The 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 2024 is particularly significant for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With only six years at hand till the deadline of 2030 Agenda, Heads of State and Government are meeting at the UN Headquarters in New York, to reaffirm their commitment to the global effort, and chalk out ways to accelerate progress towards the 17 SDGs. Adopted in 2015 by 193 countries at the UN General Assembly, the 17 SDGs with 169 associated targets and 248 indicators to track their progress remain the obvious blueprint of highest aspirations cherished by whole of humanity to build a fairer, greener and more prosperous world by 2030.
However, as per the 2023 UN Sustainable Development Goals Report Special Edition, at the midpoint to 2030, the aspiration to leave no one behind in the development process seems to be in peril. The reason for this grim reflection is that the prospects of fulfilment are poor, as most SDGs are far from being achieved. There are many challenges, including the short timeframe that remains for their fulfilment, constraints of resource allocation, the missing link between aspiration and carefully measured long term planning.
The overall average progress towards achieving all 17 SDGs in Asia and the Pacific region has reportedly increased from 4.4 per cent in 2017 to 17.0 per cent in 2023. However, according to the SDG Progress Report 2024 of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), progress for many of the 17 SDGs in the region is worryingly slow. Not a single goal is on track to be fully achieved by 2030.
BANGLADESH'S POSITIVE STRIDES: Bangladesh has made significant progress towards implementation of the SDGs. The UN ESCAP SDG Gateway highlights that Bangladesh has demonstrated notable performance in 31 per cent of all 248 indicators. Bangladesh is also mentioned as one of the countries making better progress than the regional average on SDG 4 on Quality of Education and SDG 7 on Affordable and Clean Energy.
Bangladesh has made notable progress in poverty reduction (SDG 1). However, a large number of population in the country are still poor. According to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey, (HIES) 2022, extreme poverty rate in Bangladesh fell from 12.9 per cent in 2016 to 5.6 per cent in 2022. Upper poverty rate has fallen from 24.3 per cent in 2016 to 18.7 per cent in 2022. Bangladesh is also progressively stepping forward to zero hunger (SDG 2), as the daily per-capita calorie intake reached 2,393 kilocalories which was 2,210 kilocalories in 2016.
One of the most significant steps taken by Bangladesh for achieving the development targets, particularly in the District and Upazila level, is the adoption of 39+1 priority targets for localising the SDGs in view of local perspective. So far Bangladesh has presented a couple of Voluntary National Reviews (VNR) on SDG progress at the UN High-Level Political Forum in 2017 and 2020.
On reviewing the Sustainable Development Report 2023, Bangladesh Country Profile, it is noteworthy that Bangladesh has achieved significant progress in several key areas, moderately maintaining SDG achievement in gender equity in primary and secondary education (SDG 4); as well as moderately improving trend in poverty reduction (SDG 1) and zero hunger (SDG 2); lowering neonatal and under-5 mortality rates (SDG-3); expanding access to electricity (SDG 7); increase in annual growth rate of real GDP per employed person (SDG 8); rise in the share of manufacturing in GDP (SDG 9); and increase in budget allocations for social protection (SDG 10).
In seven years, Bangladesh has achieved plausible improvement in Global SDG ranking. Bangladesh moved up from 120th to 101st place, scoring 65.9, among 166 countries. The SDG Index is an assessment of each country's overall performance on the 17 SDGs, giving equal weight to each Goal. The score signifies a country's position between the worst possible outcome (score of 0) and the target (score of 100).
In South Asia Maldives (68th place, scoring 71.3), Sri Lanka (83th place, scoring 69.4) and Nepal (99th place, scoring 66.5) have shown better performance in SDG achievement than Bangladesh, while Bangladesh has performed better than India (at 112th place scoring 63.4) and Pakistan (at 128th place, scoring 59.0).
INEFFICIENT GOVERNANCE SLOWED DOWN PROGRESS: Despite positive strides towards the 17 SDGs, Bangladesh is faced with multiple challenges in achieving the SDG targets. Ousted former autocratic government had been supporting a distorted system of governance based on absolute power exercise by the ruling party, politicisation and nepotism in public administration, corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy, and complete lack of accountability. Inefficient governance without heed for accountability damaged the national capacity and also peoples' faith in development process and procedure. Putting right this unhealthy institutional and regulatory condition has surfaced as an oversize challenge for the Interim Government at present.
Ineffective regulatory environment is obvious in our vulnerable banking system, compounded by ineffective tax system, poor monitoring of labour conditions, poor enforcement of environmental regulations, as well as biased and corrupt administrative attitude. Therefore, it is crucially important to undertake critical institutional reforms to reaffirm and revamp our national commitment to the 2030 Agenda.
COPING WITH CHALLENGES: Bangladesh is scheduled to graduate from LDC status in November 2026. Graduation from LDC status is going to bring a new set of challenges that Bangladesh must face. Achievement of the SDG agenda after November 2026 will depend on our preparedness to stand up to the upcoming new opportunities and challenges.
Achieving the SDGs is a multi-stakeholder procedure, where the public sector, private sector, media, civil society and the NGOs all have their exclusive stakes and a synchronised role to play. It is important for the interim government to implement necessary reforms through inclusive and interactive engagement with the stakeholders, to ensure rule of law, transparency in all public and private sector, consensus building among stakeholders and people's participation in the process of decision making. It is important for the government to have broader consensus-based capacity to ensure rule of law and reform rules and regulations to revitalise our economic lifeline which would serve the needs of people and enhance progress towards achieving the targets of the 17 SDGs.
REAFFIRMATION OF COMMITMENT: Bangladesh is one of the most active countries committed to 2030 Agenda. Achieving the SDGs demands a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach. There has to be inclusive and interactive mechanism in place through stakeholder engagements to ensure coherence, alignment, and accountability.
Careful analysis of the inter-linkages among various targets and focusing on targets that have multiplier effects are important steps to prioritise targets that are more likely to be achieved and have direct beneficial impacts on lives and environment. At the same time, Bangladesh needs to urgently activate reliable up-to-date and periodic data generation, so as to facilitate evidence-based policy design for establishing effective partnerships and prioritising resource allocation based on vital data analytics.
TIM Nurul Kabir is a business, investment and technology analyst. He can be reached at: [email protected]
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
