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The World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002: Reports from the Scottish Civic Delegation
Damian Killeen, Director, The Poverty Alliance
Socially Sustainable Development
Social development is central to sustainable development and social justice is central to social development. Development of any kind is delivered by people in society, through formal institutions and informal arrangements of many kinds. Change that does not take account of its impact on people will not gain their support and will not be sustainable. Change that does not address injustice will only promote division and undermine the prospect of social cohesion on which sustainable development depends. This was highlighted at the Johannesburg World Summit where the government leaders acknowledged the growing dissatisfaction of many people with conventional political structures and where representatives at the Global Peoples' Forum called for opportunities for greater grassroots involvement in planning and building for the future.
The Scottish Executive partnership agreement is based on a commitment to both sustainable development and social justice. The Scottish Executive's inclusion of a social justice representative in the civic delegation to Johannesburg provides recognition that social justice is relevant to sustainable development and that many groups beyond the established sustainable development 'community' have a contribution to make to meet the Executive's sustainable development objectives. However, it is also the case that few social justice organisations are aware of the contribution they already make to sustainable development or of the potential that they represent. Although many social justice organisations see their work as contributing towards the creation of a better society, they do not do this within the framework of a coherent programme for social development that contributes to sustainable development.
Social justice, support for human rights and equal opportunities, together with security, solidarity and participation are the underpinnings of socially sustainable development. One definition of a just society is a society into which you would be happy to be born, in any place, at any time of any gender, ethnicity or mixture of abilities. In a just society you would be confident that your human rights are protected and that you have an equal opportunity to fulfil your personal aspirations and your responsibilities to others. Your confidence would depend on knowing:
that your physical environment will not harm your personal health and that previous generations have not consumed the resources that you will need;
that social and economic structures and institutions will enable you to participate fully in all matters that affect your quality of life;
that you can access the knowledge and skills you will need to turn your aspirations into reality; and
that a shared basis of values will ensure that your rights and well being are protected and that you have adequate resources to meet your needs.
Self-evidently we do not live in a socially just society, in our own country or globally. Inequality, poverty, discrimination of all kinds and abuses of individual and corporate power undermine development everywhere to varying degrees. Agenda 21, the United Nations' core text for sustainable development identifies these divisive elements of human behaviour as the factors that place the human race at greatest risk on the planet. Agenda 21 identifies some key areas for development that must be addressed if human society is to be sustainable; these include the responsible and equitable use of energy, poverty eradication and reductions in inequalities and the development of more participatory democracies.
Since the principles of Agenda 21 were agreed at the World Summit in Rio in 1992 national governments and non-government organisations have made selective use of them to define their own approaches to sustainable development. In the UK, as in most western or 'developed' countries, the focus has been on managing energy and pollution issues in ways that do not threaten current perceptions of economic priorities, including the pressures of competition in a globalised economy. Less attention has been paid to the domestic social development aspects of sustainable development in the belief that this is largely a third world issue - the UK sent its Overseas Development Minister to the UN's Social Development Summit in Copenhagen in 1995 - and the political dimension is largely ignored. There has been a failure on the part of western governments to question whether their 'developed' political structures support or undermine sustainable development. This is in sharp contrast to some 'developing' countries where the relationships between political, social, economic and environmental priorities are live issues for sustainable development. At the Johannesburg Summit, the delinking of environmental from social and other considerations, as well as the failure of governments to deliver on the environmental targets, were identified as amongst the key issues to be addressed if sustainable development is to be a reality.
Social justice organisations in Scotland can be excused if they do not appreciate their relevance to the national agenda for sustainable development. The Executive's statement on '
Meeting the Needs…Priorities, Actions and Targets for Sustainable Development' identifies the priorities as Resource Use, Energy and Travel. Considerations of human rights and equality are reduced to a principle of having 'regard for others who do not have access to the same level of resources and the wealth generated'. The statement includes some targets for educational achievement, life expectancy, fuel poverty, homelessness, crime reduction and volunteering drawn from the Executive's Social Justice strategy but there is no discussion of any fundamental changes that might be required to the way in which our society is structured and operates if we are to achieve sustainable development and there are no proposals for auditing the social impacts of the actions that are proposed.
'
Meeting the Needs…' recognises that achieving sustainable development will require us to confront and resolve some difficult conflicts of interests but, beyond an oversight role for a Cabinet sub-committee, does not address the wider political implications of sustainable development. '
Meeting the Needs…' and the First Minister's contribution to the Johannesburg Summit have highlighted a concern for 'environmental justice' that links the negative consequences of waste creation and pollution with the poor health and disempowerment of the lower income communities who experience them disproportionately. This is not, however, a concept that questions more fundamental aspects of the distribution of environmental goods or resources or that leads to the development of more sustainable livelihoods for all. There are many points of linkage between the policies indicated in '
Meeting the Needs…' and the concerns of organisations and community groups that want to achieve a more just and inclusive society in Scotland but much more needs to be done to make these linkages overt and to ensure that they work for sustainable development.
At the Johannesburg Summit the UK's Department for International Development (DfID) hosted a major event on 'Negotiating Social Sustainability' at which the question was explored 'Where is the Social in Sustainable Development?'. At this event DfID questioned the value of the conventional 'three pillars' approach to sustainable development based on the idea of a social, an economic and an environmental dimension. DfID argues that' the division in to three creates the illusion of clarity without defining what distinguishes the social from the economic and the environmental pillars'.
In a paper prepared for the World Bank and DfID by Neil Thin of Edinburgh University an attempt is made to clarify the 'social development' component of sustainable development and the way it engages with others elements. The common distinction between social and economic considerations is challenged on the grounds that economic activity is just one demonstration of the nature of societies and the values that guide them. The paper defines socially sustainable development as:
'….movement not only towards increased economic activity or better natural environment, but also along developmental pathways that meet poor peoples' needs and aspirations while guaranteeing future generations the right to define their own goals and pathways to progress. This means respecting difference now and in the future. The cornerstones of a socially inclusive society are:
Social justice - to achieve equal opportunity and human rights for all, now and in the future.
Solidarity - to generate empathy and co-operation between different groups of people.
Participation - to build opportunities for everyone to improve their quality of life. - and
Security - to create livelihood security and safety from physical threats.
Social sustainability reflects peoples' entitlements, especially the aspirations of the poor and the powerless. Pro-poor development depends on a commitment to social inclusion and civic engagement. Institutions that endorse empowerment, inclusion and security are promoted, allowing the voices of poor and marginalized people to be heard in political arenas with the power to make a difference.'
There is much that is happening in Scotland that addresses this social agenda; the Executive's adoption of the Human Rights Act and the definition of Equalities in the Scotland Act, the attack on sectarianism and the welcome for asylum seekers, the empowerment agenda of Communities Scotland and the introduction of Community Planning, support for childcare provision and community safety and many other aspects of the Social Justice programme. This social development agenda also reads across into other aspects of policy development in Scotland; the land reform programme contributes to social justice, equalising the rights of people to benefit from their environment; the transport agenda is not only about reducing emissions and congestion but also about tackling the 'remoteness' of communities both rural and those on the urban periphery; Scottish Enterprise's refocusing on 'indigenous' enterprise has the potential for building greater livelihood security as does the distinctive Scottish form of support for students and free personal care for the elderly. With all these policies, and others, it is possible to argue that not enough is being done and there are key issues, such as poverty, where substantive progress is not being made. What should be recognised, however is that these Executive policies are potentially consistent with socially sustainable development.
As is often the case, civil society in Scotland is ahead of the politicians in recognising the importance of a social dimension to sustainable development. The Future Scotland initiative, undertaken for the Executive by the Scottish Civic Forum, identified a high level awareness amongst a variety of groups and individuals of the need to balance social and environmental considerations, of the need for the marginalized and excluded to brought into the development agenda and of the need for a more participatory approach to thinking and planning for sustainable development. A Civic Forum working group, composed of representatives of groups with a wide range of connections to the sustainable development agenda, is currently identifying ways in which non-government bodies of all kinds can relate their objectives and activities more directly to a collective effort for sustainable development. This Future Scotland Group has identified a number of practical initiatives that will assist this process:
developing an auditing tool to help organisations and groups identify the contribution they make to sustainable development and how this can be enhanced;
developing communications that will help the supporters of organisations concerned e.g. with biodiversity to recognise the links between this and issues e.g. of human rights and social solidarity;
sharing skills and resources e.g. we will undertake your energy audit if you undertake our social audit;
working with the full range of Executive departments and agencies to create an interface between them and a wide range of non-government groups to identify opportunities and build sustainable development together.
A concern for social justice is deep seated in Scottish society; it has a central role to play in achieving sustainable development. What is needed is an overt social development strategy that ensures that decisions that are made to support environmental and economic objectives will contribute to building security and development for all of Scotland's people. The starting point for such a strategy should be peoples' own assessment of how social structures and institutions meet their needs and support their aspirations for themselves and future generations. Some of the key learning from the past ten years of the implementation of Agenda 21 has been that arriving at this assessment must be a participatory process, supported by government, not one in which governments use their power to maintain the status quo.
At Johannesburg some of the most powerful contributions came from children and elderly people feeling excluded from society, people who had lost their livelihoods and heritage because of dam projects and deforestation, women working for their liberation, disabled people demanding their place in society, landless people calling for the means to make a living, farmers and fishing people calling for a fair place in the world's food markets. Some were there to protest at their continued oppression; others were there to pay tribute to what had been achieved through participation and empowerment. The positive stories, some of them brought forward by DfID, were all ones where social development was an integral feature of a sustainable development programme, where there has been an investment in community capacity and in the capacity of professionals to listen to and work with communities and where the balance of power has been shifted towards the powerless with the granting of constitutional rights and the creation of greater transparency in the relationships between development partners. Scotland has its own rich history of mobilising communities and institutions for social change. We have the potential to draw on this learning from elsewhere and on our own experience to provide a model of social development in support of sustainable development that others will want to follow. This is the challenge we should take up from the Johannesburg Summit.
Small changes in the way we perform everyday tasks can have huge impacts on Scotland's environment.
Walking short distances rather than using the car, or being careful not to overfill the kettle are just two positive steps we can all take.
This butterfly represents the beauty and fragility of Scotland's environment. The motif will be utilised extensively by the Scottish Executive and its partners in their efforts to persuade people they can do a little to change a lot.
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