Achieving sustainable development goals must be India’s priority

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) or global goals were formulated in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) as part of the post-2015 development agenda, which sought to create a future global development framework to succeed the millennium development goals (MDGs), which ended that year.There are 17 SDGs with 169 targets, which are to be achieved by 2030. These are idealistic goals, which serve as a ‘shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.’ The SDGs are no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being; quality education; gender equality; clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; climate action; life below water; life on land; peace, justice and strong institutions and partnerships for the goals.

United Nations has published ‘The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022’. According to Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, "As the world faces cascading and interlinked global crisis and conflicts, the aspirations set out in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development are in jeopardy”. According to him, the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, the Ukraine-Russia war, food shortage, supply chain disruptions, refugees problem, unsustainable debt of some of the countries post-Covid spending, rising inflation and increase of interest rates to contain inflation, and its impact on the economy, slow growth in world output, loss of education to more than 147 million children during Covid and loss of jobs, particularly women disproportionately affected by the socio-economic fall out of the pandemic had destructive impacts on achieving SDGs. Moreover the climate change risks are already felt in the globe; increased heat waves, droughts, floods, unseasonable rain and water shortages affecting billions of people worldwide, contributing further to poverty, hunger and instability, according to the report. The report details the reversal of years of progress in eradicating poverty, hunger, improving health and education, providing basic services and much more. There is an urgent necessity to take effective action and steps in order to rescue SDGs and deliver and ensure meaningful and purposeful progress for people and planet by 2030.

These difficulties have adversely impacted output growth and trade growth.

According to IMF World Economic Outlook, April 2023, the baseline forecast is for growth to fall from 3.4% in 2022 to 2.8% in 2023, before settling at 3.0% in 2024. According to World Trade Organization, the global trade outlook and statistics, the world merchandise trade volume is projected to grow 1.7% in 2023 before picking up to 3.2% in 2024.

Guterres opines, "We must rise higher to rescue SDGs and stay true to our promise of a world of peace, dignity and prosperity on a healthy planet."

World over, the difference between haves and have nots have widened, particularly during Covid. According to the report, working poverty rate rose for the first time in two decades in 2020 at 7.2% from 6.7% in 2020, pushing an additional eight million workers into penury. The number of people living in extreme poverty, which was 581 million pre-pandemic, is now projected at 657 - 676 million due to rising inflation and impact of the war in Ukraine. Some of the statistics are heart-burning like soaring food prices affected 47% of countries in 2020 up from 16% in 2019. About one in 10 people worldwide are suffering from hunger.

Covid led to 15 million deaths in 2020-21, disrupted essential health services in 92% of countries by the end of 2021. Entrenched inequities in education have worsened during the pandemic. Women accounted for 39% of total employment in 2019 but 45% of global employment was lost in 2020.

According to the report, meeting drinking water, sanitation and hygiene targets by 2030 requires a four-fold increase in the pace of progress. The progress in energy efficiency needs to be expedited to achieve global climate goals.

Too much food is being lost or wasted in every country every day. (UN’s The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022).

On 12th SDG goal, ‘Responsible Consumption and Production’, the report states that unsustainable patterns of consumption and production are the root-cause of triple planetary crises, namely climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

On SDG 13, Climate Action, the report warns that climate change is humanity's ‘Code Red’ warning and our window to avoid climate catastrophe is closing in rapidly. Another important point to note is that climate finance falls short of $100 billion annual commitment as developing countries provided $79.6 billion in climate finance in 2019. The report further adds that the planet's largest eco system is endangered. On the 15th SDG Goals, protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, the report states that 10 million hectares of forest are destroyed every year. Around 40000 species are documented to be at the risk of extinction over the coming decades.

In respect of 16 SDGs, promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, the report states that pleas for global peace grow louder as the world is witnessing the largest number of violent conflicts since 1946 and a quarter of the global population lives in conflict affected countries (end 2020 ). The last 17 SDGs is strengthen the means if implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

In this regard, the report states that rising global debt burdens threaten developing countries' pandemic recovery. Many developing countries are struggling to recover economically due to record inflation, rising interest rates, increasing debt burdens, competing priorities, limited fiscal space, low Covid 19 vaccination rates.

As per this report 2022, India was ranked 121 out of 163 countries. It was ranked 117 in 2020 and 120 in 2021. India has to further catch up in achieving the 17 SDGs as it faces major challenges in achieving 11 of them. Ensuring decent work (SDG 8) has become more challenging. The progress in around 10 of these goals is similar to those in 2021. These include SDG 2 on ending hunger, SDG 3 good health and well-being and SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation. The report states that India is on track to achieve SDG 13 on climate action. India scored 60.32. Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway took the four slots, in that order.

As per Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation report posted on March 27, the latest report was released on June 29, 2022 related to the national indicator framework on SDGs. Further NITI Aayog has developed SDG India Index mainly based on NIF. The report gives state-wise achievement as per SDG India Index Report 2020-2021. Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana State, Karnataka, Goa, Sikkim, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Punjab are the top 12 states. The bottom states are Bihar, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, UP and Assam. India has completed 75 years of successful Independence and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mentioned that next 25 years up to 2047 will be Amrit Kaal and India wishes to achieve the developed nation status from the current position of developing nation. India is also heading the leadership of G20 this year and the theme of G20 is ‘People, Planet and One Family’ in tune with Vasudev Kutumbam. India has also committed to achieve zero emissions by 2070.

It is therefore necessary for India to step up its efforts for ‘Prosperity for all’ and achieve majority of SDGs by 2030.

(The author is former Chairman & Managing Director of Indian Overseas Bank)