Sustainable development, which emerged back in 1972 includes three pillars upholding the « sustainable » orientation: the economy, the social sector and the environment. Sustainable development is natural resource- and- ecosystem-friendly. It sustains life on Earth, and ensures economic effectiveness without losing sight of the ultimate social goals of development, namely reducing poverty, addressing inequalities and exclusion and seeking equity.

In sustainable development, the assumption is that decisions and human behaviours are able to reconcile what seems to be irreconcilable, and to enlarge our vision of the issues: in such a context, we have to open up our temporal vision to the long term, that of future generations, and also our spatial horizon, taking into account the well-being of each and everyone, whether an inhabitant of the South or of the North, of a region, a city or a neighbourhood nearby. It is based on the quest for integration of and coherence in sectorwide policies and imposes joint tackling of the economic, social and environmental effects of any policy or

human action. As a result, the non-inclusion of the environmental issue in development actions and non-integration of the two developmental dimensions, namely environment and sustainable development, in our government policies, has created a heavy threat to the livelihoods of billions of human beings across the world.

One of the initiatives aimed at applying the principles of sustainable development derived from the Rio Declaration and the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development has been the establishment in 2003 of the first World Forum on Sustainable Development (WFSD). The forum which is held every year brings together decision-makers and managers from economic political, educational and associative backgrounds.
                     
            Since its establishment in 2003, the World Forum on Sustainable Development has discussed the following diverse key issues:

1. 2003 «Cooperation & Conflicts» ;
2. 2004 «Global Threats and Governance» ;
3. 2005 «Climate and world heritage in the face of global disorder» ;
4. 2006 «Mobility : energy, transports, flows and innovations» ;
5. 2007 «An unpredictable world» ;
6. 2008 «Africa Environment, Globalization».

In 2009, the Forum is scheduled to take place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on the theme:

«Climate change: Which Opportunities for Sustainable Development»