ABSTRACT
Sustainable development (SD), widely recognized as a powerful principle which opened a new paradigm by integrating economic and social considerations into the development process, emerged onto the international agenda in the 1970s. It has gained universal attention by changing the traditional perspective that equated development with economic growth, to require linkage between economic viability, social development, and environmental aspects to ensure development that is sustainable. Thus, sustainable development bridged the initial North-South divide characterized by the developed states’ focus primarily on environmental protection, and developing countries’ main concern with developmental needs, by engendering a clear realization that both environmental and developmental concerns are equally valid and are not necessarily in conflict.
