Sustainability needs to be ensured in all sectors of economy and at all levels of development action. It would require far-reaching changes in both national and global policies.
At the national level, new balances must be struck between the efficiency of competitive markets, the legal and regulatory framework that only government can provide, the investments to enhance the capabilities of all and the provision if social safety nets for those with unequal access to the markets. Balances between the compulsions of today and the needs of tomorrow, between private initiative and public action, between individual greed and social compassion are sorely needed for this purpose.
The essence and test of sustainable human development strategies must be to ensure a sustainable livelihood for all. These strategies --especially at the national level-- will thus have to focus on three core themes: poverty reduction, employment creation and social integration --in short, participation.
At the global level, sustainable human development requires no less than a new global ethic. Universalism in the recognition of life claims and concern for common survival must lead to policies for a more equitable world order, based on fundamental global reforms, some of which will be discussed in chapter4 . The concept of sustainability is greatly endangered in a world that is one-fourth rich and three-fourths poor, that is half democratic and half authoritarian, where poor nations are being denied equal access to global economic opportunities. where the income disparity between the richest 20% and the poorest 20% of the world's population jas double over the past three decades, where one-fourth og humanity is unable to meet its basic human needs and where the rich nations are comsuming four-fifths of humanity's natural capital without being obliged to pay for it. The concept of one world and one planet simply cannot emerge from an unequal world. Nor can shared responsibility for the health of the global commons be created without some measure of shared global prosperity. Global sustainability with out global justice will always remain an elusive goal.
If this challenge is not met --and met decisively-- human security will be at risk all over the world, an issue taken up in chapter2.