What is sustainable development?

The concept is admittedly an admission that development is much more than economic growth and that the pursuit of economic growth and expansion alone cannot sustain both the present and future generations. The concept is also an admission of the imbalance in attention the environment and other key sectors have received in the quest to achieve economic development. The widely accepted definition of the term is that carried by the 1987 report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) chaired by Ms. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway. Their report states that "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

The report went on to state that "thus the goals of economic and social development must be defined in terms of sustainability in all countries - developed or developing, market-oriented or centrally planned. Interpretations will vary, but must share certain general features and must flow from a consensus on the basic concept of sustainable development and on a broad strategic framework for achieving it."

Sustainable development underscores the need for the progress and development of humanity and civilization to be regarded from a holistic perspective and for it to be pursued on a multi-dimensional scale or context. Biodiversity and the ecosystem, the environment, and the systems and structures of good governance should not suffer negatively and unduly at our efforts at eliminating social marginalization and pursuing economic growth.

As a concept it is still evolving but few will disagree with the fundamental principles of the concept. The opinion of sustainable development as a four dimensional concept is much holistic and perhaps a better expression of the term itself: Economic Development; Social Inclusion; Environmental Sustainability; Good Governance (Rule of Law).

Why sustainable development?

The genesis to the whole ideal of sustainable development was the increasing realization of the detrimental effects the quest for economic growth was having on the environment, not just on a local or national level but increasingly on a global scale. This led to the 1972 Stockholm conference on Human Environment and World Conservation Strategy of the World Conservation Strategy of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in 1980. Together with the proofs from the ground, lessons from these conferences created the setting and the motivation for the UN to institute the Brundtland Commission (World Commission on Environment and Development - WCED) in 1983. The report of the Commission, titled 'Our Common Future', created the framework for international action on a widely recognized degradation of the environment. The next important world gathering on this issue came up in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, (Earth Summit) and this led to the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21. These documents spelt out the principles and action plan for sustainable development respectively. The first four principles of the Rio Declaration sums up the answer to the question, why sustainable development?

Principle 1 

Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.

Principle 2

States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental and developmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.

Principle 3

The right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations.

Principle 4

In order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it.

How sustainable development?

The need for sustainable development having being established, the next logical course of action is about taking action to achieve desired and agreed results.

The outcomes of the Rio summit; the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21; represented one of the initial globally accepted plans to pursue sustainable development.

Subsequent to the Rio summit, some others have followed including:

•             The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), Cairo, Egypt, 1994.

Goals related to reproductive health, sustained economic growth, poverty eradication, and empowerment of women and girls were key outcomes of this conference.

•             Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, China, 1995.

The outcome of this conference (Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action) went on to endorse many of the sustainable development goals identified at Cairo. This conference was very popular in Ghana and had arguably sparked the 'emancipation of female gender' in Ghana largely due to the political support it was given Mrs. Agyemang Rawlings, wife of Ghana's president during that era.

•             World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2002.

Whiles building on and reaffirming earlier declarations and plans, the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development, focused particularly on "worldwide conditions that pose threats to sustainable development of our people. Which include: chronic hunger; malnutrition; foreign occupation; armed conflict; illicit drug problems; intolerance and incitement to racial, ethnic, religious and other hatreds; xenophobia; and endemic, communicable and chronic diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis."

The outcomes of these summits built and/or expanded on the Rio Declaration and the Agenda 21 and they sought to strengthen the commitment of the global community towards pursuing and achieving sustainable development.

In 2000 the global community came up with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); a global "commitment to deal with global poverty in its many dimensions. The MDG emphasized three areas: human capital, infrastructure and human rights (social, economic and capital), with the intent of increasing living standards".

All of the agreements, plans and strategies agreed on at these global events required of individual countries to develop country-specific strategies which will take into consideration the collective issues identified by the global community. The obligation to plan and pursue global development agenda through country-led strategies is supported by a global partnership and collaboration which led to the flow of much needed resources from developed to developing countries.

In all this Ghana as part of its country-led strategies has inculcated these commitments (directly and indirectly) into a rather plethora of national and institutional development plans, policy frameworks, strategic, investment and action plans;

•             Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA).

•             Sustainable Development Action Plan (SDAP).

•             Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) I and II [Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy].

•             National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS).

•             National Environmental Sanitation Strategy and Action Plan (NESSAP)

•             National Policy Framework on Climate Change.

•             Ghana Education Strategic Plan (2003 - 2015; 2010 - 2020).

•             Food and Agricultural Sector Development Plan (FASDEP) I and II.

•             Medium Term Agricultural Investment Plan (METASIP).

•             Forestry Investment Plan.

The multitude and overlapping nature of some of these country-led strategies makes for a rather difficult and poor monitoring and evaluation of performance and achievement.

Sustainable development in Ghana so far

Economic Development

Over the past decade, Ghana has witnessed some good economic growth (GDP), but this has been largely due to the extractive industry which has little impact on the average Ghanaian. The largest contributor to Ghana's GDP, the Service Sector (50.6% - 2014 Budget), is heavily patronized by foreign investors and multinational, thus once again a chunk of the benefit of the increasing growth in the sector eludes the Ghanaian altogether. A good number of the Service subsectors depend heavily on importation of several commodities, thus the growth in the sector also means a worsening of our trade deficit and balance of payment of the country.

Whiles overall there has been a reduction of poverty, reportedly, the Northern part of the country has become more poorer compared to the South and there is a growing gap between the rich and the poor.

The agriculture sector which employs the majority of Ghanaians (55.1% - Ghana Living Standards Survey 5), and can be strategically employed to spur on general economic growth and to also tackle specific issues such as women economic empowerment and youth unemployment, is effectively in a state of stagnation.

The manufacturing subsector which as a labour intensive activity can generate substantial employment is not performing at its peak or potential; indeed even in its current state, a good number of players in this subsector are foreigners and multinationals, thus once again progress in this subsector will largely elude the average Ghanaian.

Even as the proceeds from Ghana's oil levels off, it is important for the needed investment and support to growth sectors such as agriculture be increased to stimulate growth that impacts a majority of the average citizen. As it did for a good number of countries in spurring on industrialization and eventually national development, a well-resourced and supported agriculture sector is capable of feeding and supporting a manufacturing sector and Ghana's extractive industry leading on to stronger and a more impacting economic development.

Environmental Sustainability

As a country which have depended heavily on its natural resources to pursue its economic development agenda, Ghana as suffered tremendously on the environmental front. Sanitation is a major challenge in all of Ghana's major cities and regularly there is outbreak of diseases such as cholera. Increasingly Ghana's water bodies are becoming heavily polluted and the Ghana Water Company Limited has complained about the increasing cost of water treatment; in some cases, the pollution and siltation is so severe that water treatment plants are shut down for considerable periods. Increasingly agricultural lands are being lost and degraded due to multidimensional reasons including poor use of chemicals, poor cultivation practices, adverse effects of mining activities (both legal and illegal) and a host of others.

Ghana's forest cover is being lost at a very alarming rate, due to both legal and illegal logging. Biodiversity has dwindled and ecosystems have been severely disrupted. Ghana's forest are now described as "silent forest" due to severe loss of wildlife and other faunae in the forest; they have either being hunted beyond sustainable levels or their numbers have dwindled severely (endangered) due to disruption of the food chain.

The environmental challenge facing the country has the potential to easily derail any gains made in economic growth and development and must be taken seriously: high cost of food, increase cost of water (time and money), and major disease outbreaks due to poor sanitation and other causes, will erode significantly the incomes of households, especially of the poor. Already Ghana is reported to lose an estimated Gh0 420million ( $90 million) annually due to poor sanitation, with open defecation alone reportedly costing the nation Gh0 160 million annually.

In a synopsis, Ghana's environment seats on a fast ticking time-bomb and immediate actions need to be taken to address them by strong, serious and concentrated efforts by all stakeholders; namby-pamby and half-hearted actions will only worsen case.

Social Inclusion

As a complex and multidimensional social challenge, many efforts have been instituted aimed at ensuring a socially inclusive for all Ghanaians. Poverty which underlines much of the issues of social inclusion is being tackled through a variety of initiatives including LEAP (Livelihood Economic Advancement Program), School Feeding Program, School Capitation Grants, Youth Enterprise and Employment schemes (LESDEP, NYEP/GYEEDA, etc) and a National Health Insurance. Whiles these efforts are well intended, the impact has not be overwhelming perhaps due to the sheer magnitude of the problem and issues of mismanagement and corruption by officials in charge.

Aside the issues of poverty, there have been a number of institutional initiative s and the enactment or amendment of laws to minimize and/or prevent social exclusion. For example all new public building and existing ones are expected to meet certain basic standards to ensure accessibility by the physically challenged.

Gender mainstreaming and other gender equality and equity programs/initiatives are now observed in many sectors aimed at ensuring fuller participation of women in society. The erstwhile National Youth Council is now an Authority with the purpose of strengthening its mandate in promoting the issues of young people.

Whiles all these and such others are laudable there remains a lot more to be done and in some cases, the implementation and enforcements of current laws/legislation remains the core challenge.

Good Governance

As a fourth and foundation dimension, it holds a lot to the overall success of any sustainable development pursuits. This goes beyond corruption-free governance and rule of law; it includes other salient issues such as active citizenship, effective and efficient decentralization and responsible leaders and leadership at all levels in society. Good governance will either make or unmake the whole pursuit of sustainable development and it needs serious emphasis and attention.

Within the context of sustainable development, Good Governance must necessarily include a deliberate and systematic efforts at training and developing responsible, socially-conscious and patriotic leaders especially from the youth of today. Effective and efficient leaders and leadership is needed throughout the whole system and not just at the top if leadership is to engender the desired results. Thus it is strategic that efforts at developing responsible, socially-conscious and patriotic leaders must be done within the framework of developing leaders for all levels.

Ghana and many other African countries are experiencing extreme political polarization due to the competitive nature of the practice of multi-party politics/democracy and this adversely affects developmental prospects especially in relation to long-term sustainable planning.

Election cycles seem to exert greater influence on the way and manner in which the governments are run, rather than the important and long-term priorities of the nation; the issue is a well-recognized and in recent times many have expressed strong sentiments on this salient issue.

In the face of self-interest by others (countries, foreign investors, multinationals), it is also crucial that comradeship, consensus and collectiveness be built by especially the political class to defend the national interest at all times and to pursue a common strategic goal; in its absence little can be achieved by the nation Ghana.

Conclusion

Without doubt the need for sustainable development globally cannot be overemphasized especially as activities in one country have global effect. The UN Resident Coordinator, Mad. Ruby Sandhu-Rojon, could not have said it any better when she stated that "Ghana's sustainable development is mixed", but perhaps the gravity of the issues may actually dwarf her statement. Ghana's sustainable development is treacherously negatively skewed and all stakeholders, especially the people, institutions and civil society organizations of the country, must rise up to the challenge. The Post 2015 consultations and global development agenda which has largely centered on the whole concept and issue of Sustainable Development, and which seeks to build on the achievements of the MDGs provides an opportunity for Ghana (and other developing countries especially) to strategize and position themselves to address the lapses in the national development agenda and to champion the cause of restoring the present whiles securing the future.