If the SDGs are not achieved, 575 million people will be trapped in extreme poverty by 2030, and an estimated 84 million children and young people will be out of education globally, and more importantly, most of these people affected will be either from south Asian or African countries. Non-execution of the SDGs will also lead to an exacerbation of problems such as poverty and hunger
Out of the seven countries in south Asia – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – only two countries are on track for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) – Maldives on poverty reduction, and Maldives and Sri Lanka on quality education, says the Sustainable Development Goals (SDR) review report 2023, published by the United Nations (UN) agency.
The Sustainable Development Report (SDR) reviews progress made each year on the sustainable development goals since their adoption by the 193 UN member states in 2015. At the halfway mark to 2030, the Sustainable Development Report 2023 takes stock of the progress made and discusses priorities to restore and accelerate SDG progress.
This analysis has taken the top seven SDG indicators for discussion – poverty, hunger, health, education, gender equality and access to clean water and sanitation – to make an assessment on where we stand today in the region on important development parameters.
Halfway to the deadline for the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, south Asian countries are mostly in the "major challenge group" category. The SDG progress report shows that just the Maldives is ontrack on one indicator on "no poverty" and the Maldives and Sri Lanka are making some progress on "quality education".
The progress on most of the other SDG indicators in these countries are either weak or/and insufficient.
Worst of all, most of the south Asian countries have stalled or gone into reverse (major challenges-red zone) category. The performance of five out of the seven countries on hunger and health, and four on accessing clean water and sanitation are completely in bad shape. Unless these countries act fast, it will be an impossible task for these countries to achieve the SDG goals by 203o.
The report says that the hunger has increased in most of the south Asian countries and is back to 2005 levels, while gender equality is some 300 years away. Such progress on key SDG indicators means that something is fundamentally wrong with the governance of the system that delivers such negative outcome.
Looking at the present progress, it looks like many human development SDG indicators may not be achieved by 2030 or even in 2050. So, what are the possible consequences if the execution of the SDGs falls short? What will happen if the targets are not scored by 2030? The consequence of not executing the SDGs may lead to an exacerbation of problems such as poverty and hunger. Moreover, complex issues related to gender equality and other indicators are likely to remain underachieved.
If the existing trends continue to persist, 575 million people will be trapped in extreme poverty by 2030, and an estimated 84 million children and young people will be out of education globally, and more importantly, most of these people affected will be either from south Asian or African countries.
The failure to reach the target SDGs indicators is likely to negatively affect millions of people in these developing and least developed countries in the south Asian region, with substantial damages to livelihoods, an exacerbation of poverty and the spread of diseases.
The SDG implementation in the South Asian countries assumes much significance as more than 33 per cent of the people living in extreme poverty globally lives in this region.
The coronavirus pandemic further trapped millions in the region, pushing them into the poverty trap, worsening the hunger situation.
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022 ranks South Asian countries with Sri Lanka topping the list (64th), followed by Nepal (81st) and Bangladesh (84th). Both Sri Lanka and Nepal are placed in the "moderate" severity level.
Afghanistan (109th), India (107th) and Pakistan (99th) are the bottom three countries in the South Asian 2022 GHI. It is extremely worrying to find that poverty and hunger continue to diminish South Asia's development progress significantly and in a way shows how SDGs are implemented in the region.
India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal have child labour populations of 5.8 million, 5 million, 3.4 million and 2 million respectively, as per a survey by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which indicates that quality education for children in the region is not on track as expected and committed by South Asian leaders on the SDGs.
Without renewed commitment and energy (after the global disturbance due to the pandemic), we can risk putting many of the SDGs permanently off the track. With only seven years remaining for implementation of the goals, the south Asia region cannot afford slow progress.
These countries have to take strong actions in reducing extreme poverty and hunger. As the data shows, the number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger is increasing for the first time in a generation.
Each hungry person, each desperately poor person, each child without education, each person without access to safe and clean drinking water reflects nothing but a policy failure.
No country can afford to see them fail.
Satapathy is the director, AF Development Care, New Delhi, director@afdc.in
