Since the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, the institutional framework to address environment and sustainable development challenges has witnessed a steady growth in the number of institutions and agreements, with more than 500 multilateral environmental agreements currently in existence. Yet the continuing deterioration in the natural resource base and ecosystems, global climate change and persistent poverty raise doubts about the capacity of the institutional framework to address these challenges. The 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) reaffirmed the need to strengthen the institutional framework for sustainable development (IFDS) and initiated specific action to foster more effective and coherent institutional responses.

Participants will learn about the strengths and weaknesses of the current institutional architecture concerned with sustainable development, key emerging policy issues requiring an effective institutional response, and the political challenges to advance reform as reflected in the negotiations leading up to, and during the Rio+20 Conference. 

Learning Methodology and Activities

Registration and Additional Information

Certificate of Completion