In the first meeting of the Commission for Sustainable Development Policies and National Agenda XXI, the then Minister of Planning, Antônio Kandir, announced that the Program "Brazil in Action" and the "Multi-year Plan 2000", covering the years 2000-2003, would be developed taking into account the sustainability criteria of Agenda 21 and with the participation of civil society.

To consider Agenda 21 as the basis for the development of the next multi-year plan of the government (for 2000-2003) is a considerable advance in terms of incorporating the concept of sustainable development in the public policies of the country. Thus, the National Agenda 21 has come to be considered a strategic instrument, through which a bridge should be constructed between the current model of development and the desired model.

The next Multi-year plan will be prepared in 1999. The formulation of the National Agenda 21 is still in progress, as will be described below. Even though the process of preparation of Agenda 21 won’t be completed by the time the Multi-year plan is approved, it is intended to integrate the existing results of the Agenda 21 process into the Multi-year Plan.