Sustainable Development: The Brundtland Report

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: The Brundtland Report

by Antonio C. Antonio

October 8, 2014

The Brundtland Report was made by the Brundtland Commission otherwise formally known as the World Commission on Environmental Development (WCED).  The Brundtland Commission was officially dissolved in December 1987 after releasing “Our Common Future”; better known as the Brundtland Report which is a multi-awarded piece of literature on environmentalism.  Sustainable Development became a by-word after “Our Common Future” was reported out.  As a result, most countries began crafting their own environmental initiatives using the Brundtland Report as the framework. 

Sustainable Development is universally accepted although there was no formal agreement on the term’s definition until the Brundtland Report.  Sustainable Development is now defined as: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their needs.”  Simply said, the quality and quantity of resources being enjoyed today should also be the same quality and quantity to be enjoyed tomorrow.

There are two key concepts in Sustainable Development in the Brundtland Report:  (1) The basic needs of all people must be met in a way which provides for their needs with security and dignity; and, (2) There are no absolute limits to development.  The Brundtland Report highlighted the following list of goals and objectives for Sustainable Development policies, such as:

1. Reviving economic growth;
2. Changing the quality of growth;
3. Conserving and enhancing the resource base;
4. Ensuring a sustainable level of population;
5. Re-orienting technology and managing risk;
6. Merging environment and economics in the decision-making process;
7. Reforming international economic relations; and,
8. Strengthening international cooperation.

To accomplish the above-listed goals and objectives, the Brundtland Report also highlighted the need for the changes which are aimed towards establishing a better future for the next generations by re-orienting values and attitudes, methods, and patterns and priorities.  These are:

1. Establishing a political system which will allow citizen participation in the decision-making process concerning public policies;
2. Establishing an economic system that will generate surpluses and technical knowledge on a self-reliant and sustained basis;
3. Establishing a social system that provides solutions to the stress and problems created by ill-planned developmental strategies;
4. Establishing a production system that will preserve the ecological base for development;
5. Establishing a technological system that constantly searches for new solutions;
6. Establishing an international trade system that fosters equitable exchange of goods among trading countries; and,
7. Establishing an administrative system that would address conflicts with justice and dispatch.

Just my little thoughts…

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