Shift gears and accelerate: SDGs 2030 depend heavily on India's progress
India contributes to 20 percent of the global SDG gap in 10 of the 17 sustainable development goals, and to more than 10 percent of the gap in another six
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“We have to move much further and much faster; there is urgency. With present trends, extreme poverty would not be eliminated by 2030. We see hunger on a rise in the third consecutive year, wildlife that has been lost at an alarming rate with around 1 million species facing extinction, disadvantaged population groups still remain largely excluded. Globally, youth are three times more likely to be unemployed. In short, the global response has not yet matched the ambition of the 2030 agenda,” said Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations.
Just four years into UN’s Agenda 2030, which directs all member countries to meet 17 common Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we have recognised that at the current rate of progress we are nowhere close to achieving these ambitious targets. This acknowledgement rang clear at the UN’s High Level Political Forum this year, and brought new urgency to the need for thinking differently. I had the opportunity of speaking at the event on Indian philanthropy’s emerging relationship with the SDGs, reinforcing the need to make a step change.
Currently, India contributes to 20 percent of the global SDG gap in 10 of the 17 SDGs, and to more than 10 percent of the gap in another 6. Though the Government’s commitment with the formation of the NITI Aayog in 2015 is heartening, India’s rank on the SDG index has dropped by 2 points between 2016 and 2018, pushing us down from 110 to 112. To put this in context, in the same time frame, China upped its ranking by 22 points, Philippines by 10 points and Sri Lanka by 8 points.
While the government’s role requires taking a lead, it also requires taking a seat at the table with the diverse range of stakeholders who are committed to achieving these SDGs, and have equally important and complementing roles to play. Governments also need to seek proximity to the field where policies play out, to ensure policies are realistic and impactful.
But greater capital is not enough. Philanthropy also needs to bring in a risk appetite, patient capital, make big bets, offer unrestricted grants to scale non-profits, invest in disruptive and scalable innovations, and fund ignored sectors like Access to Justice, Intellectual and Developmental Disability, addressing Child Sexual Abuse and more.
In addition, Indian philanthropy may find the following perspectives useful to consider:
This support for long term, out of the box thinking is critical for India to accelerate its progress towards the SDGs and in turn help the global progress on SDGs by 2030.