Sustainable Development as a Single Measure: Case Study of Some Developing Asian Countries

The Rio Earth Summit of 1992 had emphasized on the development of suitable indicators for the measurement of sustainable development, as aids for decision-making at all levels. In this paper, the authors demonstrate how a Holistic National Sustainability Index can be constructed, by taking into consideration four dimensions of sustainability – Social, Economic, Environmental and Infrastructural. The methodology is applied to 12 developing Asian countries, where sustainable development is vital in the years to come. Comparison among countries using their respective Indices would be meaningless; it is not the states the countries are at a given point in time, but the paths which they follow over time, on the sustainability curve, which are comparable. Limitations and subjectivity notwithstanding, such an Index when used on its merit (with complete understanding of its deficiencies), can be a good planning tool for decision-makers at all levels of government.