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The Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainability has become the watchword for development in the 21st century. No longer can development be defined simply in terms of economic growth; all elements of social and environmental development must be included, and national growth balanced with global interests.
At the turn of the century, the eight Millennium Development Goals were established under the auspices of the United Nations – with a time-bound target of 2015. These were replaced in January 2016 by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals with 169 targets, universally adopted by all Member States of the United Nations, with a target date of 2030
The collective resolve of all nations to achieve truly sustainable development through the Sustainable Development Goals has generated global momentum, but has also created large challenges for many nations in many aspects of their development agenda.
Sustainable Development Challenges
Nations face numerous challenges in maintaining sustainable development, including:
- The need to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy in order to reach climate change targets places an enormous economic strain on developing nations and emerging economies.
- Economic development must be balanced with social and environmental requirements
- The increased competition created by globalisation creates challenges for all nations, especially those at earlier stages of the development curve
- The interdependence between good education & other social infrastructure on one hand and economic prosperity on the other can create a vicious circle without effective interventions. In India, in particular, the high proportion of the population under the age of 25 years is a substantial demographic advantage if education and skills training can be made universally available. If they are not, a massive demographic burden will be the result
Sustainable Development Challenges
It is now widely recognised that the Anthropocene Era started around 60 years ago. Since then, many of the main hallmarks of changes in our natural environment, variations in weather patterns and global warming can be reliably attributed to human influence. Reciprocally, the negative changes in the natural world are having an increasing and accelerating adverse impact on the conditions of human life, in particular on the most vulnerable.
Uncontrolled development can only exacerbate this situation.
The CIP approach to sustainable development
At CIP, we acknowledge that sustainable development entails different challenges for each region and country. We also appreciate that the 17 Sustainable Development Goals are intertwined, so that an effective development strategy must include an intelligent appraisal of the role and importance of each goal and its relationship to the other goals.
Integrated approach to sustainable development
- Consistent and self-sustaining education and skills training from primary school to higher, vocational and professional education
- Introduction of best practice in sustainable technology in all sectors
- Effective public policy
- Integration of public and private sector initiatives
- International collaboration across the development spectrum
We use our expertise in infrastructure sectors and capacity building to assist governments and the private sector in implementing a sustainable development strategy.