with other government and Mindanao and focused in the partner sites, agencies as well as with communities and the participatory and consensus-based formulation private sector. of local Agenda 21, and institutionalization of the local agenda 21 into the governance processes of target LGUs. Working Group members from civil society groups were able to acquire technical knowledge on coastal waste management, The project was instrumental in doing the which further strengthened their organization's following: i) identified and adressed priority interest and helped develop advocacy strategies capacity-building to enhance capacities of to their members, resulting in regular Coastal stakeholders in effecting SD in their respective Cleaning Campaigns. areas; ii) formulated social marketing plans to broaden social acceptability of SD concepts and The capacities of the LGU were enhanced in initiatives; iii) formulated and adopted policies different areas, including the establishment of and ordinances to be able to sustain the project Environmental Management Information outcomes; iv) defined the elements of Systems & Geographical Information Systems. localization; and v) conducted and initial assessment of PA 21 implementation. Sustainable Cities Programme in Philippines The Sustainable Cities Programme was implemented in the Philippines through the "Strengthening Local Environmental Planning and Management" (L-EPM) by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The Project was established to strengthen the Local Government Units (LGUs) and enhance their capacities for participatory environmental planning and management at the local level,