SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: MEANING, PILLARS, AND COVID- 19 PANDEMIC IN AFRICA: THE SOCIO-PHILOSOPHICAL WAY FORWARD
PHILLIPS OLUBIYI
Department of General Studies
Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State, Nigeria
E-mail:olubiyi.philips@federalpolyilaro.edu.ng
ABSTRACT
The term sustainable development is a well-used one and is probably familiar to many within and beyond academia, certainly in the more developed parts of the world. It is a term that we come across in arenas ranging from door-step recycling initiatives to media explanations of global security issues. Within human geography, it interrogates research extending from social exclusion within cities of the United Kingdom to outcomes of environmental transformations in rural Africa. Indeed, some consider that there is none so relevant a discipline as geography to contribute to the sustainable development debates given its ability to marry the science of the environment with an understanding of economic, political, and cultural change, that is, development. This paper argues that the pursuit of sustainable development is now stated as a principal policy goal of organizations and institutions across all scales of public life and the field of academic and practical enquiry around sustainable development is a diverse and expanding one. In addition the paper recommends that decision-makers need to be constantly mindful of the relationships, complementarities, and trade-offs among these pillars and ensure responsible human behaviour and actions at the international, national, community and individual levels in order to uphold and promote the tenets of this paradigm in the interest of human development. More needs to be done by the key players particularly the United Nations (UN), governments, private sector, and civil society organizations in terms of policies, education and regulation on social, economic and environmental resource management to ensure that everyone is sustainable development aware, conscious, cultured and compliant.
KEYWORDS:Sustainable development, economic and social stability, Covid 19 implications on sustainable development in Africa.