Intergenerational equity
Intergenerational equity is fairness between present and future generations in the distribution of resources, opportunities, risks, and environmental conditions. Applying Intergenerational equity requires a stated affected people, rights, value-chain tier, geography, remedy, and distribution of benefits or harms. Those choices determine how Intergenerational equity can be compared or acted upon.
In simple terms
In practical use, Intergenerational equity is fairness between present and future generations in the distribution of resources, opportunities, risks, and environmental conditions. For Intergenerational equity, the label organizes a condition or relationship but does not by itself demonstrate performance or compliance within a declared affected people, rights, value-chain tier, geography, remedy, and distribution of benefits or harms. Intergenerational equity connects with Sustainable development and Sustainable procurement; each can affect its application without sharing its definition. The candidate link between Intergenerational equity and Precarious work remains a separate expansion question supported here by UNESCO.
Why it matters
Intergenerational equity matters because decisions about it determine which workers or communities are visible, what rights or harms are assessed, and where prevention or remedy is assigned. A defensible use of Intergenerational equity therefore exposes its boundary, method, evidence, responsible actor, and uncertainty before a conclusion is accepted. That discipline keeps Sustainable development and Sustainable procurement from being treated as proof of Intergenerational equity when their criteria, scope, or results differ.
Example
A procurement and human-rights team evaluates Intergenerational equity for a defined decision and records the relevant affected people, rights, value-chain tier, geography, remedy, and distribution of benefits or harms. For Intergenerational equity, the team uses cited material from UNESCO to frame the decision and distinguish the idea from adjacent concepts, documenting the period, data, assumptions, and comparison with Sustainable development. It treats Sustainable procurement and Precarious work as separate questions rather than proxies for Intergenerational equity.
How it differs
Sustainable development
Intergenerational equity is a concept; Sustainable development has a different function. Evidence for Sustainable development does not establish Intergenerational equity unless both sets of applicable criteria are met.