scholarly journals Enabling "Quality Society" through quality education for sustainable development

Author(s):  
JUHANI ANTTILA

The United Nations' Agenda 2030 for sustainable development is the action plan with the ambitious goals and targets for transforming our world. According to UNESCO, education for everybody is at the heart of the sustainable development, and quality of the education is imperative. Sustainability and sustainable development are ambiguous concepts, and the whole is difficult to discern. Here in this article, we examine them comprehensively and systematically and clarify their elements and relationship in the broader concept of 'quality society'. Quality of the society and education, are dealt with in the professional and standardized way. Great variety of possibilities for formal, non-formal and informal education are available in our societies. Although certain organizations of the society have a strong influence on the prevailing situation and its development, ultimately the education and learning, and also the sustainable development of the society depend on people and their activity. Universities have the special role in the development of civilization towards the advanced human society and the high level of culture, science, industry, and government. Development of the society takes place in the local communities, municipalities, countries, regions and in the whole world. Fast and versatile technical implementations and urbanization set particular requirements on the educational solutions and societal development. Hence, innovations are necessary also for the educational and societal development processes.

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-96
Author(s):  
Magdalena Tutak

Abstract Energy and climate issues are an essential part of the sustainable development process of the EU countries. They are also one of the primary objectives of international policy, as evidenced by their inclusion in Agenda 2030, adopted by the UN in 2015 among the Sustainable Development Goals. The implementation of these goals is also taking place in the EU countries. Although climate protection and energy transition activities have been undertaken in the EU for years, individual countries significantly vary in this regard. The aim of the research, the results of which are presented in this paper, was to analyze similarities between the EU countries in terms of sustainable energy and climate development. The analysis was conducted for all EU countries, based on 14 indicators characterizing energy and climate sustainability, in energy, climate, social and economic dimensions. Kohonen’s artificial neural networks were used for analysis. The research was conducted for data from the period between 2009-2018. The results showed that in the studied period (10 years), significant differences were found between the EU countries. A high level of energy and climate development was reported for Sweden, Denmark, Austria and France, among other states, and a low level for e.g., the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Masdeu Yelamos ◽  
Catherine Carty ◽  
Aisling Clardy

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine current momentum in the sport policy arena congruent with the sustainable development agenda. It presents two consensus frameworks endorsed by the UN that provide mechanism for coherent action to 2030. With a human rights backdrop it outlines the role of organisations operating in the domains of physical education, physical activity and sport (PEPAS), promoting multidisciplinary partnerships and aligning to global agendas that enhance health and well-being for all. Design/methodology/approach This position paper is a narrative literature review reporting on the status of sports policy frameworks in the UN system of relevance to the sport sector generally. It relates these to research evidence on the interlinkage between sport, human rights, health and well-being based on critical literature. Findings The advent of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, the Kazan Action Plan, the WHO Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018–2030 and allied developments across the sports movement provides an opportunity for revisiting and realigning the definitions and policy objectives of sport and health. Research limitations/implications The author’s bias as a UNESCO chair towards UN frameworks is acknowledged as is leniency towards physical education, PEPAS. Practical implications Multilateral agencies, health and sport authorities, are encouraged to review and leverage their resources and engage with the call for action of global agendas to improve public health. Originality/value This paper presents the global policy backdrop for action and investment in inclusive sport, physical education and physical activity. It presents a fresh new health and well-being perspective aligned to wider interdisciplinary agendas, on which sport organisations can make a significant contribution.


Author(s):  
Tonia Novitz ◽  
Margherita Pieraccini

This chapter focuses on the contemporary framing of sustainability in the context of the adoption of Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this setting, we consider the potential coherence and tensions between attempts to protect ‘people’ and the ‘planet’ while promoting ‘prosperity’, ‘peace’ and ‘partnership’. We begin by examining the identities and intentions of the policy actors engaged in formulating the SDGs, as revealed preparatory documentation. We then address the scope for debate (and even conflict) regarding the content of the SDGs and their interaction. Finally, we consider the processes created for supervision of SDG implementation at the UN level by the High Level Political Forum (HLPF). SDG 16 would seem to enable inclusive dialogue with diverse participants offering alternative knowledge bases for policy development, while SDG 17 conceives of a global partnership for development. The crucial question is whether the orchestration offered by the HLPF has that participatory potential.


2020 ◽  
Vol 208 ◽  
pp. 06015
Author(s):  
Rail Khussamov ◽  
Elena Galiy ◽  
Evgeniy Anisimov ◽  
Larisa Ershova ◽  
Dmitry Nemkov

Today many countries are participating in the implementation of the sustainable development goals in the framework of the global agenda 2030. The G-7 countries, having significant economic and political potential, play a special role in ensuring the sustainable development of the world. Despite the similarity of the political positions of the world’s largest economies on many pressing problems, each of them acts in its own way in the sphere of sustainable national development. The authors of the article intend to find similarities and differences in the actions of the G-7 countries to achieve the sustainable development goals. In this regard, a review of the G-7 national sustainable development strategies was carried out. As a result of the study, regularities are revealed and the features of the policies of these countries in the implementation of sustainable development goals in the period from 2010 to 2020 are presented.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-309
Author(s):  
Mirosława Witkowska-Dąbrowska

The purpose of this study has been to identify the degree of sustainability in the development of the Province of Warmia and Mazury. The theoretical and empirical investigations were conducted between 2003-2014 based on data from the Local Data Bank. Using a comparative indicator method, 20 indicators were developed, with different directions of preference. The evaluation involves the concept of uniform preference, hence the higher the assessment indicator, the better the situation in the evaluated area unit. Our studies on the sustainable development of the Province of Warmia and Mazury suggest that the indicators measuring the environmental dimension and consequently the quality of life of the residents (in this aspect) score higher than the country's average values. It is also optimistic that some progress, however small, can be seen in this area based on the analyzed dynamics of changes.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 832
Author(s):  
Mauro Capocelli ◽  
Vincenzo Piemonte

Water is fundamental for the quality of both ecosystems and society, and plays a key role for energy and food production, a prerequisite for the sustainable development [...]


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3736
Author(s):  
Nan Lu ◽  
Jiwei Zhu ◽  
Hui Chi ◽  
Bing Wang ◽  
Lu Chen

To achieve the sustainable development goals established by the United Nations in 2015, China has adopted a series of measures to promote the modernization of water conservancy. However, its construction in China is imbalanced across regions as the endowment of water resources and economic development are distinct. Consequently, it is important to assess the progress of and analyze the spatial heterogeneity of water conservancy modernization construction in China from the perspective of sustainable development goals (SDGs). In this study, 31 regions in China were selected, and data on water conservancy construction in these sampled regions (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) were collected in 2018. The results show that there exists an imbalanced development in terms of the overall level and the index level. About 60% of the regions scored below the overall average score for China’s current modernization of water conservancy. The eastern areas presented a high level of modernization, while the central, northeast, and western areas showed comparable modernization of water conservancy, all of which lag behind eastern areas of China. Furthermore, China’s water conservancy modernization also presented a strong spatial autocorrelation, and there was at least one deficiency in 55% of the regions, with the rate of deficiencies emerging in the West being much higher than in other regions. In a nutshell, this study provides a novel framework that can be extended to evaluate the SDGs and the effectiveness of water governance in other countries.


Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Okrepilov ◽  
Alexander V. Babkin ◽  
Natalia V. Zlobina ◽  
Svetlana N. Kuzmina ◽  
Tatiana A. Salimova

The article examines the objectively existing in modern conditions of economic agents' activity the need to introduce and apply approaches based on the use of quality management methods in internal corporate management. The authors noted that one of the global trends of the XXI century. Is the structural transformation of the world economy associated with the active development and implementation of information and telecommunication (digital) technologies in the real economic processes of both society and business. The authors assess the approach widespread in Russia based on quality management methods in the formation of control systems for the activities of economic agents of the national economy in the context of digital transformation in order to ensure their sustainable development; the analysis of the formation of promising directions for the development of communities, declared by UNESCO, in conditions of instability, complexity and uncertainty was carried out; the toolkit for digitalization of quality management of the education system is considered, in particular, the use of project-based learning to improve the quality of knowledge obtained and assess the impact on the sustainable development of universities, the education sector in general and economic agents of the national economy, taking into account digitalization and global risks. The authors see further areas of research in modeling risks and assessing their impact on ensuring sustainable development of economic agents, socio-economic processes of the national economy and society as a whole by quality management methods in the context of digitalization of the economy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulrazag Mohamed Etelawi ◽  
Keith A. Blatner ◽  
Jill McCluskey

There is a strong need to study sustainability and depletion accounting of oil in the Libyan economy because oil production and export is the single largest source of national income in the country. This study covers the time period from 1990 to 2009. Throughout this period, the Libyan national economy used its oil and petroleum industries to increase national income. Development sustainability can be defined as investment divided by GDP. This measure provides an indication of the low level of sustainable development in Libya over the period of analysis, which is 0.38 on average. It is important that the Libyan government develop and implement plans and strategies for achieving sustainability and the maintenance of oil resources.Carbon dioxide emissions provide another indication of the presence or absence of sustainability. The ratio of carbon dioxide ranged from a minimum of 8.50 metric tons per capita in 1990 to 10.00 metric tons per capita in 2009 and average 9.07 metric tons per capita over the course of the study period. CO2 emissions were also much higher than other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. This suggests there was relatively little interest in the sustainable development of the Libyan economy during this period. The Environment Domestic Product (EDP) increased sharply from the beginning of the study at $24.23 billion in 1991 to $45.87 billion in 2009 in constant dollars. Again, one can infer that policy makers did not consider the depletion of oil resources and the environment in their planning process, or at least did not place a high level of concern on this issue.


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