The aim of this paper is to estimate and to compare sustainable development processes in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia focusing on institutional dimension of sustainable development. Attention has been focused on the selection of system of indicators with particular emphasis on institutional indicators. The authors employ the most popular two multicriteria methods: Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) and multi-criteria complex proportional method (MCP). Data embracing 2004-2010 year period is being analyzed. In order to obtain a multi-faceted view, several variants of sustainable development estimations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are being performed. Each variant represents a different approach to development perception. The difference lies in emphasis, which is being put on the economic and institutional aspects of development. Hypothesis has been raised that the different methods employed may affect comparison results.
International migration has become a key challenge and concern in the European Union (EU) and most part of the word. On the one hand, the freedom to move to another Member State is the right guaranteed for all the EU citizens. On the other hand, emigration or immigration is a longstanding concern for policy makers in many countries. Generally, human capital is one of the future sustainable competitiveness resources. Moreover, now, as the Lisbon Strategy is being replaced by the new EU strategy Europe 2020 for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth (2010), there is evidence that mobility in the EU will increase. In order to achieve the goals of the strategy Europe 2020 (2010), especially employment target, the flagship initiative “Youth on the Move” places a lot of emphasis on mobility as in moving to another country to study, train or work. The perceptions of this research show that growing mobility can be followed with new migration trends in the future. Moreover, no single answer to the question what level of migration (emigration or immigration) should be tolerated in the context of sustainable developing economy could be provided. This research not only confirms this observation and theoretical problem of “sustainable migration” but goes much further by discussing the reasons why one of the highest emigration rates in the EU happened to be found in Lithuania.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how learning in collaboration can support the development of sustainability competence in the military. The concept of sustainability in the military is controversial; nevertheless, requirements for more conscious decisions regarding economics, environment and society issues enter military practice and require rethinking the processes of military education and development. The application of computer-supported collaborative learning brings new opportunities in overcoming controversy of sustainability in the military and at the same time puts forward the solutions and skills for implementations of sustainability in the military.
Instead of using traditional approach towards sustainability as an interaction of the following three components: economic viability, social welfare and environmental protection, we described sustainability in the military as a composition of mission, management of installations and stakeholders, operations and maintenance, environment protection and quality of life. According to these categories, e-learning platform was developed. The core of this platform is the formal learning curriculum, which serves as a shell under which a variety of practices can be introduced to address the desired training objectives. The complex solution was accomplished with computerfacilitated collaborative learning that enables teem-working, collaboration and peer-assessment. Computer-facilitated collaborative learning supports social interaction in the learning system and sustains group-work within a variety of decision-making frameworks. Those features of the learning system are very important considering the controversy and complexity of sustainability in the military.
The scientific discussions in existing literature focusing on sustainable development are vast. The broad focus of sustainable development has raised the need to develop indicators which allow measuring the progress towards sustainability and evaluating policies intended to support sustainability. This research aims to analyse and determine the relationship between the Human Development Index (HDI) and some of the sustainable development indicators partly comprised in the Sustainable Society Index (SS1). Using data for the period of 2001-2010 from selected eleven EU countries, the goal of this paper to shed some light on the main shortages of the HDI as a measure of sustainable development. The findings of this research show that in most cases the HDI ignores sustainable development indicators, making it a partly fit measure and that there are no cases where the HDI can be described as an absolutely correct measure of sustainable development.
The aim of this article is to formulate hypotheses about the impact of the foreign direct investment (FDI) on sustainable development indicators of differently developed countries with reference to the relevant scientific literature. The impact of foreign direct investment on development and facets of sustainable development has been discussed in this article. After the review of the relevant scientific literature some consistent patterns have been identified, what, finally, led to the formulation of initial hypotheses. The countries were grouped according to the level of their development. A set of sustainable development indicators reflecting different facets of sustainability and sensitive to countries’ development level has been distinguished. The following indicators have been considered as relevant for inclusion into the set, which would be used for estimation of FDI impact on enhancing well-being in the unevenly developed countries: GDP, exports, inflation, population, life expectancy at birth, primary school pupils, infant mortality, total health expenditure per capita, total tax rate, internet users, and residential consumption of electricity). As this article is focused for the long-term perspective of FDI impact on sustainable development, it was based on three aspects of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. Series of hypothesis have been formulated in this paper.
The aim of the paper is to review the international organizations’ approaches to the measurement of sustainable development and explore the system of indicators provided by the considered organizations. The systems of proposed indicators to measure sustainable development are being juxtaposed, specific features, advantages and disadvantages revealed. Organizations for sustainable development were founded to review progress at the international, regional and national levels in the implementation of sustainable development policy, to take part in legislative process, to control balance between economic development, social development, and environmental development.