Global views of
sustainable development
Most of this
Year of the Environment 2000 site is devoted to
Birmingham's own local approach to education for
sustainable development and the many opportunities for
schools and individuals to participate in
activities. By way of perspective, this page
considers two widely adopted - but more global -
approaches to sustainable development.
World
poverty
Sustainable
development is seen as a way to reverse both poverty and
environmental degradation. A major theme is to eradicate
poverty by giving poor people more access to the
resources they need to live sustainably, including
information and skills. It calls upon governments
working in participation with international
organisations, business, regional and local governments
and non-governmental organisations and citizens groups
to develop national strategies for sustainable
development in an ongoing process of consultation and
global democratization from local to international
levels.
Social
and cultural issues
As a result of a
series of summits and conferences following the Earth
Summit in 1992, something very important has
happened. People are realising that for
sustainable development in the community they have to
look past the obvious things in the environment and pay
more attention to social and cultural issues. For
example, in many parts of the world the need to allow
women to play a full part is emerging as something
vital.
The Social Summit
(Copenhagen, March 1995) produced a Programme of Action
for Social Development containing a series of ten
commitments:
 | An enabling
environment for social development;
|
| The goal of
eradicating poverty;
|
| The goal of full
employment;
|
| The promotion of
social integration;
|
| Equality of men
and women;
|
| Education;
|
| Speeding up the
development of the least developed countries;
|
| Ensuring that
structural adjustment programmes include social
goals;
|
| A better
resourcing for social development;
|
| A better
framework for international co-operation for social
development. |
