A year before the scheduled World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD), most experts agree that progress towards the goals set in Agenda 21 has been unsatisfactory. The world still awaits a modus operandi for ground-level action. It is not that we have misunderstood the problems, but that we have failed to prepare the socio-economic systems needed to deal with these complex, inter-linked issues. Our laws, conventions, treaties, institutions, mechanisms and information are all developed in isolation, and often segregated based on topic or theme. To promote the further implementation of Agenda 21, we must fill the gap between our perception of problems and our solution-making process through strategic approaches, such as Inter-Linkages, that can clarify the linkages between our ecosystems and our socio-economic institutions.

A number of eminent policy makers and scholars will participate in the meeting, including: Maurice Strong, Senior Adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Chairman of UN Reform and Secretary-General of UNCED; Jan Pronk, Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment of the Netherlands, and President of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change's COP6; Emil Salim, former Indonesian State Minister for Population and Environment, and Chairman of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development Bureau of the Preparatory Committee of the WSSD; Ambassador Richard Benedick, former US chief negotiator for the Ozone Convention and author of the book Ozone Diplomacy; Prof. Norman Myers, leading British ecologist and environmental economist and visiting fellow at Green College, Oxford University; Mr. Delmar Blasco, Director General of the RAMSAR Convention; Mr. Martin Kohr, Executive Director of Third World Network and one of the South's most prominent social commentators; and Akiko Domoto, Governor of Chiba Prefecture and former President of GLOBE International.

Key issues to be deliberated in the meeting are the inter-linkages between the chapters of Agenda 21 (specifically, the linkages between globalization and sustainable development), the inter-linkages between multilateral environmental agreements and strategies for sustainable development.

The outputs of the meeting will be fed into the official WSSD preparatory conferences and meetings.

Plenary sessions will be broadcast live on the Internet. Please visit www.unu.edu on the day of the conference. Media representatives are cordially invited to attend.

The programme is attached.