Discussion on India’s Voluntary National Review 2020 at UN Forum on Sustainable Development

Participants - Ms Sanyukta Samaddar, Advisor (SDGs) Niti Aayog and Mattu JP Singh - AIR Special Correspondent

Context

NITI Aayog presented India’s second Voluntary National Review (VNR) at the United Nations High-level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, 2020.

Background

All the countries must come together to convert the present covert 19 situation into an opportunity for accelerating the progress towards achieving the sustainable development goals and the targets
It is being emphasized that the role of international cooperation is more critical than ever before

Highlights

NITI Aayog presented india's second VNR at the United Nations high-level political forum
It is the world's foremost platform where all the member states meet in terms of presenting their voluntary and state-led review on the progress of the 17 SDGs
India's second VNR emphasized on taking sdgs from global to local
India had presented its first VNR in 2017.

The present pandemic is not seen as a challenge but as an opportunity to move towards SDGs.
To leverage partnerships and to create synergies not only within the country but also beyond our borders primarily to ascertain how these challenges can be met not only through the government efforts but going beyond the government reach by creating a whole of society approach.

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The VNR Report and the Process

The entire process has been led by NITI Aayog
It consulted not only governments and ministries but also the business sector , as it is one of the key contributors towards the SDGs.
This report is a comprehensive account of the adoption and implementation of the 2030 agenda in india.
It presents a review of the progress on the 17 SDGs and also discusses at length about the policy and enabling environment.
Apart from the businesses NITI also engaged with a multitude of civil society organizations

NITI Aayog also released the VNR report titled “Decade of Action : Taking SDGs from Global to Local '' which resonates with prime minister’s call of being vocal for local and creating an Atmanirbhar bharat.
This talks about taking platforms and creating localized solutions primarily to ensure that the SDGs remain not only focused on the state capital or on the country's capital but these are taken to beyond the state level borders to districts and to the local governments.
It is where the people, the community lives and where they face problems and require innovative solutions.
Our VNR report focuses on creating a different India. It conceptualizes india as ‘sashakta and sabal’ which is ‘empowered and resilient’ , ‘swachh and swasth bharat’ which is ‘clean and healthy india’ and through its various initiatives focuses on social and financial inclusion in terms of creating a ‘samagara and saksham bharat’.
It also focuses on creating a sustainable India through climate action and a ‘prosperous and vibrant India’ i.e ‘sampan and samridh’ and finally the atmanirbhar bharat.
The progress of India from 2017 to 2020 has been one of the key aspects of the report.

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Progress on SDGs

Creating an SDG framework for the entire country is not a one size fits all and hence NITI developed the entire SDG localization model.

It is a champion through creating the adoption, implementation and monitoring framework for the SDGs by customizing it to the regional specificities of different states and regions.
India has improved its composite score from 57 in 2018 to 60 the Sustainable Development Goals Index 2019-20

This has been also achieved due to better works in water sanitation, affordable and clean energy , industry innovation and infrastructure.

India's engagement through the south south cooperation and through international forums has been extremely explicable.

In terms of the climate action we have set for ourselves very ambitious targets.
First we had a target of 175 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2022, this has been substantially increased to 450 gigawatts by 2030
It will ensure that our commitments of the Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Climate Agreement are always on track and if not by 2030 we are able to achieve them way in advance.
India stands today 3rd in renewable power , 4th in wind power and 5th in solar power installed capacity.
The jump has been almost 75% in the installed capacity of renewable energy in the last four years.

India’s Global Engagement

India has increased global engagement at platforms such as International Solar Alliance and Sendai Framework.
Multilateralism works the best in terms of desiring collectivized solutions.
At International Solar Alliance India played a leadership role along with France to create this alliance of the tropical countries for renewable energy
The coalition for the Disaster Resilient Infrastructure is another global partnership where India has been leading for disaster resilience.

India is also a part of the India-U.N development Partnership Fund which is to the extent of $150 million.

Through these the spirit of regional and global partnerships and the country's commitment of ‘leaving no one behind’ is highlighted.

These are some of the key areas in which India supports not only the SDGs within its own country but also among the developing countries and our developmental partners.

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Role of NITI Aayog

The NITI Aayog has the mandate of overseeing the adoption and monitoring of SDGs at the national and sub-national level.
It worked in tandem and partnerships with all the states and union territories especially in terms of localizing the SDGs.

Through structured reviews and engagements at least thrice in one year it has been able to ensure that the states become the drivers of the SDGs.

As the nodal body, NITI has been conscious of its role as a facilitator for cooperative and competitive federalism.

It worked towards hand-holding the states in terms of developing their monitoring framework and facilitating partnership and capacity building.
23 states have already prepared their SDG vision roadmaps.
25 states have mapped their SDG targets with their departments and are also in the process of aligning the budget allocation with sdg which is a stupendous success for a country with so much diversity.
The SDG India Index has played a very strong role in terms of pushing the states and enabling them to focus on SDGs at their district level and to learn from the best practices.

Progress in the northeast region is crucial in this decade of action for the country to achieve the SDGs by 2030.
The Northeast SDG Conclave brought about a stupendous amount of focus in terms of the key issues of livelihoods, climate adaptation , resilient infrastructure ,agriculture and especially skills and employment and marketability.

Partnerships and synergies built across the states and between the states and the business sector between the states and the international and the donor organizations and the philanthropies go a long way in terms of improving the results in the field and delivering better outcomes, so that these SDG targets can be achieved on time.

Whole-of-Society Approach

This year a paradigm shift has taken place in terms of embodying a whole of society approach in letter and spirit.
It is not merely a Government representation but a complete country's representation.
13 population groups were identified and over a thousand CSOs,community organizations who have been engaging with these groups and belong to these groups were invited and then regional consultations were conducted across the country.
These communities at grassroots came up with rich ideas and recommendations.
The importance of gathering feedback and the need to strengthen the capabilities of local institutions address the concerns of these groups.
It helped in customizing the implementation of government programs based on the specific needs and the specific context of different groups.
The urgency of leveraging technology and innovation for creating maximum impact was also highlighted by these groups.