Sustainable Development Goals

Dr.Praseeda.B.KSustainable Development Goals

Outline MDGs Current status What are the sustainable development goalsHealth related SDGsCritique

MDGs 20002015

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme hunger and povertyGoal 2: Achieve universal primary educationGoal 3: Promote gender equality and empower womenGoal 4: Reduce child mortalityGoal 5: Improve maternal healthGoal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseasesGoal 7: Ensure environmental sustainabilityGoal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

According to the UN MDG Report 2012, the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 has decreased from 47% in 1990 to 24% in 2008 (from 2 to 1.4 billion).

This indicates that Target 1 Halve the proportion of people living on less than one dollar a day will be reached by 2015.

MDGs

Under-five mortality19902015Maternal mortality19902013

Eligible people receiving antiretroviral therapy

20065209201437 698

Limitations of MDG1. Limitations in the MDG development process

2. Limitations in the MDG structure

3. Limitations in the MDG content

4. Limitations in the MDG implementation and enforcement

1. Limitations in the MDG development processAmin (2006)describes, driven by the triad United States, Europe and Japan, and co-sponsored by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

According toEyben (2006), the gender target was restricted to parity in education because the Japanese representative would not agree to broader targets originally proposed by the gender specialists.

A small number of UN members influenced the initial rejection of a reproductive health goal.

Several authors believe that for political reasons some hard-fought goals got left behind, such as the importance of reproductive health

The MDGs of gender equality and the empowerment of women were narrowed down to gender equality in education, and the target for affordable water was dropped from the MDG list in order to allow for privatisation in the sector.

2. Limitations in the MDG structure

Multiple authors call the goals overambitious or unrealistic and believe the MDGs ignore the limited local capacities, particularly missing governance capabilities

Creating a list of goals a shopping-list approach risks the omission of important issues and underinvestment in other key areas of development

Focusing of development efforts on such a reduced list of goals and neglecting their interconnectedness. For example, having separate maternal and child health goals results in separating strongly linked maternal and newborn issues

Making MDGs national priorities without the initial participation and consultation of developing countries has led to a lack of national ownership for the goals

3. Limitations in the MDG content

Missing goal for reducing inequality within and between countries.

Missing focus on the poorest of the poor, masked by using national averages or aggregated information.

Target of decreasing gender disparities is not the same as ending gender inequality since focus is reduced to numerical imbalances, whereas substantive asymmetries are left unaddressed

Civil, political or human rights are not represented enough in the MDG framework

4. Limitations in the MDG implementation and enforcement

Little evidence of feasibility in low-income countries

data on school completion are difficult to obtain because enrolment data are usually collected at the beginning of the academic year, ignoring attendance and drop outs.

Quantitative MDG targets also rely on epidemiological and monitoring tools that many countries lack, and even if available, data are not necessarily comparable across countries because of different compilation methodologies or definitions.

Authors criticise the MDG framework for promoting quick-fix solutions and short-term planning instead of sustainable global management goals and structural changes

SDGs

On 19 July 2014, theUN General Assembly's Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) forwarded a proposal for the SDGs to the Assembly. The proposal contained 17 goals with 169 targets covering a broad range ofsustainable developmentissues.

TheSustainable Development Goals(SDGs), officially known as Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development Goals

17 Goals 169 indicators2030

Targets of the Health Goal

Critique

A report by the InternationalFood Policy Research Institute(IFPRI) of 2013 criticized the efforts of the SDGs as not ambitious enough.

Instead of aiming for an end to poverty by 2030, the report "An Ambitious Development Goal: Ending Hunger and Undernutrition by 2025" byShenggen FanandPaul Polmancalls for a greater emphasis on eliminating hunger and undernutrition and achieving that in 5 years less, by 2025.

Jason Hickel of the London School of Economics has criticised the SDGs for being contradictory, arguing that in seeking high levels of globalGDP growth, they will undermine their ownecologicalobjectives.

He also notes, in relation to the headline goal of eliminating extreme poverty, that "a growing number of scholars are pointing out that $1.25 is actually not adequate for humansubsistence," and the poverty line should be revised to as high as $5.

Preliminary Critique of SDGs(Bhumika Muchhala and Mitu Sengupta)formulated in an undemocraticmanner with little meaningful input from civil society and developing countriescontributed to the shrinking of national policy space in developing countriesmerely addressed the palliative symptoms of poverty while wholly ignoring the structural drivers of under-developmentdisproportionately burdened the poorest countries of the world while demanding very littlefrom rich countries, and other influential agents, such as internationalfinancial institutionsand multinational corporations.

Chart10.480.670.50.75

Regional decreaseTarget

Sheet1Regional decreaseTargetMDG 4: Child mortality48%67%MDG 5:Maternal health50%75%To resize chart data range, drag lower right corner of range.

Chart120000001000000

MalariaMalaria cases2 000 0001 000 000

Sheet1Malaria2000200000020131000000To resize chart data range, drag lower right corner of range.

Chart1136121

Tuberculosis incidence (per 100 000 population)Tuberculosis incidence (per 100 000 population)

Sheet1Tuberculosis incidence (per 100 000 population)19901362013121To resize chart data range, drag lower right corner of range.