In today’s column I shall start addressing the very last topic left in this extended series of discussions on the United Nations (UN) Post-2015 Development Agenda Summit and its related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In last week’s column, I had labelled this last topic as, ‘operational and implementation concerns’, which I have about the SDGs implementation in Guyana, even though I remain fully supportive of them, as an effective framework for promoting long-term socio-economic and environmental development in Guyana, and the wider Caricom region. In that column, I had also raised particular concerns about the lethargic roles played by locally-based UN agencies, the lead line-ministries, and civil society organisations, in helping to design and frame the SDGs in the context of Guyana’s long-term development.
While the operational and implementation concerns that I have are varied, before I address these, let me first draw attention to long-term projections of the global economy to 2030, (which is the end date for the SDGs). The projections I shall refer to have been made in isolation of the probable impact of the SDGs on global development outcomes to 2030. And, importantly these projections have been made by the World Bank. I believe they reveal a pattern of global performance, which Guyana and Caricom can ill afford to ignore.
Global development horizons
Just prior to the commencement of the Open Working Group (OWG) process tasked with formulating the SDGs, the World Bank had produced in 2013, yet another edition of its famous Global Development Horizons Reports. The 2013 Report had projected that, by 2030, approximately one-half of the