Strong sustainability: reconciling environmental, social and economic objectives

How can we ensure a just and truly sustainable ecological transition that does not pre-empt the development of the poorest countries? AFD is proposing a new approach to the construction of development trajectories through strong sustainability.

This approach is based on three main principles:

• the a priori refutation of the substitutability between natural, economic and social capital;
• the need to produce multidimensional indicators and analyses, highlighting the synergies and tensions that can exist between the different dimensions, founded on scientific evidence;
• the recognition of the importance of building, in a participative way, a new social contract on a desirable "good state" and the trajectories to reach it.

©AFD2022