Measuring Social Sustainability : A Multidimensional Approach

While the concept of social sustainability is growing in salience, there is little consensus on how to measure it. This lack of an accepted measure makes it harder to monitor progress toward sustainable development goals, honor political commitments to leave no one behind, and design effective social development and protection programs. This study proposes an original measure of social sustainability and its associated fragilities in the form of multidimensional social gaps. The measure is anchored conceptually in the new social sustainability in development framework and applied empirically using a counting approach. The study calls this metric the Social Sustainability Index. It was piloted in Peru and South Africa, country contexts with low levels of trust, deep social tensions, and stark inequality. The measure comprises four dimensions—inclusion, resilience, social cohesion, and process legitimacy—measured by 16 indicators. The study finds that roughly two-thirds of the population in Peru and South Africa experience overlapping social gaps in the space of social sustainability. On average, these populations exhibit intensity rates of 47 and 53 percent, respectively, equivalent to experiencing multiple social gaps in seven and eight indicators. Women and ethnic minorities are disproportionally fragile. Weak process legitimacy is the main driver of multidimensional social gaps in both countries. In South Africa, low satisfaction with the way corruption is fought and deficits in government effectiveness are the principal indicators driving multidimensional social gaps. In Peru, inequality before the law and deficits in government effectiveness are the two indicators contributing the most to overall gaps in social sustainability. These findings call for strategies to boost accountability and inclusion beyond access to markets, services, and social benefits.