The Institute on Information and Communication for Sustainability is being established to compile, develop, organize, utilize and make available applications of information and communication technology in support of broad-based participation in decision-making and actions relating to sustainability.

The Institute is being planned as a collaborative project involving United Nations agencies, governments, and the "major groups" identified in Agenda 21 as having a critical role to play in the development and implementation of actions in support of sustainability.

The continuing rapid technological development -- and the associated increase in power and affordability -- in the realms of information and communication technology offer increasingly valuable tools in support of timely and affordable access to documents and information relating to policies, decisions and actions affecting sustainability.

While there are an increasing number of creative initiatives in the application of information and communication technology to sustainability issues, there remain many areas where there are serious shortcomings and where a number of key activities remain very much on an ad hoc and uncoordinated basis.

Among the areas on which the Institute plans to focus are the following:

• Timely, comprehensive and systematic dissemination of United Nations documents via the Internet
• Support for effective and affordable access to information and communication technology and related skills and resources in developing countries and countries in transition
• Methodologies for compiling, organizing and disseminating information on policy and action concerns, recommendations and initiatives of non-governmental organizations and grassroots organizations, particularly from developing countries
• Support for the integration of policies, decision-making and actions originating in different but related fora, including but not limited to the following:
  • The "Rio Cluster" of United Nations Proceedings, including United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Climate Change Convention, Biodiversity Convention, Commission on Sustainable Development, Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, Convention to Combat Desertification and the Effects of Drought
  • International Conference on Population and Development
  • World Conference on Human Rights
  • World Summit for Social Development
  • Fourth World Conference on Women
  • United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II)
  • Open-Ended Working Group on the Review of Arrangements for Consultations with Non-Governmental Organizations
  • Agenda For Peace
  • Arms Control and Disarmament proceedings
  • Agenda For Development
  • The Bretton Woods institutions, including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade / World Trade Organization
• Development, compilation, application and dissemination of processes and methodologies for integrating complex information related to sustainability, including the use of geographic information systems, CD-Rom, and hypertext -- including on-line hypertext tools such as the World Wide Web
• Engaging the academic community more fully in addressing practical, theoretical and policy issues relating to sustainability, and in the utilization of information and communication technology in order to address more effectively practical, theoretical and policy issues relating to the integration of the complex set of inter-related processes affecting sustainability.