Sustainable development is a very complex concept involving several interrelated issues:
Social equity places the priority on satisfying the diversified needs of the population, such as food, health and education being among the most basic. Self-reliance is also often perceived as a desirable goal of social development, which goes against economic concepts such as comparative advantages and globalization.
Economic efficiency is a well known issue that has obviously received a lot of emphasis as it promotes significant improvements in the welfare of populations. Key concepts are related to achieve or sustain economic growth, maximize profits and expand markets. Globalization has given a new dimension to economic development by enabling an extended range for comparative advantages to be exploited. However, like all economic processes, globalization promotes growth in a differential manner as regions or nations capture its opportunities differently.
Environmental responsibility tries to respect the carrying capacity of environmental systems, to conserve and recycle resources and to reduce the generation of wastes.
Although all these issues can be conceptualized, most of them are highly complex in their nature and interrelations. Consequently, sustainable development can be perceived as a meaningless term that is increasingly used to justify ill conceived government policies.
Although a plethora of indicators can be used to assess sustainability (150 indicators were suggested by the World Bank), they fit into five major categories: