Housing

Housing’s Foundational Role in the Doughnut’s Sweet Spot The housing crisis facing communities worldwide reflects a fundamental breakdown in how societies organize and distribute this essential human need. Within the Doughnut Economics framework, housing represents a critical component of the social foundation—the minimum standards required for all people to live in dignity and security.1 This analysis examines the housing crisis through the lens of “safe and just space for humanity,” exploring how current housing systems transgress both social boundaries (by failing to meet basic human needs) and planetary boundaries (through unsustainable development practices). This approach emphasizes housing as a critical social foundation, a concept intrinsically linked to the Doughnut’s broader ambition of achieving collective prosperity within ecological limits.12 Indeed, housing security directly impacts health, education, economic opportunity, and community resilience—all essential elements of the social foundation that supports human flourishing. ...

Health Equity: A Foundation for Sustainable Societies Health equity is both a moral imperative and a practical necessity for sustainable human development. It refers to the absence of avoidable or remediable differences in health among groups of people, regardless of their social, economic, demographic, or geographic background1. The global community has recognized this by incorporating it into the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being, with universal health coverage as a crucial target2. ...