Since the beginning of the 1970s, the United Nations has been considering and adopting resolutions on the need to integrate environmental and social concerns into any process of growth and development. Indeed, in 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, known as “Stockholm”, placed ecological issues at the forefront of international concerns and marked the beginning of a dialogue between industrialized and developing countries concerning the link between economic growth, environmental pollution (air, water, soil) and the well-being of people around the world. After twenty (20) years, in 1992, the Conference on Environment and Development defined the fundamental principles and the program of action to ensure sustainable development.

Indeed, from a practical point of view, the consensus on sustainable development calls for international cooperation and national political will to bring together these three pillars of economic development, social development and environmental protection. At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) or Rio+20 in June 2012, the aim will be to achieve the following goals: to generate renewed political commitment to sustainable development; to assess the progress made and the remaining gaps in implementation; and to address emerging challenges.

The sustainable development process in Côte d'Ivoire saw significant progress at the Rio conference in 1992. Indeed, the country has established a political, institutional and legal framework designed to support this process in order to involve all development actors: the State, the population, the private sector and civil society. Despite the encouraging results, numerous shortcomings and shortcomings are observed. These include: (1) the absence of a mechanism and a plan for financing strategies; (2) the poor education/communication of actors for the development of ecological awareness and citizenship; (3) the ineffectiveness of legal texts; (4) the ineffectiveness of legal texts; (4) the inadequacy of incentive economic instruments; (5) the weakness of the involvement of scientific research in SD.