Strategic issues in sustainable development

The paradigm of sustainable development has moved center-stage in the development \ncommunity and strategies for achieving sustainable development are proliferating. However, the \ncapacity of institutions to support sustainable development in non-industrialized countries has not \nbeen adequately addressed. There is a need to solve the sustainable development problem \nconceptually by linking strategy content and implementation issues with processes of strategy \nformulation internal to institutions. This study investigated the hypothesis that the dominant \n"technocratic" approach to strategy formulation, in which development problems are treated as \ntechnical, apolitical problems, creates strategies that probably will not implement sustainable \ndevelopment as intended. \nThe findings of this study support the argument made in the literature that a change in approach to strategy formulation is required. The findings also suggest that the proposed \nalternative to the technocratic approach may not be sufficient, because it is little more than a \nmodification of the latter approach and does not resolve the fundamental contradiction between \n"induced" and "sustainable" development. A more fundamental shift in the values governing \ndevelopment may be required to adapt the modus operandi of development institutions to \nsustainable development and resolve the value conflicts that continue to diminish the possibility of \nconsensus and action. Although this study provides knowledge of a limited scope, its findings and \nrecommendations may guide an improved perception of the complex problem of identifying \nrequirements for sustainable development and adapting institutions accordingly.