Sustainable development and neoliberalism

Humanity is groping its way through the process of proposing viable development strategies for every society and every human being. From one development project to another, we are now at the stage of sustainable development, which aims not only to meet the needs of present generations, but also to avoid compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. But this project, which claims to be a solution to maldevelopment, reinforces the current neoliberal economic paradigm. This economic paradigm, it seems to us, is generating growing inequalities that are signs of a new maldevelopment for humanity in general, and for Africa in particular - a continent that has been in search of development for decades. In an analytical-critical posture, this paper aims first to show how sustainable development in the neoliberal context does not modify the maldevelopment that justified its emergence; then to demonstrate that sustainable development, by reinforcing the current global economic paradigm, does not bring new development opportunities for Africa; and finally, to formulate some perspectives.