Achieving SDGs: Key Policy Priorities and Implementation

Challenges for South Asia and Bangladesh

Nagesh Kumar

Criticality of SDGs for South Asia

• The Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development, is a global compact

comprising 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169

targets, seeking to eliminate poverty and hunger and provide a life of

dignity to all

• The SDGs are especially relevant for eight countries of South Asia

which, despite their economic dynamism and remarkable MDG

achievements, account for 40% of the world’s poor

– And suffer from a number of development and infrastructure gaps, and low

levels of human development

• Given South Asia’s weight in the world population and poverty, the

world cannot achieve SDGs with South Asia

Despite remarkable progress

MDGs remain an unfinished agenda for South Asia

Sustainable Development Goalsthe unfinished MDG agenda

The first 7 goals represent the unfinished

agenda of MDGs

1. End poverty

2. End hunger

3. Health for all

4. Quality education for all

5. Gender equality and women’s empowerment

6. Drinking water and sanitation for all

7. Affordable and sustainable modern energy

for all

4

Sustainable Development Goals

Some cross-cutting issues and drivers

8. Sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic

growth, decent jobs for all

9. Resilient infrastructure and inclusive and

sustainable industrialization and innovation

10.Reduce inequality within and among countries

16. Peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable

development 5

Sustainable Development Goals

Some aspects of environmental sustainability

6

11. Sustainable and resilient cities and habitats

12. Sustainable consumption and production

13. Address climate change and its impacts

14. Sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine

resources

15. Sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems and

management of forests and biodiversity

Sustainable Development Goals

A renewed global partnership for development

17. Means of Implementation and revitalize

global partnership for sustainable

development

• Finance

• Technology

• Capacity-building

• Trade

• Systemic Issues

• Data, monitoring and accountability

Towards a policy agenda for SDG

achievement in South Asia

• Interrelationships between many goals and targets

• Positive spillovers of integrating economic, social and

environmental pillars

• Identify key policy priorities for South Asia that will help

maximize the interrelationships and positive spillovers

a. Sustained, broad-based and job-creating rapid economic

growth

• Fastest growing subregion

• Growth not creating adequate

jobs

• Employment elasticity of

growth has been falling

• 80% of the workforce trapped

in informal jobs without any

social protection

-7

-5

-3

-1

1

3

5

7

9

11

An

nu

al G

DP

gro

wth

ra

te (

%)

East and North-East Asia North and Central AsiaSouth Asia South-East AsiaWorld

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Pro

po

rtio

na

l g

row

th i

n e

mp

loym

en

t fo

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ach

1 p

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nt

an

nu

al g

row

th i

nG

DP

South Asia employment-GDP growth trends,(Employment growth elasticity, 5-year moving average, 1994-2010)

India SAARC-IND SAARC

5

8

11

12

13

14

29

44

95

92

89

88

87

86

71

56

0 20 40 60 80 100

Nepal

Afghanistan

Pakistan

Bhutan

Bangladesh

India

Sri Lanka

Maldives

Informal employment (% of employment)

Formal employment Informal employment

through industry-oriented structural transformation

• Structural transformation in South Asia

moved from agriculture to industry

bypassing the industry

• Agriculture still sustains nearly half of the

workforce

• Share of manufacturing in GDP in South

Asia much lower in South Asia compared to

East Asian countries

• ESCAP-SANEM model simulations suggest

that an industry-oriented growth will lift 25

million more people out of poverty

b. Closing gaps in infrastructure by providing essential

services to all• Wide infrastructure

gaps in South Asia

• Infrastructure

availability affects

achievement of other

SDGs

• Access to

infrastructure also

source of inequality

between rural and

urban

• Important multiplier

effects of

infrastructure

investment

• Huge requirement of

resources to close the

infrastructure gaps

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Sc

ore

Ra

nk

Global Competitiveness Index 2015/16 : Infrastructure - Scores and rankings of selected ESCAP countries

Rank Score

AFG

BGDBTN

IND

NPL PAK

LKA

y = 0.4746x + 47.185R² = 0.5595

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

0 50 100

Ad

ult

lite

racy

rat

e

Access to electricity (% of population), 2012

Relationship between electricity access and educational attainment

c. Harnessing demographic dividend through

universal access to education and health

• Health and education SDGs are critical for

South Asia to harness the demographic

dividend from its youth bulge

• Although MDG targets for primary

enrolment and completion met, quality

remains an issue

• Wide gender gap in education at higher

levels

• Nexus between education and health

• Low public expenditure (2-4% of GDP)

against the recommended 6% on education

• South Asia needs to move towards

universal health coverage

d. Social protection and financial inclusion for reducing

inequalities, poverty and other deprivations

2.5

3.4

3.7

3.9

10.3

14

24.1

33.5

41.3

58.6

95.4

97.5

96.6

96.3

96.1

89.7

86

75.9

66.5

58.7

41.4

4.6

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Bangladesh

Nepal

Afghanistan

Pakistan

India

Bhutan

Sri Lanka

China

World Average*

Turkey

Japan

Social security coverage (% of employment)

Employment with social security

• Rising inequalities in South Asia; inequality adjusted per capita incomes lower

• Low levels of financial inclusion and poor social security coverage related with

prevalence of poverty in South Asia

• Extending financial inclusion and social protection coverage critical for SDG

achievement

• South Asia has important models that can be replicated including Benazir Income

Support Programme in Pakistan, MGNREGA in India, conditional cash transfers in

Bangladesh

e. Addressing food security and hunger with agricultural

productivity improvements through sustainable agriculture

• A new green revolution based

sustainable agriculture doubling

the agricultural productivity by

2030 will not only enhance food

security but will also lead to

creation of 13 million additional

jobs and will pull 16 million

additional people out of poverty(16.13)

(9.42)

(2.52) (2.04) (2.00)

(0.15)

12.85

6.68

2.54 1.85 1.43

0.34

(20.00)

(15.00)

(10.00)

(5.00)

-

5.00

10.00

15.00

Ch

ange

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e to

do

ub

ling

agri

cult

ura

l pro

du

ctiv

ity

(po

pu

lati

on

, m

illio

ns)

Poverty Employment

f. Promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment

through entrepreneurship

• Although MDG goal on gender

equality in primary and secondary

education achieved, South Asia lags

behind in economic and political

empowerment of women

• Low female workforce participation

rate

• Opportunity cost gender inequality

very high ranging between $800

billion to $3.5 trillion additional GDP

by 2025 in South Asia

• Promoting women’s entrepreneurship

through gender specific ecosystem,

credit facilities, and capacity-building

for women entrepreneurs including in

ICT usage

6462

61

57

48 48

44

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

in $

tri

llio

n

in p

er

cen

t

Incremental 2025 GDP (in %): Full potential scenarioIncremental 2025 GDP (in %): Best-in-region scenarioGender parity (in %)Incremental 2025 GDP (2014 $ trillion): Best-in- region scenarioIncremental 2025 (in GDP 2014 $ trillion): Full potential scenario

g. Enhancing the environmental sustainability

through low-carbon climate-resilient pathways to

development

• Growing vulnerability to climate

change and disasters

• Addressing the challenges through

enhancing energy efficiency and

mix

• Sustainable urbanization

• Sustainable production,

consumption and waste recycling

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Urb

an

po

pu

lati

on

sh

are

(%

)

South Asia urbanization, 2015 and 2050

2015 2050

Institutional arrangements for implementation

• A Coordinating or Steering Agency

• Focus on outcome-based approaches

• Strengthening decentralization

• Institutional and policy reforms

• Enhancing stakeholder participation

• Regional coordination in implementation– SAARC Development Goals can be aligned with SDGs

– SAARC Intergovernmental Group being set up to contextualize the SDGs

– Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development at UNESCAP as the Asia and

the Pacific level preparatory to the High-Level Political Forum

Accessing means of implementation for finance

• Huge resource requirements for

achieving SDGs

• Domestic resource mobilization

– Tax potential, expanding the tax base,

efficiency of tax collection etc.

– Development and deepening of capital

markets

• ODA: meeting the elusive 0.7%

target

• Development of regional financial

architecture

– New multilateral development banks will

increase options for the subregion

• Evolving a development-friendly

global economic governance

Technology facilitation for SDGs

• Access to technology a major concern

for implementing SDGs in the context of

high concentration of technology

generation activity

• The pattern of concentration has

changed only slightly over the past three

decades

• Access to environmentally sensitive

technologies will be critical for

implementing SDGs in South Asia

Nagesh Kumar19

Geography of Innovation

20

Technology Facilitation for SDGs

• For easy access to technologies by developing countries

– Moratorium on further strengthening of IPRs

– Extending public health waver to ESTs

– Granting flexibility to developing countries in implementing TRIPs

– Differential pricing for technology licensing

– Strengthening TRIPs provisions (art 66.2) for transfer of technology

including environmental technologies for developing and least developed

countries

• Enhancing indigenous innovations

• Harnessing frugal engineering capabilities of South Asia for

developing low-carbon affordable products and processes

• Pooling of resources for joint solutions for shared challenges

Data, Statistics and Monitoring• Demanding data requirements to track progress on 169 targets; work in

progress at IAEG

• South Asia faces significant challenges in measuring even most elementary

data such as registration of births and deaths

• Variations in statistical capacities across countries; Bangladesh, India are

best equipped in the region

• Regional cooperation important for evolving common standards and

perspectives for methodologies and reporting

Methodology assessment

of statistical capacity

(scale 0-100)

Periodicity and timeliness

assessment of statistical

capacity (scale 0-100)

Source data

assessment of

statistical capacity

(scale 0-100)

Statistical capacity score

(overall average)

South Asia 58 85 70 71

Afghanistan 40 73 40 51

Bangladesh 60 90 80 77

Bhutan 50 87 70 69

India 80 73 80 78

Maldives 50 57 60 56

Nepal 50 87 80 72

Pakistan 70 97 60 76

Sri Lanka 50 90 80 73

Statistical capacity in South Asia, 2015

• Much potential of regional cooperation and coordination in

implementation and monitoring of the 2030 Agenda

• Sharing development experiences

• building up productive capacities through a coordinated industrial

development strategy, strengthened regional connectivity and

regional value chains

• strengthening their collective energy and food security, and

enhance resilience to natural disasters

• Developing low-carbon pathways through pooling resources

• SAARC leaders have called for regional cooperation for

contexualization of SDGs and coordination in implementation

• UNESCAP stands ready to support and assist SAARC process and

promote regional cooperation and integration in South Asia

Regional Cooperation for SDGs

Concluding remarks

• The 2030 Agenda a unique opportunity to provide a life of dignity

to all within a generation for South Asia

• South Asia’s turn to lead the global achievements

• Accelerate achievements through exploitation of interlinkages

• Seven key policy priorities may help accelerate progress– including industry-oriented job creating economic growth, closing gaps in basic infrastructure,

providing universal education and health, social protection, women entrepreneurship, sustainable

agriculture and low carbon growth paths

• Exploit the potential of domestic resource mobilization

• Stronger global partnership for finance, technology and market

access

• Critical role of regional cooperation and integration

24

Thank you

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