In order for sustainability assessments to realise their full potential, there is a need for criteria against which sustainable development might be evaluated. In this article, we employ a principle-based theoretical approach to develop a framework of sustainable development criteria. From an...

The established approach to impact assessment is baseline-led, whereby the conditions that are likely to prevail in the absence of a proposed initiative are used as the "benchmarks" for determining the significance of impacts. Proponents of sustainable development (SD) criticise this approach...

South Africa introduced a visionary policy for water resource management in 1998. The South African National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998) contains several innovative mechanisms with the potential to transform water resource management within the country and abroad. The Reserve is one of these...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare three different principles – the culpability, capacity and concern principles – for allocating responsibility for governance in a multi-level context of addressing sustainable development. Design/methodology/approach – The...

Purpose – The paper is developed around, and aims to focus on, the possible impacts of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) for sustainable development of tourism, especially in the context of the third world. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is an exploration of the...

A number of attempts have been made in the North to assist in the formation of independent research capacities in the South by establishing knowledge sharing through North-South research collaboration. The development aid department of the Danish ministry of foreign affairs initiated one such...

In recent years, millions of poor people worldwide have benefited from microfinance activities, such as microcredit, microsaving and microinsurance, making this range of financial services a key-tool for economic growth of many developing countries. At the same time, the concept of Sustainable...

The core of a sustainable social and economic development of any nation is education. A key issue in Aotearoa New Zealand is the development of education for Maori. Historically, there have been significant problems for Maori to achieve education goals. Current education policies seek to foster...

New physical constraints emerged in the 20th century and are changing the decision criteria used until now. Two optimisation problems are equivalent: (1) maximising discounted utility with a long-run survival constraint and (2) maximising a new type of utility that treats the present and future...

This article argues that the recent financial crisis was caused largely by the long-term problem of the current world economy lacking a sustainable path of development. Limits to growth -- expressed principally through rises in the price of oil and other commodities -- created a crisis for the...