At the invitation of the Earth Council, some five hundred leading figures in the fields of environment and development will again come together in Rio, this time to take stock and look at the future.   The global event,  which takes place 13-19 March, 1997, will be the culmination of a major civil society campaign, “Rio + 5”, organised to involve the major stakeholders in moving sustainable development “from Agenda to Action”.  The Rio + 5 Forum will focus on key strategies and management systems for operationalising sustainable development at the local, national and global levels.   

The Earth Summit was the first global conference that brought the independent sectors, or civil society, business and other stakeholders directly into the negotiating process.  The intersectoral dialogue preceding and during the conference was far richer, and as a consequence far more influential on the outcome, than any that came before.   It was also the occasion of the ‘92 Global Forum, held at Flamengo Park, which brought together the largest ever gathering of independent sectors and provided opportunities for thousands of participants to take part in hundreds of indepth interactions on issues of sustainable development. 

The independent sectors at the Earth Summit, no less than the others, made their commitments towards fulfilling the goals of the conventions, agreements and particularly Agenda 21.   

As one of the prime movers of the ‘92 Global Forum, and as a founding member of the Earth Council, Development Alternatives has felt a particular responsibility to make its own contributions towards the sustainable development goals of Agenda 21 and the conventions of Rio.  Our mission, to create sustainable livelihoods on a large scale, brings together many of the concerns that underlie the global agreements.  And it has, over the years, forced us again and again to go from “agenda to action”.