Daily Times

On 20 April 2018, I was honoured to be invited on UNIDO Day 2018: Belt and Road Cross-Border Cooperation Forum held in Shanghai, China. This year United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) presented the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which encapsulates the main agenda of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and act as a guiding path globally, regionally and for a national development plan for the next 15 years. I have observed that very few among the audience are aware of these goals.

There are 17-key SDGs which UNIDO is primarily focusing. They include poverty eradication by ensuring that all people in the society share the benefits of industrialisation; improvement in the standard of living; complete elimination of hunger that supports value addition to agricultural output and further helps in reducing post-harvest losses which increases overall resource efficiency, and in parallel, creating job opportunities for rural communities and improving the food security conditions by targeting more on agri-business development and upgrading agro-food value chains.

Good-health and wellbeing is another important element that supports and encourages the establishment of a pharmaceutical industry in developing countries for the domestic production of the significant generic drugs and necessary equipment and appliances.

Furthermore, quality education is also one of the goals which support the development of entrepreneurial culture and skills, putting more emphasis on technical and vocational training institutes, which act as an engine to generate the skilled human resource. Gender equality is another goal which encourages the women in acquiring skills and getting access to financial and productive resources that leads them to optimal efficiency. Clean water and proper sanitation is still the major concern in developing nations thus it is also on the target list to assist countries with the transfer of best available technologies and environmental practices to overall improve the productivity and water management.

Besides this, affordable and clean energy is an utmost requirement.

A detailed emphasis was laid on collaborative development of industry, innovation and infrastructure which are closely inter-related. It seeks to advance poverty eradication through partnerships with all stakeholders involved in industrialisation process. It promotes rapid economic and industrial growth through the application of modern industrial policies and compliances with global standards and norms.

It also aims to advance environmentally sustainable growth which generates institutional capacities for greening industries through cleaner production technologies and resource efficiency methodologies, which promote green industries spurred by technology facilitation, innovation and partnership building.

To achieve all the SDGs, it is important to have peace, justice and strong institutions which support the restoration of economic activities and empowerment of communities

Similarly, reduced inequalities are also targeted which promote greater productivity, stable employment, and increased incomes and improves economic opportunities between and within populations, countries and regions. Sustainable and smart cities and communities development is a new concept been introduced by UNIDO. It promotes smart industries and industrial clusters in urban industrial zones that accelerate innovation, resource efficiency and industrial competitiveness by creating local business connections with global markets and interlinked supply chains. Moreover, responsible consumption and production are also one of the key agenda which promote green industries, efficient resource management, cleaner production and drawing of sustainable policies in industrial production and consumption with the circular economy approach.

Besides this, due to rapid globalisation and industrialisation, there are adverse effects on the environment. Therefore, the climate is also considered. It aims at promoting the reduction of industrial CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions with the aid of sustainable energy solutions and cleaner production industrial processes. The life below water is also taken into account to support efforts to reduce the detrimental industrial impacts on water bodies through sound water management. Moreover, the lives on land are targeted which aim at improving the rural livelihoods, food security and agricultural production in a sustainable manner.

In order to achieve all the above objectives, it is important to have peace, justice and strong institutions which support the restoration of economic activities and empowerment of communities affected by crises to improve the human security conditions, which are the major dilemma of third world countries. Lastly, to achieve all the above-enlisted goals there is dire for having a country-level partnership for the goals so that UNIDO can facilitate international cooperation’s, multi-stakeholder partnerships and alignment of public and private investments and industrial policies. Conduct capacity building to strengthen technology exchange mechanisms, technology policy coordination measures and provides the technical and statistical support to the monitoring and review of the sustainable development goals.

The writer is Advisor/Master Trainer, Pakistan Industrial Technical Assistance Centre, Lahore

Published in Daily Times, April 30^th 2018.