This book provides an expansive review of the public goods theme and highlights the inherent linkage between sustainable development and corporate responsibility for improving the current and future welfare of communities both at home and abroad. The main proposition here is that sustainable development is focused on preserving and maintaining public goods. Consequently, whoever uses public goods is liable for their preservation, their maintenance, and, where they are underdeveloped, for their expansion. Successful delivery, both now and in the future, depends on a positive relationship of the public sector with the private sector. This book will serve to stimulate discussions of scholars and policy makers in the field of sustainable development with business leaders, and will close the gap between the public and the private sectors by building a common understanding and common methodologies for implementing and measuring sustainable development in the macro- and the micro-spheres.

This publication addresses factors that promote or inhibit successful provision of the four key international public goods: financial stability, international trade regime, international diffusion of technological knowledge and global environment. Without these goods, developing countries are unable to compete, prosper or attract capital from abroad. The need for public goods provision is also recognized by the Millennium Development Goals, internationally agreed goals and targets for knowledge, health, governance and environmental public goods. The Report addresses the nature of required policies and institutions using the modern principles of collective action.

Humans and human wellbeing depend on the natural resources provided by Planet Earth, and they depend on the solidarity between human beings. That is, on the social resources provided by society. Both types of resources are available to everyone: they are public goods. The book approaches the topic from various angles, including the often-neglected dimension of measuring. It offers a holistic conception that covers the macro- and the micro-economic, the political and the developmental aspects. It shows which range of action is available at different levels of decision-making and which outcomes these may provide. And it emphasizes that a philosophical base is needed for understanding and managing the topic, and that wellbeing can only be improved and the common good can only be maintained if the public and the private sectors cooperate. With the advent of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, this cooperation has received momentum in all its facets and for all levels – from the local to the global. The book is aimed both at scholars and students as well as practitioners in businesses and in public service. In academia, it may serve as a companion to textbooks on, e.g., public finance, sustainable development, social affairs, and public-private partnerships, both in undergraduate and graduate levels. For professionals in businesses and in public service, the book offers an insight into the topic that does not recur to an academic language. There is always a need for books that appeal both to readers who are managers as well as to scholars who wish to glance beyond their adopted profession.

This Concise Encyclopedia is an interdisciplinary overview of the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It not only incorporates well-established concepts proffered by highly influential voices, but also captures the perspectives of tomorrow.

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. The academic community, policymakers, industry leaders, and civil society must work together and share experiences on the implementation of SDGs. Open discussion on lessons learned from the inclusive education policies, the difficulties and obstacles developing economies face in implementing the SDGs, and the affordability of the clean energy policies initiated by the SDGs will guide and inform better decision making for future implementations across the world. Public Policy’s Role in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals is authored by various esteemed researchers, policymakers, and academics from a multidisciplinary perspective and emphasizes quality research-based studies that contribute to theory, lessons learned, best practices, critical understanding, and policy implications or formulation on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in any country. It supports the acceleration required to implement the SDGs by mobilizing the academic community, policymakers, industry, and civil society to discuss experiences focusing on the SDGs and their implementation in the context of public policy, administration, and governance deemed most important for world regions. Thus, the book will have a global discussion while addressing the SDGs in a way that considers each region’s specificities. It is designed for researchers from the social sciences, arts and humanities, sociology, politics, and the broader interdisciplinary fields of business and economics and also for policymakers, corporations, NGOs, government bodies, research centers, think tanks, and university libraries worldwide.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 aims to “[s]trengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.” Based on previous experiences with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), more and more voices say that, to succeed, the renewed global partnership in SDG 17 will have to overcome collective action problems in the provision of “global public goods” (i.e. those policy issues, such as climate change mitigation, the fight against corruption, and the control of communicable diseases, which transcend national boundaries and current generations). Both the new global partnership for sustainable development and the global public goods agenda are being actively supported by the World Bank - the world's foremost development agency with near global membership and with the single largest source of net income. Yet, while internal staff reports and other recent studies commissioned by the Bank have already extensively analyzed the political, economic and financial role the institution could play in providing global public goods, the legal dimension of the Bank's global public goods action has curiously attracted very little attention as of yet. The present article aims to put the Bank's policy discourse on global public goods on a more solid legal footing by analyzing the legal framework within which the Bank operates to deliver such goods.

This book seeks to revise and challenge the roles and traditional realms of influence that national and local governments, and businesses at a critical juncture in terms of achieving sustainable development, faces when tackling the dual challenges of climate change and post-COVID recovery. Using the broader lens of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to assess the roles and responsibilities of each of these stakeholders and their relationships, the book offers policy, economic arguments, case studies and examples to argue that neither national or local governments, nor companies, could afford to deviate from the SDGs in the recovery from the current crisis, nor that the imperative of bold climate action should detract from the broader focus on sustainability. The analysis frames the debate of how a balance between people, planet, and profits can be achieved and how nations, regions and cities, and businesses, with their representative organizations, can achieve a sustainable recovery from the current global crisis, and contribute to climate smart, resilient and inclusive development.