2015, the year of the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Intro: This is the year of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A lot of time and effort is spent into getting agreement on a strategy for sustainable development this September. The Open Working Group outcome document and the UN secretary-general’s synthesis report are a start of an intense process of negotiations on goals and targets. World leaders will adopt at September’s Summit in New York, the so-called ‘Post 2015 Development Agenda’. This document has four components; the SDGs and targets, a declaration, a section dealing with the means of implementation for the set of goals and targets and a section on follow-up and review of implementation of the new framework.

My intention is to, modestly and as a world citizen that cares about the future of this planet and its people, contribute to the discussion and provide a high level view around this major topic. In this first blog will discuss some issues facing the implementation and the achievement of these goals. 

So what is needed to achieve the SDGs?”

Unlike the Millennium Development Goals, the SDGs have government buy-in and the buy-in of the private sector. They are comprehensive and they apply to all countries.

But in order to be achieved, the SDGs are going to require a lot of investments; a lot of infrastructure will have to be built, a lot of new kind of power plants is going to have to be constructed, a lot of healthcare, a lot of education outlays will have to be required. So in short, investing is at the core of achieving the SDG’s. This also means mobilizing resources in order to be able to finance these investments.

Who is going to pay for the SDGs?
First, we all pay in some way through participating as consumers and suppliers; the first to purchase goods and the second to make profit.  We pay taxes as well, so that government can provide public services like building infrastructures, schools, hospitals and so on. In this sense, the SDGs will be paid by everyone one way or another.

We also need to find a proper balance between the market driven investors seeking to make profit through sales of their goods and services to consumers and the public sector.

The free market champs say ‘let the market do it’ because government will waste the money, whereas advocates of public leadership say market is only out for profit, they don’t invest in clean energy, they don’t build infrastructure, they don’t provide healthcare for the poor, so we need a public approach.

So what is the best model?

There are cases where the market-driven approach has brilliantly succeeded, for eg. mobile  communications where after only 25 years, there are more than 6billion people who are enjoying mobile communications services.  In many countries, these private investments in telecommunications have significantly contributed to GDP increase. But the market-driven financing cannot deliver in some cases, for eg. when the served are not consumers but simply poor citizens; and public financing is essential in areas where there is no or unclear Return On Investment (measured in cash); like investment in education, healthcare, social insurance, basic science, etc.

In order to implement the SDG’s some poor countries will need the support of the international community. Many would argue that governments aid is not necessary, let market do it! or aid is promoting a culture of handouts, or aid is wasted because it falls in the hands of bureaucrats…
Developed countries will have to contribute with aid to these poor countries, because aid is vital in certain circumstances when people are very poor and facing challenges often times of life or death like malaria, aids, safe water, sanitation, safe child birth, growing enough food.
The poor countries need help!

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