ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the concept of sustainable economic development as applied to the Third World. In assessing the 'total development of society', economics tends to focus primarily on economic changes and thus isolates economic development from 'total' development. The 1970s saw the emergence of a major revision in development thinking that presents a fundamental challenge to the conventional consensus on economic development. The primary concern of sustainable economic development, therefore, is ensuring that the poor have access to sustainable and secure livelihoods. Designing macroeconomic policies and incentives for natural resource management may in the long run provide the best potential for initiating policies based on the concept of sustainable economic development. Increasing recognition that the overall goals of environmental conservation and economic development are not conflicting but can be mutually reinforcing, has prompted calls for 'environmentally sustainable' economic development.
