The effectiveness of Member States engagement in United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), Rio+20, will depend on the quality of national and regional preparations that will feed into the global process.

Capacity gaps may hinder effective participation of some member states and their ability to provide the necessary technical and stakeholder inputs and channel it to the regional and international level preparations. To this end the UN system plans to assist selected developing countries, approximately 60 altogether, to prepare for and contribute effectively to the UNCSD process based on their expression of demand and their particular needs.

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have developed a joint project for supporting national preparations and remain available to support developing countries in their preparation process.