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Sustainability Challenge in the Agenda of African Countries: Evidence from Simultaneous Equations Models

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Abstract

This paper has the aim to treat the interaction between the pillars of the sustainable development issue. We also attempt to build an index which is used as a measure of sustainable development by including good governance as the fourth pillar of sustainable development. We use the simultaneous equations panel data models to check for the nexus between the four pillars of sustainable development for 26 African countries over a time span 1990–2013. In addition, we applied the principal component analysis to construct a sustainable development index. The main conclusion is the existence of feedback causality among the economic, social, ecological, and the institutional pillar. Our findings record the fact that these four pillars can be seen as interrelated rings that are all required to reach sustainability. Sustainable development is an open-ended phenomenon, and it continues to be the most controversial dilemma for the entire world, which Africa should beat the third-millennium challenge and join up the developed globe. This debate is the main goal for African governments and their highlights seem to be the legacy for the future generations.

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Notes

  1. The concept of governance can be defined as “the formation and stewardship of the formal and informal rules that regulate the public realm” (Hyden et al. 2004).

  2. Bevir (2012) defined it as “governance can refer abstractly to all processes of governing. It supplements a focus on the formal institutions of government with recognition of more diverse activities that blur the boundary of state and society. It draws attention to the complex processes and interactions involved in governing.” Also, Acemoglu and Robinson (2012) discuss the significance of the “rule of law” which they specify as “the principle that laws should not be applied selectively or arbitrarily and that nobody is above the law.” Moreover, Fukuyama (2013) specifies the concept of governance as “a government’s ability to make and enforce rules, and to deliver services, regardless of whether that government is democratic or not...governance is about the performance of agents in carrying out the wishes of principals, and not about the goals that principals set.” In a similar fashion, Rothstein (2011) defined this notion as “impartiality in the exercise of public authority” as the identification feature of “quality of government.”

  3. This outlook reveals new tools of citizen involvement in governing processes as “deliberative democracy, e-democracy, public conversations, participatory budgeting, citizen juries, chapter circles, collaborative policymaking, and other forms of deliberation and dialog among groups of stakeholders or citizens” (Bingham et al. 2005).

  4. Kaufmann et al. (2010) in this view also consider “the process by which governments are selected, monitored and replaced,” “the capacity of the government to effectively formulate and implement sound policies,” and “the respect of citizens and the state for the institutions that govern economic and social interactions among them.”

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    Sofien Tiba & Mohamed Frikha

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Tiba, S., Frikha, M. Sustainability Challenge in the Agenda of African Countries: Evidence from Simultaneous Equations Models. J Knowl Econ 11, 1270–1294 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-019-00605-4

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