This blog will focus on issues of sustainable development, especially in the context of places where the Paul Carlson Partnership works. Over time, we’ll touch on the practical and the theoretical, books and articles we read, and our experiences in the field. I hope that you will enjoy the commentary and be stimulated to add comments and questions. We especially hope that readers from the Congo and others in the developing world will add their comments and opinions.
The tagline for the Paul Carlson Partnership is “Investing for Sustainable Communities.” By sustainable, we mean a community that has sufficient trade with those outside the community to generate cash to support its schools, clinics, churches, and public infrastructure. We argue that “sustainable” applies primarily to support for the operating expenses, not to capital expenditures. There is a long history of development, especially in the United States, where the capital for that development came from outside the community. For example, when electricity came to the farm where I grew up, the capital came from the government, but the users then supported the operating and replacement costs. But to become sustainable, a community clearly has to generate sufficient income for current operations.
How would you define “sustainable”?
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