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In 2015, all United Nations Member States became signatories to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals ((SDGs)).
The SDGs were created as an urgent call to action, setting out a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet by the year 2030.
Seventeen interrelated targets were set, including No Poverty, Good Health and Well Being, Quality Education, Gender Equality and Affordable and Clean Energy.
CEO of the Australian Council for International Development Marc Purcell says the significance of the SDGs lies in the fact that they bring together human and environmental development objectives.
“There are 17 goals ranging from eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 to a tackling life below the water cleaner oceans and sustainable marine life, for example. So there’s there’s a lot of complexity in the goals but in the essence they distil what we need on the planet for a sustainable future for humanity to coexist in our environment.”
A new Strategic Development Goal report issued by an independent group of scientists has called for an urgent change in approach if these targets are to be met.
Leigh Matthews is the Impact Director at development organisation Caritas.
She says the latest SDG report finds the world is failing on all but two of its objectives.
“So out of the 17 goals and there are 36 sub goals within them. But eight has deteriorated 12 have limited or no progress. Fourteen have kind of got fair progress but acceleration is needed and only to have progressed or on track. And those two are internet use and mobile connectivity.”
Ms Matthews says the report makes clear how dire the situation is.
“If you look at the aid that have deteriorated you can see that they have those goals that address our most pressing needs and that includes the achievement of food security for the hungry the reduction of global greenhouse emissions and the prevention of the extinction of species.”
The new report comes at the halfway point for the SDGs, with just seven years remaining to reach the set targets.
Co-author of the report Professor Jaime Miranda says at this critical juncture, the report goes beyond highlighting the urgency of the situation.
“Considering all the multiple setbacks that the world has faced in recent years, the picture was very bleak. And rather than focusing just on reporting trends of no progress or even reversals, we set out to understand the science of transformation, rather than just providing numbers and facts and setbacks- well how do we get out of here?”
Mr Miranda says one of the key issues limiting progress is approaching each of the SDG targets as if they exist in isolation.
He says policymakers need to start thinking of the goals as interlinked and interactive if we are to have any chance of turning the situation around.
“And we’re inviting people to think and to press for people to consider the inter-linkages, synergies and trade offs there are for working across SDGs. Otherwise we won’t make the targets. The optimistic view is that this the SDGs are the best insurance that this planet has has to do with sustainability so we better get on track with them.”
The Australian government released a new International Development Policy last month, and development organisations are identifying some progress.
The policy offers a guide as to how Australia’s development program can support a peaceful, stable, and prosperous future for Australia and our region.
According to Mr Purcell, the policy indicates the government is taking the SDG targets into consideration in setting its own goals.
“I think the significance of Australia’s new development policy is that we have a policy at all in the first place. I think it’s very important. It focuses in on our immediate region in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, but also leaves the space open for strategy and or humanitarian work and response globally as there’s more need, but significantly, in putting emphasis on climate change and gender.”
Mr Purcell says while the Australian government has made a valiant start with the latest development policy, it still has a long way to go if Australia is to pull its weight in meeting global targets.
“The sad fact is that we languish at number 27 of 30 donors in the OECD we’re pretty much at the bottom of the league ladder. And I think what we’d expect the Albanese government needs to do is get to average over the next few years and get up into the middle of the pack and play a role commensurate with the size of our economy. We, you know, we are, by different counts, you know, the 13th largest economy in the world. So I think we can be doing a lot better than hanging out down the bottom of the pack number 30.”
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