Sustainable development (SD) has become a popular catchphrase in contemporary development discourse. However, in spite of its pervasiveness and the massive popularity it has garnered over the years, the concept still seems unclear as many people continue to ask questions about its meaning and history, as well as what it entails and implies for development theory and practice. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discourse on SD by further explaining the paradigm and its implications for human thinking and actions in the quest for sustainable development. This is done through extensive literature review, combining aspects of the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and the Recursive Content Abstraction (RCA) analytical approach. The paper finds and argues that the entire issue of sustainable development centres around inter- and intragenerational equity anchored essentially on three-dimensional distinct but interconnected pillars, namely the environment, economy, and society. Decision-makers need to be constantly mindful of the relationships, complementarities, and trade-offs among these pillars and ensure responsible human behaviour and actions at the international, national, community and individual levels in order to uphold and promote the tenets of this paradigm in the interest of human development. More needs to be done by the key players—particularly the United Nations (UN), governments, private sector, and civil society organisations—in terms of policies, education and regulation on social, economic and environmental resource management to ensure that everyone is sustainable development aware, conscious, cultured and compliant.

The study explored the implications of environmental sanitation for three coastal livelihood activities, namely fishing, tourism and salt production. Qualitative data were collected from purposively selected respondents through key informant interviews and focus group discussions, and analysed using thematic and most significant stories approaches. The study found that sanitation affected livelihoods associated with tourism, fishing and salt production through its implications for health, productivity, income, job security and sustainability of the physical environment. However, while virtually all respondents acknowledged the effect of sanitation on human capital through the health implications, a substantial part of the people who eked their living from the stated livelihood activities did not appreciate the link between sanitation and these livelihood avenues. Sanitation behavioural change communication messaging by the responsible actors should, therefore, stress the relevance of sanitation not only for human health but also the linkage between sanitation and sustainable livelihood in its entirety.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the indicators of service quality from the perspective of graduating students in a public university in Ghana. The identified indicators of service quality were rated and the extent of satisfaction among the students was determined. Another issue explored was whether the satisfaction among the respondents inures to their loyalty to the university. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was designed, pre-tested and administered to 500 graduating students, and 482 of them were returned for analyses. Principal component analysis was used to determine the indicators of service quality. Independent sample t-test and z-test for proportions were used to compare mean scores and proportions of respondents on various variables, respectively. Findings: The results revealed three indicators of service quality which include quality of academic services and facilities, quality of lecturers and quality of academic programs. Graduands were satisfied with academic services, lecturers and programs. They were, however, not satisfied with the quality of facilities. Majority of the respondents will remain associated with the university as a result of their satisfaction with the services, lecturers as well as programs of the university. It is recommended that the university works assiduously on improving infrastructural facilities to help boost the confidence of the students in the university. Originality/value: This paper argues that what constitutes quality service vary from one academic institution to the other. It is, therefore, needful for institutions to determine from the perspective of their students what may indicate quality service.

Game species generate considerable benefits to society in terms of hunting values, tourism, and maintenance of ecosystem balance. This paper seeks to estimate hunting values for multiple hunted species by disentangling the role of wildlife harvesting opportunities from other factors that affect hunting lease prices. We examine the determinants of hunting lease prices in Sweden using both spatial and nonspatial econometric techniques. Our analysis confirms considerable hunting values for fallow deer and wild boar. Also, the study reveals the presence of spatial spillovers in lease prices, implying that landowners have little scope for exerting monopoly power on the hunting lease market. (JEL Q23, Q26)

With the adoption of the 2015–2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Nations (UN) Member States pledged to ensure that no one would be left behind. This article highlights the essentials (meaning, importance, history, framework, pillars, related key studies, and role of key actors) in respect of the ‘Leaving No One Behind’ (LNOB) pledge. The review shows that the LNOB pledge has three-pronged strategic development imperatives: (i) to end poverty in all its forms, (ii) to stop the discrimination and inequality that have resulted in unequal outcomes for the disadvantaged population, and (iii) to reach the furthest behind first. The framework for achieving the ambition is anchored on implementing the SDGs, ‘empowering the left-behind by ensuring their meaningful participation in decision-making; and enforcing equity-focused policies, and interventions with a dedicated budget to support rights-holders and duty-bearers to address the deprivations of the people left behind. The UN, Governments, Businesses, Civil Society Organisations and other actors should collaborate to translate the mantra into reality by addressing the pervasive societal issues of poverty, inequality, and discrimination. Germane to achieving the LNOB ambition are reliable disaggregated people-centered data, research, and stakeholder/actor commitment to the pledge.