Enabling Responsible Living Springer A Multi-Level Framework and Values-Based Indicators to Enable Responsible Living

Abstract Efforts to enable responsible living require supporting frameworks and tools to bridge science and values at all levels from local to global. At the local level, community action is most effective in a village or neighbourhood where people will invest for the common betterment of their families and neighbours. Educational activities in and outside formal education for children, preadolescents, youth and adults should encourage action for responsible living based on the community's own values and vision of human purpose and well-being. Values-based indicators can help to measure the impact of sustainability education on behaviours in communities and organizations, as demonstrated in a recent pilot project. At the national level, in addition to formal curricular change, the media and diverse organizations of civil society from businesses to faith-based organizations can lead discussions of various dimensions of responsible living. Internationally, the debate on the future of sustainability around the Rio+20 conference has stimulated a re-examination of preconceptions and certitudes about individual and collective purposes and underlining the importance of values and ethical principles to sustainability. Linking local efforts to these international debates and implementing values-based indicators of education for sustainability will help to move from words to action for responsible living

Putting the Individual at the Center of Development: Indicators of Well-Being for a New Social Contract

Abstract For decades, development has focused on the economy and the national scale of organization, and economic indicators such as GDP have provided measures of progress. Even UNDP's Human Development Index includes GDP/capita and is based on national averages. To show that people are at the center of the post-2015 agenda, measures of environmental, economic and social sustainability need to be balanced with indicators of the advancement and well-being of each individual human being, including material, social, cultural and spiritual dimensions of human progress. Such disaggregation would highlight disadvantaged minorities, gender and class differences, and other priority needs of specifi c populations. Governments, businesses and civil society organizations could identify how their policies and activities facilitate or hinder human progress at all stages of life. Every member of society and component group could see that development actions are just and equitable in objective and will be motivated to support them and to feel responsible for their implementation. The indicators would provide both measures of legitimacy and tools to evaluate the effectiveness of governance mechanisms. Development success would be measured by the extent to which society maximizes the fulfi llment of each individual's human potential at each stage of life. Keywords Indicators of well-being • Human development • Rio+20 summit • Value-based indicators • Millennium development goals Development has been a subject of international debate for decades, in particular seeking to balance wealth creation and poverty reduction. It has focused on the economy and on the national scale of organization, and economic indicators such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) have provided the principal measures of progress

Macroscopic algal foods of Littorina planaxis Philippi and L. scutulata Gould (Gastropoda; Prosobranchiata)

Volume: 7Start Page: 139End Page: 14