**3. Analytical framework: from social and environmental performance to economic performance**

**Figure 1** shows a proposed analytical framework in which social and environmental indicators, together with investment and trade openness, are assumed to explain economic growth represented by the current gross domestic product (GDP). For a low-income country such as Sudan, social and environmental dimensions of development are more expected to lead economic dimension of development rather than economic leading to socio-environmental improvements. The framework also assumes that selected all economic, social, and environmental measures to affect economic development positively. In terms of causation, the analytical framework presumes that the causation runs from social and environmental performance to economic development as narrowly measured by GDP growth.

**Figure 1.**

*Economic, social, and environmental dimensions of development.*
