Sustainable Development Goals

Dr.Praseeda.B.K
Outline
 MDGs Current status
 What are the sustainable development goals
 Health related SDGs
 Critique
MDGs 20002015
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Goal 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 mortality Maternal mortality
19902015 19902013
80% 75%
70% 67%

60%
48% 50%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
MDG 4: MDG 5:
Child mortality Maternal health
Regional decrease Target
 Malaria cases Eligible people
receiving antiretroviral
3000000
2 000 000 therapy
2000000
1 000 000
1000000 37 698
0
2000 2013

Tuberculosis incidence
(per 100 000 population)
140 136 5209
130
121
120

110 2006 2014

1990 2013
Limitations of MDG
1. 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 process
 Amin (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 to Eyben (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, the UN 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 of sustainable development issues.

 The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),

officially known as Transforming our world: the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development Goals
17 Goals

169 indicators

2030
Goal 1 • End poverty in all its forms everywhere

• End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and

Goal 2
promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 3 • Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

• Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong

Goal 4
learning opportunities for all

Goal 5 • Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

• Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and

Goal 6
sanitation for all

• Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern

Goal 7
energy for all

• Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full

Goal 8
and productive employment and decent work for all

• Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable

Goal 9
industrialization and foster innovation
Goal 10 • Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 11 • Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Goal 12 • Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Goal 13 • Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

• Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for
Goal 14
sustainable development

• Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems,

Goal 15 sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land
degradation and halt biodiversity loss

• Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide

Goal 16 access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive
institutions at all levels

• Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership

Goal 17
for sustainable development
 Targets of the Health Goal

• By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70

per 100 000 live births

• By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under

Related to
5 years of age
MGD
• By 2030, end the epidemic of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected
tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, waterborne diseases and
other communicable diseases

• By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non

communicable disease through prevention and treatment and
promote mental health and well-being

NCDs and • Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse,

injuries including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol
• Strengthen implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control in all countries as appropriate
• By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road
traffic accidents
Reproductive, • Focus on high burden countries, building on the
maternal, regional initiative “Saving the lives of mothers and
children”, and on countries in emergency
neonatal and • Developing strategic plans for reproductive, maternal,
child health neonatal and child health for all countries with an
equity lens

Communicable • Increasing treatment coverage of HIV/AIDS,

tuberculosis and malaria
diseases • Developing regional action plans for HIV, malaria and
tuberculosis
 • Support research and
development of vaccines
and medicines for the
Research communicable and non-
communicable diseases
that primarily affect
developing countries
 • Implementing the regional framework for
action on advancing universal health coverage
Universal (population coverage, financial protection
health and service coverage)
coverage • Ensuring access to quality essential health
services and to safe, effective, quality and
affordable essential medicines and vaccines

• Adoption of a collaborative multi-agency

Environmental approach to reduce deaths and illness from all
health hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil
pollution and contamination
Critique

 A report by the International Food 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"
by Shenggen Fan and Paul Polman calls 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 global GDP
growth, they will undermine their
own ecological objectives.

 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 human subsistence,"
and the poverty line should be revised to as high
as $5.
Preliminary Critique of SDG’s
(Bhumika Muchhala and Mitu Sengupta)

• formulated in an undemocratic manner with little

meaningful input from civil society and developing
countries
• contributed to the shrinking of national policy
space in developing countries
• merely addressed the palliative symptoms of
poverty while wholly ignoring the structural drivers
of under-development
• disproportionately burdened the poorest countries
of the world while demanding very little from rich
countries, and other influential agents, such as
international financial institutions and
multinational corporations.