What is Sustainable Development? (SDEM 501)

Course Description:

This course unit focuses on introduction to key concepts in sustainable development, the debates around the definition and challenges to sustainable development. As a background to deepen understanding of the Subject, the module will introduce students to the Policy Framework of Sustainable Development from 1972 to date, as a means of studying the evolution of the policy process of Sustainable Development, with emphasis on the international policy frameworks and cooperation under the auspices of the United Nations System from 1972 to date. This unit of course will dwell on the following:

·       Definitions, Concepts, Economic Development and the Limits to Growth 

Teaching on the basic definitions, history and concepts of sustainable development; the economic dimension of sustainable development and what is wrong with the narrow views on growth vis-à-vis environmental, social and human security concerns. This module buttresses on the limitations of the “economic myth” as well as the issue of globalization versus sustainable development and how this has affected global views. It will revisit scenarios, research and academic predictions that constructed the change in mindsets into the sustainable development dispensation.

·       Ending Extreme Poverty, social equity, environmental management, human rights and gender equality 

This Module examines poverty reduction/eradication at the centre of Internationally Agreed development Goals, particularly the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and SDGs while considering strategies for addressing extreme poverty and the impact on the efforts to reduce poverty and what alternative actions are available to improve results. It underscores the linkages between poverty and other sustainable development issues and challenges from the point of view of holistic actions. Some of the vital issues to consider her include, for example, the exploration of how primary health care systems are linked to poverty, and the interaction between the environment, social equity, human rights and gender equality  and human health etc.