On 31 May, Rosemary Kalapurakal, Kumi Naidoo and Per Olsson hosted a discussion about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and transformation. The discussion focused on the implications of transformation research for the implementation of the SDGs, particular SDG-17 – "Partnerships for the Goals" – the only goal that explicitly addresses how nations will meet these sustainability targets.
6. shocking facts about extreme
global inequality
Questions?
Goals or no Goals, the world is already
transforming at breakneck speed
Editor's Notes
Quantity, quality, speed, intersecting nature of change.
Coexisting alternative narratives
1.Poverty and inequalities: Great progress. But income inequality rising within countries; persistent gender inequality and the recent resurgence of poverty across regions due to economic shocks and escalating conflicts
- Multidimensional Poverty Index: 1.6 billion people 2016 How big the inequality gap is it? Oxfam numbers: Just eight men own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity. Over half the world’s billionaires either inherited their wealth or accumulated it through industries prone to corruption and cronyism. The richest are accumulating wealth at such an astonishing rate that the world could see its first trillionaire in just 25 years. So, you would need to spend $1 million every day for 2738 years to spend $1 trillion. - Impact? E.g., impact on women’s lives - employed women, who face high levels of discrimination in the work place, and take on a disproportionate amount of unpaid care work often find themselves at the bottom of the pile. On current trends, it will take 170 years for women to be paid the same as men.
- - Economic uncertainty, weak labour markets, insecurity
The first year of SDG implementation was marked by the slowest rate of economic growth since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis (pdf), weak investment growth and stagnant global trade.
2 Demography Dynamics
Population growth, ageing, migration and urbanization. 12.3% of the global population reached the age of 60 or over (pdf), with rapid ageing expected to occur in Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America. In Africa, by contrast, populations are young, which provides an opportunity for a demographic dividend.
International migration at record highs - 244 million migrants worldwide in 2015, Internal migration – and urbanization due to opportunities, poverty, unemployment, conflicts, natural hazards, climate change.
3 | Environmental degradation and climate change Climate change, climate variability and weather events pose a threat to the eradication of extreme poverty Degradation of air and land, water scarcity, deforestation, marine pollution, decline in biodiversity. Due to population growth, polluting technologies, and overexploitation of ecosystems driven by unsustainable consumption and production patterns.
Climate change is a threat multiplier - contributes to economic and political instability and worsens effects. Propels sudden-onset disasters like floods and storms and slow-onset disasters like drought and desertification - contribute to failed crops, famine and overcrowded urban centers; those crises inflame political unrest and worsen the impacts of war, which leads to even more displacement.
Impacts: increasing frequency and severity of natural hazards; effect on food security, public health, water availability, displacement. Climate Spur to hasten efforts not only to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also to tackle other underlying risk drivers such as unplanned urban development, vulnerable livelihoods, environmental degradation and gaps in early warnings. Losses in livelihoods and assets underlines link between poverty and vulnerability to natural hazards. It also exposes inequity, as countries and populations likely to be most harmed by climate change impacts are often the least responsible for causing them, and have limited capacity and resources to cope with the consequences.
4 | Shocks and crises Economic and financial shocks, disasters, conflicts and disease outbreaks - undermined precarious livelihoods of millions of people.
Global forced displacement, for example, increased by 75% due to conflicts, violence and human rights violations.
While progress has been made in reducing the global unemployment rate, nearly 201 million people worldwide (pdf) were estimated to be unemployed in 2016, including 71 million young people. Global economic prospects remain subject to various risks, including increasing policy uncertainty in major advanced and emerging economies, financial market disruptions and heightened geopolitical tensions.
remarkable achievements made in combating major infectious diseases and reducing hunger over the past decades, which can be attributed to political commitment, strong global partnerships and sound social protection policies. Challenges in addressing health issues and under-nutrition, with nearly 800 million people suffering from hunger worldwide, and high risks of famine. Somali ($864m appeal to help 5 million in need of food aid) 2014 Senegal famines: They would not now in a situation similar to six years ago, when a drought-induced famine killed 260,000 Somalis.
5 | Financing for development To achieve the SDGs, development finance strategies need to go beyond filling financing gaps. ODA will not be sufficient. All sources of finance – public and private, domestic and international – need to be mobilised. In particular, effective domestic resource mobilisation will be at the core (pdf) of financing sustainable development.
No shortage of capital in the global economy. The challenge is to enhance the impact of available resources, while catalysing additional sources of finance into investments in long-term sustainable development.
Align private sector incentives with sustainable development objectives through strengthened policies and sound institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks. As a positive trend, the private sector’s involvement in philanthropic giving, corporate social responsibility initiatives, impact investing, and inclusive business approaches has been expanding.
A number of innovative multi-stakeholder partnerships such as the Global Fund and new financing mechanisms for development including green bonds have emerged since 2000.
6 | Technological innovations
Technology is an important means for implementing the SDGs. The biggest advancements in health, education and the environment. new vaccines against infectious diseases is estimated to save nearly 3 million lives every year. Online courses and interactive applications expand access to education around the globe. Renewable energy technologies are critical in addressing climate change and its negative impacts.
Also added new challenges and risks, including security and privacy concerns, polarising opportunities and job replacement. Computers could do the work of 140 million knowledge workers by 2025, while 30% of middle-income jobs could be eliminated due to innovation in artificial intelligence.
The SDGs raise the level of ambition of the MDG era. Whereas the MDGs were concerned, for example, with halving poverty, the SDGs are concerned with eradicating poverty. Looking back over the last fifteen years, global poverty was indeed more than halved, in no small part through large reductions in poverty in rapidly growing populous countries.
The Goals and targets will stimulate action over the next fifteen years in areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet:
The interlinkages and integrated nature of the Sustainable Development Goals are of crucial importance in ensuring that the purpose of the new Agenda is realised. If we realize our ambitions across the full extent of the Agenda, the lives of all will be profoundly improved and our world will be transformed for the better.
Some SDG targets require outright reversals in their trajectories.
Reduce income inequality - target 10.1
Income inequality is set to worsen globally if current trends continue. Four out of five people live in countries where the bottom 40% has experienced slower growth than the average.
Reduce slum populations - target 11.1
Predicted to rise from 850 million today to over 1 billion people by 2030 - majority of increase in sub-Saharan Africa, where slum populations will almost double.
Reduce waste - target 12.5
Total solid waste generated globally will double from 3.5 million tonnes a day in 2010 to 6.1 million in 2025 (East and south Asia waste generation will triple
Combat climate change - target 13.2
Reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions useful proxy. Significant growth of greenhouse gases projected to occur in emerging markets, on top of already high OECD levels.
Protect marine environments - target 14.2
90% of reefs will be under threat by 2030, up from a starting point of 75% in 2007. Overfishing, anticipated thermal stress and acidification linked to carbon emissions.
These cut across issues of inequality and environment. They go beyond the traditional MDG focus on social sectors and remind us that SDG commitments demand a broader and more ambitious approach.
Moreover, developed countries are set to play a significant role in any success or failure to achieve gains in these areas. More attention is needed to these about-turns if there is any hope of attainment of the SDG agenda.
Almost every SDG has a gendered perspective—because action on the gender-based inequities is the key to boosting the collective progress across the goals.
If someone had told you in 1990 that over the next 25 years world hunger would decline by 40%, child mortality would halved and extreme poverty would fall by three quarters, you’d have told them they were a fool. But the fools were right”
Transforming UN – who does development; how; with whom; what resources - World views – political – practical policy choices
LNOB
Risk
New tools - Foresighting
SDG 17 carries the key contribution of discussing the Means of Implementation (MoIs):
Financial instruments:
Finance – including innovative international resources, domestic revenues and the commitment of developed countries to spend 0.7% of their Gross National Income (GNI) on Official Development Assistance (ODA). Further, the Third International Conference on Financing Development has recently discussed the importance of adopting an agreement on financial mechanisms for the Post-2015 Agenda, concluding in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA), pointing the way to the mobilization of the resources, technologies, and partnerships which will be needed to realize the development milestones due to be agreed this year.
Non-financial instruments:
Technology – emphasizing the importance of increased South-South-Cooperation to promote access to science, technology and innovation within developing countries, especially as regards to environmentally sound technologies
Multi-stakeholder partnerships – encouraging public-private and civil society partnerships and dialogue to empower people, and get them actively engaged in the Post-2015 Agenda to articulate citizens’ priorities to their national governments.
Data, monitoring and accountability – focusing on the need to empower countries’ databases and national monitoring indicators. The RIO+ Centre, in collaboration with the Brazilian Government, helped convene South American statistics agencies to strengthen the SDG indicators debate, laying the groundwork for their local and regional delivery.
José Ramos-Horta Former President, Timor-Leste, 1996 Nobel Peace Prize laureate – Huffington Post
Dag Hammarskjold once said, “We often hear it is said that the United Nations succeeded here, or has failed there. What do we mean? Do we refer to the purposes of the Charter? They are expressions of universally shared ideals, which cannot fail us, though we, alas, often fail them. Or do we think of the institutions of the United Nations? They are our tools. We fashioned them. We use them. It is our responsibility to remedy any flaws there may be in them…”
The responsibility rests not only on the United Nations and world leaders. It rests on each of us.
The United Nations is not failing. We are collectively failing its Charter and ideals through the decisions we make or fail to make. When we are ready, and collectively decide to fulfill the ideals of the UN, we will see the conventions, reports and structures as invaluable tools for getting there.
