english.txt

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capacity-building in the areas of public administration, central banking, tax administration, savings 
institutions and financial markets.

2.44. Particular efforts in the implementation of the four programme areas identified in this chapter are 
warranted in view of the especially acute environmental and developmental problems of the least developed 
countries.A21: International Cooperation (Ch. 2), Advance CopyPage 1



Chapter 3  -  Combating Poverty

This is a final, advanced version of a chapter of Agenda 21, as adopted by the Plenary in 
Rio de Janeiro, on June 14, 1992. This document will be further edited, translated into the official 
languages, and published by the United Nations for the General Assembly this autumn.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

                PROGRAMME AREA

Enabling the poor to achieve sustainable livelihoods

Basis for action

3.1. Poverty is a complex multidimensional problem with origins in both the national and international 
domains. No uniform solution can be found for global application. Rather, country-specific programmes to 
tackle poverty and international efforts supporting national efforts, as well as the parallel process of 
creating a supportive international environment, are crucial for a solution to this problem. The eradication 
of poverty and hunger, greater equity in income distribution and human resource development remain major 
challenges everywhere. The struggle against poverty is the shared responsibility of all countries.

3.2. While managing resources sustainably, an environmental policy that focuses mainly on the conservation 
and protection of resources must take due account of those who depend on the resources for their 
livelihoods. Otherwise it could have an adverse impact both on poverty and on chances for long-term 
success in resource and environmental conservation. Equally, a development policy that focuses mainly 
on increasing the production of goods without addressing the sustainability of the resources on which 
production is based will sooner or later run into declining productivity, which could also have an adverse 
impact on poverty. A specific anti-poverty strategy is therefore one of the basic conditions for ensuring 
sustainable development. An effective strategy for tackling the problems of poverty, development and 
environment simultaneously should begin by focusing on resources, production and people and should cover 
demographic issues, enhanced health care and education, the rights of women, the role of youth and of 
indigenous people and local communities and a democratic participation process in association with 
improved governance.

3.3. Integral to such action is, together with international support, the promotion of economic growth 
in developing countries that is both sustained and sustainable and direct action in eradicating poverty 
by strengthening employment and income-generating programmes.

Objectives

3.4. The long-term objective of enabling all people to achieve sustainable livelihoods should provide 
an integrating factor that allows policies to address issues of development, sustainable resource 
management and poverty eradication simultaneously. The objectives of this programme area are:

(a) To provide all persons urgently with the opportunity to earn a sustainable livelihood;

(b) To implement policies and strategies that promote adequate levels of funding and focus on integrated 
human development policies, including income generation, increased local control of resources, local 
institution-strengthening and capacity-building and greater involvement of non-governmental 
organizations and local levels of government as delivery mechanisms;

(c) To develop for all poverty-stricken areas integrated strategies and programmes of sound and 
sustainable management of the environment, resource mobilization, poverty eradication and alleviation, 
employment and income generation;

(d) To create a focus in national development plans and budgets on investment in human capital, with 
special policies and programmes directed at rural areas, the urban poor, women and children.

Activities

3.5. Activities that will contribute to the integrated promotion of sustainable livelihoods and 
environmental protection cover a variety of sectoral interventions involving a range of actors, from 
local to global, and are essential at every level, especially the community and local levels. Enabling 
actions will be necessary at the national and international levels, taking full account of regional and 
subregional conditions to support a locally driven and country-specific approach. In general design, 
the programmes should:

(a) Focus on the empowerment of local and community groups through the principle of delegating authority, 
accountability and resources to the most appropriate level to ensure that the programme will be 
geographically and ecologically specific;

(b) Contain immediate measures to enable those groups to alleviate poverty and to develop sustainability;

(c) Contain a long-term strategy aimed at establishing the best possible conditions for sustainable 
local, regional and national development that would eliminate poverty and reduce the inequalities 
between various population groups. It should assist the most disadvantaged groups - in particular, 
women, children and youth within those groups -and refugees. The groups will include poor smallholders, 
pastoralists, artisans, fishing communities, landless people, indigenous communities, migrants and the 
urban informal sector.

3.6. The focus here is on specific cross-cutting measures - in particular, in the areas of basic education, 
primary/maternal health care, and the advancement of women.

(a) Empowering communities

3.7. Sustainable development must be achieved at every level of society. Peoples' organizations, women's 
groups and non-governmental organizations are important sources of innovation and action at the local 
level and have a strong interest and proven ability to promote sustainable livelihoods. Governments, in 
cooperation with appropriate international and non-governmental organizations, should support a 
community-driven approach to sustainability, which would include, inter alia:

(a) Empowering women through full participation in decision-making;

(b) Respecting the cultural integrity and the rights of indigenous people and their communities;

(c) Promoting or establishing grass-roots mechanisms to allow for the sharing of experience and 
knowledge between communities;

(d) Giving communities a large measure of participation in the sustainable management and protection 
of the local natural resources in order to enhance their productive capacity;

(e) Establishing a network of community-based learning centres for capacity-building and sustainable 
development.

(b) Management-related activities

3.8. Governments, with the assistance of and in cooperation with appropriate international, 
non-governmental and local community organizations, should establish measures that will directly 
or indirectly:

(a) Generate remunerative employment and productive occupational opportunities compatible with 
country-specific factor endowments, on a scale sufficient to take care of prospective increases 
in the labour force and to cover backlogs;

(b) With international support, where necessary, develop adequate infrastructure, marketing systems, 
technology systems, credit systems and the like and the human resources needed to support the above 
actions and to achieve a widening of options for resource-poor people. High priority should be given 
to basic education and professional training;

(c) Provide substantial increases in economically efficient resource productivity and measures to 
ensure that the local population benefits in adequate measure from resource use;

(d) Empower community organizations and people to enable them to achieve sustainable livelihoods;

(e) Set up an effective primary health care and maternal health care system accessible to all;

(f) Consider strengthening/developing legal frameworks for land management, access to land resources and  
land ownership - in particular, for women - and for the protection of tenants;

(g) Rehabilitate degraded resources, to the extent practicable, and introduce policy measures to promote 
sustainable use of resources for basic human needs;

(h) Establish new community-based mechanisms and strengthen existing mechanisms to enable communities to 
gain sustained access to resources needed by the poor to overcome their poverty;

(i) Implement mechanisms for popular participation - particularly by poor people, especially women - in 
local community groups, to promote sustainable development;

(j) Implement, as a matter of urgency, in accordance with country-specific conditions and legal systems, 
measures to ensure that women and men have the same right to decide freely and responsibly on the number 
and spacing of their children and have access to the information, education and means, as appropriate, 
to enable them to exercise this right in keeping with their freedom, dignity and personally held values, 
taking into account ethical and cultural considerations. Governments should take active steps to 
implement programmes to establish and strengthen preventive and curative health facilities, which 
include women-centred, women-managed, safe and effective reproductive health care and affordable, 
accessible services, as appropriate, for the responsible planning of family size, in keeping with 
freedom, dignity and personally held values, taking into account ethical and cultural considerations. 
Programmes should focus on providing comprehensive health care, including pre-natal care, education 
and information on health and responsible parenthood and should provide the opportunity for all women 
to breast-feed fully, at least during the first four months post-partum. Programmes should fully support 
women's productive and reproductive roles and well-being, with special attention to the need for 
providing equal and improved health care for all children and the need to reduce the risk of maternal 
and child mortality and sickness;

(k) Adopt integrated policies aiming at sustainability in the management of urban centres;

(l) Undertake activities aimed at the promotion of food security and, where appropriate, food 
self-sufficiency within the context of sustainable agriculture;

(m) Support research on and integration of traditional methods of production that have been shown 
to be environmentally sustainable;

(n) Actively seek to recognize and integrate informal-sector activities into the economy by removing 
regulations and hindrances that discriminate against activities in those sectors;

(o) Consider making available lines of credit and other facilities for the informal sector and improved 
access to land for the landless poor so that they can acquire the means of production and reliable access 
to natural resources. In many instances special considerations for women are required. Strict feasibility 
appraisals are needed for borrowers to avoid debt crises;

(p) Provide the poor with access to fresh water and sanitation;

(q) Provide the poor with access to primary education.

(c) Data, information and evaluation

3.9. Governments should improve the collection of information on target groups and target areas in order 
to facilitate the design of focused programmes and activities, consistent with the target-group needs 
and aspirations. Evaluation of such programmes should be gender-specific, since women are a particularly 
disadvantaged group.

(d) International and regional cooperation and coordination

3.10. The United Nations system, through its relevant organs, organizations and bodies, in cooperation
with Member States and with appropriate international and non-governmental organizations, should make 
poverty alleviation a major priority and should: 

(a) Assist Governments, when requested, in the formulation and implementation of national action 
programmes on poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Action-oriented activities of 
relevance to the above objectives, such as poverty eradication, projects and programmes supplemented 
where relevant by food aid, and support and special emphasis on employment and income generation, 
should be given particular attention in this regard;

(b) Promote technical cooperation among developing countries for poverty eradication activities;

(c) Strengthen existing structures in the United Nations system for coordination of action relating 
to poverty eradication, including the establishment of a focal point for information exchange and 
the formulation and implementation of replicable pilot projects to combat poverty;

(d) In the follow-up of the implementation of Agenda 21, give high priority to the review of the 
progress made in eradicating poverty; (e) Examine the international economic framework, including 
resource flows and structural adjustment programmes, to ensure that social and environmental concerns 
are addressed, and in this connection, conduct a review of the policies of international organizations, 
bodies and agencies, including financial institutions, to ensure the continued provision of basic 
services to the poor and needy;

(f) Promote international cooperation to address the root causes of poverty. The development process 
will not gather momentum if developing countries are weighted down by external indebtedness, if 
development finance is inadequate, if barriers restrict access to markets and if commodity prices 
and the terms of trade in developing countries remain depressed.