EDITORIAL: It is regrettable, to say the least, that Pakistan has slipped four places in the Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) index (from 130 in 2019 to 134 in 2020) and now stands as the worst performer in South Asia. The Index covers 193 countries and traces, tracks and reports on performance based on 17 goals. And, over the last year Pakistan has only been able to make progress on six of those goals, with climate change being the only one where its performance can be said to be perfectly on track. The rest, especially matters relating to education like secondary school completion rate (48.2 percent) and the ratio of female-to-male mean years of education (58.5 percent), ought to raise serious concerns in a government that rose to power on promises of improvement in just such indicators. The coronavirus pandemic did, of course, divert much official attention and resources away from matters related to SDGs. But that would explain the poor performance only if others in the region had also plunged in a similar fashion. In reality, Pakistan has been able to produce much better results as far as Covid-19 itself is concerned, yet for some reason these gains have not been channeled towards SDGs.
The government officials responsible for progress on SDGs should have done better than blaming the country's own bureaucracy as well as the Index's way of measuring progress for the bad result. Why is it, after all, that a lot more work was done than meets the eye? If relevant departments were busy doing their jobs all year then why did they not make sure that the civil service communicated as much to international institutions? It is the government's job at the end of the day to make sure that results are achieved. Beside, achieving SDGs is not just a matter of winning praise at global fora, rather these development goals directly impact the vast majority of people in most countries. Moving up the ladder on such indices therefore implies an improved standard of life for most citizens of any country. Most of Pakistan's social trends have been very worrying to begin with. It was hoped that hopping onto programs of the United Nations (UN) and the like which help promote SDGs would push the country towards making tangible progress regarding some of the most important social indicators. Sadly, it is now becoming clear that signing up for a programme, no matter how important, means little if there is not enough political will to see the most pressing tasks through to the end.
The coronavirus pandemic has no doubt taken a very heavy toll on the global order. It has already infected more than 27 million people and left almost a million dead, and even now there is no end in sight. The damage to economies has been particularly ominous. Practically, all major economies except China are posting negative growth rates this year and the global economy has already entered what seems sure to be a very steep recession. Pakistan has had a much better time of it but much of the rest of the world is now preparing for a severe second wave of the coronavirus. In light of these facts almost all respected international institutions such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have been warning of all sorts of extreme situations like "famines of biblical proportions" and millions of people being pushed back into poverty as unemployment gets out of control. That is why it is little surprise that the SDG Report 2020 has also noted that this might be the first year since 1998 to record an increase in global poverty as 71 million people could fall back into poverty.
Now everybody is getting together once again to try and control the situation. This week leaders of UN member nations will attend virtual sessions of the annual meeting and a big part of the agenda is assessing all the losses to SDGs and finding a way forward. For its part, while the fall in ranking has been troubling, Pakistan must now see the report's findings as a list of things that it needs to start work on immediately. If the government can get off to a quick start, and keep making progress throughout the year, there is no reason not to expect to be placed higher up the list next time.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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