UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

As Glocalisation Dominates, Sustainable Development Needs a New Paradigm

What is required is to use the notion of sustainable development to benchmark all growth machine induced policies and programs.

Admittedly, increasing uncertainty in climatic patterns has its origins in glocal (global + local) factors. The present version of globalization has promoted intra-industry trade that has led to a convergence of incomes among trading partners.

Trade between nations happens in two ways: inter-industry and intra-industry. Inter-industry trade takes place between dissimilar economies, is based on Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage. On the other hand, intra-industry trade occurs between similar economies, is based on Krugman’s model of competitive advantage of nations. In intra-industry, domestic and international firms compete to manufacture similar products to sell in the local market. For example, rising wages in Japan and Europe increased demand for goods and services similar to the U.S. In turn, this led to increased intra-industry trade among the US, Europe, and Japan.

A major part of the Indian and Chinese growth story is also explained by increased access to intra-industry trade. Modernization of production technology permitted production processes to be split to be located in different parts of the world, and China benefited. On the other hand, outsourcing of services due to advances in information technology was advantageous to India because service outsourcing, unlike free trade earlier, had the potential to equalize “non-tradables” (e.g. wages). Services in the developed nations command high wages, and the advantage of high wages could only be enjoyed by physical migration to the high-income countries, which was available to a few only. Now, software professionals produce services in India and are paid high wages without actually shifting to high-income countries. In turn, high wages earned by software professionals has led to market demand for products, similar to the products consumed in developed nations, thus, accelerating intra-industry trade with multiplier effects on job creation and income enhancement.

Also read: COP25 Goes Into Overtime as Governments Refuse to Recognise Climate Emergency

As a result, consumption increased in geometric proportions – what took consumption the UK in 100 years and the US 50 years has happened in less than half a century in China and India – and the most deleterious effect has been on biological capital. Earlier biological capital (e.g. soil, water and oxygen and freely available for human use) had a chance to recuperate because consumption was concentrated in one part of the world and among one set of people. Globalization of biological capital has impaired the ability of the Earth to act as an effective sink and one consequence is the extraordinary levels of carbon dioxide, resulting in climatic uncertainty and instability.

At the local level, the idea of growth at any cost has led to the formation of growth machines. Typical machines manufacture products efficiently and consist of moving parts that accomplish production goals efficiently, add value to inputs, and overcome resistance at one point by applying force at another point (leverage). Similarly, the growth machine produces high levels of consistent economic growth and the organization consists of groups of industrial firms, local businesses, realtors, business organizations, and the “entrepreneurial state”. The growth machine also adds value, efficiently, to land by erecting new structures – tourist facilities anywhere, river dams, hydro-electric power projects.

The Government has become an entrepreneur and pro-actively promotes business activities through regulatory and planning support, institutionalizing pro-growth strategies and practices and promoting connections through intermediaries. This promotion of business activities occurs within a broader vision of public interest. Moreover, the entrepreneurial state attracts “footloose capital” by a slew of incentives and benefits to boost economic development. Finally, the attitude of the local officials is also focused on growth “partly because most accept the dominant ideology of growth, partly because some may personally benefit from increases in land rents”. Therefore, the dominant theme of the glocalization is that “growth feeds upon growth” and has put the notion of sustainable development on the back-burner.

Also watch: Watch: Eight-Year-Old Activist Asks Modi to Pass a Climate Change Law at COP25

What is required is to use the notion of sustainable development to benchmark all growth machine induced policies and programs. One way of making the idea operable is to use the sustainability triangle to achieve dual positive outcomes. The sustainability triangle consists of 3Es (economic development, equity, and environment preservation) represented by three corners of a triangle and the purpose of policy design is to reach, the centre, as much as possible. The 3Es interact with one another in complex and unknown ways and the complexity creates interdependence making prediction difficult. Moreover, in order to prevent gaming and cronyism, another recently added E, ethics, becomes important.

Simply, policy design has to include an evaluation of the winners and losers, among the 3Es, and informed, knowledgeable decisions made. Importantly, sustainable development goes beyond existing paradigms that are founded on either/or terms, such as environmental degradation has to be ignored during the process of economic development, the poor cannot wait for delays caused by including environmental concerns in programs.

However, this leads to zero-sum outcomes. What is required is a new paradigm that produces triple-positive outcomes. Identifying elements of this new paradigm is one key agenda for the COP25.

Sameer Sharma has a Ph.D. from the USA and a DLitt from Kanchi University. The article is based on his research and practice and views are personal.

Violence Against Women Is Fundamentally About Power

Attacks on women are common to developed and developing countries. Despite attempts to cover them up, they are a daily reality for many women and girls around the world.

Women’s March in USA. Credit: Wikipedia

Remarks made by UN Secretary-General António Guterres on International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

United Nations: Every woman and every girl has the right to a life free of violence. Yet this rupture of human rights occurs in a variety of ways in every community. It particularly affects those who are most marginalised and most vulnerable.

As it was just said, around the world, more than one in three women face violence throughout their lifetime; 750 million women were married before age 18, and more than 250 million have undergone female genital mutilation.

Women’s rights activists are being targeted at alarming levels. And violence against women politicians impedes progress on women’s civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights.

Women who run for office are more likely to encounter violence than men; women human rights defenders are at greater risk, and horrifying sexual violence in conflict shows no sign of abating.

There is increasing recognition that violence against women is a major barrier to the fulfilment of human rights, and a direct challenge to women’s inclusion and participation in sustainable development and sustaining peace.

There is also increasing evidence that violence against women and girls is linked to other attacks, including violent extremism and even terrorism.

This violence, the most visible sign of pervasive patriarchy and chauvinism, directly impacts women’s physical and psychological health. It affects whole families, communities and societies. While it continues, we will not achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The recent emergence of reports detailing sexual harassment in the workplace from many organisations and institutions worldwide shows how pervasive this form of sexual violence is.

I have stressed a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment at the United Nations. The Under-Secretary-General for Management Jan Beagle will follow up by chairing an Interagency Task Force that will examine our policies and look at strengthening our capacities to investigate reports and to support victims.

Attacks on women are common to developed and developing countries. Despite attempts to cover them up, they are a daily reality for many women and girls around the world.

As the prime minister of Portugal, one of my most difficult battles was to win recognition that family violence and especially against women was a serious issue and that we as a government should take measures to reduce and prevent it. I had to fight against a conspiracy of silence to push through urgently-needed reforms to the police and the judiciary.

It is time to further our collective action to end violence against women and girls – for good. That takes all of us working together in our own countries, regions and communities, at the same time, towards the same goal.

Antonio Guterres. Credit: United Nations

The United Nations is committed to addressing violence against women in all its forms.

First, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against women has been funding civil society organisations for twenty years. It has successfully awarded $129 million to 463 initiatives across 139 countries and territories.

Second, we recently launched the ‘Spotlight Initiative’, a large-scale effort by the UN and the European Union to eliminate all forms of violence against women. By connecting our efforts with those of national governments and civil society, this initiative aims to strengthen action on laws and policies, prevention, and services for survivors.

Third, the UN Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Initiative is leading to a comprehensive programme to end sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence in public spaces.

And fourth, earlier this year I launched a new, victim-centered approach to sexual exploitation and abuse committed by those serving under the UN. I am determined to prevent and end these crimes, which cause such lasting damage to the people and to the institution itself.

These initiatives should help us deliver transformative change. But much more needs to be done. We need a strong political will, increased resources and coordinated action.

Violence against women is fundamentally about power. It will only end when gender equality and the full empowerment of women will be a reality.

My policy on gender parity in the United Nations is one step towards achieving this goal so that we can access and capitalise on the full potential of all staff.

More broadly, I hope we are now seeing unprecedented momentum towards empowering women and achieving gender equality across the board and across the globe.

It is time for united action from all of us, so that women and girls around the world can live free from all forms of violence.

(IPS)

Habitat III Is Over, But Will Its New Urban Agenda Transform the World’s Cities?

Nation states, UN bodies and civil society gathered in Quito for Habitat III to adopt the New Urban Agenda. So how will the UN’s new global urban roadmap transform our cities over the next 20 years?

More than half the world lives in cities, and much of Habitat III was focussed on the use of data networks for better urban planning and development. This, however, leaves many questions unanswered.

Quito lights up for Habitat III. Alexei Trundle/The Conversation

The New Urban Agenda was officially adopted in Quito, Ecuador in the last plenary of the Habitat III conference.

The agenda provides a 20-year “roadmap” to guide sustainable urban development globally.

The text of the New Urban Agenda itself was agreed well before Habitat III at the UN General Assembly in September, during an extraordinary informal negotiation session that lasted for more than 30 hours.

This allowed the focus in Quito to shift towards commitment and action. Under the banner of the “Quito Implementation Plan”, commitments ranged from the development and enhancement of national urban policies, to integration between different levels of government.

The conference also saw announcements of new sources of international development assistance for countries to provide better access to housing and shelter for millions more people worldwide.

Sustainable urban development for all

More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities. So it makes sense that the New Urban Agenda will significantly shape the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The 2030 agenda is built around a series of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Most relevant to the New Urban Agenda is SDG 11, which aims to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. However, the New Urban Agenda has been criticised for lacking direct links to the targets set out within Goal 11.

What are the #globalgoals? The full list is here. https://t.co/wS27ckOzeE pic.twitter.com/nkJkpJQU7z

— UN Foundation (@unfoundation) October 21, 2016

Unlike their predecessors the Millennium Development Goals, the SDGs apply to all UN members states equally.

While most of the world’s rapid urban growth is in the Global South, challenges abound in the cities of Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and East Asia. In these regions, upgrading existing infrastructure and avoiding “carbon lock-in” – where old, carbon-intensive structures prevent the adopting of lower carbon alternatives – will require significant transformative efforts.

Much of Habitat III focused on the application of new technologies and the harvesting of big data, particularly in these established urban centres. Under the umbrella of smart cities, using open data networks for better urban planning provided an optimistic, technology-based future for cities. However, questions about the security, ethics, and oversight of large-scale information gathering remain largely unanswered.

Melbourne is consistently rated as the world’s ‘most liveable city’, but it’s also very carbon intensive. Credit: Alexei Trundle/The Conversation

Also included in the New Urban Agenda are renewed efforts to help developing countries urbanise. These build on earlier work under the Millennium Development Goals and Habitat II. Related commitments focus on emerging concepts, such as urban resilience and inclusive public spaces.

Commitments from individual countries under the Quito Implementation Plan were underwhelming. Instead, civil society and academia led the way with a range of commitments to new initiatives. This included a new $15 million Terwilliger Centre for Innovation in Shelter funded by Habitat for Humanity, and $2.3 million by the C40 Cities Finance Facility to upscale urban climate action. A full list of commitments to the Quito Implementation Plan can be found on the Habitat III website.

Despite references to Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States in the agenda, support for sustainable urbanisation in areas such as the Pacific was limited. As noted by one Pacific delegate:

There are not enough people talking about the Pacific, and the Pacific’s problems with urbanisation. We don’t have the means, but we are the ones being heavily impacted by disasters and climate change.

The role of partnerships between city authorities and universities in the Global South and their more developed neighbours was also strongly emphasised. UN-Habitat is soon to release a Higher Education Action Plan.

Participants in a training session on urban climate action planning in Small Island Developing States. Bernhard Barth/UN-Habitat/The Conversation

Was Habitat III a success?

Views on the success of the conference varied among Habitat III’s 36,000 participants. This was perhaps inevitable given the contested nature of cities and urban space.

A clear highlight was the participation of countless young Quito residents. Many attended side events and UN-Habitat’s Youth Assembly. The continued growth in the role of civil society, mayors and advocacy groups is a positive trend that should be supported.

Young Quiteñas and Quiteños participate in a UN-Habitat Training Session. Bernhard Barth/UN-Habitat/The Conversation

The parallel Alternative Habitat forums provided a platform for challenging some of the consensus-based narratives.

Bridging these official and unofficial events was the launch of the Quito Papers. Authored by a trio of world-renowned urban experts, The Quito Papers provide an alternative vision for cities of the future.

Unlike the Charter of Athens, which likened cities to machines, the Quito Papers consider cities as adaptive and evolving open systems. These papers urge decision-makers to give cities back to the people that inhabit them and promote equality and socially interactive spaces.

Towards Habitat IV

All countries will need to step up their commitments if the aspirations set out in Habitat III are to be achieved. Key concepts, such as integrated planning and models for local-national government cooperation, will need further work.

Although Habitat IV will not take place until 2036, a four-yearly review process has been agreed upon, building on the biannual World Urban Forum.

Also included in the New Urban Agenda is a review of UN-Habitat’s role in its implementation. It is not yet known whether a new “UN-Cities” entity will emerge when the review concludes in 2017.

From a planning perspective, 20 years is a short space of time to change the trajectory of global cities. However, the unplanned changes in our cities over the next two decades are almost equally unimaginable.

With the New Urban Agenda as a road map, it is hoped that we can rise to the challenge of creating more liveable, resilient and sustainable cities. Because without global urban transformation, we cannot achieve sustainable development as a whole.

Alexei Trundle is a PhD Candidate at the Australian-German Climate & Energy College, University of Melbourne; André Stephan is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne; Hayley Henderson is a PhD Candidate in Urban Planning at the University of Melbourne; Hesam Kamalipour is a PhD Candidate and Research Assistant in Urban Design at the University of Melbourne and Melanie Lowe is a Research Fellow at the McCaughey VicHealth Community Wellbeing Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.