Towards a dashboard of sustainability indicators for Panama: A participatory approach

The importance of pursuing sustainable modes of development has received increased global recognition in recent years. Since the issue was first addressed in the United Nations⿿ 1987 Brundtland Report, many countries have developed their own sustainability strategies. In Panama, a UNESCO Chair entitled Dialogues on Sustainability was created in 2011 by four scholarly institutions with the objective of advancing a sustainability agenda through education, research and discussion. In line with conclusions from the United Nations⿿ Agenda 21 action plan, the UNESCO Chair identified the creation of a set of national sustainability indicators as an important step toward this goal. This paper presents the work done by the Chair to develop a dashboard of national sustainability indicators for Panama. Indicators were selected using participatory methods, involving 42 individuals representing 16 different government agencies, NGOs, academic institutions, and private entities from Panama. Adhering to a three-pillar structure, the resulting dashboard of 20 indicators is shown to be a useful tool for understanding past trends, present issues, and future trajectories within Panama⿿s economic, environmental, and social spheres. As a further demonstration of the dashboard⿿s utility, this paper focuses on three example issues shown by the dashboard to be important: security, vehicles and vehicle emissions, and natural disasters. This paper also juxtaposes the Human Development Index and Ecological Footprint to compare Panama with other Latin American countries.