Representational image
(Hardik Chhabra/BCCL)
In 2015, the world rejoiced the success of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), considered the most successful global anti-poverty push in history. As a follow-up, the United Nations framed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. However, this period is not turning out even remotely close to what the world planned and hoped for almost a decade ago.
Ever since we entered the COVID-19 pandemic era, one crisis after another has hampered our progress towards SDGs that include no poverty, zero hunger, climate action, gender equality, and good health. It’s 2022, and there are barely seven years left to meet the 17 2030 UN SDGs. And our report card does not look good!
Goalkeepers Report Paints a Grim Picture
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation produces periodic assessment reports evaluating where we stand vis-a-vis the global sustainability journey and the looming target. They released the sixth Goalkeepers report in the last week of September, and despite an optimistic outlook on potential areas for opportunities, it highlighted lackings on almost every development front.
Farmers hold dead locusts in their hands
(Bhagirath/BCCL Rajasthan)
“It’s no surprise that progress has stalled amid numerous crises,” said Bill Gates. “But this is not a reason to give up. Every action matters to save lives and reduce suffering. Turning away would be a mistake.”
The 2022 report, titled ‘The Future of Progress’, casts a bleak shadow on future projections. They underline that the targets were heavily impeded by the unfortunate timing of the once-in-a-century pandemic and international wars such as the ones in Yemen and Ukraine. The report catching up would require an almost-impossible fivefold increase in the pace of progress.
Case 1: Gender Inequality
In her essay, Melinda French Gates outlines how gender equality — the fifth SDG — by 2030 was always a well-known pipe dream, even during the drafting process. Since then, progress has only stalled, and best estimates show that we won’t reach targets until at least 2108, three long generations later.
Men recovered from unemployment twice as efficiently as women after the COVID-19 pandemic
(Mahesh G / BCCL, Vijayawada)
The report also underlines how global efforts continue to treat symptoms of the problem rather than attack the root evils. These morsels accumulate heaps of large-scale gendered impacts when large-scale crises occur, leading to the extreme gender recovery disparity seen in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic — such as the fact that men recovered from unemployment twice as efficiently as women.
“We can’t just talk about empowering women without making sure they are actually gaining power in their families and communities,” writes Melinda, highlighting the need to address the root cause of gender inequality. “True equality depends not only on a woman’s ability to access a livelihood but also on her ability to control it fully. It means not just putting food on a kitchen table, but also being able to make decisions for her family around that table.”
Case 2: Growing Hunger
The research also focuses heavily on the global hunger problem, especially in the context of African countries. The Ukraine war interrupted grain flow to as many as fourteen African nations, leading to a significant intercontinental humanitarian crisis. The ordeal highlights the unfortunate interconnectivity and dependence many poorer countries have to resort to every year.
Food aid keeps rocketing every year, and is likely to reach as high as ₹80,000 crores by 2030
(SL Shanth Kumar/BCCL, TOI, MUMBAI)
As a result, spending on food aid keeps rocketing every year, likely reaching as high as ₹80,000 crores by 2030. This is as much as it took to send the James Webb Telescope to space! And while the aid might sound like the right thing to do, as with the case for gender equality, it doesn’t address the root of the problem.
“The goal should not simply be giving more food aid. It should be to ensure no aid is needed in the first place,” notes Bill Gates in his blog following the report. In addition, it doesn’t fix the fact that an Eastern Europe crisis crossed mountains and seas to starve millions six thousand miles away, exposing a festering dependence and inability to form self-reliant and circular economies in such low-income nations.
The hope
Despite the numerous shortcomings, the report focuses on the fact that human ingenuity remains a crucial and powerful factor that can improve things in the little time we have left — citing the quick management of the HIV/AIDS crises, where we saw a 60% reduction in annual deaths from 2000 to 2020.
The world saw an unprecedented 60% reduction in annual HIV/AIDS related deaths from 2000 to 2020
(B A Raju/TOI, BCCL, Chennai )
The report concludes that the two cases mentioned above might have the biggest difference in terms of what we are doing and what we can do because of the potential for breakthroughs. While the unanticipated crises hindered development in the SDG timeframe’s first half, will its second half show the opposite? The report hopes humanity will demonstrate its ability to innovate and achieve what everyone previously believed impossible.
“Human ingenuity can render our careful projections irrelevant and make our boldest aspirations seem timid,” Melinda French Gates and Bill Gates reassure.
The 2022 Goalkeepers Report by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation can be accessed here.
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