Professor Denise Mauzerall, Woodrow Wilson School, Spring 2003
Sustainable
development is "development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs..."
(Brundland, Our Common
Future, 1987)
The Princeton University Undergraduate
Task Force on Sustainable Development brought together eight public policy
students for a semester of applied study to the problems of sustainable
development. Specifically, the students were focusing on the problem
of implementing international sustainable development commitments, which
was the focus of the World
Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), held in Johannesburg, South
Africa in September of 2002. To ground the work, each student selected
a sustainable development issue, from HIV/AIDS to biodiversity, and
used case studies to design specific projects and generate general recommendations
for the issue. The individual reports were compiled with the goal
of exploring means of implementation through case studies and a focus on
discrete issues. In May of 2003, the task force presented its findings
at an official side event at the eleventh meeting of the United
Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, which served as the
follow up meeting to the WSSD. The output of the task force is not
intended as a comprehensive guide to sustainable development, nor does
it claim to explore the issues in their full complexity. It does,
however, represent a fresh look at practical problems and the steps necessary
for progress on the ground.
Presentation to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (PowerPoint)
Task Force Reports
Summary (Brooke Kelsey Jack) Effective Type II Partnerships (Thomas Hale) Preserving Biodiversity in Forest Ecosystems (Karim Thomas) "Some, For All, Forever": Water for Sustainable Development (Priscilla Delgado) Combating Diarrhea in Children (Nina Jenkins-Johnston) AIDS Prevention in Countries with Low Prevalence (Michelle Hemmat) Reducing Indoor Air Pollution in Africa (Shena Elrington) Photovoltaic Technology in Rural Africa (Ashley Collins) Sustainable Development in the United States (Elyse Kovalsky)
Student Thesis: Global Cooperation for Local Implementation: Achieving International Sustainable Development Commitments (Brooke Kelsey Jack)