SDGs – beacon of hope

This is the Decade of Action. This could turn out to be among the most crucial decades with far reaching impacts on the future of our planet. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted several years ago calling for wide-ranging actions on economic, social, and environmental themes to address key challenges confronting life on earth. Many dimensions such as poverty, hunger, education, health, gender, climate change, inequality and the environment are included in this comprehensive action plan. The Decade of Action calls for accelerated efforts towards achieving the goals via the 169 targets under the 17 goals by the 2030 deadline.
India is among the frontrunners in this march towards the SDGs. Consider for example, renewable energy (Goal 7). India has achieved a capacity of 100,000 MW of renewable (wind and solar) energy. Adding to this the hydro-electric capacity (45,000 MW approximately), the total share of non-fossil fuel based energy is about 37% in India’s total energy mix. India co-founded the International Solar Alliance in 2015, thus playing a global leadership role here too. Similarly, with the wide range of initiatives and schemes currently deployed in the areas of poverty alleviation, food security, education, public health including women and child health, affordable housing and so on, India could be well on the way to demonstrating significant success in this Decade of Action. After all, the performance of India, where one sixth of the world population lives, will be crucial in determining the success of achieving the SDGs globally; and given its federal structure, India’s States and UTs will determine the national success.
In India, NITI Aayog as the nodal agency has designed and developed the SDG India Index and Dashboard which is used as the principal tool for measuring and monitoring SDG progress at the national and sub-national levels. It has put out two reports – 2019 & 2020 – showing the progress of individual States and UTs on each of the 16 out of 17 SDG goals. This would serve as a valuable tool for States and UTs which are the actual implementing agencies of the SDG Agenda. States and UTs, Districts and Cities, the essential actors in SDG implementation at the local level will be the primary drivers of development for the overarching objective ‘leave no one behind’. Localisation of SDGs will involve setting up institutional mechanisms, capacity building and advocacy at the local level, collection of data and its analysis, and monitoring progress, among others.
Given the significant diversity in the economic and social character across States and UTs, there would be need to develop policies and initiatives to suit the local context. At the same time, there would be valuable lessons to be learnt from the experiences of other States and UTs. The NITI Aayog has put our several compilations and reports including some that document such best practices and learnings of States from across the country. These could be used for good benefit.
Among other actions, States and urban local bodies would do well to align their local development agenda and plans with the SDGs. Alongside there would be need for capacity development among their functionaries in the areas of data collection and its analysis, monitoring progress on several parameters, budgeting, communication, awareness building and advocacy, and so on. There is need to gain further momentum in these areas.
This issue of Urban Update addresses this crucial subject of SDGs and their localisation. We trust readers will find it engaging.