Rethinking sustainable development within the framework of poverty and urbanisation in developing countries

Patrick Brandful Cobbinah, Michael Odei Erdiaw-Kwasie, Paul Amoateng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

189 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Since its emergence in the 1980s, the ideology underpinning sustainable development has become a metaphor for describing human welfare and environmental management. However, previous studies have overly focused on environmental aspects with little known about poverty-urbanisation implications on sustainable development. Given the magnitude of urbanisation and the pervasiveness of poverty in developing countries, this paper advocates for a poverty-urbanisation analytical approach to sustainable development in developing countries. First, the article provides an overview of sustainable development discourse. Second, the paper looks at the concepts of poverty and urbanisation and their ramifications on sustainable development. Third, examples of sustainable development policy initiatives and their associated poverty-urbanisation threats are presented. Fourth, the paper discusses the policy implications of these two phenomena on sustainable development. The paper concludes with some key issues necessary to make sustainable development a reality in developing countries.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)18-32
Number of pages15
JournalEnvironmental Development
Volume13
Early online date18 Nov 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2015
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Copyright:
Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

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