Hot on the heels of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have recently become a global watchword. The MDGs had become a hype in the media though most goals were not fulfilled. The SDGs of late are widely and frequently discussed with the aim to eliminate poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change fallout by 2030. The SDGs - otherwise known as global goals - cannot be won hands down. The achievement of the SDGs will not be possible through just government initiatives as various sectors and multilateral issues are also involved.
On the journey of attaining the core objectives of SDGs, the need for involving all including the grass-roots people is imperative. It is necessary to ensure the participation of people from all strata of society in order to achieve SDGs. Additionally, it is impossible to think about attaining the goals without involving global as well as local stakeholders.
It is true that previously Bangladesh performed well in achieving MDGs. But it is yet to gain momentum to achieve SDGs. The MDGs adopted in 2000 aimed at various issues including elimination of poverty, hunger, disease, gender inequality and access to water and sanitation. Despite some sort of success in MDGs, the curse and indignity of poverty and inequality still remain pervasive in the country. The new global goals and the broader sustainability agenda go beyond the MDGs.
The SDGs are aimed at addressing the root causes of poverty and inequality squarely. But this is not possible without strong and effective institutional mechanism involving all stakeholders including civil society members and development partners. But the trouble is that many of the local stakeholders do not have any idea about how to connect with SDGs planning process. Also, local government representatives are not too keen and sincere about informing them properly. The flagship policy should be community governance where the poor and unreached communities should be involved as frontrunners in the task of achieving SDGs.
The government needs to sincerely involve private sector and civil society in order to become successful in attaining the SDGs and reach targets on climate change adaptation. Society and its people at large have to be incorporated in the efforts. An appropriate procedure for ensuring the contribution of the private sector and civil society organisations is necessary now. It is also imperative for the government to allocate more funds to the sectors that directly contribute to achievement of SDGs. If these measures are taken swiftly, only then can it be hoped that Bangladesh will be able to achieve the SDGs by the stipulated time of 2030.
Sarwar Md. Saifullah Khaled is a retired Professor of Economics, BCS General Education Cadre.
sarwarmdskhaled@gmail.com