Equity, Economic Growth and Social Justice in Africa

Social justice refers to the fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the natural law that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally and without prejudice. Equity as defined by The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English is a formal situation in which all people are treated equally and no one has an unfair advantage.

Economic growth can be defined as an increase in a country’s productive potential, which generally leads to betterment in a country’s living standards.

Sustainability as defined in the 1987 Brundtland Commission in its report titled ‘Our Common Future’ is development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own goals” (United Nations, 1987). According to BusinessDictionary.com, Environmental sustainability is defined as maintaining the factors and practices that contribute to the quality of environment on a long-term basis.

Closely linked to the measurement of sustainable environmental development is the Environmental Impact Assessment tool. An environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an assessment of the possible positive or negative impacts that a proposed project may have on the environment, consisting of the environmental, social and economic aspects. Green politics embodies the concept of environmental sustainable development. Green politics is a political ideology that aims to grassroots create an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, social liberalism, and democracy.^{^[i]}

The desire of the Africans to achieve their development objectives through major dependence on natural resources is a matter that calls for concern. The implications this might have on the environment could potentially leave adverse footprints for coming generations. As such, the need to prevent this situation is more critical than ever. The time is ripe to renew the call for development that is both sustainable and ecologically friendly for the African continent as a whole in order to reverse some of the negative environmental and social trends the African continent is facing of late.

[i] ^ A b Wall 2010. p. 12-13

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