Sustainable development is impossible without equity
Sustainable development is the model of economic development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.
There can never be sustainable development without justice. The British charity Oxfam puts the problem of sustainable development and equity simply: the richest 2,000 people in the world are wealthier than 4.6 billion people. And that 22 richest men in the world have more wealth than all the women in Africa!
So what is ‘carbon sequestration’ or ‘carbon trading’ to hungry people? How do we care for future generations when we cannot even meet the needs of our own children?
Sustainable development is the model of economic development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.
That is what the UN Sustainable Development Goals are about. And these grew from the failed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Chief among the failures of the MDGs was the inability of much of the world’s rich to guarantee equity in all aspects of life.
Let’s not be naïve: sustainable development is a fantasy because the owners of capital who rule this world are not ready to demolish the economic structures that contribute to environmental degradation.
Even behind the scenes in COP26, global leaders know that they are still beholden to influential industrial polluters.
But even more presumptuous is that common people are expected to fully participate in saving the planet. So long as ‘equity’ remains just a word, the time frame for the new Sustainable Development Goals will pass and ‘experts’ will again hold conferences in luxurious hotels and conjure up even more justifications for the UN to set loftier goals. This will go on ad infinitum.
The thrust for sustainable development is from four collective worries: the impact of rapid economic growth, impact of modern lifestyles on the environment, and rising inequality in the world. These are not new concerns, though; they have been there since the industrial revolution 300 years ago.
In 1798, English economist Thomas Malthus famously claimed that by 2050 the world would be unable to sustain the population, projected to be 12 billion. The world will then grind towards doomsday.
Malthus is the father of population control. He taught that those who did not contribute much to wealth creation should be castrated. And over the years his ideas have inspired such outfits as Marie Stopes and Planned Parenthood.
The latter was founded by Margret Sanger, she of eugenics: her theory that society can be improved through planned breeding for “desirable traits” like intelligence and industriousness. Implicitly, in that scheme of things, black people do not have ‘desirable traits’ and that is why much resources are channelled toward population control in Africa. But technology has invalidated those theories.
On average, the world has been producing food and wealth abundantly. By the 1970s, at least in Europe, there was already a food surplus: the famous ‘mountains of butter and lakes of wine’. This was as a result of effective EU governments’ subsidies on farming through the Common Agricultural Policy.
Yet today, world economic structures prevent Africa from helping farmers produce more.
The benefits from this rapid development have not translated to improved welfare for all. It has in a few countries, thanks to strong social and economic policies.
But even in developed countries, more people increasingly face ‘hidden hunger’, where older people and jobless youth in cities face food insecurity either because they have no means to reach the supermarkets or simply cannot afford good food.
Every time I visit the French city of Toulouse, there seems to be more people begging in the streets and more second-hand clothes shops.
Equity is not just an old Marxist word. In the report Working for a few: political capture and inequality, Oxfam says few governments are ready to dismantle oppressive economic structures.
In Africa, inequality is worse because we lack structures to ensure that the poor also benefit from the wealth generated. With rudimentary or non-existent social policy, to most people sustainable development is just another irritating NGO song.
For Africa to fully participate in sustainable development, states must first ensure social justice.
How can Wanjiku, our metaphor for the common person, participate in sustainable development if her daily worry is food?
Poverty is unfavourable to economic development, sustainable or not. For the poor, trees are first of all firewood, building material and not for fancy things like ‘sustainability’ for ‘future generations’.
Right now in Kenya, rivers are dying up. During rains, the rivers turn blood red: soil erosion is intense upstream; measures to save riparian spaces are largely ignored, not by rich developers, but the poor who require every space to grow food.
Inequitable economic settings make it difficult for the poor to be resilient to shocks. Wanjiku cannot shield herself from climate change, given the non-existent social safety nets and depending on rain-fed agriculture, a sector most susceptible to shocks.
Wanjiku is denied information on the stated economic potential of sustainable development. What is the UN, or Kenya, doing to enlighten her on things like ‘carbon sequestration’ in a language that she understands?
Yet sequestration means simply capturing carbon from the air and channelling it into the soil through planting trees! Many people practise this but the way it is described makes it sound like something done on Mars by Nasa scientists.
We are told there is an emerging multibillion-dollar market in sustainable development – for example, selling carbon credits. Kenya has received billions of shillings to mainstream such activities. How much of this money is earmarked for schools or civic education on sustainable development?
By now, these concepts should be at the core of our school syllabi in order to grow a culture of sustainable development. There already should be policy in every public department putting sustainable development values in every operation.
How about children planting trees in public spaces or wherever and accumulate credits to pay school fees or earn money?
But unless we first enable Wanjiku to feed, clothe and provide decent shelter for her family - unless we pay more than lip service to equity - sustainable development will remain just lofty words.
Dr Mbataru teaches public policy at Kenyatta University;
