Discuss the concept of sustainable development and discuss its Essay

Discuss the concept of sustainable development and discuss its analytical relevance to the development prospects of developing countries - Essay Example inition has two essential concepts the first one being concept of needs which especially covers the needs of the world’s poor that needs to be prioritized. Secondly, the definition presents the idea of limitations in terms of resources which is as a result of technologies and social structures which strains the ability of the environment to satisfy present and future needs of human populations (Ciegis, Ramanauskiene and Martinkus 2009). Based on the definition by Brundtland report, it is apparent that human beings are faced with many possibilities for the satisfaction of needs. These possibilities might have different meanings depending on how the available alternatives are conceived either based on production and consumption, or various social and environmental functions. Pierantoni (2004) note that these possibilities that human populations deal with can be associated with the different types of capital that include human, economic, ecologic, and social capital which are all essential variables in the understanding of sustainable development. The concept of sustainable development has in its core the needs of human beings as opposed to those of other species, animals or ecosystems. On limitations, sustainable development establishes only boundaries and not absolute limitations but restrains, that applies to the present environmental resources and their capacity to absorb the effects of human activity. Consequently, the concept of sustainable development should be perceived as an equitable and balanced development. This basically means that for development to be consistent over a long period, it should take into account the interests of different groups of people within a given generation and among different generations and do so concurrently in three major related areas of economic, environmental, and social (Soubbotina 2004). In the context of developing countries, the essence sustainable development calls for the dramatic reduction of poverty and hunger in