Sustaining the Sustainable Development Goals

This article critiques the framework used for assessing the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals and their comparison across states. While acknowledging the novel intention of such an exercise, the article argues for the need to ensure scientific rigour and improve the validity of the exercise.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which represent a blueprint for the achievement of a better and more sustainable future for all by 2030, comprise 17 goals and a subset of 169 targets. India has made significant progress towards the realisation of SDGs at various levels, including the development of an SDG localisation model centred around the adoption, implementation, and monitoring of these goals (NITI Aayog 2019–20). NITI Aayog, which has been monitoring the performance in the attainment of SDGs across the states since 2018, groups them in terms of their performance into four categories, namely aspirants (with an index value of 0–49), front runners (with index value of 50–64), performers (with index value of 65–99), and achievers (with an index value of 100). Such an exercise facilitates a relative comparison of the performance as well as a diagnosis of the progress in each of the goals.