According to a new report released on Thursday, the cost of achieving global goals to combat problems including hunger, poverty, and climate change increased by 25% to $176 trillion over the previous year as the performance on some of the indicators reversed. The report by the Force for Good Initiative (FFGI) has stated that the funding gap for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 2030 objectives supported by all member nations, has increased even more over the time.
Inflation Responsible
The report has claimed that the higher cost was fueled by soaring inflation and the increasing costs related to achieving net-zero carbon emissions, in addition to historical underfunding and the ever-shorter timeline.
As a result of escalating economic constraints, certain SDGs have made less progress, with 210 million more people experiencing food insecurity and 100 million more people living in extreme poverty, according to the report.
Despite the fact that there was an additional $450 trillion in liquid capital available for use in solving issues, much of it was stored in pension and other investments where institutions had a need to prioritise profits over the SDGs.
Non-Profitability
Ketan Patel, founder of the FFGI, which works with finance groups to help drive sustainable development has said to Reuters, “Our challenge is the SDGs are seen as a worthy cause but not really as a business case that can give a real return to the clients of those institutions”.
While it was important for clients to push institutions and the companies they invest in to focus on the SDGs, the institutions also needed to see the opportunities, he added.
These include building affordable housing for the estimated 2.4 billion urban dwellers by 2050, investing in the booming education technology industry to assist the 260 million children who are not currently enrolled in school, and implementing digital banking to assist the 67% of the world’s population who lack access to formal banking services.
Social Entrepreneurship the Key
In order to address the challenges and achieve the sustainable development goals by 2030, social entrepreneurship has to be encouraged and promoted. The emergence of a new era of collaborative social entrepreneurship with a focus on large-scale systemic change gives us optimism that we will be able to confidently navigate a world that is becoming more complex and uncertain while turning challenges into possibilities.
