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This contribution tries to clarify the assets, objectives and impact claimed to be targeted through “best practice” and to compare these expectations with the reality of implementation and the actual results in participatory urban sustainable development projects. The study of several Moroccan Local agenda 21 experiences (1996-2006) provides interesting opportunities to understand how these “good practices” are imported and disseminated from the international “tool boxes”, towards national and local contexts. It also seeks to highlight how looking at the “social dimension” of urban development does really change the decision-making process and brings new social effects. Through the observation of several projects it was noted that the gap between expectations and processes is high, due to a too rigid and naïve methodological approach, and to a weak understanding of the social and political local context.