12 MEETING THE DEMAND

Development re-imagined Achieving the SDGs will require a very different approach than for the MDGs – one that recognises the changing world we now inhabit, the interrelatedness of the goals, the growing importance of data and new sources of development finance © Reuters/Zohra Bensemra © Reuters/Zohra

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By Mahmoud Mohieldin, Senior Vice world GDP. Over the same period, financial President for the 2030 Development Agenda, flows – including foreign direct investment Relations, and Partnerships, (FDI), official development assistance (ODA) and private capital – rose from about $87 billion to $1.3 trillion. The composition of he Sustainable Development Goals financial flows has also undergone a major (SDGs) are ambitious. They aim shift. In 1990, FDI was $21 billion, less than Tto meet the dual challenge of half of ODA at $53 billion. By 2014, FDI Also in this section overcoming poverty and protecting the reached $735 billion and was more than five planet, while leaving no one behind. They times larger than ODA flows of $135 billion. will build on the experience acquired in However, in low-income countries and pursuing the Millennium Development Goals fragile and conflict-affected states, private Eradicating poverty 15 (MDGs) and pick up the unfinished agenda. inflows are limited and domestic resources But the SDGs go further, highlighting constrained, with ODA continuing to play The grassroots a comprehensive vision of sustainable a critical role. Global communications have development that embraces economic, social skyrocketed: for example, mobile subscriptions response 18 and environmental dimensions. rose from five per million in 1980 to more The world we live in today is than 90 for every 100 people today.2 People Feeding the world 22 fundamentally different from the world we are also on the move, with one billion lived in when the MDGs were adopted. The international tourists in 2013, and 232 million Achieving gender world is more prosperous and the gravity international migrants (compared with 154 of the global economy is shifting. In 2000, million in 1990).3 Another 750 million people equality 26 41 per cent of the global population lived in have migrated internally. In seeking to address low-income countries. Today this stands at a many of the world’s most difficult challenges, Funding for health 28 mere 12 per cent. Developing countries now the SDGs reflect the unprecedented account for a much larger share of global connectedness of the present age. Mental health GDP, up from 22 per cent in 2000 to 41 per Global consumption is growing rapidly, cent in 2014. The proportion of the world’s especially in emerging-market economies, and the SDGs 32 population living in extreme poverty has and it will be essential to promote patterns fallen by more than half, from 28 per cent in that are environmentally sustainable. On top Displacement 2000 to about 9.6 per cent (or approximately of existing ecological challenges, the current and development 34 one in ten people) in 2015. trajectory of resource and energy-intensity While highlighting definite progress, these of production, scaled to this future level of numbers still mean that some 700 million demand, show impacts that are unsustainable Strategies for people live on less than $1.90 a day. At the in terms of water, forests, fish, pollution and inclusive growth 38 same time, the world is at a demographic climate. The consuming class is benefiting turning point, with the global population greatly from new technologies, with Building strong growing more slowly and ageing more information, applications and online services institutions 44 rapidly. Globally, the working-age population increasingly available at zero or extremely low peaked in 2012 and is now on a decline.1 cost. However, as emphasised in the SDGs, it will be paramount that emerging production Countering Major shifts and consumption patterns be increasingly violent extremism 48 Trade, finance, communications and environmentally and socially sustainable. migration have all expanded rapidly, bringing Climate change is bringing a warming the world closer together. Between 1990 and world with more extreme weather events, 2015, global merchandise trade grew 1.4 to and urgent mitigation, as well as adaptation, 2.4 times as fast as the world economy, rising is required if development gains are to be to the equivalent of around 60 per cent of preserved. The science on global warming caused by human activity is unequivocal, and the signs are clear. Of the 15 hottest years Life in the ‘civil concord district’ shantytown near since record-keeping began 130 years ago, 14 Algiers. Algeria is one of 29 countries that have extreme data poverty – no data at all to measure occurred between 2000 and 2015. The focus poverty trends between 2002 and 2011 of the SDGs on environmental sustainability

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recognises that ending extreme poverty, especially in light of the fact that the SDGs The 2030 Agenda will also require securing broader development gains and are more holistic in nature. Leveraging resource mobilisation on an unprecedented lowering the risk of fragility and conflict will the interrelatedness of the SDGs can have scale. While ODA is a cornerstone of also depend on our ability to directly address far-reaching implications that support the development financing, July 2015’s Third our biggest climate challenges. attainment of several of them. For example, International Conference on Financing for Finally, humanitarian crises stemming well-designed social assistance programmes Development in Addis Ababa made it clear from pandemics, natural disasters, conflict can help families achieve goals in different that we must, to a much greater extent, and rising extremism have increased in areas, such as health, education and nutrition. include domestic resource mobilisation and frequency since the MDGs were put in To better understand where our gaps, private-sector resources. place. Between 2000 and the end of 2014, successes and failures are, there is a pressing The multilateral system and the a cumulative 59.5 million people had been need for better data to monitor progress, multilateral development banks (MDBs) in forcibly displaced. Even though a small design effective policies and strengthen particular have a responsibility to use their group of countries continue to share the accountability and transparency. Collecting capital, knowledge and convening power heaviest burden, more than 160 countries good data is one of the most powerful tools to leverage the billions of grant and ODA hosted displaced people in 2014, indicating we have to meet the goals. Achieving better funding to mobilise trillions from public and that the issue has indeed become a global outcomes requires smart investments in private sectors. Using ODA funds to attract concern. Consequently, crisis prevention evidence and thus better data. Without the private resources is especially important and feasible in sectors such as infrastructure. Reducing the private sector’s risks and Without the evidence and measurement that data operational costs for development is critical. We must also help countries crack down on makes possible, designing effective public policies and illicit flows, strengthen their tax systems, and investments to improve the lives and future prospects of better mobilise domestic resources. During just the first three years of the SDG period poor families is at best difficult and at worst impossible – 2016 to 2018 – the MDBs plan to provide financial support of well over $400 billion. and response has become an essential evidence and measurement that data makes Ambitious agenda element of development and thus of the possible, designing effective public policies The 2030 Agenda operates in a different 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. and investments to improve the lives and world than that of the MDGs. It requires With these transformative changes and future prospects of poor families is at best a more holistic and universal approach dynamics in mind, there are still relevant difficult and at worst impossible. that recognises the interrelatedness of the lessons to be learned from the MDG period Recent studies show that 29 developing goals and targets, the importance of data that can assist with the attainment of the countries have no data at all to measure in monitoring progress and in targeting SDGs. Three of them are of particular trends in poverty between 2002 and 2011. interventions for maximum impact, as well importance: (i) if implementation is to be A further 28 developing countries have as how to tap into the resources available. effective, it is important to recognise the only one data point during the same period. Achievement of this ambitious agenda will interrelatedness of the goals and targets; The absence of household surveys from require partnerships across all stakeholders (ii) data will be critical to monitoring our which this information is estimated is a – governments, civil society organisations, progress and targeting work to those areas major constraint in the fight to end extreme development institutions and the private that are most in need; and (iii) financing must poverty, and a major effort is needed sector – to meet the far-reaching and go beyond the traditional ODA model and to address it. Indeed, the call for a data transformative goals of ending poverty leverage the private sector while maximising revolution warrants much attention. and protecting the planet while leaving no the impact of domestic resources. One promising approach to stimulate one behind. While the MDGs were expressed as such a revolution is to harness the so- sector-specific goals, their attainment called technology revolution. Advances in 1 and IMF, 2015, Global often required actions not just in a given technology enable innovative and cost- Monitoring Report 2015/2016: Development Goals sector – say, health, in the case of infant effective methods based on mobile phones, in an Era of Demographic Change, Washington, DC, World Bank mortality – but also actions that addressed mapping, sensors and satellite imagery. 2 Kose, A.M. and E.O. Ozturk, 2014, “A World of other sectors as well, such as poverty, water To use these advances to improve data Change: Taking Stock of the Past Half Century”, and sanitation. Many SDGs are interrelated for development requires new partnerships Finance and Development, IMF 3 UN, 2013, Trends in International Migrant Stock: and an integrated approach to address and collaboration between companies, Migrants by Destination and Origin, United bottlenecks to achieving them will be needed, institutions and civil society. Nations database: POP/DB/MIG/Stock/Rev.2013

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS 2016