That human development is pivotal for sustainable development is now widely recognized. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the UNESCO key action themes on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) illustrate both the people-centric nature of sustainable development and the need for considering the interdependence between all dimensions of human life:

Millennium Development Goals MDG 1. Eradicate poverty and hunger MDG 2. Ensure Universal Education MDG 3. Promote Gender Equality MDG 4. Reduce Infant Mortality MDG 5. Improve Maternal Health MDG 6. Mitigate the HIV/AIDS epidemic MDG 7. Ensure environmental sustainability MDG 8. A global partnership for development

Education for Sustainable Development ESD 1. Educ for gender equality ESD 2. Educ for health promotion ESD 3. Educ for environmental stewardship ESD 4. Educ for rural development ESD 5. Educ for cultural diversity ESD 6. Educ for peace and human security ESD 7. Educ for sustainable urbanization ESD 8. Educ for sustainable consumption

Perhaps the best synthesis of knowledge and experience in human development can be found in the annual Human Development Reports (HDRs) of the United Nations. This annual publication started in 1990, and there are 19 Global HDRs (HDR 2009 is scheduled for publication in October 2009). In addition to these 19 global reports, there are 35 Regional HDRs (for Africa, Arab States, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Arctic) and over 600 National and Sub-National HDRs covering over 140 countries. Any of these can be located and downloaded from the HDR Search and Downloads web site.

The integration of all dimensions of sustainable development and, specifically, human development, is a continuing concern. There are many variations of terminology, but the central concern is basically the same. For instance, the term "integral human development" is not unrelated to the ideas of integral sustainable development and the content of the Human Development Reports, but serves to emphasize both the anthropocentric nature and the total context of the sustainable development process.

Criticality of Gender Equality

Gender equality is a critical ingredient of that total context. In particular, the role of women in integral human development is critical for the integral development of both men and women. Based on the best available research and experience, there is an increasingly increasing consensus that this is the case (see sections 6 to 8).

In the 20th century, it started with Sigmund Freud's misogynist theory about "penis envy" being the root cause of neurosis in women. Then came the breakthrough of Carl Jung's analytical psychology, which produced the concepts of anima and animus, whereby all human beings have both masculine and feminine tendencies -- the anima being the unconscious feminine presence in men and the animus being the unconscious masculine presence in women. Awareness of this feminine presence in men and masculine presence in women is essential for the process of psychological growth, or individuation. The following are some key references:

The Destiny of Man, Nicholas Berdyaev, Harper, 1960.

The Invisible Partners: How the Male and Female in Each of Us Affects Our Relationships, John Sanford, Paulist Press, Paulist Press, 1980.

Two Wings of a Bird: The Equality of Women and Men, Baha'is, 1997.

Carl Jung and Analytical Psychology, Wikipedia as of 2 September 2009.

Jungs theory was preceded by the intuition of many scholars going back to ancient philosophers, not to mention the early chapters of the book of Genesis. For a historical summary see Individuation in Fairy Tales, Marie-Louise von Franz, Spring, Zurich, 1977, pp. 90 ff. This is a recent example:

"Man is not only a sexual but a bisexual being, combining the masculine and the feminine principle in himself in different proportions and often in fierce conflict. A man in whom the feminine principle was completely absent would be an abstract thing, completely severed from the cosmic element. A woman in whom the masculine principle was completely absent would not be a personality. ... It is only the union of these two principles that constitutes a complete human being. Their union is realized in every man and every woman within their bisexual , androgynous nature, and it also takes place through the intercommunication between the two natures, the masculine and the feminine." Nicholas Berdyaev, The Destiny of Man, Harper, 1960, pp.61-62.

Actually, the last sentence of Berdyaev's statement needs clarification. There are not "two natures, the masculine and the feminine." There is one human nature -- the nature of homo sapiens sapiens, which is both male and female. Surely, men and women are different and mutually complimentary, but this complementarity does not make them either exclusively male or exclusively female except genitally. It follows that the social and religious roles of men and women do not have to be mutually exclusive. Except for their mutual genital complementarity, all men and women share one and the same human nature; and all men and women share all the potentialities and limitations of the human condition. Human nature, male and female, has been known to be shared by all human beings since the beginning (Genesis 1, 2, 5); but it was scientifically explained for the first time by Carl Jung (1875-1961), who also explained how the male and female in each human being influence both personal inner growth and interpersonal relations. Sanford summarizes the essential dynamics of Jung's individuation process as follows:

"The most important contribution Jung makes in his concepts of the anima and the animus is to give us an idea of the polarity that exists within each of us. We are not homogeneous units of psychic life, but contain an inevitable opposition within the totality that makes up our being. There are opposites within us, call them what we like -- masculine and feminine, anima and animus, Yin and Yang -- and these are eternally in tension and are eternally trying to unite. The human soul is a great arena in which the Active and the Receptive, the Light and the Dark, the Yang and the Yin, seek to come together and forge within us an indescribable unity of personality. To achieve this union of the opposites within ourselves may very well be the task of life, requiring the utmost in perseverance and assiduous awareness. Usually men need women for this to come about, and women need men. And yet, ultimately the union of the opposites does not occur between a man who plays out the masculine and a woman who plays out the feminine, but within the being of each man and each woman in whom the opposites are finally conjoined." John Sanford, The Invisible Partners, Paulist Press, 1980, page 112.

Jung's work became a watershed for the understanding and promotion of integral human development in individual persons, as well as the interpersonal relations between men and women, and especially between husbands and wives. Thus the importance of Jung's insight for the nuptial dimension of sustainable development. This nuptial dimension is indispensable for sustainable sharing of the gift of love and the gift of life and is, therefore, indispensable for sustainable development. The resulting benefit to human relations and nuptial covenants has been beautifully expressed in many pieces of art, such as the following:

"La Danse" by Henri Matisse, 1909
The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia
Sens Public International Webjournal, October 2007

"Nuptial Covenant" by Farid de la Ossa Arrieta, 2005
School of Theology, Australian Catholic University
Australian E-Journal of Theology, August 2005

The Phallic Syndrome

The phallic (or phallocentric, phallagocentric) syndrome (i.e., the preference for what is masculine) is rooted in the misconception that both men and women are human beings, but men more so than women. This absurdity has led to women being excluded from many roles of authority and leadership, with great loss to human civilization. In particular, it has led to the exclusion of women from roles of religious authority, and there is evidence (see sections 5 to 8 below) that such exclusion is an obstacle to the integral human development of both men and women. Clearly, this is the work of human hands and contrary to God's will; for God only desires what is good and enhances human wellbeing.

Recent Vatican Document

A document entitled On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth was recently published by the Vatican. It is a very comprehensive and lucid exposition about all the issues that pertain to integral human development -- except gender equality. In fact, the issue of gender equality is not even mentioned. This is both lamentable and perplexing to all sensitive men and women of the 21st century. It is fascinating to follow the semantic gymnastics used to avoid facing the gender equality issue since it emerged from the collective unconscious during the second half of the of the 20th century. Deborah Halter has documented the process in excruciating detail. A brief synopsis is as follows:

In 1988, the Vatican published a document On the dignity and vocation of women, in which it was finally admitted that women are fully human and not inferior to men. However, the document reiterated that the role of women excluded representing Christ, because Christ was a male. So women are not inferior to men but, somehow, only men can represent the humanity of Christ, who was a male. In other words, men and women are equally human, but men are more human than women. Then, in 1994, the Vatican published another document, On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone. Perhaps this should not be surprising, since the Roman Catholic Church is a rigid patriarchy in which only males can have roles of religious authority.

But it is a matter of record that, since 1994, the Vatican has been attempting to suppress any discussion about the ordination of women. This is a discussion that keeps coming up everywhere as people realize that the 1994 document is a fundamentalist concoction. And the issue will not go away, but the Vatican's theologically baseless -- and pastorally harmful -- belligerence in perpetuating the male-only priesthood calls for some form of tough love. The PelicanWeb advocates that public subsidies be removed from all institutions (both secular and religious) that perpetuate gender discrimination. The Roman Catholic Church, and other religious institutions that persist in excluding women from roles of religious authority, need a good dosage of tough love.

4. Sustainable Development Indicators

There is a need to measure -- as best we can -- progress in the sustainable development process. A number of indices (i.e., numerical indicators) have been formulated by various institutions. Some of them are general measures of progress toward a sustainable world, others are specific measures of progress pertaining to a given dimension of sustainable development. The following is a list (in alphabetical order) of links to some of the available indices:

Basic Capabilities Index Child & Youth Indicators Child Development Index Corruption Perceptions Index Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes Ecological Footprint Economic Freedom Index Education for All Index Environmental & SD Indicators Environmental Performance Index Environmental Sustainability Index FTSE KLD Investment Indexes GDP Per Capita Gender Equity Index Genuine Progress Indicator GINI Coefficient Global Corruption Barometer Global Gender Gap Index Global Peace Index Gross Domestic Product Gross National Product Happy Planet Index

Human Trafficking Indicators ICT Development Index Living Planet Index Population Index Satisfaction with Life Index Social Institutions and Gender Index Sustainable Society Index Sustainability Indicators UK SD Indicators UK SDIYP Indicators UN-CSD SD Indicators UN Gender Empowerment Measure UN Gender Development Index UN Gender Parity Index UN Human Development Index UN Human Development Indicators UN-MDG Millennium Indicators UN Human Poverty Index USA-IGW SD Indicators World Governance Indicators World Gross Product World Population

The list is not exhaustive. Each one of these indices should be used with care, and only after analysis of the factors taken into account and the credibility of the data used to calculate them. For any analysis of progress in sustainable development, the best practice is to use two or more indices and compare the results. If all indices point in the direction of progress, there can be more confidence that the progress is real; else, any individual index is of limited value. The reader is encouraged to visit the links and see how the indices are formulated, the objective and implicit assumptions of each index, and the databases used for their calculation. Some of these indices have been around for years, and trend charts are provided. Charts showing how index values are distributed geographically are also very informative.

|Back to OUTLINE|

5. Religious Traditions & Human Development

Let us consider the hypothesis that the exclusion of women from roles of religious authority is an obstacle to the integral human development of both men and women. It is well known that poverty is a significant obstacle to integral human development. Unless all the researchers and institutions cited in section 3 are wrong, we also know that gender inequality is a significant obstacle to integral human development. Indeed, it is also a significant obstacle to poverty eradication. And, it is self-evident that religious gender inequality is bound to reinforce secular gender inequality. Let us consider the data in Figures 4, 5, and 6.

0.950 or higher      0.900–0.949      0.850–0.899      0.800–0.849      0.750–0.799

0.700–0.749      0.650–0.699      0.600–0.649      0.550–0.599      0.500–0.549

0.450–0.499      0.400–0.449      0.350–0.399      under 0.350      not available

Figure 4 - Global Geography of Human Development (HDI 2007-2008 & Wikipedia)
The HDI combines life expectancy, education, and GDP per capita (GDPPC).

Figure 4 is a worldwide geography of human development. Let's see how these geographic patterns correlate with the world geographic patterns for poverty and gender equality.

Figure 5 - Global Geography of Poverty (HDR 2007-2008 & Wikipedia)
Poverty is estimated as the percentage of population living
on less than $1.25 per day

A visual comparison of Figures 4 and 5 clearly shows the correlation between poverty and human development, and it is reasonable to infer that poverty is the cause of human underdevelopment. Let us now consider the world geography of gender equality:

Figure 6 - Global Geography of Gender Equity (Social Watch, GEI 2008)
The GEI measures the gap between men and women in education, economic participation, and empowerment.

As expected, a comparison of Figures 4, 5, and 6 shows that the countries with high gender equity correlate with low percentage poverty and high human development. Conversely, the countries with low gender equity correlate with high percentage poverty and low human development. What about social development? The Sustainable Society Index (SSI) is interesting in that it is based on 22 indicators grouped into 5 categories: personal development, healthy environment, social development, sustainable use of resources, and global sustainability. The following map shows the world geography of sustainable social development, i.e., the communitarian dimension of sustainable development:

Figure 7 - Global Geography of Sustainable Social Development
Sustainable Society Foundation, SSI 2008
The SSI is a combined measure of human and social development
in the context of sustainable development.
Note: Green and light yellow identify the more sustainable societies (Sweden is #1). Dark yellow and orange identify the less sustainable societies
(even though some of them are very wealthy!).

The "big picture" that emerges from Figures 4 to 7 shows that the countries with high gender equity correlate with low percentage poverty, high human development, and high social development. Conversely, the countries with low gender equity correlate with high percentage poverty, low human development, and low social development. Let us now consider the global geography of religions:

Figure 8 - Global Geography of Major Religious Traditions (Wikipedia, 2009)

Visual inspection of Figures 4 to 8 shows that human underdevelopment, social underdevelopment, high percentage poverty, and severe gender inequities coincide with certain religions, while other religions coincide with robust human development, strong social development, mitigated poverty, and a high degree of gender equity. It would be hard to believe that this is mere coincidence. Correlations do not establish causality, but it would seem logical to infer that religions do influence human and social development, and do so mainly via dogmatism about gender roles. It is clear that both human development and social development are highest in countries which are not influenced by religions that perpetuate ancient misconceptions about gender roles.

Numerical values by country for HDI and other indices are available. Data is also available on the percent of the population that adhere to each of the major religions by country. There are countries in which 50% or more of the population adheres to a given religion, and this is considered to be the prevailing or majority religion for those countries. In other countries, several religions may coexist without any of them being the prevalent or majority religion. To refine the analysis a bit further, three indicators were selected:

• Human Development Index (HDI)
• Based on life expectancy, education, and GDP per capita
• HDI values are available for 179 countries
• Sustainable Society Index (SSI)
• Based on personal development, healthy environment, social development, sustainable use of resources, and global sustainability
• SSI values are available for 151 countries
• Gender Equity Index (GEI)
• Based on the gap between men and women in education, economic participation, and empowerment.
• GEI values are available for 157 countries

These were matched to the countries in which the Catholic Christian, Orthodox Christian, Protestant Christian, and Islamic (either Sunni or Shi'ite) religions are dominant. Since the HDI, SSI, and GEI have been calculated for different numbers of countries (179, 151, and 157 respectively) the following comparative analysis is based on the top 10% of countries with the highest ranking for each of the three indexes. Table 1 is a summary comparison:

Table 1 - Comparative Analysis of Religions and Human Development

Table 2 shows the countries by name:

Table 2 - Comparative Analysis of Religions, Countries, and Human Development

Due to data availability constraints, it has not been possible to formally accept or reject the very specific hypothesis proposed at the beginning of this section. However, all the available evidence points to accepting the hypothesis. Religious institutions are not ethereal. Believers may see in them reflections of divinity, but they are nevertheless an organic part of human society. Integral human development cannot happen in isolation from the total socio-religious organism in which men and women are embedded. And, needless to say, the case for accepting the hypothesis as true should not and is not based exclusively on numerical data. Other important kinds of evidence are briefly reviewed in the following sections.

|Back to OUTLINE|

6. Review of Survey-Based Evidence

There is some survey-based data on the interaction between religion and society with specific focus on gender equality. For instance, in 1995 Michael Hout and Andrew Greeley conducted a survey among Roman Catholics in several countries. The objective was a gather data about the desires of Roman Catholics for church reforms, including the ordination of women. There were six questions:

"1. Which would you consider more important in choosing a pope, that the pope show more concern about what life is like for ordinary people or that the pope should show more concern about religious issues? "2. Would you favor or oppose the next pope permitting priests to marry? "3. Currently Catholic bishops are appointed by the Vatican. In the past bishops were elected by priests and people within their own dioceses. Would your prefer the next pope to continue to appoint bishops or would you prefer to have bishops chosen by priests and people within their own diocese? "4. How would you feel about letting representative lay people have more of a voice in the Catholic Church for example by serving as advisors to the pope. Would you favor this? "5. Would you like to see the next pope give more decision making power to the bishops in this country or do you think the pope should continue to make most of the decisions for the church? "6. Would you favor or oppose the next pope allowing the ordination of women to the priesthood? "7. Would you like the next pope to be more open to change in the church or do you think things are OK the way they are?"

Figure 9 provides a summary of the results:

Figure 9 - Summary Results of the Hout-Greeley 1995 Survey

As already mentioned in section 3, in 1994 On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone the Vatican had published a document (with much fanfare and smoke screens of pseudo-infallibility) about "reserving priestly ordination to men alone." Yet one year later, the majority desire of the faithful is precisely the opposite in four out of six countries. Not surprisingly, only the most conservative Catholic countries (Poland and the Philippines) had been persuaded that the ordination of women was a bad idea. In Italy, the USA, and Spain over 60% of Roman Catholics had not been persuaded that women cannot or should not be ordained; in Ireland, over 80% were in favor of ordaining women. Obviously, the "sense of the faithful" had not been consulted prior to the 1994 declaration. The Roman Catholic Church, which always had followed the prevailing culture in excluding women from roles of religious authority, now wants to be "counter-cultural."

This does not mean that organized religion is not influential. Organized religion is influential, as shown by the analysis presented in section 3. See also the recent State of the States: Importance of Religion, Gallup, January 2009, and Religion, Secularism Working in Tandem in Bangladesh, Gallup, July 2009. The influence of organized religion is especially strong in matters of gender equality.

|Back to OUTLINE|

7. Review of Scholarly Research

In response to the first (early 1900s) and second (late 1900s) waves of feminism, there has been an enormous amount of research activity which has produced huge number of publications. For a very comprehensive gateway to this literature, see Joan Korenman's Women's Studies Online Resources. The following is a very brief list of selected examples:

Process of individuation: Exercitia spiritualia of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Carl Jung, Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule, Zurich, June 1939-March 1940
The Invisible Partners: How the Male and Female in Each of Us Affects Our Relationships, John Sanford, Paulist Press, 1980
The End of Patriarchy, Claudio Naranjo, Amber Lotus, 1994
In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Crossroad, 1994
Gender and the Nicene Creed, Elizabeth Ranking Geitz, Morehouse, 1995
Two Wings of a Bird: The Equality of Women and Men, Baha'is, 1997
Eve's Seed: Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History, Robert McElvaine, McGraw Hill, 2002
Hidden Penalties of Gender Inequality, Siddiq Osmania and Amartya Sen, Economics and Human Biology, 2003
The Papal No: The Vatican's Refusal to Ordain Women - A Comprehensive Guide to the Vatican's Rejection of Women's Ordination, Deborah Halter, Crossroad, 2004. The Perchance of the Coming of the Other Woman: Deconstruction of "phallagocentrism" from duel to duo, Jacques Derrida, Sens Public International Webjournal, October 2007
Women, politics, and power: a global perspective , Pamela Paxton & Melanie Hughes, 2007
The Suppressed Histories Archives, Max Dashu, 2009
Women, politics, and power: a global perspective , Pamela Paxton & Melanie Hughes, Pine Forge, 2007 (see pages 53-54, 97, 110-112, 174, 232-235)
The Perchance of the Coming of the Other Woman: Deconstruction of "phallagocentrism" from duel to duo, Jacques Derrida, Sens Public International Webjournal, October 2007
Unfinished Business: Difference, Leadership, and Women's Equal Citizenship - Part One of a Two-Part Series, Grossman & McLain, FindLaw, 31 August 2009
Unfinished Business: Sex Equality on the Global Agenda - Part Two of a Two-Part Series, Grossman & McLain, FindLaw, 31 August 2009, FindLaw, 1 September 2009
The Suppressed Histories Archives, Max Dashu, 2009
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn, 2009 (Forthcoming)

You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (John 8:32). The truths of divine revelation have been misinterpreted many times. When it becomes clear that our understanding of divine revelation is irrational in light of scientific evidence, then either our religious understanding is wrong or our scientific understanding is wrong. Perhaps they are both wrong. Then it is time to dig deeper rather than finding refuge in either a facile dogmatism or an uncritical acceptance of scientific evidence. And let us keep in mind that the voice of God continues to resound in the events of history (the so-called "signs of the times"). At the end of the day, we shall know the truth, and the truth will make us free.

|Back to OUTLINE|

8. Some Examples from Real Life

A good resource is Directory of UN Resources on Gender and Women's Issues. The following is a very brief list of recent examples:

Gender and human development, UN Human Development Report, 1995
Education for gender equality, UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development, 2005
Because I am a Girl: The State of the World's Girls 2008, The Communication Initiative, 2008
Empowering Women as Key Change Agents, The Hunger project, 2009
Handbook on gender violence launched, Ann Kanina, Kenya, June 2009
Impact of religion on women’s leadership roles, WLUML, July 2009
View on women shows gender equality is still a dream, William-Mervin Gumede, Sowetan, 05 August 2009
The Striking Correlation Between a State’s Religion and Its Politics, Dan Gilgoff, US News & World Report, 7 August 2009
The Women’s Crusade: How changing the lives of women and girls in the developing world can change everything, Kristof & WuDunn, New York Times Magazine Special Issue, 17 August 2009
Why Women's Rights Are The Cause of Our Time, Current, 22 August 2009
Women still struggle for equality, Faranaaz Parker, South Africa, 2 September 2009

It is well known that "old habits die hard," and there should be no false hopes that achieving gender equality will be a panacea for sustainable development, but the following is a fitting concluding thought:

"If the injustices that women in poor countries suffer are of paramount importance, in an economic and geopolitical sense the opportunity they represent is even greater...in a large slice of the world, girls are uneducated and women marginalized, and it’s not an accident that those same countries are disproportionately mired in poverty and driven by fundamentalism and chaos. There’s a growing recognition among everyone from the World Bank to the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff to aid organizations like CARE that focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism. That’s why foreign aid is increasingly directed to women. The world is awakening to a powerful truth: Women and girls aren’t the problem; they’re the solution." How changing the lives of women and girls in the developing world can change everything, Kristof & WuDunn, New York Times Magazine, 17 August 2009.

Amen!

|Back to OUTLINE|

9. Prayer, Study, and Action

The following suggestions for prayer, study, and action are focused on gender equality.

Suggestions for Prayer

The following is a prayer to keep the faith in the midst of organized religion:

How baffling are you, O Church,
and yet how I love you!
How you have made me suffer,
and yet how much I owe you!
I should like to see you destroyed,
and yet I need your presence.
You have given me so much scandal
and yet you have made me understand sanctity.
I have seen nothing in the world
more devoted to obscurity,
more compromised, more false,
and I have touched nothing more pure,
more generous, more beautiful.
How often I have wanted
to shut the doors of my soul in your face,
and how often I have prayed
to die in the safety of your arms.
No, I cannot free myself from you,
because I am you, though not completely.
And where would I go?

"The God Who Comes"
Carlo Carretto, 1910-1988

Suggestions for Study

Read one or more of the following articles:

The Bible Hurts Women
Gender equality in the mainstream religions
Do women have a prayer?
Gender equality ends at the pew
Sexism, or gender discrimination, is a reality women face all over the world

• What do you think about gender equality and sustainable development?

Suggestions for Action

Consider the following questions:

• What have you done to promote gender equality?
• What are you doing to promote gender equality?
• What will you do to promote gender equality?

Answer them honestly, and do not be afraid of ridicule. There can be no integral human development without cross-gender solidarity.

|Back to OUTLINE|

---

Archive of ESD Survey Forms & Reports

---

The Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) research project is moving forward as a series of surveys to identify the critical issues that sustainable developers must be ready to face. The survey is structured around the "key action themes" proposed by UNESCO for the "Decade of Education for Sustainable Development" (2005-2014):

• Education for gender equality
• Education for health promotion
• Education for environmental stewardship
• Education for rural development
• Education for cultural diversity
• Education for peace and human security
• Education for sustainable urbanization
• Education for sustainable consumption

The following diagram represents the survey design:

Diagram of the ESD Survey Design

The design is based on:

• Paulo Freire's educational model of recursive questions and answers
• Ken Wilber's integral model of experience, behavior, systems, and cultures
• René Girard's mimetic theory of scapegoating behavior
• Note: For a complete description of the design evolution, click here

The survey of the design is stable. However, the questions still need more work pursuant to an optimal combination of brevity (maximum of 16 questions), neutrality (unbiased questions), and questionnaire coverage of the most critical issues in sustainable development. Thus far the responses have been as follows:

• As of 24 April 2009, 61 persons had taken the V0 test survey.
• As of 27 May 2009, 129 persons had taken the V1 test survey.
• As of 27 June 2009, 263 persons had taken the V1.5 test survey.
• As of 31 July 2009, 513 persons had taken the V1.6 test survey.
• As of 29 August 2009, 36 persons had taken the V1.7 test survey.

Links to the forms, data, and analyses for the initial series of surveys are listed below:

TEST SURVEY VERSION 0 (40 QUESTIONS) - APRIL 2009

• Education for Sustainable Development - Part 1 - April 2009
• ESD Consultation Form V0 online during April 2009
• ESD Consultation Spreadsheet V0 as of 24 April 2009
• ESD Consultation Summary Report V0 as of 24 April 2009
• Analysis of ESD Survey V0 Test Data (61 Responses)

TEST SURVEY VERSION 1.0/1.1 (40 QUESTIONS) - MAY 2009

• Education for Sustainable Development - Part 2 - May 2009
• ESD Consultation Form V1 online during May 2009
• ESD Consultation Spreadsheet V1 as of 27 May 2009
• ESD Consultation Summary Report V1 as of 27 May 2009
• Analysis of ESD Survey V1 Test Data (129 Responses)

TEST SURVEY VERSION 1.5 (40 QUESTIONS) - JUNE 2009

• Education for Sustainable Development - Part 3 - June 2009
• ESD Consultation Form V1.5 online during June 2009
• ESD Consultation Spreadsheet V1.5 as of 27 June 2009
• ESD Consultation Summary Report V1.5 as of 27 June 2009
• Analysis of ESD Survey V1.5 Test Data (263 Responses)

TEST SURVEY VERSION 1.6 (16 QUESTIONS) - JULY 2009

• Education for Sustainable Development - Part 4 - July 2009
• ESD Consultation Form V1.6 online during July 2009
• ESD Consultation Spreadsheet V1.6 as of 31 July 2009
• ESD Consultation Summary Report V1.6 as of 31 July 2009
• Analysis of ESD Survey V1.6 Test Data (513 Responses)

TEST SURVEY VERSION 1.7 (32 QUESTIONS) - AUGUST 2009

• Education for Sustainable Development - Part 5 - August 2009
• ESD Consultation Form V1.7 online during August 2009
• ESD Consultation Spreadsheet V1.7 as of 29 August 2009
• ESD Consultation Summary Report V1.7 as of 29 August 2009
• Analysis of ESD Survey V1.7 Test Data (36 Responses)

TEST SURVEY VERSION 1.8 (2.0?) - TBD

• Education for Sustainable Development - Part 6 - September 2009
• Part 6 provides a preliminary analysis of Version 1.7
• A comprehensive analysis of Versions 0 to 1.7 is underway
• Analysis results will be reported in the remaining 2009 issues
• ESD Consultation Form (TBD)
• ESD Consultation Spreadsheet (TBD)
• ESD Consultation Summary Report (TBD)
• Analysis of ESD Survey Test Data (TBD)

Version 1.8 (2.0?) is in preparation. The small number of V1.7 respondents may be a symptom of "survey fatigue." Therefore, there will be a hiatus in the ESD survey project until January 2010.

|Back to OUTLINE|

---

|Back to SUMMARY| |Back to OUTLINE|

|Back to SECTION 1| |Back to SECTION 2| |Back to SECTION 3|
|Back to SECTION 4| |Back to SECTION 5| |Back to SECTION 6|
|Back to SECTION 7| |Back to SECTION 8| |Back to SECTION 9|

---

| Link to Page 2 |        | Link to Page 3 |        | Link to Page 4 |

|Link to the Home Page|

---

CATHERINE OF SIENA VIRTUAL COLLEGE

Click here to see all our courses
Click here for special groundbreaking offer
Click here for "Women in Christian Ministry
Click here for "Women in Islam"
For more information, visit the Catherine of Siena Virtual College.

---

INTERNATIONAL ECUMENICAL PEACE CONVOCATION

Kingston, Jamaica, will be the host city for the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in May 2011. The convocation is sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and will meet under the theme "Glory to God and peace on earth". It will be the culmination of the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV), which has sought to network and bring attention to the peacemaking initiatives of its various member churches. For more information, see the convocation announcement.

---

|Back to OUTLINE|

Gender equity is a "sign of the times." Gender inequities are universally rooted in the utter misconception (the so-called "phallic syndrome") that men are superior to women, and lead to incalculable forms of physical and psychological gender violence. It follows, that gender inequities constitute a huge obstacle to human solidarity and sustainable development. It is imperative to overcome, sooner rather than later, gender inequities in both secular and religious institutions, because human development stagnates in the absence of gender balance, and this cannot possibly be what God desires.