The urban environment and local governance has been accorded unparalleled attention in the recent international debate on development. UNCED, the 1992 Earth Summit, will be remembered as the conference in which the world acknowledged the importance of the environment for social and economic development. This was articulated in Agenda 21, which emphasises cross-sectoral coordination, decentralisation of decision-making, and broad-based participatory approaches to developmentmanagement. UNCED also recognised the potential of the SCP as a vehicle for implementing Agenda 21 at the city level, and recommended strengthening its role in this regard. Habitat II, the City Summit, took this point further in Istanbul in 1996, in a global agenda for cooperation which acknowledges the direct contribution that sustainable cities can make to social and economic development.