Decolonizing Sustainability through Co-responsibility

In this study, we focus on a key concept of sustainability: co-responsibility. To date, the traditional discussion of responsibility in sustainable development has failed to address the world's inequality, particularly the inequality in the Global South resulting from colonization. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates a considerable gap between the Global South and the Global North, both before the start of vaccination and the continuing gap resulting from vaccine distribution. We argue that the responsibility gap exists because of the lack of co-responsibility. Co-responsibility is not shared responsibility in which every individual, institution, or government takes part on the basis of a written document, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but rather is an infinite responsibility divided between several institutions or people and not bound by location. This article contributes to the discussion of sustainability's transformation from colonized to decolonized and highlights the co-responsibility approach to the idea of the development in the sustainable development discussion.