Sustainable Economic Development - Characteristics and SDG indicators

Sustainable economic development is economic growth that strives to meet the needs of humans maintaining natural resources and the environment, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Sustainable Economic Development Characteristics and SDG indicators

Sustainable Economic Development -Characteristics and Indicators for Sustainable Development Goals

Economic Development

Economic development is a technology-based economic measure to move from one economic situation to another, with a view to improving it, such as moving from the state of the agricultural to the industrial economy or moving from the commercial economy to the technology-based trade.

Economic development is defined as the process aimed at promoting the growth of the state's economy by applying many development plans that make it more advanced and progressive, thus positively affecting society through the implementation of a series of successful economic strategies.

It is also known as the quest of societies to increase their economic capacity; to take advantage of the wealth available in their environments, particularly in areas where the absence of economic diversification negatively affects the local environment in general.

Economics and Economic Development

 Economic development is a branch of economics; it has contributed to the development and advancement of the economic sectors of developing countries.

 It is, therefore, an enhanced means of economic growth in many public sectors such as education, health, work environment, social policies and other sectors that seek to increase their efficiency and their ability to adapt to the economic conditions affecting the economy sector, whether the macro level or partial.

Sustainable Economic Development

There is a difference between the concept of growth and development from a traditional economic perspective.

Growth is intended to increase the production of different goods and services and thus increase the availability of goods and services for consumption and investment.

 Economic development is intended to transform poor countries into richer with changes in their economic and social structure. 

Economists' interest in this framework has traditionally been in addition to reaching unemployment and inflation rates as low as possible and achieving the highest possible rates of economic growth in society.

Economists have depended on a number of indicators, such as GDP, which are misleading because they do not correlate with the population's standard of living or how to achieve such growth, especially as their focus on change occurs in physical capital, ignoring what happens to social, human and environmental aspects.

These indicators, especially GDP and for long periods of time, were the common denominator in the reports dealing with the assessment of the economic performance of different countries of the world.

However, given the prevailing environmental changes and problems in the world, economic growth or economic development, which is highly concerned with the increase in production quantities, cannot continue indefinitely on a planet with limited potential.

The economic perspective of raising the standard of living of individuals must be more comprehensive than simply paying attention to material aspects of goods and services produced and consumed.

The concept of development must be concerned with values ​​and include ideas and perceptions of what a good society can be.

A major part of the development process concerns the quality of life, the quality of which is an essential part of the environment.

The recent situation has proved that it is impossible to separate economic development issues from environmental issues.

Many forms of development drain natural resources affect the balance of ecosystems.

This has led to the expansion of the concept of economic development from economic growth with some structural changes to achieve a fundamental change in the content of growth.

This makes it balanced in the use of resources and energy while taking measures to sustain natural resources, reduce environmental degradation, improve income distribution and reduce the degree of exposure to economic crises.

The process of economic development must take into account that there is a range of different constraints that can be dealt with; including what can be changed while the majority of them cannot be changed.

These include, for example, environmental constraints and absorptive capacity as well as natural resource reserves.

History for Economic Development

The real thinking in economic development dates back to the period after the Second World War, especially after many countries were subjected to European occupation, which had a great impact on their societies because of the exploitation of their natural resources.

After the end of the European occupation of these countries, with a notable proliferation of poor communities, known in economic literature as developing countries.

Throughout human history, there have been concerns about environmental considerations and the possibility of their absolute employment in the process of economic development, the most important of which is the idea of ​​sustainability, and in memory.

There are many historical examples of environmental considerations and their role in the economic development process.

But in the 1970s, the concept of sustainable development began to emerge for the first time in the Report on Growth Limits In 1972, which stressed the need for a balance between population needs, resource consumption and environmental pollution.

In 1981, a report on the World Commission on Environment and Development was published entitled "Our Common Future".

In 1985, the World Bank was interested in pursuing economic development in developing countries, especially those with relatively low incomes.

It was noted that the developing country needed support in its economic development and its per capita income was less than the US $ 400 compared to middle-income countries, where the per capita income exceeds $ 400.

In 1987, the World Development Committee issued a declaration to ensure that human progress continues through development without jeopardizing the resources of future generations.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) in 1992 recognized environmental issues within the concept of sustainable development for a safer and more prosperous future.

The conference "World Summit for Social Development" was held in Copenhagen in 1995.

The Summit focused on the aspects of social justice in the distribution of development, and the meeting of the Italian city of Bellagio in 1996 was one of the first attempts to bring the concept of sustainable development to the ground.

This culminated in the Millennium Summit held at the United Nations in New York in September 2000, which laid the foundations for the principles of sustainable development and a broader agenda "Global Governance for the 21st Century".

The application and development of economic development in the 20th century was based on the recognition of a set of criteria and indicators used to deal with countries, especially developing ones.

Therefore, there is still no definition of the term developing countries, which led to the need to activate the role of measurement in understanding the economic development of these countries, based on the criterion of individuals' income, because one of the most important economic criteria has an impact on the economy.

The higher the per capita income, the more the economy grows, the more valuable the value of services and goods is used.

This indicates a clear economic development, known as economic welfare. 

Thus, economic development has become a pivotal and important role in the economic reality of countries, particularly those that have great difficulty in dealing with their own economic sector, leading them to implement a strategic and development plan to support their economic development.

Many schools of thought have worked to clarify the interrelationship between different aspects of sustainability where economic, environmental and social factors are intertwined.

The economic component is based on the principle of increasing the well-being of society and eradicating poverty through an optimal exploitation of capital and investments.

By preserving natural resources and working within the absorptive capacity of the environment and protecting biodiversity.

The social aspect of development is concerned with social justice, the welfare of people, improved access to basic health and education services, the development of different cultures and effective participation in decision-making.

Characteristics of Sustainable Economic Development

Economic development is characterized by a range of characteristics, including:

 ⇒The importance of achieving development goals based on the existence of appropriate work strategies aimed at achieving the required economic growth rate.

 ⇒To improve the internal environment of the community and the local economic sector of the State.

 ⇒Reliance on self-economic efforts; to achieve enhanced economic development for the application of planning in governments, and economic institutions interested in pursuing economic growth continuously.

 ⇒To take advantage of the resources and enhanced capabilities of the role of industry, agriculture and local trade, as required by the economic reality and the use of means and tools to facilitate the development of all types of work.

 ⇒The use of technology and advanced electronic devices; they provide appropriate support for economic development, by investing in the potentials, and the scientific and cognitive capabilities diverse, which contribute to the development of many areas, most important of which: research, education.

Sustainable Economic Development Goals and Objectives

Economic development seeks to achieve many goals, which are as follows:

National income determinants: This is the main objective and first of the objectives of economic development, which contributes to the development of the standard of living of individuals, and strengthens the structural structure of trade and industry, which helps to address the problems resulting from the weakness of the local economy.

Natural resources investment: This objective seeks to enhance the presence of domestic and international investments of natural resources on State lands by supporting public infrastructure and providing appropriate means of support for the production and public services.

Capital support services: This aim is to provide adequate support to the weak and vulnerable public capital because of the lack of savings associated with the central bank's financial reserves, commercial banks with money as ordinary or diversified securities such as bonds.

Basic Attention Token Exchanges: This objective is specific to the development of trade.

It is concerned with the follow-up of exports and trade imports based on the promotion of trade between developing countries and other countries, especially those that purchase exports at reasonable prices, which help provide support to the basic needs of the population.

Addressing Corruption with Clarity: This will contribute to the development of the local economy and to the promotion of its growth and prosperity in all fields.

External debt management: This objective is linked to the need to monitor the amounts of money owed to the governments of developing countries, and to find the appropriate ways and means to repay these debts, which contributes to the promotion of economic growth and increase the expenditure on production.

Sustainable Economic Development Indicators

 A range of means and indicators are used to measure the success of economic development in society, the most important indicators are:

Gross National Product (GNP): GNP is calculated as the value of the output of services and goods produced by the influence of various economic factors over a given period of time, form part of the public production in the state.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): GDP is a calculation of its value from a common means with the calculation of GNP.

It helps to identify the nature of the success of economic development in the country; it refers to the value of goods and services produced and used in trading within the trading market, to which the normal buying and selling operations apply.

Conclusion

The continuation of sustainable development depends on the balance between the three sides of the triangle of human economic systems and the ecosystem within which life and social activity can flourish.

It has been shown that environmental conditions did not deteriorate one day as a result of economic growth only.

Increasing economic activity has allowed a growing area to shape environmental conditions according to human needs.

Human creativity and flexible behavior have helped to avoid many environmental problems and obstacles that have emerged in the development process.

That there will be a great need and global solidarity to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere to avoid climate change, but this is not the only approach at all because the decline in the resource base does not appear to be due to current or future economic growth.

Economic expansion and technical progress strengthen human capacity to address any future environmental problems by achieving full harmony between sustained economic growths and evolving environmental standards while neutralizing the impact of other human conflicts.