| Project overview |
It has been widely acknowledged and recognized that developed countries need to realign their economic strategies with the objectives of sustainable development and green growth. However, it is even more important that developing and least developed countries whose primary source of economic well-being is grounded in exploitation of natural resources need to account for the depletion or deterioration of these in tandem with the more conventional measures of economic performance. The World Bank Little Green Data Book 2014 presents that about 88 percent of low income countries and 58 percent of lower middle income countries are depleting their wealth (broadly defined to include produced capital, natural capital, and human and social capital). Alarmingly, most of these countries belong to Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. In these countries, the stark reality is that investment and net savings adjusted for gains in human capital cannot compensate for the depletion of natural capital and wealth diluting effects of population growth.
Accordingly, there arises a case for a paradigm shift in the system of measurement of economic performance, from the conventional measure of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to a more comprehensive measure of national wealth, which would be able to capture the sustainability of economic performance of countries. It is in this context, that GDN with support from the French Development Agency and French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development launched a call for proposals in English and French to select three country studies in Morocco, Madagascar and Mauritius. Each selected research team will implement research that will address contextualized challenges in natural resource management and accounting from December 2014 to November 2015.
| Funding |
The project is funded by the French Development Agency and French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development