Sustainable Development Policy Making –

Challenges and Opportunities

Marek HaliniakNational School of Public

Administration,Warsaw, Poland

Leslaw MichnowskiCommittee for Futures Studies

"Poland 2000 Plus,"Polish Academy of Sciences

The properly defined notion: Sustainable Development (SD),

as a basis for proper SD policy making

(with help of information culture)

Sustainable Development - development without crises or collapses

Dynamic monitoring predicts - by means of computer simulation (System Dynamics –

Jay W. Forrester) - future of monitored process on condition that no intervention

into it will be undertaken.Dynamic monitoring delivers warning

forecasting, i.e. long-term early warning information about negative consequences

of previous socio-economy activity and environment change.

Sustainable Development (SD):development that must integrate:

- social development,- economic development, and

- environmental protection (Johannesburg 2002, EU SDS

2006).

Global crisis obviously means that formally-binding

“three-pillar” sustainable development

of world society policy is

unsuccessful.

To durably overcome the global crisis and achieve SD we

need, among other things, to reshape

forms of Public Administration (PA)education

Some premises for such educational reshaping:

(1) – „Washington Consensus is over” (G. Brown, G20, April 2nd);

(2) - The EU SDS forms the overall framework within which the Lisbon

Strategy, with its renewedfocus on growth and jobs, provides

the motor of a more dynamic economy (renewed EU SDS 2006).

Notwithstanding all the declarations putting the three pillars of sustainable development on an equal footing, the last decade has witnessed continuing de facto recognition of the primacy of economic growth founded upon the

competitiveness of enterprises on the free market, with a role for the state

that is as limited as possible.

Only now is there a recognition of the true worth of the public sector in ensuring balance between the SD

pillars: administration is now tasked with a much greater involvement in

steering development than previously.

To overcome the global crisis and achieve SD we need „two hands”:(1) – the „invisible” market one; (2) – WISE GOVERNANCE on

many levels.

For wise governance we need to include into PA

education more systems knowledge,

especially about properties of information

“information is the key to (sustainability) transformation. When information flows are changed, any system will behave

differently” (Meadows 2004).

“in the new world of infinite information resources, one country's creation of wealth based on information can be

shared by all. The value of information increases, the more it is shared”

(Utsumi, ITU, WSIS 2005)

A. P. Sage, Methodology for large scale systems, New York 1977.

We propose to include into PA education

the System of Life (SoL) conceptual model

(Sage, Michnowski), that treats different kinds

of life-system development as process of information (sensu

Wiener) creation

In the light of SoL-based analysis of global crisis essence and causes:

(1) – current financial-economic crisis is evident phase of global civilizational

crisis starting about 1970;(2) – overcoming it willl recuire ecohumanism instead of social-

Darwinism

Meadows, Limits to Growth, 1972

Meadows, Limits to Growth The 30-Year Update, 2004.

The main causes of this global crisis are: - egoism and short-sightedness

of policy-makers;- lack of knowledge about complex, social and environmental (including temporaly

and spatialy long-range), consequences of socio-economy activity and other changes

in environment;- lack of connection between access to

wealth/profits and eco-social usefulness of person’s and organization’s activity.

Eco-humanism: a partnership-based co-operation for the common good of all people (rich and poor, from countries highly developed and behind in development), their descendants, and the natural environment - COMMONLY

SUPPORTED BY SCIENCE AND HIGH TECHNOLOGY AS WELL AS

INFORMATION CULTURE.

To overcome the global crisis we need to:- rationalize consumption based on depleting

of deficit resources (including environmental);-  access new sources of resources in place of

ones depleted irreversibly;- initiate new science-technology revolution

that will allow all techno-sphere/technology to be made ecosocially friendly one;

- stop overpopulation trend by instaling popular intellectual (cognitive – innovative)

creativity in place of natural/biological defensive creativity.

The basic conditions for overcoming global crisis and achieving SD:

(1) - to convert global financial system into one that will support/aid above, eco-

socially useful activity;(2) - to build information bases of

sustainable development policy and economy;

(3) - to create adequate, inter alia global, subsidiary governance institutions.

In our SD education field it is necessary,

as a first, to include task of shaping of PA

information culture

PA information culture will help in:(1) projecting long-term SD strategy by

means of backcasting method (with help of SoL - EU SDS 2006);

(2) – indirect control of proper market forces stimulated SD activity

(3) – creation of informationally efficient socio-economy infrastructure;

(4) - stimulating cognitive-innovative activity be means of innovative susceptibility of socio-economy

infrastructure shaping.

Without proper systems knowledge education and

ecohumanistic mindset of PA it is impossible to durably

overcome global crisis and achieve sustainable development

of world society

Thank you for your attention

Marek HaliniakMH@ksap.gov.pl

Leslaw Michnowskileslaw.michnowski@neostrada.pl