Zawaya

Sustainable Development

By: Driss Ben Ali

Is economic growth a good indicator of prosperity and welfare? Should we seek to maximize it?

There is no theory that sets the maximum rate of growth. Yet, how can we not be delighted when growth is increasing, unemployment is falling, poverty is declining, and our Maghreb countries are getting away from the shores of underdevelopment? A continued and strong growth is a must for developing countries like those of our region. Without growth, these countries will forever remain underdeveloped and poor.

However, many are chronically against the objective of high growth, arguing that it squanders exhaustible resources, does not go hand in hand with development, and does not lead to welfare. Due to its dimension, strong growth is seriously questioned: doesn’t it risk destroying the conditions necessary for human life, i.e. the natural environment?

In any case, what is certain today is that we can no longer maintain the domination of the economic principle alone. The junction of economic development and environmental conservation is becoming a requirement, and that imposes a new approach to development. Because of the unknown parameters of the environment, it became imperative to adopt prevention and caution in order to anchor long term vision among collective concerns.

Therefore, for Maghreb countries, this gives rise to the question on how to ensure their growth and development without pillaging the environment and sacrificing the future of coming generations.

This is such a difficult balance to achieve, especially when we are a developing country that needs to catch up economically, and achieve high growth rates. This is particularly true for the Maghreb countries. Identifying the major features that characterize the Maghreb environment is actually its weak point. And this is important since it allows a better understanding of the challenges faced by men – and leaders – in their desire to ensure consistency between growth and environmental preservation; since the milieu is particularly constraining.

In sum, for those countries aspiring to rise to the rank of developed nations, seeking a strong and continuous growth appears to be the only way to put an end to underdevelopment. However, we should not accept the hypothesis that there is a mechanical relationship between the growth rate and the rate of nature exploitation, and between economic development and environmental destruction.

In recent years, sustainable development has become one of the regulative principles of public policy, and efforts made to reconcile growth with development cannot be underestimated.

We must admit that on most fronts, the situation is far from being under control. In the case of the Maghreb, sustainable development stumbled on the mountain component of Maghreb development, which is that “the predominance of soft rock outcrops, associated to the strictness of slopes, and the weather’s excessive nature, which explains the aggressiveness of erosion that reduces the agricultural area year after year, with proportions that may turn, in some areas, into a drama.” (John Bisson).

Finally, from a practical point of view, there is much to say about the implications of the term “growth”. Doesn’t growth actually impose the limits of a strictly quantitative and irrelevant conception? “Trees cannot reach the sky”, according to the proverb.

Past experiences have shown that many evolutions implying growth alone cannot be extended over time. The prosperity of the peoples as well as their development cannot be reduced to a growth that destroys their welfare.