What is the issue?
- US President Trump’s stance on Iran nuclear deal and North Korea's threat implies a trend of prioritising individual national interests above the shared global objectives.
- In this protectionist context, achieving global goals like the Sustainable Development Goals has become highly uncertain.
What are the unfavourable developments?
- Most of the advanced countries are confronting with serious fiscal constraints.
- 'Politics' and 'economics', many a times, are not complementing each other and thus are further complicating the welfare measures.
- The rising migration provides larger scope for spreading the political stress and instability of one country into other countries.
- The growing problem of refugees in many parts of the world is evidential of this trend.
- The rising dominance of knowledge-intensive technology leaves a possibility of making less-privileged groups, classes, sectors, and regions struggle to compete.
- The SDGs have always had challenges in terms technological disruption, geopolitical rivalry, and widening social inequality.
- In addition to these, the rising populist demands for nationalist policies, including trade protectionism, have intensified these challenges considerably.
- All these developments are increasingly eroding the faith of the downtrodden on the development orthodoxy of good governance and SDGs as a solution to many global challenges.
What is required?
- The SDGs aim at relieving some global pressures, by protecting the environment and improving the lives of people within their home countries.
- It requires countries to cooperate and exhibit responsible politics and a much stronger social consensus.
- There is a need for a fundamental shift in the mindset of the countries, from one of competition to cooperation.
- Multilateral institutions intended at this purpose should be upgraded and restructured to meet and decide on these global development challenges and goals like the SDGs.
Source: Business Standard
