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IIED’s work demonstrates that at local, national and global levels the key elements of sustainable development are of critical importance. Finding ways to achieve the eradication of poverty; stability of ecosystems; stable livelihoods for communities and individuals; and openness and accountability in decision-making - and balancing efforts to achieve progress in these areas - is central at all levels.

In practice, sustainable development initiatives have taken a back seat in global fora. Concerns over national interests - particularly security and trade - make these a peripheral set of concerns for many involved in global political processes. The notion of ‘sustainable development’ has lost a great deal of its edge in international debates: it can be bent to fit the perspectives and priorities of almost any user, and has lost a great deal of its currency as a result.

IIED’s principal challenges in this context are:

• to explore ways in which the policy imperatives which drive current global decision-making can be revised to reflect sustainable development priorities
• to strengthen channels by which grassroots perspectives and expertise can be more fully reflected in the decisions taken by global / Northern institutions
• to identify means by which policy lessons from existing IIED work can be taken into account by key audiences and developed through strategic links with global institutions and processes

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