On Facebook, my good friend Nestor Maniebo Pestelos shares
his sighs over 30 years of NGO work in the province of Bohol (11 January 2019, facebook.com):
After 3 decades of private citizens' group efforts, this is what he has to say:
We have a wealth of project
experiences, positive or negative, which can give us valuable lessons and get
us to be on the same page as we prepare for the implementation of the SDGs and
benefit from (their) localization thrust.
After 3 decades, Nestor is still talking about having to
"prepare for the implementation of the SDGs" and only then to
"benefit from their localization thrust." I don't point my blaming
finger on Nestor and the foundation that I know he heads; I point it directly
to the United Nations, UN – I say the UN is long on Sustainable Development
Goals, SDGs, with a list of 17 SDGs, but is short on Vision and Mission! With
those 17, what is the one single hope of the UN for the world to become by
2030? None. No Vision, thus no Mission to bring about that Vision – so where
are you going with 17 SDGs when you don't have a roadmap?!
That should be my good friend's lament.
What the UN means by "sustainable development" is
actually, as the UNDP puts it, "inclusive and sustainable growth (that)
helps people to contribute to and benefit from economic growth with minimal
impact on the environment" (undp.org).
The image above, from google.com, shows 17 Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs
(UN SDG Knowledge Platform, sustainabledevelopment.un.org):
The 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015,
provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet…
I can see no blueprint.
The images are just that, beautiful and separate. And so #1 is "No
Poverty." That is to say, the UN separates #1 from #2 "Zero
Hunger" from #8 "Decent Work And Economic Growth" and #13
"Climate Action" and so on and so forth. If you have a Roadmap like
that, no wonder you get lost! You cannot find the road not taken because you
are travelling 17 roads at the same time!
The UN target is inclusive
growth, which ends with a higher Gross Domestic Product, GDP, and whose
benefits do not filter to the poor.
The GDP is inclusive of the business people, and exclusive of the poor. So,
following UN protocols, my good friend Nestor cannot claim after 30 years so
many poor in Bohol have become UN-poor!
The Goal/Strategy should be inclusive market-oriented development, IMOD. I'm not the one saying
that; it's the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics, ICRISAT, when Filipino William Dar was Director General from 2000 to
2014.
ICRISAT's IMOD harnesses the power of the market to
reward the producers and simultaneously disengage the merchants from the value
chain, so that the poor producers are properly and richly rewarded.
Otherwise, with Inclusive Growth as Goal, like Nestor's, your
hands working for the poor are not united but tied, UN-free!517
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