Sustainable development report on Africa I: managing land-based resources for sustainable development

Abstract

The lack of balanced development where economic, social and environmental dimensions are given due consideration for long term sustainable development has led the international community to consider different paradigms of development. The multiple challenges to development in Africa have necessitated the use of a holistic approach that integrates economic, social and environmental dimensions, and generates new knowledge, policies and actions. The Sustainable Development Report on Africa (SDRA) tries to fill in the gap in knowledge left by largely single dimensional reports produced at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) by monitoring and assessing the interrelationships between the three dimensions. The SDRA provides, perhaps, the first comprehensive analysis and assessment of the status of sustainable development in Africa. The theme of this edition of the SDRA, Managing Land-Based Resources for Sustainable Development, analyses social, economic and environmental sustainability. It embraces challenges, ranging from developing appropriate and comparable indicators for measuring and monitoring sustainable development, to improving public participation in the sustainable development of mineral resources.