SGDs: Evolution from Growth to Sustainability

By Ranga Pallawala

Janathakshan, Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA) and Sri Lankan Youth Climate Action Network (SLYCAN) in partnership with Action/2015 organised a multi-stakeholder consultation on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the September 23, 2015. There were several ideas that were raised during this initial consultation that opened up the requirement to have more constructive discussions at national and sub-national levels to make SDGs the dream that will made a reality.  The SDGs comprising 17 goals and over 120 targets were formally launched during the recently concluded UN General Assembly held in New York, marking another turning point of the development of the human civilisation.

“Development” is defined in many ways in different books and dictionaries. The general understanding is a concept that describes a positive change of the current status. The concept of development itself underwent several stages of evolution within human civilisation and reached the current status of “sustainable development”. It was not a complete metamorphosis but a gradual one that kept adding a new feature/s atop the previous stages. There are definite overlaps and grey areas but there are five clearly distinct stages that have been identified and it is worthwhile to look at this whole evolution process in order to understand the SDGs and their modalities. 

Stage 1: Economic Growth and Income

Development is purely looked at as an overall tool for positive economic growth. The development was measured using indicators such as economic growth, per capita income, GDP, per capita GDP etc.

Stage 2: Economic Equity

It was soon realised that economic growth and related indicators do not provide a clear picture of development and it moved to the second stage of economic equity. With equal income distribution being the main ask and arguments on the gap between the rich and poor triggered this new stage and the introduction of indicators such as Gini co-efficient, percentile income distribution, etc.

Stage 3: Quality of Life

The third stage of development came with the realisation of “money is not everything” and saw the rise of arguments calling for higher standards of living and access to services. Hundreds of new development indicators including literacy rates, child mortality, life expectancy, access to sanitation, quality of housing, came into the picture at this stage. This stage created a higher level of agitation within the development sector than previous stages. Indicators for this stage include ICT literacy, number of people with access to internet and mobile use etc.

Stage 4: Righteous Development

The rights aspect in development brought another significant turning point in the evolution of development. This included the accepting and ensuring of rights in different segments namely gender, rights of indigenous communities, minorities’, people with disabilities and so on. This stage of righteous development stage was vastly supported by long-standing rights movements against different forms of discrimination across the world.

Stage 5: Sustainable Development

The current stage of sustainable development was triggered by the growing concerns of inter-generational equity of development and the role of natural environment in ensuring sustainability of development. The lack of ability to maintain at least a similar level of development with economy and quality of life orientation was challenged. The focus of rights expanded its boundaries from the current generation to future generations. The strong link between the natural environment and socio-economic development has been widely recognised with the dawn of this stage.

Sustainable Development is therefore a composite of economic, social and environmental aspects and has extended beyond the human civilisation through the addition of other components in the natural environment. There are a number of piled up indicators probably thousands, which we can use to measure the sustainable development. This will give us a sense of ground realities we need to cover in order to achieve the SDGs and related targets.

Irrespective of the level of feasibility in achieving the SDGs, it is important to lay the development pathway towards achieving them. Locally appropriate plans; finance mechanisms and a joint approach by governments, private sector and civil society are crucial here. On the other hand the SDGs must not overshadow the two other global agreements that made 2015 a landmark year: the agreement reached in Sendai in May 2015 to tackle challenges faced in Disaster Risk Reduction for the next 15 years and the legally binding climate change global agreement that is aimed to be agreed in Paris in December 2015. These should not be worked in isolation but linked to and worked in co-operation with the SDGs. Proper co-ordination among these three global agreements is imperative to achieve the targets. Another important aspect is that SDGs are universal unlike its predecessor Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which focused exclusively on developing countries. This means we speak of two sides of the same coin; increasing the standards of the lower stratum and decreasing the status/standards of the higher stratum. Which is more challenging? I believe the latter.

Ranga Pallawala is the CEO of Janathakshan, Sri Lanka. He is also an ex-board member of Climate Action Network South Asia and a member of National Expert Committee on Climate Change Adaptation in Sri Lanka. Follow him on twitter @Janathakshan @Rangaslk