BellagioSTAMP: Enhances accountability and effectiveness in facing growing sustainability challenges

BUSAN—October 28, 2009—BellagioSTAMP, a new set of guiding principles to tackle emerging threats that jeopardize the sustainability of entire communities, regions, countries and the planet itself, will be presented today by the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the OECD at a global forum on measuring the progress of societies in Busan.

"BellagioSTAMP enables true accountability in governance and management for sustainable development, by addressing the totality of the assessment process," said László Pintér, director of the Measurement and Assessment program at IISD, one of the main architects of BellagioSTAMP.

The need for a new system of measurement and assessment is driven by unprecedented and concurrent crises to climate, food, health, energy and the economy and the need to respond to even greater challenges ahead.

"Despite the high and growing costs of unsustainable development, our ability to identify and measure risks and capitalize on opportunities is weak," Pintér said.

BellagioSTAMP can be used to review the adequacy of existing measurement and assessment practices or to guide the development of new initiatives. The principles offer flexibility in the choice of design of indicators, and how they are interpreted, communicated and used.

"BellagioSTAMP's power is its simplicity and ability to capture and distill complex concepts and issues."

For more information, please contact László Pintér, Ph.D., director IISD Measurement and Assessment, [email protected], or IISD media and communication officer, Nona Pelletier Phone: +1-(204)-958-7740, Cell: +1-(204)-962-1303.

About BellagioSTAMP (SusTainability Assessment and Measurement Principles)

A first set of Bellagio Principles for assessing progress toward sustainability was published in 1996 and was subsequently used by local and international organizations in sustainability assessments. Though successful, new assessment methods and sustainability challenges overtook the original principles. As with the original set, BellagioSTAMP has been established by a group of international experts meeting in Bellagio, Italy, organized by IISD and the OECD's Measuring the Progress of Societies initiative.

About the Conference

Third OECD World Forum on "Statistics, Knowledge and Policy" Charting Progress, Building Visions, Improving Life (PDF - 485 kb) focuses on three questions: What does progress mean for our societies?; What are the new paradigms to measure progress?; and How can there be better policies within these new paradigms to foster the progress of our societies?

About IISD

The International Institute for Sustainable Development contributes to sustainable development by advancing policy recommendations on international trade and investment, economic policy, climate change and energy, measurement and assessment, and natural resources management, and the enabling role of communication technologies in these areas. We report on international negotiations and disseminate knowledge gained through collaborative projects, resulting in more rigorous research, capacity building in developing countries, better networks spanning the North and the South, and better global connections among researchers, practitioners, citizens and policy-makers.