Re-Defining Sustainable Human Development to Integrate Sustai ...

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Abstract

Presently, human development and sustainability goals are mostly seen as independent goals. Sustainable Human Development (SHD) marginally considers environmental sustainability as a goal. This paper re-defines SHD, so the developmental goal is to achieve higher human development for the maximum number of people in present and future generations. Such a definition makes possible the convergence of two important goals: sustainability and attaining higher human development. This paper proposes a set of indicators and the conditions for SHD. The numerical values of the SHD conditions indicate if higher human development is achieved with sustainable means. Possible sustainable human development trajectories under different policy regimes can be derived from the primary SHD condition.