September 2006: Experts attending a meeting in Stockholm have discussed the issue of “institutionalizing sustainable development.” The Expert Meeting on Institutionalizing Sustainable Development, which took place from 31 August-1 September 2006, was organized by the UN Division for Sustainable Development (DSD), with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

It was the first meeting that DSD has jointly organized with the OECD. More than 100 participants from developed and developing countries discussed governance aspects of sustainable development and advancing the implementation of national sustainable development strategies. Follow-up actions considered by participants included proposals to organize a workshop to be held in a developing country in Asia in March 2007, and to update, harmonize and annotate the guiding principles for national sustainable development strategies that are used by OECD and by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). Participants also suggested that the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) could review the possibility of developing guidelines for developing countries for increasing linkages between national sustainable development strategies, poverty reduction strategies, and plans for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. There was also discussion of the UN, OECD and EC possibly developing a common framework for conducting peer reviews of national sustainable development strategies and comparing the outcomes of currently-planned peer reviews, and of major international organizations (OECD, UN, World Bank, IMF) setting up an informal dialogue on treatment of sustainable development and related governance issues within their organizations. [Meeting website]