Challenges to Achieve SDG 11 in India

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The vision of the SDG framework encourages every country to assume responsibility for planning and providing better outcomes for future generations, leaving no one behind.

The SDG framework ensures that:

• the goals apply to all communities.
• the three components of sustainability are at the heart of every solution.
• there is a government-wide approach to policy with coherence between policies from each government entity.
• there is inclusiveness and participation from all; and
• all goals, targets, and indicators are interconnected and thereby indivisible.

As per “Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022”, a combination of crises, dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, impacts of climate change felt globally, and geopolitical conflicts are putting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in grave danger. ?For the second year in a row, the world is no longer making progress on the SDGs. The average SDG Index score slightly declined in 2021, partly due to slow or non-existent recovery in poor and vulnerable countries. Multiple and overlapping health and security crises have led to a reversal in SDG progress. The report also repeats the “code red warning” on climate change earlier issued by the IPCC, highlighting that rising global temperatures continue unabated, leading to more extreme weather events around the world, and that energy-related emissions have increased 6 per cent in 2021, reaching the highest level ever.

India is not placed well to achieve the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and its preparedness has worsened over the years in comparison with other countries. India’s rank in the global Sustainable Development Report, 2022 has slipped for the third consecutive year. The country continues to face major challenges in achieving 11 of the 17 SDGs, which has pushed down its global ranking on SDG preparedness. With eight years left to meet the global goals on sustainable development, the country is off-track.

Goal 11 aims to promote inclusiveness and sustainable urbanization so that the cities can be productive, accessible places that attract talent, encourage innovation and create economic growth. It lays down a framework to ensure capacity building for better governance.

Over 3.5 billion people live in cities today, while by 2030, almost 75 percent of the world’s population will be urban dwellers. The total area of cities is just 2 percent of the Earth’s land cover; however, substantial activities and processes take place in this area, which are responsible for up to 80 percent of overall energy use and 75 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. The future achievements of the SDGs therefore largely depend on how cities and urban dwellers are able to transform their lifestyles towards sustainable practices.

India, the second most populous country in the world, accounts for 11 percent of the total global urban population housing 461 million people in cities and towns in 2018 (UNDESA,2019). In 2011, there were 7,933 cities and towns in India comprising 4,041 statutory cities/towns recognized by state governments and 3,892 census towns that met the census criteria of ‘urban’, but were governed by rural panchayats1 (Census, 2011). These figures are significant both because of their demographic weight and the dynamics of urbanization.

India is still struggling to achieve progress in city development as they are plagued by congestion, pollution, climate change, food insecurity, and urban sprawls, commonly the manifestations of messy and haphazard urbanization. In the last two decades, the importance of sustainable urbanization has been globally recognized through several globally agreed agendas like the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015.

Challenges to achieve SDG 11 in India

Cities in India face diverse challenges which are slowing down the pace of achievement of the SDGs, particularly SDG 11. The majority of these challenges are structural and need interventions from the state governments. Some of the major challenges to India are as follows:

1.??????Limited efforts to localize SDGs.

2.??????Weak Governance Structure of Indian Cities.

3.??????Multiplicity of Governance Structure.

4.??????Weak Financial Condition of urban local bodies.

5.??????Lack of robust and timely data at a granular level.

6.??????Being home to 14 out of the 20 most polluted cities in the world underlines the need for effective measures to check this.

7.??????Growing number of urban unemployment is another key issue.

8.??????Climate change impacts vulnerability.

9.??????Integrated and spatially distributed urbanization with emphasis on small and medium towns and cities, with linkages with rural areas is lacking.

In India, the commitment toward the SDGs is reflected in the importance given to inclusivity in the agenda of national development. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is mapping its programmatic interventions like the Smart City Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Clean India Mission (SBM Urban), Housing for All (Urban), and National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM), etc. with SDG 11. These programs, if achieved successfully, would help Indian cities to achieve SDG 11.

India has recognized that the SDG framework is essential for addressing the challenges of sustainable development, which is only possible through collaborative actions and building consensus among different stakeholders like NITI AAYOG at the central level, state government & urban local bodies at a local level.

Way Forward

Until now, India has adopted a top-down approach to design, implement and monitor SDG 11 involving national and state governments. This effort has not percolated to the city level, especially in the medium and small size towns. The political economy of urban development is already biased towards metropolitan cities and big urban centres and adopting a top-down approach would lead to a lop-sided development. Therefore, to achieve SDG 11, a bottom-up approach is required.

?The movement towards sustainable growth and development requires multi-stakeholder engagement under a long-term vision. India is a country with 28 States, 9 Union Territories, more than 700 districts, and more than7000 cities and towns with significant geographical, demographics, and socio-cultural diversities coupled with regional variations in socio-economic development. Also, about half of the towns are ‘census towns. Unfortunately, these towns are unacknowledged as ‘urban’ by the state governments. In this context, it is important to recognize these newly created towns as statutory towns and bring about planned development from the beginning. This would contain the growth of slums and sprawl development and promote sustainable urbanization. Also given a large number of towns and cities, adopting a national action plan is not sufficient to achieve SDG 11. The Indian government needs to develop a robust SDG localization process involving state and ULBs to adopt SDG 11 and its different targets, determine the local means of implementation and design the monitoring and evaluation frameworks. These tasks seem to have multiplied manifold due to the health and economic challenges imposed by the covid 19 pandemic.

?The overlap of functional jurisdictions is another challenge which needs to be addressed by assigning the development agencies clear roles and responsibilities without diluting the role of the ULBs. These agencies need to work together in a well-coordinated way. To localise SDG 11 at the neighbourhood level, ward committees need to be constituted and entrusted with adequate devolution of funds.

?The achievement of SDG 11 also depends on the financial autonomy provided to ULBs for mobilising resources through taxes, user charges and other instruments. In the absence of financial autonomy, achieving SDG 11 in a time bound manner would be difficult task. Therefore, a transparent, progressive and implementable revenue sharing model between the states and cities is imperative to achieve SDG 11. The smaller cities and towns may adopt financial resource management by pooling their resources for shared infrastructure facilities by which two or more municipalities and adjoining rural areas can benefit.

?Capacity building and advocacy are the most important part of localization of SDG 11. Several small and medium-sized cities lack the administrative, financial, and technical capabilities to perform the mandated functions. Inadequate capabilities of municipal authorities prevent urban projects from achieving SDG 11 targets. A dedicated municipal cadre needs to be established with relevant skills and specialization to perform the tasks required for improving the conditions in Indian cities/towns.

?The availability of robust and timely data sources is essential for monitoring the progress of SDG 11. In this regard, an SDG Cell needs to be established in every city to collect and compile local-level data related to SDG 11. The cities need to have a dedicated budget and specialized manpower to perform these tasks. A GIS-based approach should be adopted in the collection of data and monitoring of the targets and indicators. Technology-driven solutions need to be promoted. Vulnerable communities and the new poor in urban spaces need to be given more attention if the country wants to move towards a sustainable path and build sustainable cities and communities.