The 1st International Congress about:
Sustainable Development for a Better Quality of Life
June 26-27, 2024 (Hybrid), University of Tlemcen, Algeria
The laboratory « Management des Hommes et des Organisations» (LARMHO), in collaboration with the “Faculty of Economic, Business & Management Sciences” and the “PAU Institute of Water and Energy Sciences, incl. Climate Change”, organize the 1st edition of the International Congress on sustainable development and quality of life entitled: "Sustainable Development for a better Quality of Life" on the 26th & 27th June 2024 at the "Andalusian Studies Center" (Tlemcen).
This interdisciplinary congress paves the way for researchers from all backgrounds and will bring together academics, experts, sustainable development and quality of life professionals, political decision-makers, as well as representatives from local and international organizations to combine reflection and action. The goal is to identify courses of action to promote a better integration of sustainable development principles in improving the quality of life, and to highlight innovative practices, establish new partnerships, and contemplate strategies aimed at greater recognition and realization of the connection between Sustainable Development and Quality of Life".
Sustainable development is an increasingly widespread concept, but the issues surrounding its definition and measurability, still give rise to much discussion: The most frequently used definition of sustainable development remains the one of the Brundtland Report, published in 1987. There was not yet a consensus on how to achieve sustainable development and on the indicators that could assess it. Indeed, the internationalization of this concept has encouraged the creation of a set of new indicators to measure the level of progress achieved by a State. However, the great divergence between the results of the different indicators can sometimes leave researchers perplexed as to the very usefulness of the concept of sustainable development.
The end of «the Earth Summit» in Rio on 1992, was marked by the adoption of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21. The first document confirms that "Human beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable development. They have the right to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature”, and that "to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection must be an integral part of the process development and cannot be viewed in isolation".
For this, Quality of Life is omnipresent at all levels and in all organizations and under several terms. It is increasingly present in approaches and discourses linked to sustainable development. It first appeared in the reflections of economists (in particular Nobel Prize winners) since the 1970s to search for alternative indicators to GDP in order to measure wealth differently, and more generally, prosperity. Recently, it has firmly established itself in the annual corporate social responsibility reports of companies whose social performance it reflects.
Quality of life is a flagship subject of technological research, teaching and new training. Moreover, Quality of Life and sustainable development are versatile depending on the organizations or territories that use them, and they are both the subject of intense dialogue with stakeholders to understand and distinguish the factors of good from those of the unhappiness.
Quality of life also means promoting health for all with better care. Indeed, a good quality of life is not only an individual aspiration and cities also strive to provide as good a quality of life as possible to their residents. In addition to traditional economic and legislative factors, quality of life can largely contribute to territorial attractiveness, even if challenges are not lacking, both on a socio-demographic level (rapid population growth, increasing migratory flows, cultural diversity increasing and increasingly rapid changes in habits and customs) than in terms of ecology (landscape under pressure, overexploitation of resources, pollution of all kinds, etc.)
Thus, improving the quality of life of individuals is strong proof of the added value of sustainable development approaches. Faced with this observation, the objective of this congress is to take stock of the situation, launch a reflection and propose sustainable development practices intended to guarantee a better quality of life and promote them through recommendations and action plans. for decision-makers at the top of the state and for the benefit of local and national institutions, whether public or private.
