Sustainable Development Indicators and Indices

1. Sustainable Development Indicators and Indices By Safwat H. Shakir Hanna Materials Compiled from Different Sources

2. Sustainable Development Definition • Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:

3. Sustainable Development Definition • the concept ofneeds, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and • The idea oflimitationsimposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs." • Sustainable development requires that we see the world as a system—A system that connects space; and a system that connects time.

4. Sustainable Development Definition

5. Sustainable Development Definition • It aims at the continuous improvement of the quality of life on earth of both current and future generations. • It is about safeguarding the earth’s capacity to support life in all its diversity. • It is based on the principles of democracy and the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights including freedom and equal opportunities for all.

6. Sustainable Development Definition • It seeks to promote a dynamic economy with a high level of employment and education, of health protection, of social and territorial cohesion and of environmental protection in a peaceful and secure world, respecting cultural diversity.

7. Key Objectives

8. Key Objectives • Environmental protection • Social equity and cohesion • Economic prosperity • Meeting our international responsibilities

9. Key Objectives • A) ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION • Safeguard the earth’s capacity to support life in all its diversity, respect the limits of the planet’s natural resources. • To ensure a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment.

10. Key Objectives • Prevent and reduce environmental pollution. • Prompt sustainable production and consumption to break the link between economic growth and environmental degradation.

11. Key Objectives • B) SOCIAL EQUITY AND COHESION • Promote a democratic, socially inclusive, cohesive, healthy, safe and just society with respect for fundamental rights and cultural diversity that creates equal opportunities and combats discrimination in all its forms.

12. Key Objectives • C) ECONOMIC PROSPERITY • Promote a prosperous, innovative, knowledge-rich, competitive and eco-efficient economy. • This will provides high living standards, and full and high-quality employment throughout the World .

13. Key Objectives • D) MEETING OUR INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES • Encourage the establishment and defend the stability of democratic institutions across the world, based on peace, security and freedom. • Actively promote sustainable development worldwide and ensure that the policies of the countries are consistent with global sustainable development and its international commitments.

14. Key Policies • Promotion and protection of fundamental rights • Intra- and intergenerational equity • Open and democratic society • Involvement of citizens • Involvement of businesses and social partners. • Policy coherence and governance.

15. Sustainable Development Concerns • The world is faced with challenges in all three dimensions of sustainable development—economic, social and environmental. • More than 1 billion people are still living in extreme poverty, and income inequality within and among many countries has been rising; • At the same time, unsustainable consumption and production patterns have resulted in huge economic and social costs and may endanger life on the planet.

16. Sustainable Development Concerns • Achieving sustainable development will require global actions to deliver on the legitimate aspiration towards further economic and social progress, requiring growth and employment, and at the same time strengthening environmental protection

17. Sustainable Development Concerns • Sustainable development will need to be inclusive and take special care of the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable. • Strategies need to be ambitious, action-oriented and collaborative, and to adapt to different levels of development. • Strategies will need to systemically change consumption and production patterns, and might entail, inter alia, significant price corrections;

18. Sustainable Development Concerns • Also Strategies must encourage the preservation of natural endowments; reduce inequality; and strengthen economic governance.

19. Sustainable Development Concerns and Risks to the Development • (a)The impact of climate change threatens to escalate in the absence of adequate safeguards and there is a need to promote the integrated and sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystems and take mitigation and adaptation action in keeping with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities; • (b) The environmental impact of human activity and the strong sustainability challenge to the progress globally, because the required resources are not sufficient to meet and support the development.

20. Sustainable Development Concerns and Risks to the Development • (c) Hunger and malnourishment, while decreasing in many developing countries, remain persistent in other countries, and food and nutrition security continues to be an elusive goal for too many; • d) Income inequality within and among many countries has been rising and has reached an extremely high level, invoking the specter of heightened tension and social conflict;

21. Sustainable Development Concerns and Risks to the Development • (e)Rapid urbanization, especially in developing countries, calls for major changes in the way in which urban development is designed and managed, as well as substantial increases of public and private investments in urban infrastructure and services; • (f) Energy needs are likely to remain unmet for hundreds of millions of households, unless significant progress in ensuring access to modern energy services is achieved;

22. Sustainable Development Concerns and Risks to the Development • (g) Recurrence of financial crises needs to be prevented and the financial system has to be redirected towards promoting access to long-term financing for investments required to achieve sustainable development.

23. The Long and the Short of Sustainable Development • People concerned about sustainable development suggest that meeting the needs of the future depends on how well we balance social, economic, and environmental objectives--or needs--when making decisions today. Some of these needs are itemized around the puzzle diagram. • Many of these objectives may seem to conflict with each other in the short term. For example, industrial growth might conflict with preserving natural resources. Yet, in the long term, responsible use of natural resources now will help ensure that there are resources available for sustained industrial growth far into the future.

25. The Long and the Short of Sustainable Development • Studying the puzzle raises a number of difficult questions. • For example, can the long term economic objective of sustained agricultural growth be met if the ecological objective of preserving biodiversity is not? What happens to the environment in the long term if a large number of people cannot afford to meet their basic household needs today?

26. The Long and the Short of Sustainable Development • If you did not have access to safe water, and therefore needed wood to boil drinking water so that you and your children would not get sick, would you worry about causing deforestation? Or, if you had to drive a long distance to get to work each day, would you be willing to move or get a new job to avoid polluting the air with your car exhaust? If we don’t balance our social, economic, and environmental objectives in the short term, how can we expect to sustain our development in the long term? • What are sustainable development dilemmas do you and your family face in your everyday lives?

27. Social Problems in Sustainable Development • When we focus on the social aspects of sustainable development, we look at the issues that impact people directly and that either help or hinder the process of improving the quality of life.

28. A) The need for social services is universal • All people in a society must have access to certain basic goods and services in order to lead healthy, fulfilling and productive lives. • Education and training must be available, so that everyone has the chance to earn a decent living and learn new skills. • Girls must have the same opportunity as boys to go to school or to get jobs.

29. A) The need for social services is universal • Women must have access to basic family planning services and adequate health care and nutrition for themselves and their children. • The elderly must receive the medical care, social security and pensions they need to support themselves as they grow older. Ensuring fair access to basic services is an essential task of governments around the world.

30. B) Local issues/global issues • Social concerns in one country can have impacts that reach beyond national borders. For example, unequal access to education or lack of job opportunities can lead people to migrate. This may cause profound changes in the country they leave, as it adjusts to the loss of certain groups. • And the countries in which immigrants settle may face the challenges of increasing demands on educational and health care systems, as well as of integrating diverse groups into society. Increasingly, the social concerns of one country may affect other countries around the world.

31. C) Linking social sector issues with the economic and the environmental sectors • Social sector issues are closely linked to economic issues such as poverty. • In any society, it is the poor who are least likely to receive adequate health care, education, and family planning services. • Higher birth rates may result, making it difficult for these families to meet their basic needs and break out of the cycle of poverty.

32. C) Linking social sector issues with the economic and the environmental sectors • Social issues are also linked with environmental concerns. In many countries, contaminated water and polluted air are responsible for an increase in water-borne diseases and respiratory problems, all of which place an extra burden on local health care systems. • It is only when information about social conditions is combined with economic and environmental data that the full impact of development decisions on the quality of life can be understood.

33. C) Linking social sector issues with the economic and the environmental sectors • In order for countries to meet the needs of their people now and in the long term, governments must develop policies that balance social needs with both economic growth and environmental protection

34. Social indicators • One way of measuring a country's level of development is to look at social data such as the population growth rate, which measures the increase in a country’s population and reflects the number of births and deaths and people migrating into and out of the country. • As you explore the Population Growth Rate and Life Expectancy learning modules, what other types of social data and information would help you better understand how people live in a particular country? What kinds of economic and environmental data would give you a fuller picture of what life is like in that country?

35. Population Growth Rate • In low-income countries more than a third of the population is under age 15, while in high-income countries less than a fifth is. • The world’s population is growing by 200,000 people a day. • Between 1980 and 2030, the population of low- and middle-income countries will more than double -- to 7.0 billion, compared with 1 billion for high-income countries.

36. Population Growth Rate • In the next 35 years, 2.5 billion people will be added to the current population of 6 billion. • Population growth rate (PGR) is the increase in a country’s population during a period of time, usually one year, expressed as a percentage of the population at the start of that period. • It reflects the number of births and deaths during the period and the number of people migrating to and from a country.

37. Population Growth Rate • Between 1980 and 2000 total world population grew from 4.4 billion to 6 billion. • By 2015, at least another billion people will be added for a total of more than 7 billion. Chart 1 shows that most of this growth has been, and will continue to be, in the developing world. In 1998, 85 percent of the world’s people—more than 4 out of 5—lived in low- and middle-income countries; by 2015, it will be 6 out of 7.

38. Chart 1. Total World Population by Country Income Group, 1980, 1998, 2015

39. Global trends in population growth rates • Death and Birth Rates have declined over the past several decades. People are living longer in both industrial and Developing Countriesbecause of increased access to immunization, Primary Health Care, and Disease Eradication Programs. • Many parents are realizing that as health conditions improve, more of their children are likely to survive, so they are choosing to have fewer babies. • Increased access to Family Planning is helping parents control the number and spacing of their children. • In addition, with greater access to education and jobs, more women are starting their families later and are having fewer, healthier children.

40. Global trends in population growth rates • Due to the slowing of birth rates, population growth rates have started to decline in the many countries, although they still remain high in some countries because birth rates have not fallen as rapidly as death rates. • As Chart 2 shows, population growth rate still tends to be higher in Low-and Middle-income Countries than in High-income Countries. Even as the population growth rate has been decreasing in these countries, the number of people added to the population each year has been increasing because the population base has become larger.

41. Chart 2. Average Annual Growth Rates by Country Income Group, 1980-2015

42. Population Momentum • In many low-income countries, the large difference between the percentage of people of childbearing age and more elderly adults causes population momentum which keeps population growth rates high even when fertility rates drop. • In many high-income countries, where fertility rates are below replacement level and the largest segments of the population are older, populations will increase much less. • To see the projected composition of population for low- and high-income economies in 2030, look at Chart 3.2.

43. Chart 3.1. Composition of Population in Low- and High-income Economies, 2000

44. Chart 3.2. Composition of Population in Low- and High-income Economies, 2030

45. Sustainable Economics • Sustainable economics aims to explain how economies can thrive within the earth’s ability to provide the resources necessary for life. • Despite multiple and sometimes divergent visions of sustainable economy, macroeconomic models that sufficiently conceptualize and test assumptions about sustainable economy are rare. • Yet, policies that enable sustainable economies are urgently needed, as there is now strong evidence supporting bio-physical “limits to growth” arguments.

46. Sustainable Economics • Currently, economic growth, defined as an increase in the quantity of goods and services produced, is a primary government goal considered essential for human well-being. • Although some people argue that economic growth, at least in wealthier countries, may be the wrong focus for policy, the search for solutions is particularly challenging

47. Sustainable Economics • Economics is the study of how societies use (scarce) resources. Although the traditional emphasis has been on how resources are allocated, attention is increasingly paid to the equity of the distribution of resources and the overall scale of economic activity.

48. Sustainable Economics • This has been driven, in large part, by concerns about the environmental and social impacts of economic decisions. • Conversely, our choices in the environmental and social spheres have economic impacts. The challenge of sustainable development is to better understand and anticipate how decisions affect all three aspects.

49. Sustainable Economics • Traditionally, investment in new technology is considered to be one of the main economic growth drivers, but short-term technological fixes are no longer adequate for solving today’s pressing environmental problems. • One thing we do know is that governments with a strong long-term vision achieve better results, but the vision needs to be positive. • In addition, governments need to understand the end game and then devise ways to get there. To be revolutionary, they need to figure out the evolution

50. Sustainable Economics • Strong government vision and policy can also encourage private-sector investment aimed at environmental conservation and improved services by providing the right signals and conditions.