The Sooner We Improve and Accelerate the Pursuit of the UN17 Sustainable Development Goals The Safer & Better Our Future and of Our Future Generations

As compared to the goals we set for 2030, we are less than 50% in terms of progress, meaning we must do a lot more for us to achieve the set targets. This is a herculean task given that many of the those who are supposed to be involved in the implementation are still way off, while many of those who are taking action can still improve in their efforts and also implementation methods.

Impediments to More Successful Implementation of SDGs

Several factors are causing the drag in the implementation of the goals, among the lack of capacity, lack of awareness, lack of political will, limited leadership and limitations in financial resources especially in low and middle-income countries.

In some cases the financial resources are made available but they are not making the best possible impact because of lack of capacity or skills or interest in the goals. In many situations, people use the SDGs as a means to get financial resources instead of getting financial resources to implement the goals.

Education and Awareness of Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals

There is a big and mistaken assumption that everyone who must be aware of the sustainable development concept and agenda is already aware. In reality many critical potential stakeholders are not aware of the goals or, if they are aware, they do not fully understand the goals, their importance, that they must be involved and how they must be involved. This people include leaders of some companies and organisations including leaders and managers of city and town municipalities and rural administrators.

Universities around the world, while some have courses and programs on sustainable development and sustainability can still contribute more in terms of theoretical work as well as developing specific skillsets required for improved and accelerated implementation of the goal.

Sustainable development education must be made a mandatory subject right from primary education. This is because while the current target is 2030, sustainable development must become a permanent way of life into the future; it must be an intergenerational agenda for it to work.

Develop and Test Different Implementation Models

While the 17 Sustainable Development Goals are very sound in theory, they suffer from a lack of sharable effective implementation models. Every country is implementing the goals in its way, at its own pace and in a voluntary way. This is, and will continue to, undermine the successful implementation of the goals, leading to missing the targets.

Organisations and Organisation for the Goals

I maintain that todays organisations were not designed with sustainable development and sustainability in mind. Instead, the world went haywire in terms of managing the planet and its resources because the organisations missed the theory and the skills for more sustainable operations. This means that organizations need a serious retrofit for them to participate effectively in the sustainable development agenda. The sustainable development theory is still absent in many organisations, especially at decision-making levels and where it exists, the theory sits in a "lowly" position that is not considered an integral part of the organization's thinking, philosophy, strategy, plans and operations. Ask business leaders of many organisations about sustainable development and sustainable development goals and you will get interesting answers.

In many countries, implementation of the sustainable development goals is not strategic but operational and tactical. There is little if any stakeholder coordination, with many of stakeholders and implementers competing or working incognito of each other. This means mistakes can be duplicated while success stories cannot be shared, while resources can be wasted because two implementers can be repeating the same thing or are not building on each other's success.

Governments can, and must be, struggling to successfully manage sustainable development activities and the goals in their countries because of this lack of organisation. This means that, in such a situation, results are difficult to measure, collate and report. This is also worsened when there are no common national implementation frameworks for implementation, managing, measuring and reporting sustainable development goals implementation activities. This is an area of stakeholder management.

In many cases, lack of capacity is not absolute but relative. Capacity may be available within a country but the capacity is not utilised because of lack of awareness or other reasons. This means that strategic thinking is a missing but critical piece of the sustainable development goals.

Environment and Development Politics

Environment and development politics have a huge impact on the successful implementation of sustainable development goals. For example, when it comes to climate change, there is a big sticking point around financing and energy decarbonisation. Low and middle-income countries are arguing that the low-income countries cannot be given the same timelines to decarbonize by eliminating fossil energy because the high-income countries developed by using the same fossil energy. This means, they argue, low and middle-income countries must either be given more time using fossil fuel to power their development or be compensated by the high-income countries through financing the low and middle-income countries' transition to green energy. As I write there is still a lot of talk on climate action but much less in action especially in low and middle-income parts of the world, prompting the UN to warn that it is still largely business as usual and that if no drastic action is taken to change the status quo the world will overshoot the set temperature increase by almost 100% (3.8 degrees instead of 2 degree Celsius.)

Many other issues need immediate and serious attention if the world is to accelerate the implementation of the goals. With 2030 around the corner, I suggest effort must begin now to review progress so and figure our how to improve the implementation of the goals towards 2040.

Let's make sustainable development a reality.

Simon Bere is a geoscientist, waste management and pollution management engineer, and sustainable development strategist.

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?Simon Bere, 2024