September 8, 2002	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Saani29,1423

KARACHI, Sept 7: Despite global commitment, sustainable development remains very much a vision and the actual content of the term coined more than a decade ago, is still questioned and debated.

Scholars look at sustainable development as a “social idea” to promote some sort of “virtuous circle” in contrast to “vicious circle of poverty”.

The phrase “virtuous circle” is meant to improve upon the three pillars of human development that the UNDP proposed: economic growth, social development and environment protection.

Now, World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn says that growth in income and productivity required to eliminate poverty in developing countries should be “environmentally and socially sustainable.”

In the decade following the Rio Earth Summit and Declaration 1992 on environmental protection, sustainable development is being redefined and is taking a new meaning. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, market fundamentalism gained much of its ground earlier lost to socialism. But the global recession, rising unemployment in industrial as well developing economies and increasing poverty are raising risks for social stability. Global terrorism is one dimension.

The term “sustainable development” still lacks consensus on actual definition. For some people in industrialized economies, sustainable development is about environment. In developing countries, it is about GDP growth and poverty reduction. And scholars look upon it in a different sense, “a modern sense of freedom and development coming together”.

But sustainable development is the key issue facing the world today. The WB World Development Report 2003 rightly focuses on “sustainable development in a dynamic world” to face the “core development challenge” that is to ensure productive work and a much better quality of life for three billion poor in the world. In the developing states, according to the World Bank, there are “pervasive barrier to inclusion” and “inequitable access to assets” — the problems that need to be overcome.

The World Bank president says that the solution to be tough problems and the needed institutions do not emerge when some interests are dispersed or when some groups in the society are poor or otherwise de-franchised. Giving the poor a real stake in society is the key to building stronger institutions required for longer term sustainable development.

To be able to coordinate in search of lasting solutions of long-term problems, the WB president suggests three-dimensional approach: pick up signals about needs and problems, especially from the fringes; balance competing interests; and ensure creditable commitments and accountability in executing agreed decisions.

His advice comes at a time when the sustainable development is perhaps one of the most challenging jobs facing both the developing and industrialized countries.

The first is the cyclic global economic slump specially in the industrial economies, an issue related to the periodic boom and burst, witnessed in the market economies. This problem has become far more difficult to resolve because of the structural problems facing a majority of the national economies.

Countries like Pakistan suffer cyclic as well as a structural problems. Besides, the movement towards “controlled” or “guided democracy”, is not compatible with economic liberalization. Neither, the political nor the economic “reforms” appear to be of durable or of a longer term nature. The future of reforms is sought to be guaranteed by an individual and lacks consensus in political and business groups.

No doubt, creation of district governments and an effort to empower the people at the grass roots is a step in the right direction. The people should shape their own destiny and improve their quality of life. The devolution has also been supplemented by creating institutions like micro-finance and SME banks. But these activities are on the periphery and the mainstream economic activities tend to strengthen the process of social exclusion.

The corporate umbrella for employees is shrinking as the companies need to be thin and agile to face fast changing business environment. Fiscal constraints are eroding the welfare state. What is needed is a more effective social and economic framework for providing an opportunity for the poor to fend for themselves.

The WB president says: “Inclusive societies, within and across countries, ensure that signals of emerging economic, social or environment problems are picked up from all groups and that they can cooperate to solve tough problems.” To add to the WB’s observation, the alternative a perpetual crisis-ridden society.