In-Conversation: Towards 2030 Goals: Making the Last Decade Count

The global success of achieving SDGs by 2030 primarily depends on the progress that is made by developed nations of the world and the choices they make to meet their economic goals in a sustainable manner.

Nations that are falling behind in achievement of the SDGs need to be helped in building capacity without taking away from the sense of ownership that they need to continue to have with respect to the achievement of the goals. Capacity building may be required in governance systems including administrative service delivery; in the enabling infrastructure or in knowledge creation and management. The sustainability of the effort that goes into achieving the SDGs is itself a matter for introspection. To have nations believe that their responsibility would dial down once the SDGs are achieved in 2030 would not be an ideal circumstance. What would need to follow would be another set of aspirational goals to strive for; but equally important, what would have been achieved would need to be preserved and protected to prevent any retraction. This emits serious planning starting henceforth, such that policy institutions, implementation mechanisms, and infrastructural capacity are further strengthened to ensure that the gains under the SDGs continue to accrue, and indeed become better through continuous improvement. In other words, our efforts to achieve the SDGs must become embedded into national, State level and local planning and management, and in fact into the collective public consciousness.

In the immediate context, some light needs to be thrown on the kind of institutional changes and or measures that need to be provided further to nations to ensure a sincere continuity in their SDG progress. A trajectory of SDG progression by each nation needs to maintained and sustained through the years to ensure continuity in efforts.

The ‘In-Conversation: Towards 2030 Goals: Making the Last Decade Count’ session being held during the World Sustainable Development Summit 2020 in the presence of Mr Jairam Ramesh, Hon’ble Member of Parliament, India and Lord Adair Turner, Chair, Energy Transitions Commission (ETC) would be a conversation that initiates a cross country dialogue and status of the realisation of the SGDs in India and the United Kingdom respectively. The session will attempt to shed light on certain indicators that are crucial in the journey of global nations realising their goals: