When a pair of second-hand shoes stepped into the African Land and we can no longer leave ourselves out from it: understanding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Original article: Ms. Yeh Ching Lun,
Posted on: 21st, August 2017
Translated by Eden Social Welfare Foundation
What is Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which most NGOs have been promoting since last year, and what is the connection to Taiwan and why should we bear this issue in mind?
(Photo credit: Anes Sabitovic@Unsplash)
Countries all over the world have been donating second-hand shoes and clothes to Africa for over two decades, however, is it doing more harm than relief, especially to its industries? The issue has stern debates among INGOs repeatedly every year although it’s already a cliché in the field of development. The pros and cons to weigh second-hand clothes donations again been carried out as groups and groups of international volunteers being dispatched to Africa over summer vacation.
More than half of the carbon emission comes from developed countries due to globalization, however, under-developed countries affected by its impact the most and pay the price caused by international enterprises and global citizens, it is beyond our comprehension that: How redefining the long term goal of “development” and “sustainability”, and how do they support on the road to a build a better planet to live in.
Since 18th Century, numerous sociologists, economists, anthropologists, and researchers have long been asking the question: why people live in a wealthy life while others suffer? How does “wealthy” being measured? What are the criteria to measure and exam the work of “humanitarian development”?
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Income (GNI) were used to labeling some countries as "Least Developed Countries", it was the period when economic development says all and humans were unaware of what social environment had sacrificed; until the 90th Century, people began to notice that the education and medical system were way below average (such as oil-producing countries in the Middle-East), therefore, The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published the Human Development Index (HDI), measuring developments in terms of average life expectancy, literacy rate, school enrollment rate, public security, natural environment, administration and sociopolitical environment in each country; but it was short of its measurement in gender and wealth inequality.
Many indicators started to emerge since then
In 1999, The UNPD then issued Gender Development Index (GDI), measuring health, education, and living-standards between genders in each country; Transparency International issued the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), to compare issues in corruptions of each country; The World Bank then issued Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), from prospects of freedom of speech and election, political stability, and efficiency, as well as abilities in law enforcement and government-corruption control; in 2002, Yale University issued an Environmental Performance Index (EPI), to measure the ability in environmental governance in each country.
There has been an innovation in development measurement, we keep trying new methods to know the level of its “development”. In 2006, Britain’s New Economics Foundation issued “Happy Planet Index”; Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) issued “Global Peace Index (GPI)” in the following year; The American firm - Gallup, Inc. issued “Gallup Well-Being Index”, measuring conditions of living, labor, social-network, community relations, as well as public health in each country in 2008; Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) issued
“Better Life Index” in 2011, synthesize evaluations on community, education, natural environment, citizen participation, and satisfaction with life.
The work above was adequate measurement and evaluation of “under what circumstance is considered being well-off”, comparing the development of each country as a single unit under different index. In order not to run behind other countries and taken consideration of other interests, when each index of trustworthy research process that has caused international attention was issued, each country would become really cautious and try hard to raise up its international rankings, and many indexes, therefore, has enough power to demand the strategy making of governments .
Since then, the concept of “development” keeps changing, through countless discussions, apart from passively being used as the index or indicator, people started to set up goals, synthesize each "index", using relevant regulations and systematic methods to reach the goal of comprehensive development. The latest and famous development “goals” of humanitarian development, is The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
MDGs: 8 Goals to eliminate extreme poverty
MDGs is considered as the major developmental movement in human history. In 2000, leaders from a total number of 189 countries across the globe assembled and made the momentous commitment which lasts for 15 years, " to spare no effort to help people, to extricate oneself from poor, suffering, and the ignominy state of extreme poverty”. The commitment was measured with 8 aspects in development: terminate extreme poverty and hunger, popularize primary education, gender equality, lower infant mortality rate, and fight HIV and malaria, improve maternal health, environmental sustainability, and global cooperation.
MDGs is the promise which global leaders made to the underprivileged, it began with global vision and mankind as the foundation, hoping through actions, these 8 aspects in development can be improved and relevant index can be applied to measure the result by 2015. Developed countries around the world have donated USD $1,352 billion of official development assistance (ODA), with 66% increases comparing to previous periods. From the 90th Century to the end of 2015, the percentage of people living under poverty line in developing countries dropped from 47% to 14%, the percentage of malnutrition dropped from 23.3% to 12.9%; incidence rate of malaria dropped by 37%, mortality rate dropped by 58%; the number of people with HIV who receives Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) increased from 800 thousand to 13.6 million.
More than that, at the same time, infant mortality rate fell half to 43 per-thousand (12.7 million in the 90th, and 6 million in 2015); Net enrollment rate for elementary school increased from 83% to 91%. As for mother-child safety, the global maternal mortality rate dropped by 43%, and by the end of 2014, 71% of maternal receives medical assistances in labor.
Environment and living condition had a great improvement too. Ozone depleting substance was eliminated, it is estimated that Ozone can be recovered after the middle of this century. 91% of people have access to the cleansed drinking water, and 95 countries had reached hygiene goals; percentage of people who live in ghetto of cities has dropped by 10%; the usage of mobiles has increased dramatically, internet users jumped from 6% to 43% by the end of 2014, meaning total number of 3.2 billion people became internet users within the 15 years.
(Photo credit: LarmRmah@Unsplash)
SDGs: 17 Goals that co-relates with each other as the global situation
The accomplishments of MDGs seemed enormous but rather limited somehow. Looking back at the result of past 15 years, MDGs had reached only the first goal of fighting poverty fully, because of the economic growth of China. Furthermore, MDGs solved the problems through inputting money and economic supplies, it had not recognized the basic conditions of sustainable development such as peace, security, political stabilization, and either it had not mentioned enough on ethnic tolerance.
August. 12. 2015, when MDGs was coming to an end, The UN passed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which it had been studying and researching since 2012, pledging the world has entered into the next 15 years of development plans. SDGs consists of 17 sustainable goals and 169 targets, joined by 3 dimensions of development - “ economic growth”, “social improvement”, “environment protection”.
From MDGs to SDGs, SDGs has assured the practice of many non-economic aspects. For instance, apart from focusing on economic growth, it pushes for the attention on culture, identification, racial and gender inequality, health, education, gender rights, and lower the chance of margin of minority groups, taking in non-government institutions into consideration and secure labor rights.
On the other hand, the most significant part of SDGs is that it transformed the meaning of "development", it can be recognized from the aspects mentioned in the following paragraphs.
SDGs as the formulator and operator
In the past, MDGs were operated by UNPD, it played an important role as the organizer which has led many projects became harder to monitor and control in practices. SDGs therefore, taken a lot of non-government groups and community organizations, NGOs as part of it team during research and development period, helping to bring in a clear picture of the difficulties in practice and different viewpoints. These viewpoints enable SDGs to take underprivileged groups such as people with disability, aborigines, and other socially vulnerable groups into consideration while setting the goals.
Partnership building has become an important task for new generation, apart from the groups mentioned above, SDGs further strengthen the existing campaign and work together with enterprises and international organizations with innovative technologies such as The UN, The World Bank, World Trade Organization, and emphasize the importance of influence connecting with southbound countries, , including north-south corporation, south-south corporation, and three-party corporation (that is corporation of a certain north-south country to help another south country), meaning the new concept of development has border it focus on trade, foreign investment, debt reduction, and not narrowing in the single concept of development support.
No one can step aside: shake of the division between the rich and poor, border of the nations.
From the last century to the past 15 years, we were used to distinguishing "supporter" and the "supported", the view point of “the better support the poor”, left the poor absent in the process of support, they can only receive aid passively rather than being the “main body” of development. This type of “pattern” existed in MDGs, which made the work of development became the issue of “rich” and “poor”, leaving countries in intermediate classes like Taiwan stay their self away from it, thinking it’s the job and responsibility of rich countries such as America, United Kingdom, and other rich European countries.
To Taiwanese government, international support is only a diplomatic strategy; to most Taiwanese people, “it is non-of my business that how people in African countries live". However, the core spirit of SDGs emphasized that the rich take the most responsibility in the global issue, but the concept of development should not be separated by the border and political power. For the next 15 years, we shall all exam our issues in development and impacts under the 17 SDGs.
Therefore, we can no longer turn a blind eye on the problems of giving away things that we dispose or over purchased to another country, from personal clothes and shoes, to the dumping of petrochemical plants and steelmaking plant wastes, ignoring the harm as it is not the problem when the waste is in another country, and their misfortune is not related to us. Today, we shall ask ourselves the question that, “the steelmaking plants which caused a lot of pollution has left Taiwan and damaging Vietnam, but what can we do with that?” “Has the second-hand clothes which I donated from Taiwan affected the market in Africa?” “How do we balance environmental issues with the political dilemma?"
Under the same global trend, we are affected deeply by the revolution of each other. Under the spirit of SDGs, we shall know the developmental stage we are in, understand the changes or harms that each other has caused to the world. From that point, we are entering into an era that we can no longer pay attention to one's own moral uplift without thought of others.
(Photo credit: WikimediaCommons)
*Note：Southern countries
After WWII, a lot of European and American colonies became independent, most of these countries located in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, south to their colonial home country, therefore there is a distinction of North and South.
With Special Thanks to:
Chien, S.-S., Wu, Y.-C., 2016. International Development and Aid - "under "Global South Perspective (quanqiu nanfang guandian xia de guoji fazhan yu yuanzhu). Development Studies and Contemporary Taiwan Society (fazhan yanjiu yu dangdai taiwan shehui), Chien, S.-S., Wang, J.-H., Taipei: Chu-liu.
Chien, S.-S., Wu, Y.-C., Chen, J.-H., Taiwan's International Poverty Alleviation (taiwan de guoji fupin xingdong) - Rights and International Aid from the Fishing Proverb(cong diaoyu yanyu kan quanli yu fazhan yuanzhu)
