About the Marrakech Process
Towards a Global Framework for Action on Sustainable Consumption and Production

"The Marrakech Process has a value in itself. It is a Process that, while leading towards a 10YFP, is much more than a steppingstone. It is a substantive dialogue and forum for cooperation on SCP issues among and between governments and other stakeholders at international and regional levels."
Paul Hofseth, Ministry of Environment of Norway

In this section, you wil find a short introduction to:

For more information, please see the updated two-pager overview of the Marrakech Process and the Marrakech Process Frequently Asked Questions.

Why do we need SCP?

Today more than ever, in a context of climate change and financial crisis, it has become clear that our global community urgently needs to adopt more sustainable lifestyles to both reduce the use of natural resources and CO2 emissions moving towards low-carbon societies and green economy. This is crucial in order to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in both developing and developed countries; as well as to create the 'space' for the poor to meet their basic needs.

Sustainable consumption and production (SCP) is about "the use of services and related products, which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or product so as not to jeopardize the needs of further generations" (Oslo symposium, 1994).

SCP is also about encouraging resource and energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, green jobs and better quality of life. The implementation of sustainable consumption and production as an integrated approach helps to achieve overall development plans. It can therefore lead to long-term sustainable development by reducing future economic, environmental and social costs, strengthening economic competitiveness and reducing poverty.

What is the Marrakech Process?

The Marrakech Process is a global multi-stakeholder process to support the implementation of SCP and to develop a Global Framework for Action on SCP, the so-called 10-Year Framework of Programmes on SCP (10YFP). The 10YFP will be reviewed by the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) during the 2010/11 two-year cycle.

The Process responds to the call of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002) to support the regional and national initiatives to accelerate the shift towards SCP patterns, thus de-linking economic growth from environmental degradation.

UNEP and UN DESA are the leading agencies of this global process, with an active participation of national governments, development agencies, business and industry, civil society and other stakeholders. The first meeting devoted to developing the10 YFP took place in Marrakech, Morocco in June 2003, hence the name.

Mechanisms of the Marrakech Process

The Marrakech Process is a dynamic platform which includes various mechanisms and stakeholders.
To learn about each mechanism of the Marrakech Process, click on the box-dialogues below:

Phases of the Marrakech Process

Knowing that SCP has different meanings and present different challenges in each region of the world, the Marrakech Process has taken a participative and bottom-up approach. The development of the 10 Year Framework of Programmes on SCP (10YFP) has therefore five phases:


  • Phase 1: Organising regional consultations in all regions to promote awareness and identify priorities and needs for SCP

  • Phase 2: Building regional strategies and implementation mechanisms with regional and national ownership to be endorsed by the relevant regional institutions;

  • Phase 3: Implementing concrete projects and programmes at the regional, national and local levels for developing and/or improving SCP tools and methodologies, with the Task
    Forces as the main implementation mechanisms;

  • Phase 4: Evaluating progress, exchanging information, and building international cooperation and coordination through the international review meetings.

  • Phase 5: Securing and incorporating multistakeholder inputs on the elaboration of the 10YFP to accelerate the shift towards SCP patterns. The framework will be reviewed at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD18/19) during the biennium 2010/11 and will take into consideration all the outcomes of the four phases listed above.

Some concrete outcomes

The Marrakech Process has made progress and achieved important outcomes, some of them are:

Timeline of the Marrakech Process