A Case Study on current issues based on 17 SDGs

There are various approaches that had been proposed and introduced to achieve peace and prosperity to the humanity. The ways to sustain our environment also had been a major concern since many years ago after realizing that how important it is to sustain the environment towards achieving a prosperous life of the humanity. Both elements need to come together and is inseparable as to achieve what do we call as a prosperous life. Although these two important aspects had been major concerns to us, there is another aspect which also can contribute to the harmony of all which is political aspect. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) or well known as Global Goals is an all-round objective which it is agreed universally to put poverty among the human around the world to an end, shield anything that could make the planet habitable from destructions and ensure that all people get their rights to enjoy peace and prosperity (Morton et al., 2017). Historically, the governments of Colombia and Guatemala proposed a notion of global goals and was officially introduced at the Rio de Janeiro United Nation (UN) Conference (Hak et al., 2015). According to Hak et. al (2015), SDGs is the continuation of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which were proposed and agreed universally back in the year 2000 and had already expired in the year 2015. SDG will lead us to achieve all the proposed objectives and agenda up until the year of 2030. The objectives of the SDGs include no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitization, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace, justice, and strong institutions and finally partnerships for the goals. The aim of this report is to discuss and relate all the SDGs towards achieving our ultimate objective which is a prosperous and harmony life for all.

            The first SDG aims to end poverty among all human in all its forms around the globe according to the United Nation. There is a list of targets under no poverty objectives which had been highlighted by United Nations that includes eliminating extreme poverty for all people regardless of their place of living by 2030, providing equal rights to economic resources for all men and women which covers their access to basic services, ownership, and control over any kind of property, inheritance, natural resources and many more. Poverty needs to be pay attention to more seriously as there are more than 700 million people out there who is still living in extreme poverty and are struggling even to acquire the fundamental needs such as health, education, and access to water and sanitation as claimed by the United Nation. All human has equal rights to live in a good life and away from poverty as they are one of the important components that can carve the way towards prosperity in this world.

            Next, ending hunger, achieving food security for all, improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture had been the second objective out of 17 SDGs. The State of Food Security and Nutrition had reported that approximately near to 690 million people went hungry in 2019 which is increased by 10 million from 2018 and by almost 60 million in 5 years. This alarming situation had driven away the effort to achieve zero hunger among all as of the situation of pandemic that we are encountering now. Hunger is one of the contributing factors to the leading death in this world. Hence, it is vital to take an appropriate action to control the mentioned phenomena from escalating until it is out of our hands.

            Moving on, the third SDGs which is emphasized on health and wellbeing, is another aspect that is important as to achieve a prosperous life especially to the humans. There is no use of living a life with poor health as we will be restricted to do any activities. Securing healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development according to United Nation. It had been the aim of this third SDG to minimize the global maternal mortality to less than 70 per 100 000 live births and eradicate the epidemics of famous diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and many more. It had been claimed by Mohammed et. al (2018) that the world had made an outstanding progress since the year 2000 against some of the leading causes diseases and death but the progress has been wobbly and uncertain between and within the countries. It can be deduced that the effort towards achieving the third SDG need to be kept up as to avoid the progress from degrading.

            The fourth SDG is quality education which emphasizes on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all as mentioned by United Nation (2015). It is important to have a good education for all as to increase intellectual ability for future development. It had been known that the targets of the 4^th SDG are ensuring both genders get a complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education by 2030, getting an access to quality early childhood development and care as to prepare them to a primary education ready student as stated by the United Nation. In this pandemic era, the governments have the upper hand to ensure the effectiveness of the online learning. Higher level education such as universities must consider students view when planning things to provide a quality education during this hard time (Omar, 2021). 

            Gender equality had been an issue since a very long time. The 5^th SDG covers this matter which it stressed on achieving gender equality and empower all women and girls. There are numerous targets and indicator to achieve the fifth SDG which will drive its way towards the correct path. One of them is eradicating discrimination against all females all around the globe as mentioned by United Nation (2017). The next target is to put an end to any kind of violation, oppression and exploitation against women and girls which also stated by the United Nation (2017). This matter is very serious as the sexual survivors are struggling with various emotions including fear of revictimization and fear of people not believing their story which leads to the increase in the unreported cases (Chettiar & Kimble, 2018). Thus, the objectives of SDG will provide a great helping hand in overcoming this situation.

            Furthermore, the 6^th SDG envelops the assurance of availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all according to the United Nation (2017). The few sub-objectives of the 6^th SDG include provide vast water and sanitation support to developing countries and underpin the local engagement in water and sanitation management (UN, 2018). Improving water quality through the reduction of pollution and suppressing the release of hazardous chemicals and materials, reducing the portion of untreated wastewater by half and encouragement of recycle and safe reuse universally are the targets of this SDG (UN, 2017). This objective is quite important as it involves with our health and well-being. According to the United Nation, three billion people all around the world have poor basic hand-washing facilities and over 2.2 billion people have deficiency in safely managed sanitation and safely managed drinking water.

            Moreover, the SDG also covers on the affordable and clean energy which it ensures access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for the people (UN, 2015). Coal, oil, and gas had been used by human to power up the electricity since a long time ago. However, it poses threat to the environment and consequently to all human. Thus, it is the aim of SDG 7 to rise the percentage implementation of renewable energy in producing electricity (UN, 2017). However, renewables energy encounters many resistances including financial, regulatory, and technological barriers (IEA et al., 2019). Another reason that could resist the use of renewable energy is it efficiency as compared to non-renewable energy. The 7^th SDG aims to double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency as stated by United Nations (2017). In recent years, it had been reported that in the year 2019, the energy efficiency of the renewable energy had been improved steadily (IEA et al. 2019). This achievement had proven that the effort to hit the bull’s eye of 7^th SDG is not impossible.

            To sum up, there are many other SDGs objectives that is not covered in this report which also aimed to be achieved by the year 2030. All the SDGs are targeted to achieve prosperity and harmony which not only for human, but also the environment and other creatures living in this beautiful earth. The proposed SDGs’ target and objectives can be realized with the help and support of many hands. Ideas without action will return nothing as action speaks louder than words. An awareness needs to be cultivated among the people since day one of their birth to gain a strong support to realize these objectives.

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References

Chettiar, I. M., Kimble, C. (2018, October 4). Sexual assault remains dramatically underreported. Brennan Center For Justice. Retrieved from https://www.brennancenter.org/

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere.  (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/poverty

Goal 2: Zero hunger.  (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.globalgoals.org/2-zero-hunger

Goal 3: Good health and well-being. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.who.int/health-topics/sustainable-development-goals

Goal 4: Quality education. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal

Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal5

Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal6

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IEA, IRENA, UNSD, WB, WHO (2019), Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report 2019, Washington DC

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Omar, N. A. N. (2021, January 27). Ensuring a quality education during a pandemic. New Straits Times. Retrieved from https://www.nst.com.my/

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Vornic, A., Paradela, A., Sidhu, S., Penner, M., & Chaib, F. (2020, July 13). As more go hungry and malnutrition persists, achieving Zero Hunger by 2030 in doubt, UN report warns. The World Health Organization. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news