[2] In 1988 at the United Nations General Assembly, then-Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announced plans to "establish a centre which will promote internationally the concept of environmentally sustainable development," to be headquartered in Winnipeg.
[3] The new centre would be part of Canada's contribution to preparations for what became the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Earth Summit.
[4] Two years later in 1990, IISD was formally set up, following the signature of an agreement between then-Canadian Environment Minister Lucien Bouchard and Manitoba Premier Gary Filmon.
[6] In 2016, IISD launched the SDG Knowledge Hub, a dedicated site providing news updates, commentary, analysis, calendars, and guest articles on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
These pillars are put into practice through IISD's five programs: Economic Law and Policy, Energy, Resilience, Tracking Progress, and Water.
[7] Over the past decade, IISD has expanded its programmatic work to include serving as the secretariat of several intergovernmental forums, networks, and alliances.
These include the Intergovernmental Forum (IGF) on Mining, Minerals, Metals, and Sustainable Development [8] and the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Global Network.
This collaboration includes developing new research, conducting news reporting and analysis, providing technical assistance and capacity-building support, and convening workshops and other knowledge-sharing events.
To achieve that vision, IISD has structured its work around a framework called CREATE, which underpins the organization's current strategic plan through 2025.
IISD's Resources work covers three main areas: the economic sectors of mining and agriculture, which also fall under the Economies' pillar of CREATE, and freshwater health.
Among other projects, IISD is one of the partners supporting the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Network of Parliamentarians on Gender Equality and Investments in Agriculture and Food Security, together with Oxfam, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and Women in Law & Development in Africa (WiLDAF).
Among other areas, this work covers the recent agreement for a global minimum tax, looking at its overall and sector-specific impacts for developing countries.
Tracking Progress works on supporting communities, domestic policymakers, and international decision-makers in their efforts towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
[23] The Tracking Progress program undertakes research on global environmental governance and is the home of IISD's Reporting Services work, including Earth Negotiations Bulletin and the SDG Knowledge Hub.
Its articles examine how this range of actors is pursuing the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, along with the challenges they face and the opportunities for collaboration that exist.