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Multicriteria mathematical modeling is an analytical framework for formally describing real‐life problems involving multiple and conflicting objectives. In the past decade, multicriteria decision‐making techniques have been applied in almost every area of the decision‐making including energy‐economic planning and sustainable development. Various mathematical and analytical models have been presented for the sustainable development planning and their assessment. In this paper, we discuss an approach related to multicriteria decision‐making and apply it for the assessment of the sustainable development goals of India by the year 2030. In the INDC report submitted to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2015, http://www..unfccc.int/submissions/INDC/Published%20Documents/India/1/INDIA%20INDC%20TO%20UNFCCC.pdf), India has identified many goals related to the sustainable development like energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, GVA growth, and an increase in the employment by the year 2030. This paper overcomes the energy resource allocation problem in related literature due to the lack of sectorial data for the same year by calculating the estimates for each sector for the year 2030. We presented a multicriteria decision‐making model which allocates public labor force in the key economic sectors of India. The presented model is validated with the data of the key economic sectors and their contribution in the identified goals. The paper provides a decision support for the better management of future sustainable policies by assessing the efficiencies of the current policies toward future sustainable goals. We evaluated the identified goals using the multicriteria decision‐making approaches so that the strategic planning can be implemented by the policy makers and to present a quantitative justification of planning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eliminating poverty by 2030 is the main target of Sustainable Development Goal 1(SDG1). India had an ambitious target of cutting down its poverty rate to 10.95% from 21.92%, by 2030. This review has the objective to consolidate the literature related to SDG1 in India, since 2015 and to identify futuristic research niches. This research focuses on the research questions of identifying the public policy initiatives in India for achieving SDG1 and the performance of various indicators of SDG1 in India. Forty‐one peer‐reviewed articles related to SDG1 in India are selected from the sources of Web of Science and consolidated the findings of these works of literature by using the indicators of NITI Aayog as the themes; described the empirical papers by highlighting the key variables and findings. This research had identified the health insurance penetration; slum rehabilitation and rejuvenation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) are the futuristic areas for research. This paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge and recommends the key areas to be focused on achieving SDG1 in India. This review can help readers in understanding better methods of poverty eradication. High spirits are recommended from the implementing authorities to meet the objectives of indicators of poverty, better housing, health insurance penetration to households, and for the generation of employment and consumption by the scheme of MGNREGA. Moreover, a realistic picture of poverty eradication in India may be possible by using more indicators covering all the targets of SDG1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In developing countries, often a major segment of the population is characterized as poor. Thus, social protection programs play a crucial role in facilitating the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda across these nations. Among the several socioeconomic benefits associated with the social safety net programs, the impacts on female labor force participation are vital from the perspectives of enhancing women empowerment and welfare. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to evaluate the impacts of social transfers under the "allowances for the widow, deserted, and destitute women" social protection program on the rural female labor force participation responses in Bangladesh. The overall results from the probit, IV‐probit, and propensity score matching techniques provide statistical evidence regarding the cash transfers acting as a "mini‐push" to nudge greater participation of the beneficiary women in the labor force. Moreover, the cash transfers are also found to positively influence the labor force participation decisions of the other female members within the households of the program beneficiaries. Besides, the female labor force participation decisions are evidenced to be heterogeneous across the age cohorts, marital statuses, and the gender of the household head. In line with the major findings from the analyses, some key policy interventions are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations General Assembly adopted "2030 agenda" for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the objective of "transforming our world." Provision of health and trade services is central in SDGs. This study focuses on broad objectives of public health and trade, which would significantly contribute to satisfying the health and trade‐related targets of the SDGs. The paper outlines the key provisions in recent trade agreements that constrain policy space for implementing universal health coverage. It focuses on actions of relevance to health innovations and access to health products with the contribution of health and trade policies. Regarding innovation, short‐term, mid‐term and long‐term measures are proposed concerning the General Agreement on Trade in Services, Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures and Agreement on Trade‐Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). For intellectual property, four actions are proposed, which are empiric assessments; adoption of an integrated approach; intensive use of the TRIPS flexibilities and agreeing on the meaning of pharmaceutical innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social entrepreneurship is a rising field of academic and practical activity worldwide and social entrepreneurs become drivers of inclusive growth and sustainable development and also provide opportunities for new models of social business to bring changes in the lives of communities those who are living at the bottom of the pyramid. Recognizing the importance and diversity of social entrepreneurial organizations (not for profits, for profits, and hybrid), this study chooses to map the existing social enterprises that have a social, economic, and environment goals and also look at the existing social enterprise ecosystem in Central Gujarat. The main contribution of this paper is to evaluate the opportunities and challenges of social entrepreneurial activities in Central Gujarat, India. Moreover, analysis and discussion would help the researcher to draw reasonable conclusions, provide a number of insights on lessons and challenges with which a social enterprise sector can be expected to face in near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides fresh evidence concerning the threshold relationship between the shadow economy and financial development. Shadow economy is quoted as an obstacle to sustainable development and therefore the role of financial development is examined in this paper to tackle the issue of shadow economy. It is based on panel data of 29 developed and developing countries over the period of 1975–2015 and use of panel threshold model. Three proxies for financial development—liquid liabilities, private credit to deposit money banks, and stock market capitalisation—were utilised to obtain the threshold value of US$33,600 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. This threshold helps to determine the impact of financial development on the size of the shadow economy. Empirical results suggest that above this threshold, financial development significantly contributes to the reduction in size of the shadow economy while it has no impact for countries that have per capita income below this threshold. This implies that, countries with lower per capita income (below $33,600) should implement policies to improve accessibility to finance and credit market which leads to a sufficiently higher per capita income that in turn allows for a reduction in the size of the shadow economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) embrace an ambitious and wide ranging set of environmental, social, and economic issues designed to effect a transition to a more sustainable future. Although the SDGs are global in nature, there is an increasing awareness that they also have an important local dimension. With this in mind, this commentary paper outlines the characteristics of the SDGs, reviews their importance at the local level, provides some illustrations of how they are being addressed locally within North Western Europe and United Kingdom, and offers some reflections on localising the SDGs. The paper suggests that progress in launching and developing local initiatives within the United Kingdom has, to date, been limited. In part, this reflects the lack of a clear national policy framework for the localisation of the SDGs and in part, it reflects the challenges of raising awareness of the importance of local SDG initiatives and of funding such initiatives. Looking to the future, communications and public relations professionals may have an important role to play in raising awareness of the importance of the SDGs at the local level, and this may help to change hearts and minds in addressing the policy making and financial challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper critically analyzes the problems and the hurdles for the financial inclusion for the economical growth and plans to call attention to the importance of Pradhan Mantri Yojana to bring Financial Inclusion a reality. A country can develop economically and socially if its weakest section can end up being financially independent. To achieve inclusive growth, the Government of India has introduced many schemes recently and steps have been taken that the benefits of policies reach the people. The schemes include Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojna, Pradhan Mantri Bima Suraksha Yojna and Pradhan Manti Atal Yojna that have already been launched. The unawareness of financial institutions in the rural, semi‐urban and hilly areas of India is worrisome. The study focuses on the secondary source of information obtained through the website of the Reserve Bank of India website and other published sources. Sustainable growth, economic development and progress of an economy can only be achieved if a country has a well‐equipped financial system. All the assets, funds and capital have to be properly channelized for attaining inclusive and sustainable development goals in the Indian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The laborer's physical and mental health, well‐being, and happiness are among the major indicators for measuring each nation's sustainable development. A conflictive and hostile external environment (war zone) poses considerable difficulty and psychological distress to workers and nonworkers. Therefore, working in such a physically dangerous business environment may hurt worker's well‐being and happiness that in turn may reduce the workers' productivity at the workplace. A high level of laborers' productivity in public and private sectors is essential for achieving sustainable development in the long term. Therefore, this paper examines the effects of perceived danger on employees' psychological well‐being in war‐torn Afghanistan, an issue being addressed for the first time. We tested the moderating role of social support from coworkers on this effect in order to have a broader vision of which individuals are healthier and happier in a physically dangerous working environment. Two survey data sets were collected from 190 employees working in various small private and public businesses in Herat, Afghanistan. Our results reveal the negative impact of perceived danger on employees' psychological well‐being and that employees who receive little or no social support from their peers feel the negative effects of a physically dangerous working condition even more acutely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the UK, City Deals, essentially bespoke packages of funding and decision-making negotiated between national government and local authorities, are increasingly taking centre stage in promoting economic growth. Each City Deal is seen to reflect the needs of individual cities and their surrounding regions, and each has its own distinctive funding and development agenda. Although the City Deal model has been broadly welcomed by national and local political leaders, concerns have been more widely expressed about its operation and effectiveness. This paper outlines the development and characteristics of the City Deals programme and offers a reflective commentary on a number of issues surrounding the programme, namely, accountability and evaluation, the relationship between the local and national states, the role of planning, and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the motivations for and processes of a unique multi-stakeholder collaboration aimed at the long-term sustainable development of a region. The region is that of Australasia's largest lake, Lake Taupo, New Zealand. Lake Taupo has geographic features that have not only enabled the development of a strong economy based on tourism, forestry and agriculture but have also generated particular environmental problems. The findings of the case study present highly innovative solutions that are premised on collaboration and on a 'business case' for sustainability. From extensive interviews with a wide range of stakeholders, the case confirms extant literature that looks at the roles of leadership, stakeholder engagement, and first movers in bringing about change, but it also highlights further findings that include the surprisingly important role of fringe stakeholders, the difficulties presented by uncertain regulation, and the need to innovate in tailoring solutions to fit the peculiarities of a specific problem. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unilever is often cited as one of the organisations that is most sophisticated in thinking about and responding strategically to the range of global trends we tend to put under the heading 'sustainable development'. This paper explores the rationale in Unilever for doing this and looks at the implications it has for Public Affairs. Taking a step back from this and thinking about the historical role of the public affairs professional, and about what Unilever and others are beginning to do, the changing role of the public affairs professional is discussed. In this article, Thomas Lingard talks to JPA SI guest editor Matthew Gitsham. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to build an understanding of core public affairs resources, their development and their relationship to competitive advantage. The perspective employed is that of the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and the resources associated with public affairs are viewed in strategic terms. Public affairs is conceptualized as a dynamic capability whose function is to 'catalyse' latent socio-political resources into operational ones that can be used in pursuit of sustainable competitive advantage. The types and development of public affairs resources are described. A model of the dynamics of resource development and exploitation is offered, along with simple typologies of the major operational resource categories of access and legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Given today's concerns about the impact of globalisation on the developing world, companies must demonstrate that they are operating responsibly, and work to become more accountable to stakeholders. At the same time there is continuing debate as to the proper role and responsibilities of companies in relation to that of governments when it comes to sustainable development. A cornerstone of British American Tobacco's corporate social responsibility strategy is the initiation of partnerships with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to address issues of mutual concern that impact on sustainable development. This paper describes in detail two such partnerships, one focused on preserving biodiversity, the other on trying to eliminate child labour in tobacco growing, it is argued that business-NGO partnerships such as these can add an extra dimension to the contribution that companies can make themselves in terms of helping the communities and countries in which they operate meet their sustainable development needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic regeneration is a segment of neighbourhood renewal that boosts community economics and sustains certain principles of sustainable urbanization. The community economic development framework for poverty reduction, the implementation loop for stakeholder collaboration, and the Neo‐Marxist community economic development strategy for local economic freedom are imperative for sustaining and renewing the idealism of shared prosperity, which is the basis of collectivism and community economic development in relation to community development. Because, where there is poor economic vivacity; it is difficult, if not impossible for such community to galvanize towards the realisation of the sustainable development agenda, is tied to economic vivacity of an area. It is on this ground that this paper develops a neighbourhood regeneration model or the community economic development strategic framework for poverty alleviation for the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality. Data were sorted from Statistics South Africa, ScienceDirect, EBSCOHost, Proquest, and Scopus among others, and the data were cushioned with substantial qualitative analysis. Triangulation, content, and theme analysis were used to analysis the data and propose the models for the paper. It must be noted that an understanding and appreciation of this paper is dependent on the understanding of the earlier papers advanced in this series. Finding demonstrates the suitability and the need for models in empowering those at the rural areas in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public–private partnership (PPP) is one of the popular mechanisms for the development of infrastructure worldwide; governments across the globe are engaged in discovering a range of PPP policies and strategies for growth of infrastructure. The growth of infrastructure is imperative of the sustainable development of an economy. Therefore, it is pertinent to identify key success factors for the development of infrastructure through PPP model. The current paper aims to explore significant factors for successful execution and completion of PPP projects in infrastructure. A total of 517 employees who had hand‐on experience on PPP projects located in India were interviewed through a structured questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis yielded 14 components as a significant factor for the success of PPP in infrastructure. This study highlights that the development of infrastructure would be rapid through PPP if government considers these factors in the implementation phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging literature on public procurement policy suggests that public procurement may be leveraged to advance several public policy agenda. Hence, many countries have reformed their public procurement process towards social and environmental outcomes termed sustainable public procurement. These reforms have often been launched in response to international initiatives such as the global 10‐year framework for action on sustainable consumption and production by the Johannesburg implementation plan in 2002 and the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet, empirical evidence on the drivers and benefits of SPP in developing countries is still scarce. This gap is addressed with a qualitative case study of six public sector institutions in Ghana. On the basis of elite interviews, this paper highlights barriers to mainstreaming SPP in Ghana's public sector. We further advance the scanty principal–agency literature by establishing a double‐agency relationship in the context of SPP, which depicts limited agency cases where principals lack the capacity to defend their own interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change represents an existential crises for economic, social, and natural systems. Given the significance of the topic and the importance of behavioural change, it might be expected that marketing may be a substantial contributor to climate change studies. However, this is not the case with substantially less than 1% of papers in a sample of marketing journals being concerned with climate change. Nevertheless, there is substantial interest in marketing practices and climate change outside of marketing journals. It is therefore posited that, as a discipline, marketing may potentially become a form of stranded research in the social science of climate change rather than a positive sustainable contribution to emissions reduction and consumer studies. It is also observed that a shift in focus from carbon literacy to the carbon capabilities of consumers presents a significant challenge to marketing assumptions about agency and structure and the relative roles of upstream and downstream marketing and the ethics of marketing practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]