The Doughnut (or Doughnut Economics) is a visual framework for sustainable development - shaped like a doughnut - combining the concept of planetary boundaries with the complementary concept of social boundaries.^[1]

The framework was developed by Kate Raworth to regard the performance of an economy by the extent to which the needs of people are met without overshooting Earth's ecological ceiling.^[2] The name derives from the shape of the diagram, i.e. a disc with a hole in the middle. The centre hole of the model depicts the proportion of people that lack access to life's essentials (healthcare, education, equity and so on) while the crust represents the ecological ceilings (planetary boundaries) that life depends on and must not be overshot.^[3]

Consequently, an economy is considered prosperous when all twelve social foundations are met without overshooting any of the nine ecological ceilings. This situation is represented by the area between the two rings, namely the safe and just space for humanity. The diagram was developed by Oxford economist Kate Raworth in the Oxfam paper A Safe and Just Space for Humanity and elaborated upon in her book Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist.

_{Photo by Joshua Fuller on Unsplash}