Sustainable Development Goals: Goal Nine;building a resilient infrastructure, encourage sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Executive Summary

The following essay highlights the targets of SDGs goals under the UN agenda vision of 2030.  It highlights the objectives especially of the ninth goal which targets achieving building resilient infrastructure, encourage sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. Also, the text is inclusive of an analysis of Brazil’s strategies to meet the goals and indicators of their success on the same.

Introduction

In 2015, the United Nations member states adopted the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. The move saw the development of a common blueprint to achieving prosperity and peace for all individuals and the globe, today and in the future. The key highlights of the agenda include the 17 Sustainable Development goals (SDGs) (United Nations, 2018). They involve a worldwide collaboration of all nations both developing and developed to a call for action. The SDGs identify that to bring an end to poverty plus other deprivations,strategies to improve education and health,minimize inequality and boost economic growth should go hand-in-hand. All this should be considered simultaneously if we are to achieve global prosperity, and still tackle changes in climate and try to preserve our forests and oceans.

The 2030 sustainable blueprint agenda represent years of work done by nations and the UN. Key among these SDGs, is the ninth goal.  The agenda of this goal aims at achieving building resilient infrastructure,encourage sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. Investing in infrastructure is vital to seeing sustainable development and empowering societies in majority of nations. It has been identified that progress in transport,energy,information,irrigation and communication technology lead to a growth in income and productivity plus an improvement in the outcomes of education and health. Also, manufacturing being one of the key drivers of economic development and employment opportunities, is assessed in this agenda. The levels of Carbon Dioxide emissions released in manufacturing plants are a hot issue which countries hope to reduce through the watchful eye under this agenda.

Goal nine aims to achieve several objectives including; developing resilient,sustainable,quality and reliable infrastructure. This includes trans-border and regional infrastructure that supports human well-being and economic growth while focusing on equitable and affordable accessibility to all. Also, the agenda also targets to encourage sustainable and inclusive industrialization. It aims to significantly increase the industry’s share of gross domestic product and employment with regard to a country’s circumstances. The ninth goal also aims to improve the accessibility of small-scale enterprises and industries to financial services such as affordable credit and their inclusion into markets and value chains.  The ninth goal under the UN agenda also states that by 2030 all nations should improve their infrastructure and substandard industries to make them sustainable. It requires all countries to take actions to the best of their ability in trying to adopt environmentally friendly and clean industrial processes and technologies with regard to improving efficiency in using resources. In addition to this, the goal aims to boost scientific research, and, improve the technological capacity of the industrial sectors in all nations especially in developing countries. This includes enhancing innovation and significantly increasing the number of people working in research and development fields per 1 million people. It aims to increase private and public spending on research and development. The objectives of this goal also target to support domestic developments in technology,innovation and research in developing nations by ensuring a suitable policy environment that allows alia,inter,diversification plus value addition to products. Another objective of the ninth goal under the vision 2030 UN agenda is to extensively increase accessibility to communications and information technology and aims to provide affordable and universal access to the internet in developing nations by 2020.

When looking at the progress of achieving the SDG agendas globally, one needs to analyze the developments made by each nation in seeing through the success of meeting the agenda. This not only helps in gauging the improvements made by the country’s strategies to meet the SDGs but also in sharing the innovations applied in different regions across the world towards  common goals. One such country is Brazil.Brazil is not a developed nation despite having several characteristics of one.It has the largest economy in Central America.However, the country has low living standards,low GDP per capita and high infant mortality rates among other factors similar to other developing countries (UNESCO, 2018).Brazil experienced a time of social and economic growth between 2003 and 2014. Over 29 million people left poverty as levels of inequality reduced extensively. The country recorded an increase in the income levels of the poorest by close to 7% between the periods alongside a 4.4% growth in the nation’s population as a whole. As from 2015 however, the county recorded a stagnation in the pace of poverty eradication and reducing inequality.

The country also needs to increase its growth in productivity and development in infrastructure. Brazil has among the least levels in investments to infrastructure (only 2% of GDP) a far cry from its peers (Elvis Korku Avenyo, 2012). Furthermore, the quality of these investments is poor. For this reason, the industry,innovation and infrastructure goals are a key agenda to the nation. Boosting growth in productivity is among the nation’s key goals. The country will need to invest more in infrastructure so as to ensure appropriate care of existing infrastructure, by removing bottlenecks and increasing accessibility to social services.

The government of Brazil is promoting and supporting policies and strategies aimed at improving infrastructural development and growth in productivity. This includes creating plans to improve the government’s planning capabilities, improving the regulatory framework and leveraging private entities to finance infrastructural investments. In the last 18 years, the country’s government has pursued to expand innovation via funds that target certain socio-economic sectors. One such sector is the Inova-Agro sector which has been funding the agribusiness sector since 2013.Today, close to 20 of such funds developed by the government exist in the country.  They have become Brazil’s key source of research funding. A typical sectorial fund works in the following way; each one of these sectors receives funds through taxes from a particular industrial or service sector. An example is the energy utility sector which receives money from energy companies (The World Bank, 2016). The Brazilian laws stipulate that the electricity companies in the nation must invest part of their revenue in programs promoting energy efficiency and contribute to the National Science and Technology Development Fund (FNDCT) that channels money to institutions conducting research and industrial research centers.

The government of Brazil has also created a national commission charged with overseeing the works undertaken in the nation to promote infrastructural development, research and innovation alongside the other SDGs goals. The commission for the SDGs was founded by the presidential decree, published on October 2016, as an institutional instrument to support the motivation, monitoring and implementation of the SDGs in Brazil.

Brazil’s strategy is working in improving the innovations in the country as more funds are directed towards the sector. This can evidently be seen by the strong economic growth recorded in the country between 2006 and 2010 attributed to a growth in the investments of business research from 0.49% to 0.57% of GDP in the nation. Also, other Latin nations following in Brazil’s footsteps is an indicator of the country’s successful strategy. Argentina, Mexico and Uruguay have all adopted funding programs and policies towards their research institutions.

A study in 2014 indicates that cities in Brazil would be among the most important regions in Latin America in the growth in software related industries.  Business process outsourcing is forecast to hire 1.2 million people and generate revenue of US $18.5 billion in Latin America.The country is also among the places where businesses contribute to the national research effort with 43% total contribution.

Conclusion

SDGs address the global problems we face, such as those related to inequality, climate, poverty, prosperity, degradation, peace and justice. The goals of SDGs in the 2030 UN vision agenda are interconnected to include all and leave no one behind. This is important so as to achieve all targets by 2030.  Brazil is among the middle level income countries establishing measures and goals aimed at achieving the objectives of the agenda.  The country’s government has put in place policies that require firms and businesses to channel capital to innovative ventures and research institutions. If all nations implement effective strategies to meet the SDGs objectives then the targets will be achieved by 2030.

References

Elvis Korku Avenyo, C.-L. C. (2012). Tracking trends in innovation and mobility. Retrieved from UNESCO: https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/usr15_tracking_trends_in_innovation_and_mobility.pdf

The World Bank. (2016). The World Bank In Brazil. Retrieved from The World Bank: https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/brazil/overview

UNESCO. (2018). UNESCO Measuring progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 9. Retrieved from UNESCO Science Report : https://en.unesco.org/unesco_science_report/sdg9

United Nations. (2018). About the Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved from Sustainable Developments Goals: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

 
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