The world summit on sustainable development was held by United Nations in Johannesburg, South Africa from 26 August to 4 September in 2002. It was a follow-up conference of the ‘Earth Summit’ which was took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. Agenda 21 was a major achievement of the Earth Summit – an unprecedented plan to improve people’s lives and conserve our natural resources for reaching global sustainable development in the 21st century.

The major purpose of the Johannesburg summit was to provide an opportunity for the leaders of the day to specifically identify the goals and understand how to implement Agenda 21. At the same time, side and parallel events also took place near Johannesburg in order to further share experiences among participants. The summit received thousands of participants from varied fields, including heads of State and Government and other representatives from non-governmental organizations.  The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, which emerged from the summit, called for partnerships between the public and private sector in realising Agenda 21.