Introduction
This chapter looks closely at the notion of sustainable development and the components of the post-2015 development agenda. It provides a road map to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by Member States during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2015. The SDGs envision a world that is ācomprehensively sustainable: socially fair; environmentally secure; economically prosperous; inclusive; and more predictableā,1 and call for a concerted effort to build a future based on āsustainabilityā. The SDGs encompass social, economic, and environmental objectives, and target both developed and developing countries. They replace the former Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and establish a new financing framework for development.
The analysis in this chapter centres on the notion of sustainability that underpins the SDGs and is central to the 2030 development agenda. More specifically, this chapter is concerned with two key themes: first, what is development; and, second, why does sustainable development matter? The chapter considers the importance of development, identifies relevant theories of development, and considers the determinants of development. As we shall see, development can be defined in both human and economic terms, with different implications for the development agenda. Over the past decade, a range of theories have been developed to explain the determinants of development. This has sparked an extensive debate about the relationship between law, political institutions, and economic development.
Third, the chapter considers the value of development objectives such as the SDGs. It considers the purposes and premises of the SDGs and discusses their underpinnings. In doing so, this chapter lays the groundwork for subsequent discussion in this book. The main purpose is to outline the 17 SDGs and their implications for scaling up development finance.
What Is Development?
There is no generally agreed-upon criteria for classifying countries as developed or developing countries.2 This is because there are different measures of development. We can measure development across a range of variables, including economic, social, and political and trade factors. Accordingly, different international institutions employ different criteria for measuring development and classifying countries. Most OECD members are considered high-income countries, and, membership of the OECD is taken as a criterion for developed status. Moreover, the term developing country is not a legal term per se, but it does appear in some international treaties and agreements, most obviously in the provisions of some WTO agreements and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in developing countries. For instance, Article XVIII(1) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) defines developing countries as those āeconomies which can only support low standards of living and are in the early stage of developmentā.
The World Trade Organization's Self-Selection Principle allows WTO member countries to unilaterally announce whether they are developed or developing countries (referred to as āunilateral declarationsā). Self-selection can take place on an ad hoc basis. However, such an announcement is open to challenge by other WTO members. In addition to references in the GATT to ādeveloping countriesā, some international environmental treaties also refer to developing countries. However, they adopt different classification criteria. For example, the Kyoto Protocol divides countries into four main groups: (i) members of the OECD; (ii) countries with economies in transition; and (iii and iv) countries outside these two categories, which are mainly developing countries and the least developed countries (LDCs).
Other terms may be used in the development literature. Reference may be made to First World Countries, as opposed to Second, Third, and Fourth World Countries. In addition, a differentiation is made between the Global North and the Global South. The term Global South is taken to refer to developing countries in the Southern Hemisphere. Here, the Global South would include Latin America, South and Southern Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific Region, whereas the Global North includes North America, Western Europe, and Japan. Core States are generally defined as the Group of Seven plus One, or G7 + 1 (Russia); Group of Eight or G-8; and Group of Twenty or G-20. Furthermore, the IMF distinguishes between āadvanced marketsā and āemerging marketsā, with emerging markets being a new category of countries that arises from the category of developing countries ā they are partners and competitors of some developed countries.
The term development does not have a fixed definition that is accepted universally. There are different visions of development. Generally speaking, the notion of ādevelopmentā is understood to refer to progressive social, political, and economic change in developing countries. Often, development is associated with economic growth ā the latter concept being understood as an increase in the capacity of an economy to produce goods and services, compared from one period of time to another. The term is generally taken to refer to the ability of firms to produce goods and services at an efficient and optimal level.
According to the Commission on Growth and Development ā which includes a broad group of eminent economists and policymakers ā countries with high, sustained growth exhibit five common characteristics:
- Strategic integration with the world economy: High-growth countries benefit from the world economy in several ways: they import ideas, technology, and knowhow from the rest of the world, while at the same time exploiting global demand for their goods.
- Mobility of resources, particularly labour: In high-growth economies, capital, and especially, labour moves rapidly from sector to sector, industry to industry. This mobility of resources was found to be a feature of all the 13 high-growth countries considered in the Growth and Development Report.
- High savings: Sustained economic growth is typically backed up by high domestic savings.
- High investment rates.
- A capable government committed to growth.3
We can juxtapose economic conceptions of development such as economic growth with more holistic conceptions of development, such as human well-being or freedom. In Development as Freedom, Nobel Prizeāwinning economist Professor Amartya Sen views development as the process of expanding real freedoms and removing major sources of āunfreedomā ā demonstrating a strong correlation between poverty and lack of freedom.4 The achievement of such freedoms is seen as the primary end of development. Although this book accepts the view that the attainment of such freedoms is an important dimension of development and instrumental to social progress, its primary focus will be on sustainable economic growth. Sustainable economic growth is not seen as the ultimate end of development, but rather one dimension of it.
