ABSTRACT
Strategies for sustainable development are relatively recent phenomena, but they rest on a complex set of developments that have evolved over the past four decades. The first is national economic development planning, which has been a major activity of most of the low income countries, especially those that emerged as new independent states after World War II. Development plans have been promoted by the World Bank and various international aid agencies. In 1960, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), launched the decade of development and greatly promoted the idea of national development plans. Using national income accounting and based on economic theories about capital mobilization, these have become elaborate and sophisticated (though not always effective) tools for planning at both national and international levels.
