Navigating the path to UN sustainable development goals

The year 2015 was a memorable one, as all global leaders recommitted themselves to saving the planet and its people, aiming for higher prosperity through partnership. On the 70th anniversary of the United Nations (UN), they adopted a thoughtful and ambitious “UN Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs),” urging all member states to establish implementable roadmaps, policies, and programmes for 17 goals within 15 years, or by 2030. These SDGs evolved from the earlier eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of 2000 to mark the new millennium. Although actions and initiatives were in place, substantial goals could not be achieved due to excessive emphasis on poverty and the poor with the help of foreign financial aid and no timeframe to achieve visible results over the MDGs.

Apart from that, governance factors like policy commitments, the importance of public programmes, and accountable institutions were ignored completely. The SDGs place a significant thrust on developing social infrastructure and socially inclusive growth. This declaration unites efforts against the socio-economic inequalities and environmental challenges prevailing in developing and least-developed countries and aims to enhance the quality of life.

The UN Declaration became effective after the newly elected BJP government assumed office in May 2014. The central government, which has completed over nine and a half years in office, has been implementing the action plans since September 2015.

The National Review of the United Nations has rightly acknowledged “collective effort and inclusive development” as the cornerstone of India’s national development agenda, with a focus on achieving higher economic growth, infrastructure development, and industrialization to
combat poverty, social exclusion, and empower the poor.

The National Institute for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog and the Lok Sabha Secretariat of Parliament have scientifically developed the composite index score for 13 of the 17 goals for all the states and Union Territories. The respective performance scores are between 42 and 69 and 57 and 68, against a national composite score of 57. It is, however, disheartening that India underperformed in human settlements (Goal 11), health infrastructure (Goals 3 to 5), and poverty and hunger (Goals 1 and 2). The scores are both below half the mark and far less than the national performance.

Based on the performance scores, 13 states and UTs are considered top performers, and the rest are laggards in the SDGs. Similarly, India has made progress in poverty alleviation, education, inclusive growth, public health, water, and energy. However, challenges persist in its efforts to reduce hunger and malnutrition, achieve gender equality, create resilient infrastructure, inclusive and innovative industrial sectors, and sustainable cities. The poor performance calls for corrective interventions, substantive actions, and additional impetus during the remaining period up to 2030.

The other goals, too, must be given immediate attention so as to achieve the remaining targets. Thus, the urgent need is to increase public investment and provide central financial assistance to all the laggard regions. Such handholding is imminent, not only to put up excellent performances by the laggards but also to turn around their weak performance. The demonstration of the political will to attain most of the UNSDGs is imperative in the interest of the nation to alleviate income and development disparities, with specific policy implications as a priority.

First, the slums in major urban cities and metropolitan areas should be eradicated by providing basic amenities and improving the living environment with household-drainage connectivity, water logging, garbage collection, and all-weather roads. The public financial impetus and corporate social responsibility funds should be used to achieve slum-free cities. Also, de-congestion and de-crowding of the metropolitan and major urban centres need major consideration through investment spread across the neighbouring cities. The development of second- and third-tier cities with investment and employment opportunities and human settlement infrastructure is yet another priority.

Secondly, achieving economic growth, anti-poverty initiatives, and inequality reduction shall be pursued interchangeably, as each one is interdependent. The development of the skilled workforce of unemployed persons in backward areas needs further impetus to increase employability. Offering fiscal incentives to MSM entrepreneurs would bring significant change in all walks of life. Increasing the number of days of employment to more than 100 days per year under the NREG Act would facilitate arresting underemployment of the unskilled workforce, especially in the regions that are lagging behind. As a major solution to the nutritional needs of the poor, especially children under five years of age, elderly persons, anemics, and pregnant women, the household-based subsidised quantity of critical food under the public distribution system should be enhanced.

Thirdly, eliminating all forms of homelessness as part of the anti-poverty intervention, especially the life-threatening dilapidated units that constitute half of housing poverty, should be prioritised.
An integrated housing development approach should be adopted to provide drinking water, sanitation, cooking energy, and lighting for all the marginalised and poor homeless families.

The need is to merge all the costs of these services, especially the rural social housing schemes. Promoting thrift and savings linked to adequate and affordable housing among homeless families would go a long way towards meeting the housing demand of the new families. Self-help groups (SHGs) and microfinance institutions (MFIs) need to be engaged in housing-linked savings mobilisation and financial institutional linkages for all homeless families.

Lastly, building residential schools for children up to class 12 at the gram panchayat or cluster level in rural and semi-urban areas with qualified teachers-cum-caretakers will go a long way towards achieving educational excellence. Training on prospective employment opportunities would bring substantial improvement in girls’s enrolment, dropout, and anemia. Further, undertaking the census operations as part of women’s empowerment would eventually benefit a political action plan for the reservation of seats on political platforms of different levels.

(The author is a Bengaluru-based writer on Indian economic issues)