Sustainable Development: The Big Picture

Development projects like clean water programs or health clinics help people build strong communities. They can fix a problem like hunger for the short term, or find solutions that are lasting and help communities grow even stronger over time.

We call that sustainable development: when a project is good for today and good for the future. When development is sustainable, people are empowered to begin to meet their own needs.

Sustainable development projects also consider impacts on the environment. A project that is sustainable considers the ability of the Earth to continue to support the project forever. For example, a project that involves cutting down trees to sell lumber is not sustainable, even though it gives people income in the short term. Eventually, there won’t be any more trees to cut down.

Clean Water and Sanitation: Basics of Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development: We Can Do it Together

Sustainable development is truly a global issue because everyone shares one world. We are all dependant on each other to make sure this world is a great place to live. Together, we can make sure everyone has the ability to continue to meet their needs well into the future.

Sadly, we often make decisions that make it even more difficult for people in developing countries to meet their own needs.

For example: if a company builds a factory in Sri Lanka that uses toxic substances which pollute the environment or doesn’t pay workers a fair wage, then Sri Lankans are not being empowered to break the cycle of poverty. In fact, that factory is making it more difficult for them to get ahead.

When development is sustainable, local and global economies both benefit, because developing countries can get stronger and contribute more to the global marketplace.

Foreign-owned Factories

Often, developing countries will welcome the development of foreign factories even if they don’t treat workers well or are bad for the local environment. Industry, even if it’s foreign-owned, promises more jobs and other benefits for a developing country’s economy that are hard to resist for a country struggling with poverty.

Sustainable Development and the Millennium Development Goals: Targets We Can Meet

There are two Millennium Development Goals that relate to sustainable development. These goals show that sustainable development is the responsibility of all countries and all people. They also promote the importance of environmental considerations in all the development decisions we make. These goals show that empowerment for all people and a healthy future for our planet are within our reach as long as we work together.

The two Millennium Development Goals that relate to sustainable development are:

Goal: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

What We Need To Do

Reverse the loss of environmental resources, including biological diversity, forests and the Earth’s ozone layer, and provide adequate sanitation, affordable housing and safe water for the world’s poor.

The Challenge

• Fifteen percent of the world’s population living in high-income countries account for 56 percent of the world’s total consumption; the poorest 40 percent account for only 11 percent of global consumption.

Goal: Develop a global partnership for development

What We Need To Do

Ensure richer countries support poorer countries through aid, trade and debt relief. Global partnerships also mean ensuring that people in developing countries have access to productive work opportunities for youth, affordable essential drugs and the benefits of new technologies.

The Challenge

• Only five countries—Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden—have achieved the 1970 UN target of 0.7 percent of gross national income as official development assistance.
• The poorest 49 countries make up 10 percent of the world’s population, but account for only 0.4 per cent of world trade.

Causes: Why is Sustainable Development Important?

There are many reasons why sustainable development is needed around the world

Why the World Needs Sustainable Development

In Need of Basics

Clean water and sanitation are needed to improve health over the long term so that people are strong enough to support themselves.

Skills

Without a basic education, people lack the skills they need to break out of the cycle of poverty. Part of sustainable development is skills-training that empowers people to get ahead.

Debt

Between 1970 and 2002, the poorest African countries received $294 billion in loans, paid back $298 billion in interest and principal, but still owed more than $200 billion. If debt relief is made a priority, and poor governments no longer need to worry about repaying debt, they can spend more on things like food, clean water, housing, health care, jobs, education and building their economies.

Environment

Environmental problems such as climate change are examples of how the way we live is hurting our Earth. Sustainable development supports people in a way that does not hurt the environment.

These are a few of the main reasons why sustainable development is needed, but there are many more individual and country-specific reasons. For example, regions like Africa that are prone to drought need sustainable development assistance that specifically addresses this problem, like systems for long-term water storage.

Cow A cow provides alternative income for a family.

Alternative Income Projects

An alternative income project is one example of a sustainable development project that empowers people to meet their own needs. These projects give people in developing countries the resources they need to earn money for their families.

For example, if a family living in poverty is given a cow, they can milk that cow, sell the milk to make money and use that money to send their kids to school.

North America: In a Position to Help

In the developed world, it can be hard to imagine why sustainable development is so important because our own development advantages are the kind of basics we don’t tend to think much about.

For example, almost everyone in developed countries has access to clean water and sanitation. But these “basics” are only a dream for the world’s least developed countries, where only 59 percent of the population has clean water and 36 percent have proper sanitation.

The statistics paint a picture we can’t ignore. Developed countries have access to things that less developed countries should be able to access as well. It’s up to developing countries to provide financial aid and share their development knowledge so the whole world can develop sustainably.

Our Environmental Report Card

Ensuring environmental sustainability starts in our own backyards, where clearly we have a lot of work to do. Every day, industries, institutions and households contribute to carbon dioxide emissions, which cause global warming and climate change.

In 2004, the average American created more than 20 tons of carbon emissions. If everyone lived like the average American, we would need four planets!

The pollution we create doesn’t just affect us; it affects the global environment.

Global Status: Where the World is Now

Sustainable development is needed in developing regions right away.

Why Sustainable Development is Needed

• Two million children die each year from infections spread by dirty water or the lack of toilets.
• 1.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion people lack access to proper sanitation facilities.
• If we are to meet the goal of making sanitation systems available to those who need them, we will have to provide an annual average of 140 million people with access to sanitation until 2015.
• 924 million people are living in slums—that’s about one-seventh of the world’s populations. Slums are overcrowded places where public toilets are shared by hundreds of families. These places are not safe, especially for girls and women, who are at greater risk for sexual assault.

A Story You Should Hear about Sustainable Development

Take Action for Sustainable Development

There are lots of actions you can take to support sustainable development in the developing world. Try these as a start.