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
r e
ach
1 p
er
ce
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
du
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
www.unescap.org
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