Good governance-A key to sustainable development

It is apparent now that current development challenges are more complex than they were two decades ago. Since 1992, the number of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) has grown significantly, and there are now many hundreds of binding and non-binding global agreements on environmental issues, as well as a wide range of other agreements that address social and economic aspects of development. Despite the growing number of institutions and processes addressing sustainable development, environmental problems have intensified globally. The continued degradation of the global environment has not been caused solely by governance weaknesses, but rather by a multitude of drivers, including prevailing economic models and patterns of consumption and production. This is mainly due to the fact that international environmental governance lacks co-ordination and is perceived to be at odds with other areas of global governance, notably economic and development governance.

For development to be sustainable-economically, socially and environmentally-and equitable, a new approach is needed that addresses the political, as well as the technical, aspects of development solutions. Improved governance across many dimensions is a key part of this new approach. Governance is broader than institutions and includes relations between state and people. It provides the mechanisms through which collaboration can be generated across sectors. It also addresses some of the fundamental obstacles to sustainable development including exclusion and inequality.

Given the centrality of governance to people's vision of today's development framework, the core focus is to provide evidence of the link between governance and development. The quality of governance has a profound effect on sustainable development. Deficits in the controls on power and the exercise of authority lie at the core of development challenges, including weak state capacity, social and political violence, and conflict over natural resources, stresses on citizen security, and environmental sustainability. The quality of governance plays a defining role in supporting the pillars of sustainable development. The present development framework, therefore, needs to identify and address the multiple drivers of exclusion and inequality within political, economic and social systems, and support the means to foster inclusiveness and equality.