Social sustainability is also about expanding opportunities for all people today and tomorrow. Together with economic and environmental sustainability, it is crucial for poverty reduction and shared prosperity.
Social sustainability is about inclusive and resilient communities whose citizens have a voice and attention from government.
The building blocks of social sustainability are inclusive, equitable and resilient communities where citizens have a voice and governments listen and respond to them. Such communities support growth and poverty alleviation today and in the future.
Social sustainability works in tandem with economic and environmental sustainability. In the past, the emphasis has been on economic sustainability, followed by environmental sustainability, with increasing concerns about climate change and biodiversity loss. However, with growing awareness of the challenges of fragility, persistent inequality and racial discrimination, social sustainability has been recognized as central to growth and poverty reduction.
Social inclusion is about creating opportunities for all people and addressing deep-rooted systemic inequalities.
The persistent discrimination and exclusion of the most marginalized groups is costly to both people and economies. Globally, the loss of human capital wealth due to gender inequality is estimated at $160.2 trillion. African descendants continue to face significantly higher levels of poverty (2.5 times higher than in Latin America). 90% of children with disabilities in developing countries are out of school. Exclusion, discrimination and violence against LGBTI people are particularly difficult to combat in many countries. To date, 70 countries continue to criminalize homosexuality.
Building resilient communities requires working in the most unstable and difficult of environments
For people living in extremely difficult circumstances, we help build resilience by creating opportunities to thrive. We do this by building strong households and communities that can withstand the fragmentation caused by conflict, violence and external shocks such as climate change or pandemics.
Environmental and social structure is an integral part of social resilience.
Social risk management is an important part of our work, and this work has expanded with the new Environmental and Social Structures (ESS) program. This program helps strengthen the protection of people and the environment, build countries’ capacity to manage social and environmental risks, and achieve important results in areas such as openness, accountability, non-discrimination and community engagement. Our social specialists work across the Bank’s projects on important social issues, including women’s empowerment, combating gender-based violence, improving labor and employment conditions, engaging the disadvantaged and most vulnerable, and stakeholder engagement.