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This book presents a systems thinking approach in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals for sustainable national development in vulnerable countries. Systems thinking is a process for understanding the interrelationships among the key components of a system; this book illustrates sustainable development as a system. Key environmental issues are discussed showing their relationship to socioeconomic aspects of development, in the light of increased climate threats and environmental disasters.

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Dr. Edward Saja Sanneh obtained a Higher National Diploma in Public Health at the Gambia College in 2001. Six years later, on a Gambia Government scholarship, he received a Master´s degree in environmental engineering from the prestigious National Taipei University of Technology (NTUT) in Taiwan. He continued to a doctorate program, which he completed in August 2013 and then returned to The Gambia to serve as Minister of Energy between 2014 and 2016.Having worked as a Public Health Officer at the Kiang Karantaba Health Centre, the Serrekunda Health Centre and the Jammeh Foundation for Peace Hospital, Sanneh has a solid background in preventive health promotion and environmental sanitation coupled with a special interest on issues contributing to sustainable development of communities at the bottom of the pyramid. It is this background that has shaped the thoughts contained in this book. He speaks Chinese fluently.

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