ANALIZA C.

CHUA
Lesson 4: Three Objectives of Development 1. To increase the availability and widen the distribution of basic lifesustaining goods such as food, shelter health and protection. 2. To raise the level of living which includes higher income, provision of more jobs, better education and greater attention to cultural and humanistic values to enhance material well-being and individual and national self-esteem. 3. To expand the range of choices available to individuals and nations to free them from servitude and dependence not only in relation to other individuals and nations, but also from misery and ignorance.

5 LESSON
Sustainable development

Lesson 5 : Sustainable Development Development has undergone continuing rethinking in concept and philosophy. Through the years different models of development have influenced the decisions of the leaders of developing countries. While its influence has been increasing in the affected world, its concept has been changing over the years. The decades of the eighties and the nineties witnessed the emergence of sustainable development. Common problems appear to have prompted the emergence of this new development concept. Increasing concerns for the state of environmental destructions, the lingering global debt crisis, and the worsening incidence of poverty in both rich and poor countries triggered a move among political leaders, scholars and academic to search for new approaches to solve global problems. The World Commission on Development defined sustainable

development as one that meets the needs o f the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This new concept of development does not imply natures finite limits, but rather limitations imposed by present state of technology and social organizations on environment resources, and by the ability of the Planet Earth to absorb the effects of human activities (Briones, 1996). Sustainable development is not all about the preservation of

environment. It is a new concept of economic growth that provides fairness and opportunity for all people, not just the privileged few, without further destroying the worlds finite natural resources and carrying capacity. The World Commission in Environment and Development explains how the obsessive pursuit of development in the seventies and the eighties in

developing countries, with the developed world as mentors resulted in wanton waste and exploitation of natural and human resources. WCED claimed that it has not eliminated poverty and free people from misery, but rather increased the number if poor people and human suffering. It likewise urged all nations, both rich and poor, to work together for the common future. Briones (1996) cited Jan Pronk and Mabbubul Hag who defined sustainable development as a process in which economic, fiscal, trade, energy, agricultural and industrial and all other policies are so designed as to bring about development that is economically, socially and ecologically sustainable. As its popularity grew through the years, sustainable development focused on improving the quality of life of poor people without overusing or overexploiting natural resources beyond the capacity of the earth to supply them indefinitely. The Earth Summit in 1992 drafted Agenda 21, defining a broad strategy or work plan for environment and development for the coming years in such critical issues as climate change, desertification and deforestation. Sustainable development plans have been developed and various groups have adopted the concept and gave it their own respective interpretations. This way, sustainable development has developed wide understanding in many different contexts.