Bold Action Needed for a Sustainable Future

The path to bold action – as a global community and as a nation – lies in collaboration and solidarity, in being truly ready for a future that might be anonymized by data yet companionate enough to be human-centric.

The world is readying for the final stretch of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) journey, and only 17 per cent of its targets are on track. The SDGs 2024 Report reveals that progress has either stalled or reversed in almost half of the targets: 48 per cent of the targets showing moderate to severe deviations, and 18 per cent demonstrate stagnation or regression from the 2015 baseline. 

Pakistan’s SDG indicators have followed a similarly alarming pattern. According to UNDP's Integrated SDG Insights Report 2023, Pakistan is on track to meet only 35 out of 169 SDG targets. The country needs a substantial 'SDG Push' that involves high-intensity economic reforms and an estimated US$52 billion, (equivalent to 16.1 per cent of GDP) to achieve the SDGs by 2030. So where can Pakistan get a ‘push’? 

The United Nations Summit of the Future this month offers one such timely and important space. Member States are called upon to reflect on how the world can achieve its Global Goals, as international systems and government policies and actions are clearly outpaced by today’s challenges. The only way forward is through a renewed commitment to the principles of interdependence, international cooperation, and ‘upgrading’ the multilateral system to meet today’s needs. 

World leaders have been deliberating thus far on an ambitious, transformational, urgent, accelerated, action-oriented “Pact of the Future” revolving around five themes: 1) Sustainable development and financing; 2) International peace and security; 3) Science, Technology, and Innovation (SIT) and digital cooperation; 4) Youth and future generations; and 5) Transforming global governance. Unsurprisingly, all five themes are critically important for Pakistan’s own development ambitions, as well as for Pakistan’s regional and global advocacy and voice. So, as this special issue of the DAP is dedicated to the Summit of the Future, we ask, how can Pakistan build and scale bold actions to achieve its SDGs? 

This month’s DAP contributors unanimously argue for adopting a future-ready, transformative approach to the remaining years of Pakistan’s SDGs commitment that is grounded in equity and inclusion, premised on stability, multidisciplinary and concurrent in nature, and certainly reformed, efficient and effective in how it’s governed. This approach resonates with the Summit’s bold ambitions, while at the same time raising the stakes for Pakistan given the development challenges it faces.

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