sustainable development 20 years on from the ... - José Eli da Veiga

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8. Emerging social issues
Well-grounded doubts exist regarding the economy’s capacity to sustainably create the formal
employment necessary to increase social protection coverage. Employment informality is a growing
phenomenon in some economies. Structural changes in the economy, such as the transition to a green
economy, must be accompanied by adequate social protection notwithstanding modifications in the
structure of employment.
In the coming <strong>years</strong>, States will need to rally all their resources to tackle organized crime,
whether profit-seeking (human trafficking, drug smuggling, contraband, waste trafficking, tax evasion
and so on) or filling gaps left by the breakdown in traditional social relations (gangsterism).
With conflicts breaking out across the globe, security is one of the foremost issues being
discussed today. The human person must be placed at the centre of security concerns and the close link
between <strong>development</strong> and security needs to be recognized. Human security emerges as a new concept that
focuses on the lack of security affecting the daily lives of people and on their dignity from an integrating
and multidimensional approach (as opposed to a defensive one). It calls for an intervention approach (or a
combined policy) designed to safeguard human life and give people a sense of security in their homes, at
work, in their communities and their territories, and also for enabling persons to develop their potential,
participate fully in decision-making and ward off, resist and confront threats, making them less
vulnerable. This is the most important qualitative leap of human security over traditional security. It
enhances the dimension of human dignity, emphasizing a dimension that is rarely addressed or taken into
account in policymaking and <strong>development</strong> planning: culture and people’s emotions. The contours of
security extend far beyond a person’s survival to encompass matters such as emotions, love, culture and
faith, and the tendency for people to identify with a place (territory) (UNCRD, <strong>20</strong>11b).
B. ECONOMY AND SUSTAINABILITY
The direction of macroeconomic policy, production structure and sustainability are also strongly tied to
one another. In the long term, growth with equity and sustainability depends upon productive
diversification with a <strong>sustainable</strong> energy pattern, a broader array of export destination markets and a rise
in total factor productivity (ECLAC, <strong>20</strong>10a). In the past <strong>20</strong> <strong>years</strong>, the region has not succeeded in closing
productivity gaps with developed countries or in transforming its production structure, which remains
heavily based on natural-resource-intensive sectors —which generates heavy pressure on natural
resources, soils and the atmosphere— and on manufacturing sectors with little value added, which limits
potential for growth and for improving the poverty and inequality indicators described earlier (ECLAC,
<strong>20</strong>10a). The current conditions are, however, favourable for bringing the actions of the State towards
<strong>sustainable</strong> and inclusive patterns of <strong>development</strong>.
1. Growth, investment and the exchange rate
When the Earth Summit was held in 1992, the Latin American and Caribbean region was emerging from
a decade of economic adjustments, instability, external borrowing problems and low growth, all of which
undermined the capacity of its governments to respond to rising poverty and social challenges. The
pressure to generate hard currency led to a preference for activities capable of yielding visible results in
the short term (Sunkel, 1985, 1990). The 1990s were <strong>years</strong> of profound changes in policies and growth