Published in The Independent on Saturday, 24 December 2016
Focus on comprehensive nat’l strategy to attain SDGs
According to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), 23.7 per cent of the world’s population is from South Asia and 37 per cent of the world’s poor. So, Goal No. 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be termed the ‘jewel in the crown’, said Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
The UN’s SDGs are a global vision for humanity. Among the 17 Sustainable Develop-ment Goals (SDGs), Goal No. 16 is to promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies.
Dr Bhattacharya was speaking at the two-day programme of a media training workshop on SDGs, organised collaboratively by the Inter Press Service (IPS) and UN Foundation at Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and Pacific (CIRDAP) in the capital recently.
Dr Bhattacharya conducted a session at the workshop on ‘Challenges of SDGs in the Context of South Asia’, wherein he covered five implementation challenges as hindrances to implementation in the South Asian context.
At the beginning of the presentation, Dr Bhattacharya also covered the importance, challenges in implementation, and regional cooperation of SDGs for South Asia. He also explained how SDGs can be benchmarked, and the review and follow-up mechanism of SDGs.
The importance of SDGs for South Asia is undeniable, he iterated. While presenting the challenges in implementation of SDGs in South Asia, Dr Bhattacharya said meeting global targets on ending poverty and sharing prosperity was not possible without the development of South Asia. Countries in South Asia face challenges with respect to a majority of the SDGs.
During the PowerPoint presentation, he addressed five implementation challenges: integration in the national planning process, financial and non-financial resources, an institutional mechanism for implementation, data for monitoring and partnership, and stakeholders’ participation. According to the CPD experts, SDGs are costlier to implement than the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Bangladesh has so far achieved remarkable success in meeting MDGs. However, to continue the success, it is time to formulate a comprehensive national strategy for achieving the SDGs.
While discussing the financial and non-financial resources of SDGs, Dr Bhattacharya quoted the IMF-World Bank report of 2014, and mentioned that SDGs would cost three times more than MDGs. Developing countries may have to double public spending, but it would be difficult to mobilise additional aid.
Quoting the World Bank report, he also mentioned that achieving the SDGs in all countries would require additional global investments in the range of USD 5 trillion to USD 7 trillion per year up to 2030.
During the discussion on Goal No. 16 of SDGs, the CPD’s distinguished fellow notified some of the points in which Bangladesh is doing well or poorly among other South Asian countries.
Governance, peace and security are the prime focus and some of the challenges confronting implementation of SDGs in South Asia.
Dr Bhattacharya compared the data from 2005, 2010 and 2015 in three categories: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, and Government Effectiveness of South Asian countries.
In the Voice and Accountability category, from 2005, Bangladesh has improved from -0.60 to -0.28 points; hence, in 2010, the position has decreased and obtained the point -0.49.
In Political Stability and Absence of Violence/ Terrorism category, Bangladesh has improved in the last three years, and accordingly bagged -1.84 points in 2005, -1.40 in 2010 and -1.15 in 2015.
Dr Bhattacharya said the political instability was one of the reasons behind the points that Bangladesh got in 2015 in the Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism category.