Does sustainable development require good governance?

• Author: Wijkman, Anders
• Position: Includes related article on United Nations Development Programme's good governance projects

In a post-cold-war world, where the ideological tensions of the past no longer dominate, an international consensus on the need to promote sound governance as a foundation for development has emerged. Sustainable development, it is now generally agreed, can only be achieved through a strengthening of democratic governance institutions and processes that provide the necessary framework for social and economic progress.

Yet, after the near universal affirmation of the principles of democratic rule that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall, new voices of dissent have emerged. These dissenters maintain that the fundamental principles set forth by the United Nations in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights do not reflect universal values, but rather western values ill-suited to meet the needs of the poor in countries in the developing world.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan addressed this issue in a speech to the Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Harare last summer. Rejecting the characterization of human rights as culturally biased, he asked: "Do not African mothers weep when their sons or daughters are killed or maimed by agents of repressive rule? Are not African fathers saddened when their children are unjustly jailed or tortured? Is not Africa as a whole impoverished when even one of its brilliant voices is silenced?"

Similarly, it can be asked what benefit comes to an Asian nation from the imprisonment of young men and women wanting a say in their nation's future? Or to a Latin American country, from the silencing of a journalist investigating reports of corruption? Or to a European nation, from the denial of full citizenship rights to members of a minority group?

The stability required for economic development, some may answer. And is indeed true that short-term political stability can be achieved through suppression of human rights. Yet, twentieth century history teaches us that the sometimes spectacular economic growth attained in totalitarian and authoritarian regimes is always brought to an end by the very repression it necessitates. Freedom of the human spirit, we now know, is indispensable to sustainable human development.

The challenge facing all societies is to forge a system of governance where the rights of the individual constitute not a threat, but rather the very foundation upon which policies fostering the common good can be built. Only democracy can successfully strike this balance...