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Welcome to the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development

Welcome to the website of the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development.

We are a small charity working to develop ideas and innovative practices so that democratic decision-making can work better for sustainable development.

We believe that democracy will need to adapt and evolve to meet twenty-first century sustainable development challenges, and that it will need to do so fast. 

Issues like climate change, resource scarcity and population growth will create huge pressures for democratic decision-making. The risk is that badly prepared democracies may become less democratic as a result of these pressures.

Sustainable development calls for concerted efforts to make sure that democracy is resilient. 

Our events, analysis and engagement aim to work out who needs to do what to make sure that democracy delivers sustainable development.

“If we want to tackle climate change, we will need more democracy not less. Not only within countries, but also between countries“.
Chandra Bhushan, Associate Director, Centre for Science and Environment

“Unsustainable development has been described as the biggest market failure the world has ever seen. Yet surely it is the biggest failure of democracy the world has ever seen.”
Sara Parkin, Founder Director, Forum for the Future

“[We need] a democracy for posterity, an ecological democracy that enables both the citizen and the representative to be capable of designing sustainable futures for a very long way ahead…”
Professor Tim O’Riordan

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From the Blog

July 16, 2010 – 3:49 pm

Vietnam’s PM on democracy as a factor of sustainable development

Vietnamese flag

The Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, has just made a strong statement on the link between democracy and sustainable development in an article titled…

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July 15, 2010 – 4:20 pm

Thinking about future people

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FDSD Vice-Chair Ian Christie and I headed to the home of former trustee Sir Geoffrey Chandler and his wife Lucy for lunch yesterday. And our conversation turned to intergenerational thinking, and…

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June 1, 2010 – 12:01 am

UK Civil society call for a ‘new politics of the future’

Press release

FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRACY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

PRESS RELEASE

Civil society call for a ‘new politics of the future’

In an open letter dated 1st June 2010 to Prime Minister Cameron and Deputy Prime…

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May 22, 2010 – 3:22 pm

Governments, democracy and public policy in International Standardisation: the curious case of ISO 26000 and the precautionary approach

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I’ve just returned from the final session of the ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation)  International Working Group on Social Responsibility. The ‘SR’ Working Group has been driving efforts to develop…

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May 12, 2010 – 1:57 pm

Citizenship at the Conservation Economy

I’ve been happily distracted, in all the general election and coalition mayhem and the musings on the implications of Coalition and hung parliaments for sustainable development.. by a visit the…

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