Title: Equity and sustainable development

Authors: Paul Dalziel, Caroline Saunders

Addresses: AERU Research Centre, Lincoln University, P.O. Box 84, Lincoln 7647, Christchurch, New Zealand. ' AERU Research Centre, Lincoln University, P.O. Box 84, Lincoln 7647, Christchurch, New Zealand

Abstract: Sustainable development indicator (SDI) frameworks typically adopt a broad understanding of well-being, but an issue has been raised whether they should attempt to consider equity. It is generally accepted that SDI frameworks need to take into account inter-generational equity, but there is no similar consensus about intra-generational equity. This paper explores how intra-generational equity might be related to sustainable development. It takes the core elements of New Zealand|s social security – employment, income, housing, health and education – and defines standards for what would be meant by equity for each element. It then proposes a statistical series for measuring departures from each standard and combines these statistics into a proposed equity index. The index is illustrated using New Zealand data in 1996, 2001 and 2006. Data for 2006 record almost no disparity between the male and female populations, but a substantial difference between the European/Pakeha and Maori populations.

Keywords: sustainable development indicators; sustainability; New Zealand; social security; human rights; well-being; inter-generational equity; employment; incomes; housing; health services; education; standards; statistical series; data measurement; statistics; equity index; men; women; male; female; gender; European population; Pakeha; Maori population; Maoris; non-indigenous peoples; business; globalisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2010.035027

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2010 Vol.5 No.3, pp.343 - 361

Published online: 01 Sep 2010 *

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