Full review

Reviewed by: Emin Huseynov, Director of Economic Research and Statistics Department, National Bank of Azerbaijan
Review posted 16 January 2006
Review No. 65

CD-ROM Information

Content: This CD-ROM based on case studies from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a comprehensive training tool that helps learners improve their understanding of the contemporary disintegration or integration processes impacting sustainable development in transition societies. It provides study materials and the conceptual framework for research studies on sustainable development.
Publication Date: 7 January 2002
Audience: Government policy makers in all spheres, leaders, NGOs, and political parties dealing with economic policy and social, political, and environmental issues.
Producer: Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD)
Size: 194 MB
Price: US$25 non-OECD country rate / US$35 OECD country rate
Manual needed: No
How to order:

Order online from Earthprint.*

Order by mail:
LEAD International
Imperial College of Science,Technology and Medicine
48 Prince’s Gardens
United Kingdom

E-mail: info@lead.org
Tel: +44(0) 870 220 2900
Fax: +44(0) 870 220 2910

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Full review

Content

Disintegration and integration processes generally occur in social transition periods. This CD-ROM training course describes these processes as: "trends that must be examined through the lens of other modern changes and processes, such as an expanding global economy, the decline of communism, and national and regional independence movements." Because these processes capture fundamental economic and political changes, the transition process can dramatically reverse social progess and impact the environment.

The course emphasizes that the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), like other transition countries, faces enormous challenges in implementing sustainable development policies in the face of changing global trends and interventions. Some of the challenges discussed are:

• strengthening democratization processes through widespread political reforms, and adopting European standards in political governance;
• implementing economic reforms and forming a market economy;
• integrating national economies into world markets;
• improving energy and natural resources management; and
• ensuring environmental protection.

This training course consists of three parts. The first part provides substantive information about the training topics, while outlining specific issues covered in each part of the course. The second part provides a useful guide on how to use the CD-ROM effectively. The third part provides reading materials, articles, and documents that explain and explore key issues in-depth. This third part is divided into the following four sections:

Section 1: "Overview of Disintegration, Integration and Sustainable Development" covers the processes of integration and disintegration with specific focus on the impact on sustainable development in societies. It also provides additional readings and supplementary documents that propose ideas for dealing with these problematic issues. The course emphasizes that the collapse of the USSR and the subsequent formation of the CIS fundamentally changed the economic system, forms of governance, standards of living, and way of life for millions of people. It also details how the collapse has caused many environmental priorities to fall off national agendas due to economic constraints.

Section 2: "Measuring Sustainable Development" discusses a conceptual approach to measuring sustainability and the degree of development in a country. It provides a methodology for understanding various indicators that can be used to assess the social welfare and its natural environment. The section distinguishes among these indicators to show how each one is relevant and applies to sustainable development in a given country.

Section 3: "Disintegration or Integration: Case Study of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)" identifies characteristic features of CIS states and offers poignant examples of disintegration and integration processes in these countries. Aside from giving an overview of changes and crises resulting from the disintegration and collapse of the USSR, the section focuses on the experiences of Armenia, Moldova, and Republic of Kalmykia, all of which are classified as transition countries. The discussion points out that growing internal and external political tensions and conflicts, which in some cases grew violent, exacerbated the disintegration process in each of these countries. Nevertheless, the countries succeeded in overcoming many negative impacts of disintegration and are now integrating, on a new political and economic basis, into the CIS and international markets.

Section 4: "Disintegration or Integration in Your Country" is the concluding part of the training course. It draws upon the comprehensive knowledge gained from previous sections to guide users in exploring integrative and disintegrative processes in their own country while measuring the influence on sustainability in the society.

Each section begins with a substantive overview of topics that provides an analytical framework for considering related issues. All sections are linked to supplementary documents, articles, and materials specifying the processes of integration and disintegration as well as their links to sustainability in societies. This information can also be found by regions of the world, broken down by historical, cultural, economic, and political differences among regions.

Some documents describe and analyze up-to-date global problems, such as how to strike the right balance between human and natural environments, and how to manage the huge geopolitical disintegration processes experienced by CIS countries. These documents cover the economic recovery challenges CIS countries face, the resolution of ethnic conflicts with neighboring countries, democratization, and the overall integration with the world community.

There are also links to materials explaining indicators such as a wellbeing assessment that is used to assess human development and the ecosystem as a whole. Wellbeing assessments are a method of determining the sustainability of development that gives people and the ecosystem equal weight. Other indices included in these links aid in measuring the impact of human beings on nature.

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User-friendliness and Navigability

Because the CD-ROM contains all the necessary software to support the extensive reference offerings and website links, users only need a reliable internet connection to exploit all of these resources. For example, the CD-ROM content provides explanatory readings that present in-depth analysis of problems and often cites other materials that support these documents with supplementary online references. Therefore, many documents may be available in different electronic formats that call for the installation of specific software. This problem is easily resolved because the CD-ROM contains all necessary software needed to access the information.

The CD-ROM also functions as a stand-alone training course requiring no internet links. It includes an ample number supplementary documents and materials to fully capture the objectives of this training course.

Overall, the well-organized structure of the content facilitates navigability. The main part covers four sections and serves as the cornerstone of the CD-ROM since it summarizes the entire content of the training program. Also within each section users are able to open different files and move backward and forward between sections easily. The supporting part presents information about the training course and also provides guidelines on how to use the CD-ROM.

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Interactivity

The CD-ROM has outstanding interactive capabilities. It efficiently provides access to information and allows users to specify and judge problems, make conclusions, and develop ideas in related fields in an interactive way. The most visible example of this is found in section 4 through a series of learning activities that invite users to synthesize, analyze, and apply the information and insights gleaned from the course content. These activities pose questions and invite reflection on disintegrative and integrative forces in the user’s own country or region. They solicit ideas on how sustainable development might be achieved in this context, and examine the kinds of economic, social, cultural, and political changes that might be required for success.

There is a video featuring an overview of global problems and concerns, and showing interviews that address strategies for solving world problems. The video outlines the CD-ROM producer's (LEAD) efforts to affect sustainable development in societies by actively engaging a new generation of national and world leaders in the process. The CD-ROM also contains an evaluation form so users can offer the producers feedback of the content, features, and user-friendliness.

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Sustainability

Since this training program is designed to analyze the integration or disintegration processes in countries worldwide it can be used for a sustained time, or until significant and new global tendencies emerge that affect the way of life and development paths of societies in specific regions.

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