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National Centre for Sustainable Development (NCSD)

Sustainable Development: Through Investing in the

Human Capital

Dr. Călin GEORGESCUExecutive Director NCSD

Some Facts About The State of the World*

Nature• Severe weather events on the rise:

– Weather disaster economic losses grow 93% over 2001 to $53B– Cyclone intensity increases 10-20% with increasing temperature

• The sea level has risen by 10-20 cm.

• Most non-polar glaciers are retreating and the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice is decreasing in summer.

• 12% of 9800 bird species threatened with extinction in this century, due to habitat loss, poorly regulated hunting, long line fishing.

Economy• In 1998 more than 45% of the globe’s people had to live on incomes

averaging 2$ a day or less. Meanwhile, the richest one-fifth of the world’s population has 85% of the global GNP. And the gap between rich and poor is widening.

How reality looks like today

• Global water consumption doubles every 20 years;

• 1 billion people already suffer from a shortage of fresh water;

• If everyone adopted a western lifestyle we would need five earths to support us!

European context

• The European Sustainable Development Strategy (June 2006), renewed under Austrian presidency, introduced education and training related benchmarks;

• Despite the overall commitment to actively promote sustainable development worldwide and ensure that the EU's internal and external policies are consistent with global sustainable development, the impression that emerges is that this objective is far beyond the scope of individual Member States' possibilities*.

Progress report on EUSD Strategy

• Although, the EU SDS defines the role of research and development in sustainable development in a broad way, this approach only found entry in less than half of the Member States progress reports.

• This narrow focus on supporting research into new technologies does not do justice to the concept of SD and this section should not be confined to the creation and availability of technology and knowledge, but also include scientific research concerning its usage and uptake.

The 5 Capitals

• Natural Capital;• Human Capital;• Social Capital;• Manufactured

Capital;• Financial Capital.

Human Capital

= health, knowledge, skills, intellectual outputs, motivation and capacity for relationships.

Why is it important?

• It fundamentally underlies global sustainable competitiveness.

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National Sustainable Development Strategy

• Sets out clear goals for 2013 – 2020 – 2030 for the achievement and observance of a stable and rational balance between the economic development and environmental protection in such a manner that society may understand and accept.

• NSDS points to the process of development and utilization of human capital in terms of knowledge, skills and competences, without forgetting values, morals and ethics.

The challenge of SD

Dealing with the challenge of SD will require

greater coordination among different ministries,

between the government and the private sector,

as well as among all decision-making stakeholders (sectoral, regional, local).

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Sustainable development

= the way to increase the quality of life, through an integrated approach.

• Human capital is crucial when enforcing sustainable development.

• SD emphasises on the diminishing of inter-generational inequities and assumes a set of competences every citizen should acquire and put into practice.

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Local Agenda 21 – community driven development

• An integrated approach of community development having human capital as catalyst.

• The Action Plan of the local administration (municipalities) to implement sustainable development during the 21st century.

• It binds, in a mandatory manner, the economic and social development with the environmental component.

• Implemented in over 40 locations all over Romania.

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WHO ARE THE AUTHORS?

• Public consultation and participation were the underlying pattern in the drafting process of both Local Agenda 21 and the National Sustainable Development Strategy

Human capital for SD – role of education and training

• How does the benchmarking of the formal education on society demand look like?

Quantity and quality of education and training:– equitable access and – high educational attainment.

Human capital for SD – role of education and training

• Education policies are very input based and ignore incentives to improve student performance or to conserve on costs;

• Until recently, the education sector has had characteristics of public monopoly;

• There is little correlation between the educational expenditure and performance;

• The education sector has very long lead times so accumulating evidence is slow.

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Research is essential

Research backs up major themes.

Stimulating research by:

• attracting young people to work in the fields of R&D;

• attracting the interest of the private sector;• stimulating the private-public partnership in R&D;• developing the fields of R&D within the

universities.

NSDS of Romania

The NSDS of Romania wants to add:

– quality of schooling – relevance of achieved competences;

– teachers quality; – entrepreneurial schools/universities.

Main underlying principles:

– Inclusiveness– Lifelong learning– Promoting meritocracy and social

advancement