Context

• The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has released the 2024 SDG Progress Report.
• According to the report, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Asia-Pacific region could be delayed until 2062, which is 32 years longer than the scheduled deadline.

Background

• The 17 goals, adopted by world leaders in 2015, focus on ending extreme poverty and hunger by 2030, ensuring access to clean water and sanitation, and providing quality universal education, among other goals.

Key Points

• The report highlights the ongoing challenges of poverty and inequality, with gender and location playing a key role.
• The annual SDG Progress Report provides an overview of progress on the global goals in the Asia-Pacific region.
• This report serves as a basis for the activities and policy responses of ESCAP and its partners.

Report Findings

Gender Division

• The report also highlights various social challenges faced by men and women.
• Women mainly faced challenges related to education and employment. Their enrollment rates were low and the situation on literacy targets was a struggle. Additionally, young women's access to labour markets remained difficult, leading to an increase in youth unemployment rates.
• Men were more associated with health and personal safety issues, including new HIV infections, mortality due to disease, suicide rates, alcohol consumption, road traffic deaths, mortality due to poisoning, tobacco use, Covers wide range of uses.

Urban-Rural Divide

• People living in rural areas faced clear disadvantages in areas such as limited access to basic drinking water and sanitation facilities, the report said.
• Additionally, the lack of clean cooking fuel in these areas led to an increase in serious respiratory diseases, especially among women and girls who spent more time in the kitchen.
• In general, conditions were better in urban areas, yet paradoxically, in these areas, the poorest boys and girls faced countless barriers to completing upper secondary education.

Conclusion in the context of India

• According to this report, India's performance has improved on 85 parameters of these goals, while in 27 cases progress has almost stopped. Whereas in 36 cases the progress has deteriorated.
• If we look at the data related to India, there are many areas in which progress is already lagging behind. For example, the situation of malnutrition in the country has become worse than before.
• While in 2015, 14 percent of the country's population was suffering from undernutrition, in 2021 this figure increased to 16.6 percent. Similarly, the problem of anemia among women in the country is almost the same as before.
• Similarly, the number of suicides in the country has also increased.
• At the same time, progress in the matter of waste water coming out of houses has also lagged behind.
• Where in 2020, 26.6 percent of the contaminated water coming out of homes was being cleaned. Whereas in 2022 this figure has come down to 20 percent.
• Similarly, the use of resources has increased in the country, where the per capita material footprint in India was 4.8 tonnes in 2015, it increased to 5.2 tonnes in 2019.
• The unemployment rate in the country increased from 7.7 percent in 2018 to 7.9 percent in 2020.
• There has also been a decline in progress on the issue of sustainable tourism. The number of refugees in the country which was 0.8 per lakh in 2015 has increased to one in 2022.
• At the same time, no increase has been recorded in the expenditure on research and development. According to the data, there has also been an increase in emissions from the agricultural sector between 2015 and 2019.
• Apart from this, progress has also lagged behind in matters of marine pollution and sustainable use of marine resources.

Current Needs

• According to the report, out of the 17 SDGs, Goal 13 on climate action needs the most attention, as progress on all its targets is off track and some are in the opposite direction.
• It highlights the need to integrate climate action into national policies, strengthen resilience and improve adaptive capacity to deal with climate-related disasters.
• The report also calls for increased investment in sustainable infrastructure and renewable energy sources.

IMPORTANT FACTS FOR EXAMS

UN Agenda 2030 (17 Development Goals)

• Goal 1 – End poverty in all its forms around the world.
• Goal 2 - End hunger, food security and promote better nutrition and sustainable agriculture.
• Goal 3 – Promote health, safety and healthy living for people of all ages.
• Goal 4 -Ensuring quality education that is inclusive and equitable, while providing opportunities for all to learn.
• Goal 5 -Achieve gender equality and empower women and girls.
• Goal 6 -Ensure access to sanitation and sustainable management of water for all.
• Goal 7 -Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy.
• Goal 8 – Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
• Goal 9 – Promote resilient, inclusive and sustainable industrialization.
• Goal 10 -Reduce inequality between and within countries.
• Goal 11 – Build safe, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements.
• Goal 12 -Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
• Goal 13 – Take immediate action to combat climate change and its impacts.
• Goal 14 -Conserve and utilise the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
• Goal 15 - Endeavor to halt the increasing loss of terrestrial ecosystems, protect forests, land degradation and biodiversity, while promoting sustainable use.
• Goal 16 - Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development and make them effective and accountable at all levels to ensure justice for all.
• Goal 17 - Strengthen the means of implementation, including revitalising the global partnership for sustainable development.