How developing nations can achieve SDGs through strategy and operations
How developing nations can achieve SDGs through strategy and operations
Ms Ummu Kalthum Muhammad
The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. Learn more and take action.
Most developing nations have weak statistical capacities and are unable to meet the SDGs‘ increasing demand for data.
The lack of solid infrastructure and even of rules pertaining to infrastructure is another difficulty that many developing nations encounter when seeking to achieve sustainable development. As a result, many countries are unable to achieve the SDGs because they lack the infrastructure development necessary to support the use of the internet, networking, computers, as well as database management systems. In actuality, the aforementioned components are crucial to good planning, scientific study, nature control, and decision-making.
Lack of access to improved cooking energy technology, which is a problem for the majority of developing countries, is caused by the socioeconomic and technological disparities between each country. The lack of access to reliable energy services is being caused by these obstacles, which are preventing the quality of life in the communities from improving. By developing energy policies relating to revenue production from effective energy activities, this vicious cycle could be ended. If not, SDG number 7 (offering access to affordable and reliable energy) may never be realized, leaving many communities around the world dependent on traditional biomass energy. The majority of people in Sub-Saharan Africa are like that; instead of putting their time towards schooling or other forms of entrepreneurship, women there spend up to four hours a day gathering firewood (SDGs number 4 and 5, Quality Education and Gender Equality respectively).
It is true that innovative strategy and highly effective operations are the two most important factors that can help the United Nations achieve the sustainable development goals, especially the goals are directly connected to the humanitarian sector. Goals like education for all, girl child and women empowerment and access to clean water are goals that the humanitarian sector is interested and committed to achieving.
An effective strategy that can help tremendously in achieving the SDGs by the humanitarian sector is to take it gradually. Rather than focusing on long-term objectives and waiting for a turning point that might never come, we need to set our sights on feasible near-future goals and take small steps to achieve them. Next to this is to strategically balance conflicting objectives because there are instances where objectives clash.
We have also seen that in situations where humanitarian actors use the popular bottom to top approach works better and delivers much success in implementing the SDGs in communities in African countries. This is because it allows the people to own the project.
Another important point to mention here is the use of contextualization. It has been proven that when humanitarian actors make use of stories to drive change, success is achieved.
We cannot expect developing countries to achieve sustainability as easily as developed countries. Rather, we should see sustainable development as a way to understand factors such as poverty and rapid urbanization which indicate whether economic development is possible or not. For that reason, when aiming to achieve the SDGs, organizations should be aware of the fact that factors like poverty and rapid urbanization are still very common in the developing and underdeveloped parts of the world. One way to achieve sustainable development in these countries is by first setting policies to enhance the living conditions of the least fortunate for them to later be able to take care of their environment. If such policies are not implemented in the near future, then not only will the efforts to achieve sustainability fail, but we might also expect poverty to increase in many parts of the world.
Several studies have identified a number of environmental elements as predictors of corporate strategies. Successful strategy execution necessitates having sufficient information on changing client wants, new technology in one’s business, and government regulations, as well as knowing what competitors are up to and what is going on in the global economy.
