In 2016, Agenda 2030 containing the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to which India had committed in 2015, came into force and we also ratified the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Together, our commitments under these two agreements held great promise for transformational change towards greater sustainability for every one of India’s citizens — after all the spirit of Agenda 2030 is to “Leave no one behind”!
Niti Aayog — the institution entrusted with overseeing the implementation of Agenda 2030 in India — first focussed on understanding the current performance of different states on prioritised indicators of various SDGs and then converted the same into aggregate performance using a composite index.
Notwithstanding the challenges around the quality of data that is available in the country and the methodology of assigning equal weights to each indicator, this exercise provides a very good assessment of the distance that various states need to travel to reach the goals.
The challenge now is to design those policies and programmes that would allow us to traverse these distances in the next decade or so!
Agenda 2030, apart from designing a comprehensive set of 17 SDGs that address the three pillars of sustainable development — economic, environmental and social — also calls upon governments to look upon these SDGs as integrated, indivisible parts of a whole.
To illustrate simply — the achievement of the goal of poverty removal must be seen in the context of the goal related to decent jobs; or the achievement of the goal related to health must leverage the opportunity provided through the achievement of goals related to the environment, climate change and water energy.
It is this critical aspect of Agenda 2030 — which highlights the opportunities for resource optimisation and therefore an accelerated achievement of the SDGs — which is the most difficult to comprehend and implement in current institutional setups.
Take the example of providing energy access for all. As per the latest statistics, we have achieved 100 per cent village electrification in the country. What does this mean? That every person is able to get electricity as per need, of the quality necessary, at the time when needed and in an affordable manner?
The previous question is paraphrasing the definition of energy security that the country had adopted. An extension of the grid to cover all populations does not necessarily translate into energy security nor does it say anything of the opportunity for providing this security through cleaner renewable energy forms!
It is merely a statistic that could very well be at odds with sustainable development goal 7 “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”!
That India has always stood up to acts of extremism being inflicted upon it is laudable. One trusts that the choices made are considered in terms of alternatives available and in terms of effect.
However, the fact that we struggle to create an internal environment “free from fear and violence” for all persons in the aftermath of such incidents, highlights the enormous challenge that we face in aligning our large and complex country to a common vision and the need for major efforts in this direction.
Several more examples can be provided along these lines that should force us to look beyond the presentation of statistics and the announcement of commitments. It is the true spirit of the Agenda 2030 document that needs to be embraced, first and foremost by all public institutions, but also by every other entity of influence in the country — be they the media, the corporate sector or academia!
The entity entrusted with the implementation of the SDGs needs to be empowered sufficiently, and at the highest level, to be able to hold a mirror up to the decisions/choices being made in the country.
They need to have their mandate reflected in every ministry/department/programme of the government and at every level — national, state or local. And, they need to be accountable to Parliament and to the people of India on the implementation of the SDGs in the spirit reflected in the document.
Author is Vice-Chancellor, TERI School of Advanced Study
Source: dnaindia
