106 Management and Economics

THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT -

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
 
 

Dănuţ MOŞTEANU * 
dmosteanu@gmail.com 
Gabriela MIHĂILĂ­LICĂ * 
mihailag2001@yahoo.com  
Elisabeta­Emilia HALMAGHI * 
emmahalmaghi@gmail.com 
Ruxandra MOŞTEANU ** 
rucsy270392@yahoo.com 
* “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy, Sibiu, Romania 
** The Faculty of Economic Sciences and Business Management, Cluj‐Napoca, Romania 

A BSTRACT
Human development is a broad concept that encompasses all
the fields of human social life. A human development essentially
involves an as long and healthy life as possible access to education
that enables filling an attractive job, access to a wide range of goods
and services. In this context, sustainability is based on the idea that
human activities are dependent on the surrounding environment and
resources. The health, social security and economic stability of the
society are essential in defining the quality of life. In the present paper
we start from the idea of the interdependence between human
development and the sustainable development specific to this
beginning of the millennium and we point out that human development
is the development of the people, for the people and by the people.

KEYWORDS: sustainable development, human development,  
                                   human security, human resources 

1. General Considerations on implements the fundamental landmarks

Sustainable Development meant to harmonize three interconnected
Given that humanity is threatened by realities: the economic activities, the social
the massive environmental degradation, the development and the environmental
concept of sustainable development mechanisms (Figure no. 1).

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Management and Economics
Fig. no. 1 Interdependences within sustainable development
The discussions that led to the
sustainable development started in the early
70s. Thus, in 1972 there took place in
Stockholm, at the initiative of the
Scandinavian countries and of the United
States of America, the Conference on the
Human Environment, during which, the, the
problem of environmental deterioration as a
result of human activities was seriously
analyzed for the first time. Following the
debates at the conference, The Stockholm
Declaration was adopted and, in December
1972, the United Nations Environment
Programme (United Nations Environment
Programme – UNEP) was established.
In 1974, Lester R. Brown created
“Worldwatch Institute” [1] an independent
research institute for studies aimed at the
environment, climate, population, energy,
agriculture, food. These studies resulted in
annual reports – Vital Signs, State of the
World [2] – on climate change, the state of
the environment and of the food resources at
the level of the whole planet, as well as on
the effects of natural disasters, wars, human
activities and climate changes on agriculture,
food resources and world population.
In 1983, the World Commission on
Environment and Development (WCED)
headed by Gro H. Brundtland began its
activity. The commission would elaborate a
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107
report on environment and verify the
effectiveness of the United Nations
Environment Programme. In 1987, Gro H.
Brundtland, as chairman of the World
Commission on Environment and
Development, presented the report Our
Common Future, a report in which the
phrase “sustainable development” appears
for the first time. It isdefined as
“development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs”.
The definition presented in the
Brundtland Report is the most known
definition of sustainable development, but it
is not the only one. In the conception of
N.S. Jodha, sustainable development is “the
ability of a system to maintain a well-
defined level of performance in time, and, if
required, to raise this level through its
connections with other systems without
diminishing its long-term potential”.
A pragmatic definition with economic
nuances was formulated by the OECD
Environment Committee which considers
that sustainable development means
“maximizing the net benefit of the
economic development, while maintaining
the dimensions of quality and production at
the level of the resources over time”, and
that “the use of renewable resources to a
108
proportion that never exceeds the
regulatory capacity, and the efficient use of
renewable resources to be optimized
through the increase of the possibilities of
substitution between resources, and this is
based on the technological progress” [3].
In 1992, the United Nations
Conference on Environment and
Development – UNED took place in the Rio
de Janeiro where, among the documents that
were adopted, there was also the Rio
Declaration [4], the first consistent statement
on sustainability and which proposed the
development of sustainable national
strategies. Another important document that
was adopted was Agenda 21 [5],which
deals with almost all the relevant issues
from the point of view of sustainable
development: international cooperation for
sustainable development, poverty reduction,
gender equality, population dynamics and
sustainable development, the protection of
the atmosphere, combating deforestation,
the management of fragile ecosystems, the
development of sustainable agriculture and
rural development, biodiversity conservation,
the protection of water resources, the
management of waste and hazardous waste, etc.
10 years after the conference in Rio
de Janeiro, the UN Summit on Sustainable
Development, or “Rio + 10” took place at
Johannesburg and the Johannesburg
Declaration on Sustainable Development
and the Plan of Implementation of the
World Summit on Sustainable Development
were adopted.
One of the main discussions of the
Summit focused on the concept of
“sustainable development” by highlighting
the main connections between poverty,
environment and resource utilization. The
Johannesburg Declaration [6] on Sustainable
Development showed the importance of
sustainable development in the fight for
environmental protection and against poverty
at global level and assumed collective
responsibility for the progress and
development of the three interdependent
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Management and Economics
pillars of sustainable development:
economic development, social development
and environmental protection.
In September 2000, at the M illennium
Summit of the United Nations the
M illennium Declaration was adopted to
secure the M illennium Development Goals
[7]. Thus, the 147 Heads of states and
governments and 189 nations pledged to
transform into reality the right to
development for everyone and to work
together to improve the social and
economic conditions globally, of the
disadvantaged countries in this regard.
They recognized that progress is based on
sustained economic development which
should focus on poverty reduction having in
view the human rights. M illennium
Declaration is the only global agenda in the
field of development on which there is an
agreement at the highest level between most
countries of the world.
M illennium Development Goals are
eight in number and they specific targets to
achieve by 2015. The eight goals are:
1. reducing extreme poverty and
hunger;
2. achieving universal access to
primary education;
3. promoting gender equality and
empowering women;
4. reducing infant mortality;
5. improve maternal health;
6. combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and
other diseases;
7. ensuring environmental sustainability;
8. creating global partnerships for
development.
In July 2012, through a press release,
the UN announced that three important
targets concerning poverty, unsanitary
housing and water had been met and that,
for the first time, since starting to monitor
poverty trends, both the number of the
people living in extreme poverty and the
poverty rates decreased in every developing
region, including in sub-Saharan Africa
where rates remain high.
Management and Economics
In Romania there have also been
preoccupations for sustainable development.
Iuliana Precupeţu considers that sustainable
development is “a process of change in
which the exploitation of resources, the
direction of investments, the orientation of
the technological development and
institutional change are taken into
consideration both with future needs and
with those of the present” [8].
Constantin Popescu believes that the
traditional model of development, in
confrontation with the major energy and
environmental issues, has given way to the
new concept of sustainable development,
which requires “a new attitude towards the
environment, the modification of the
relations between man and nature in order
to establish a new partnership between the
two entities, balance and harmony between
them” [9].
Although initially the concept of
‘sustainable development’ was linked to
environmental issues and to the natural
resources crisis and it was intended as a
solution to the environmental crisis caused by
the intense industrial exploitation of resources
and by the continued degradation of the
environment, at present, the concept
expanded to the of quality of life in its
complexity. Thus, we move from the idea of
sustainable development focusing mainly on
the ecological, to sustainable development in
which the economic, social and ecological
components are closely related.
2. Human Development. The
Conceptual Framework
The first Human Development Report
in 1990 starts with a simple premise that was
the basis of all the subsequent reports:
“People are the real wealth of a nation” [10].
Supporting this theory with an
abundance of empirical data and a new way
of thinking about measuring development,
the Human Development Report had a
profound impact on the policies around the
world.
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109
The UN concept of human
development is described as a process of
enlarging people’s range of choices based
on strengthening their basic capabilities
expressed by the ratio between the vital
human needs and material factors [11].
Amartaya Sen, professor of Economy
at Harvard University, a Nobel laureate ,
believed that “human development as
approach that involves what I consider to
be the basic idea of human development,
namely, the development of the richness of
human life and not the wealth of the
economy in which the human beings live,
which is just a part of it” [12].
Human development is a generous
concept that has evolved dynamically. The
concept of human development is directly
linked to the observance of fundamental
human rights. If human development refers
to the expansion of the opportunities and
freedoms that the members of a community
benefit from, the human rights are an
incentive for the continuous improvement
of the institutions and social systems that
facilitate or ensure these opportunities and
freedoms. Another area of choice, to which
people also assign a high value is
represented by the participation in the social
life. From the point of view of human
development, all these are necessary to
ensure productivity and creativity, the
continuous development of the existing
human capital, the individual’s feeling of
belonging to a community.
Under the new paradigm, human
development can be seen as a process of
expanding the real freedoms that people
enjoy. Human development provides better
opportunities for all the people and
contributes to the achievement of three
essential objectives: a long and healthy life,
access to knowledge, access to acceptable
living standards. Other important aspects of
human development involve political,
economic and social freedom, creativity,
mutual respect and respect for the
fundamental human rights, the freedom of
110
opinion, what A. Smith called “the ability
to communicate with others and to get out
in the street without feeling a sense of
shame”. Human development focuses on
the individuality of the human being: a
person as beneficiary is both the subject and
object of development.
“Focusing on human freedoms
contrasts with the more limited visions of
development, such as identifying development
with the growth of the gross national product,
with the increase in the personal income or
with social modernization. The GDP growth
or that of individual incomes can, of course,
be important as a means of expanding human
freedoms, just like industrialization,
technological or social modernization. But
freedoms also depend on other factors such
as social and economic arrangements (for
example, access to education, health care and
social assistance, access to the labor market)
as well as civil and political rights (e.g., the
freedom to participate discussions and
debates)” [13].
Ultimately, some authors believe that
human development is the development of
people, for the people and by the people. In
other words, the core of this concept
positioned around the human being
becomes the “center of the universe”.
Human development is also
inextricably linked to human security. For a
very long time the concept of security was
interpreted only as territorial security from
external aggression or the protection of
national interests in foreign policy or as
global security from the threat of weapons
of mass destruction. This notion referred
more to nations than to humans. The
legitimate concern for the ordinary people
who needed security in their daily lives was
unnoticed. And when it comes to security,
the range is quite wide, from physical
security, economic security, protection
against diseases, hunger, unemployment,
crimes of any kind, social conflict, political
repression to environmental threats.
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Management and Economics
Human security is concerned not only
with the territorial security or with the
security of the states as nations. This also
includes the security of the people in their
daily lives. Human security could also be
defined as man’s freedom from certain
deprivations, as well as freedom from
certain perceived fears. There is, of course,
a link between human security and human
development: they engage and influence
each other. Progress in one of these areas
becomes progress in the other, but the
failure of one will determine the risks of
failure in the other.
Gender equality is another dimension
of human development. The framework of
human development is based on the firm
conviction that any development strategy or
effort that neglects half of humankind can not
be sustainable. This framework considers that
women’s skills expand concomitantly with
the elimination of the gaps regarding
capabilities, based on gender issues. The
framework of human development also
argues in favor of equal opportunities for
women in all the areas of life, economically,
socially, culturally and politically.
This is opposed to discrimination of
any kind and form against women, to the
violation of their rights and to dangers that
are specific to them, e.g. personal safety,
domestic violence or sexual abuse.
Sustainable development generates a
trend towards a global society, emphasizing
the necessity to shape a “common global
consciousness”, the elimination of the
“human gap” caused by “the distance
between the growing complexity and our
ability to cope with it”, is far from being
achieved. The sustainable development of the
consciousness is facing many significant
social problems with negative impacts on the
general process of sustainable development.
3. Human Development and
Sustainability
Human development focuses on the
active participation in the political life of
Management and Economics
society, on equity and sustainability,
indispensable components of freedom,
which enable people to live the life they
want and appreciate.
An eloquent example of unsustainable
development would be the recent global
financial crisis that left 34 million people
without jobs, and for other 64 million
people the incomes have been reduced
below the poverty threshold of 1.25 U.S.
dollar per day.
In 2010, unemployment in developed
countries was, on average, 9 %, but there
were also countries such as Spain, where
unemployment was almost 20 %. The
countries whose economies recorded the
highest increases suffered the most because
of the crisis. The danger of a new recession
persists and the return to the parameters
before the economic crisis may last longer
than experts estimated.
Therefore, the main problem in
ensuring human development is to develop
sustainable models for increasing production
and consumption. However, a truly
sustainable human development requires
overcoming the interdependence between
economic growth and environmental
pollution.
The basic indicator of human
development is the Human Development
Index (HDI), which is a measure in
“human” terms of the synthetic
performance of development:
• The health index, revealed by the
life expectancy at birth, summarizes the
combined influence of various factors on
life, such as the evolution of the state of
health of the individual, nutrition, living
conditions, etc.;
• The education index, calculated as
weighted arithmetic average of the literacy
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111
rate (two-thirds weight) and of the gross
enrollment rate in all levels of secondary
education (one third weight). Its meaning is
to reflect the amount of knowledge the
individual has, his skills and ability to
communicate and participate in the
activities of the society. The training rate is
measured using data on the proportion of
adults who are illiterate.
• The living standard index, evaluated
through the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
per capita expresses the average resources
that individuals have access to in order to
have a decent living.
Average increase in the global
Human Development Index (HDI), by
about 19 % from 1990 to the present, was
determined by a significant increase in
longevity, enrollment of the population in
education institutions and income. Practical
results have proven that all the countries of
the world registered an increase in human
development. Out of 135 countries in which
92 % of the world population live, in just
three countries, namely the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe
experienced a lower level of HDI than in
1970 [14].
Although there were increases in all
the countries of the world, there were some
amazing differences. During the 40 years
(form 1970 to present) for a quarter of the
developing countries the HDI growth was
below the expected percentage of 20 %,
while for another quarter the growth rate
was above 65 % (Figure no. 2). This
difference in development is determined by
differences in the starting positions of
countries. For example, the less developed
countries experienced, on average, greater
progress in education and health care than
the developed countries.
112
Fig. no. 2 Evolution of the Human Development Index
(Source:http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/270/hdr_2010_en_complete_reprint.pdf)
If we take look at the human resource,
the 21st century society has valuable
employees due to the volume of knowledge
and access to information. In many of the
modern companies, the value is not given by
the tangible assets, but by the intangible ones.
In this respect, the intellectual capital
is the term given to the intangible assets,
which combined, enable the company to
function efficiently. The intellectual capital
is, for example, the intelligence, intuition
and discipline of a group of researchers in a
certain field who discover a new product
that is worth very large sums of money that
could not have been made otherwise.
Each country, company and
individual depends more an more on
knowledge, patents, skills, technologies,
information. In this context, Pope John Paul
II revealed the growing importance of
knowledge in “Centesimus Annus”, writing
that: “If some time ago, the decisive factor
of production was the land, and later the
capital, today the decisive factor is man
himself and his knowledge”.
4. Conclusions
• If the original concept of
“sustainable development” had in view the
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Management and Economics
environmental protection mainly from an
ecological point of view, in time, it moved to
a contextual framework that advocated for the
harmonization of economic activities, social
development and ecological mechanisms.
• Human development on Earth is and
will be subject to economic development,
social development and environmental
protection concepts underlying sustainable
development.
• Human development focuses
primarily on the active participation in the
political life of society, on equity and moral
guidelines, on human security, on the
essential components of individual freedom,
which together will enable people to live a
better life inextricably based on sustainability
models.
• The main problem of human
development will be to develop and
implement sustainable models of production
growth and its correlation with consumption.
• The sustainable human development
is that development that not only generates
economic growth, but also distributes the
benefits equitably, regenerates the
environment instead of destroying it, and
promotes people instead of marginalizing
them.
Management and Economics 113

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