Sustainable Development Policy Making – Challenges and Opportunities

1. Sustainable Development Policy Making – Challenges and Opportunities

2. Marek HaliniakNational School of Public Administration,Warsaw, PolandLeslaw MichnowskiCommittee for Futures Studies "Poland 2000 Plus,"Polish Academy of Sciences

3. The properly defined notion: Sustainable Development (SD), as a basis for proper SD policy making(with help of information culture)

4. Sustainable Development - development without crises or collapses

5. Dynamic monitoring predicts - by means of computer simulation (System Dynamics – Jay W. Forrester) - future of monitored process on condition that no intervention into it will be undertaken.Dynamic monitoring delivers warning forecasting, i.e. long-term early warning information about negative consequences of previous socio-economy activity and environment change.

6. Sustainable Development (SD):development that must integrate: - social development,- economic development, and - environmental protection (Johannesburg 2002, EU SDS 2006).

7. Global crisisobviously means that formally-binding “three-pillar” sustainable development of world society policy is unsuccessful.

8. To durably overcome the global crisis and achieve SD we need, among other things, to reshape forms of Public Administration (PA)education

9. Some premises for such educational reshaping:(1) – „Washington Consensus is over” (G. Brown, G20, April 2nd);(2) - The EU SDS forms the overall framework within which the Lisbon Strategy, with its renewedfocus on growth and jobs, provides the motor of a more dynamic economy (renewed EU SDS 2006).

10. Notwithstanding all the declarations putting the three pillars of sustainable development on an equal footing, the last decade has witnessed continuing de facto recognition of the primacy of economic growth founded upon the competitiveness of enterprises on the free market, with a role for the state that is as limited as possible.

11. Only now is there a recognition of the true worth of the public sector in ensuring balance between the SD pillars: administration is now tasked with a much greater involvement in steering development than previously.

12. To overcome the global crisis and achieve SD we need „two hands”:(1) – the „invisible” market one; (2) – WISE GOVERNANCEon many levels.

13. For wise governance we need to include into PA education more systems knowledge, especially about properties of information

14. “information is the key to (sustainability) transformation. When information flows are changed, any system will behave differently”(Meadows 2004).“in the new world of infinite information resources, one country's creation of wealth based on information can be shared by all. The value of information increases, the more it is shared”(Utsumi, ITU, WSIS 2005)

15. A. P. Sage, Methodology for large scale systems, New York 1977.

16. We propose to include into PA educationthe System of Life (SoL) conceptual model (Sage, Michnowski), that treats different kindsof life-system development as process of information (sensu Wiener) creation

17. In the light of SoL-basedanalysisof global crisis essence and causes:(1) – current financial-economic crisis is evident phase of global civilizational crisis starting about 1970;(2) – overcoming it willl recuire ecohumanism instead of social-Darwinism

18. Meadows, Limits to Growth, 1972

19. Meadows, Limits to Growth The 30-Year Update, 2004.

20. The main causes of this global crisis are: - egoism and short-sightedness of policy-makers;- lack of knowledge about complex, social and environmental (including temporaly and spatialy long-range), consequences of socio-economy activity and other changes in environment;- lack of connection between access to wealth/profits and eco-social usefulness of person’s and organization’s activity.

21. Eco-humanism: a partnership-based co-operation for the common good of all people (rich and poor, from countries highly developed and behind in development), their descendants, and the natural environment - COMMONLY SUPPORTED BY SCIENCE AND HIGH TECHNOLOGY AS WELL AS INFORMATION CULTURE.

22. To overcome the global crisis we need to:- rationalize consumption based on depleting of deficit resources (including environmental);-  access new sources of resources in place of ones depleted irreversibly;- initiate new science-technology revolution that will allow all techno-sphere/technology to be made ecosocially friendly one;- stop overpopulation trend by instaling popular intellectual (cognitive – innovative) creativity in place of natural/biological defensive creativity.

23. The basic conditions for overcoming global crisis and achieving SD: (1) - to convert global financial system into one that will support/aid above, eco-socially useful activity;(2) - to build information bases of sustainable development policy and economy;(3) - to create adequate,inter alia global, subsidiary governance institutions.

24. In our SD education field it is necessary,as a first, to include task of shaping of PA information culture

25. PA information culture will help in:(1) projecting long-term SD strategy by means of backcasting method (with help of SoL - EU SDS 2006);(2) – indirect control of proper market forces stimulated SD activity(3) – creation of informationally efficient socio-economy infrastructure;(4) - stimulating cognitive-innovative activity be means of innovative susceptibility of socio-economy infrastructure shaping.

26. Without proper systems knowledge education and ecohumanistic mindset of PA it is impossible to durably overcome global crisis and achieve sustainable development of world society

27. Thank you for your attentionMarek HaliniakMH@ksap.gov.plLeslaw Michnowskileslaw.michnowski@neostrada.pl