Social development and COVID-19 pandemic: a survey on Iran customs

The agenda of the global organizations, such as the World Customs Organization (WCO) are based on the sustainable development concept. The sustainable development is a comprehensive concept with various factors and definitions. The most accepted definition is in the Brundtland Report: “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland Report, 1987). This implies a sustainable nexus of the nature and humanity throughout the globe. It acknowledges three main pillars for the sustainable development including economic, environment, and social (Nasrollahi, et al., 2018). It paves the way for the international organizations to constitute their agreements and agenda thereon. The WCO, for example, has launched its slogan in 2020 as follows: “Customs fostering Sustainability for People, Prosperity and the Planet”. It is consistent with the three dimensions of sustainable development, people for social, prosperity for economic, and planet for the environment. In other words, the WCO instruments, tools, standards, and conventions are for sustainable development in a well-balanced way (WCO, 2019).Among the multiple dimensions of sustainable development, the social one receives insufficient attention, which can be rooted in neglecting the international agenda. This neglect causes social disorders. The social pressures damage the accumulation or preservation of the whole assets, threatening the inter-generational welfare (Perman, et al., 2003). An evidence for this claim is the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging new social phenomena (e.g. social distancing), highlighting the social dimension. To consider all the dimensions of sustainable development, especially the social one, the governors should respect the agenda of the international organizations, like the WCO.This research aims to list the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) acts for confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. The research question is whether these acts are accorded with the WCO agenda