Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment. Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the Statement of principles for the Sustainable Management of Forests were adopted by more than 178 Governments at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992.

      The full implementation of Agenda 21, the Programme for Further Implementation and the Commitments to the Rio principles, were strongly reaffirmed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, South Africa from 26 August to 4 September 2002.

        Our thematic area, Population, Environment and Poverty are covered in Chapters 3, 5 and 7 of Agenda 21. Chapter 3 deals with the subject of "Combating Poverty", wherein it consists of "Enabling the poor to achieve sustainable livelihoods".  Following programme areas are covered in Chapter 5 - Demographic Dynamics and Sustainability of Agenda 21: (i) Developing and Disseminating Knowledge concerning the links between demographic trends and factors and sustainable development; (ii) Formulating integrated national policies for environment and development, taking into account demographic trends and factors; (iii) Implementing integrated, environment and development programmes at the local level, taking into account demographic trends and factors. In context of thematic area related to Human Settlement, Chapter 7 of Agenda 21 gives a clear account on " Promoting Sustainable Human Settlement Development".

The following links will help to study the programme areas indetail: http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter3.htm
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter5.htm
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter7.htm