United Nations – Sustainable Development – Indicators of Sustainable Development

Indicators for monitoring progress towards sustainable development are needed in order to assist decision-makers and policy-makers at all levels and to increase focus on sustainable development. Beyond the commonly used economic indicators of well-being, however, social, environmental and institutional indicators have to be taken into account as well to arrive at a broader, more complete picture of societal development. As part of the implementation of the Work Programme on Indicators of Sustainable Development (ISDs) adopted by the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) at its Third Session in April 1995, a working list of 134 indicators and related methodology sheets has been developed and is now ready for voluntary testing at the national level, by countries from all regions of the world. The aim of the CSD with respect to ISDs is to have an agreed set of indicators available for all countries to use by the year 2001

http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/isd.htm