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Monitoring The UN > The UN and Sustainable Development Sustainable Human Development Principle 1 of the Rio Declaration states that: "Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature." Shortly after the Rio conference, the term 'sustainable human development' came to replace the narrower 'sustainable development' in much of the discussion. The new term reflects the conviction that poverty, inequity and runaway population growth are at the root of the global environmental crisis. Sustainable human development, then, starts with people, especially the marginalized. In its efforts to build the capacity of developing countries to sustain development, the United Nations devotes considerable attention to the traditionally marginalized elements of society: the poor, women, children, the handicapped, and aboriginals.23 Sustainable development demands certain minimum requirements for all people, including adequate food, housing, and employment, as well as access to health care and education. It also requires an environment where there is respect for human rights and freedom from oppression and crime. Many environmental problems are directly related to the absence of such essentials. For instance, inadequate or unsustainable incomes force poor people into harmful practices like clearing rainforests for subsistence farming or harvesting firewood until not a tree stands in the vicinity of their settlements. A lack of educational opportunities deprives them of choice in their lives and prevents them from participating in the political process. It also exerts upward pressure on population which, in turn, leads to the ecological environment being pushed beyond its limits of tolerance. The participation of women in development efforts is essential, and the United Nations works to raise their economic, social and legal status. The special needs of children and adolescents receive attention and aboriginal groups are recognized and respected as possessing a special knowledge and understanding of their environment, knowledge which should be taken into account in development policies.24 Capacity building by the United Nations acknowledges that many developing countries lack even the rudimentary institutional, political and cultural framework necessary for development and that this is both a cause and effect of poverty. These countries need to build from the ground up. In this respect, the United Nations promotes, among other things, the creation of enabling institutions, the adoption of open, participatory systems of governance where there is accountability in the political process, and technology transfers from developed to under-developed countries. It also encourages a willingness to address the social roots of poverty and to strive for efficient resource use and waste management. Because all of these must go hand in hand, there is a high degree of linkage between the various bodies of the United Nations. The United Nations' role in sustainable development efforts is not restricted to the Third World. Both the Brundtland Commission and UNCED agreed that the consumption levels of the affluent countries could not and should not become universal - the ecosystem would not survive it. In fact, it would not survive the continuation of these levels even in the affluent nations. The developed world, therefore, has been encouraged to incorporate the new sustainable development principles and priorities into their national, regional and local policies and to maintain an awareness of the global environmental ramifications of their various decisions. There has also been a call from developing countries for a change in the relationship between North and South, particularly with respect to the international economy.25 The dominance of this system by the industrially-advanced countries forces the weaker participants to rely upon the ruthless exploitation of raw material natural resources to provide exports that will bring income and badly needed foreign exchange. Caught in a circular trap of poverty, debt and dependence, developing countries are prevented from earning sufficient income to make the investments in infrastructure that would bring about sustainable development and lessen the environmental damage in their own backyards.26
23Governance for Sustainable Human Development, (United Nations Development Programme, January 1997) 1-2.
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