Modi Government’s Commitment To SDGs: Outlook And Future
“There is no cause greater than shaping a world in which every life that enters it can look to a future of security, opportunity and dignity; and, where we leave our environment in better shape for the next generation. And, no cause that is more challenging”, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the UN Summit for the adoption of the post-2015 agenda, focusing on the newly formulated Sustainable Development Goals.
The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals with its 169 sub-targets, laid a comprehensive vision for the future, and as WPS Sidhu, a senior fellow at Brookings India said, “The relative success of the MDGs were a result of one country – China. If the SDGs are a success, it will be because of India,” thus it is critical to analyse where India stands and its progress on the SDGs.
With three main issues of contention being the funding and financing of the SDGs, the climate agreements in Paris and the implementation of the SDGs on a national scale, the Modi government is affected and challenged by all three issues.
With the failure of the Addis Ababa talks, which was a meeting convened to find funding of the SDGs, developing countries like India would have to resort on their own resources to implement the goals.
As Arvind Panagriya, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, the main institution spearheading the implementation of the SDGs said, “We simply cannot overstate the importance of robust economic growth… Without it, none of our objectives, be it eradication of poverty, empowerment of women, and provision of basic services or even protection of environment would be possible by 2030.”
And given the slowing down of the growth rate post demonetization, one cannot rely on the trickle down effects of the growth rate in lifting the boat for the SDGs. There has to be focused effort and institutional support on every level in India to ensure the success of the goals.
Goals 11, 12 and 13 focus on ensuring sustainable consumption, making cities safe and sustainable and make it integral to take “urgent actions to combat climate change and its impacts”, thus India has to reassess its Paris pledge and spearhead its execution.
As Dr Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of Council on Energy, Environment and Water said, “The Modi government has already shown strong commitment to and is acting vigorously on affordable and clean energy (SDG 7) and has started taking action on clean water and sanitation (SDG 6). Its global leadership to act on climate change (SDG 13) is commendable. It is now important that India's sustainability indicators align with its economic growth indicators. The SDGs centered on decent work (goal 8) and industrialisation and innovation (goal 9) will get a further boost if tied together with the investment and jobs potential that a transition to a lower carbon future offers.”
However it is integral that India increases its spending on the social sector, and the PM needs to constitute a Parliamentary Forum on SDGs which can be tasked with providing direction, oversight and monitoring to the implementation process.
The unprecedented scope of SDGs provides immense opportunity to bring health at the centre of economic growth agenda, which is PM Modi’s topmost priority. Universal Health Coverage (UHC), which is an explicit target under SDG-3, can act as the anchor to guide and inform SDG goals in health.
The government also needs to have a focused plan for tracking and evaluating impact and scaling up successful interventions. Achieving the SDGs in a country as diverse as India will definitely be a Herculean task, but not unachievable.
We need to clearly identify priorities, have locally relevant and people-centric development policies, and build strong partnerships. Externally, India will have to raise adequate resources and also acquire the necessary technology to help achieve its SDG objectives.
