Definition of indicators for environmentally sustainable development

Abstract For comparison and assessment of project-effects, in the case of interventions undertaken in developing countries, there is a requirement for the definition of a scale against which activities can be measured and verified in evaluating their contribution towards “sustainability”. In order to create such a scale, indicators for sustainable development have to be identified. The UNESCO-Jakarta office has been actively involved in the process of defining indicators for environmentally sound and sustainable development (ESSD) in the region of south and southeast Asia. A UN inter-agency working group was established to define a list of areas for the elaboration of ESSD indicators to be used as a common framework for evaluating development activities in terms of environmental issues. During meetings of this working group the UN agencies actually involved with the issue provided suggestions which were then analysed by UNESCO and combined to an outline of ESSD indicators. The input of all UN agencies has been analysed in order to classify the suggested ESSD indicators using a structural outline developed by UNESCO covering dominant environmental processes. A summary has been derived which takes into account the suggestions made by the different UN agencies.