Pathways to improve SDG India Index in Assam

Dr Jiban C Phukan

(He can be reached at jcphookansdg@gmail.com)

17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 167 targets was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 23rd September 2015 as global agenda to be achieved between 2016 and 2030. India with a population of 1.3 billion is critical for UN in achieving SDGs. The Government of India and states/UTs have taken up various measures since 2016 onwards for developing SDGs implementation and monitoring framework to achieve its goals. NITI Aayog is the national coordinating agency for SDGs and guiding states/UTs on planning and monitoring of SDGs by providing an effective national-level platform.

In order to monitor progress in achieving of SDGs, NITI Aayog has developed SDG India Index (SDGII) and published annual report by ranking the performance of states/UTs since 2018. This SDGII has brought all states/UTs into a single platform highlighting the performance of development indicators in the critical areas. The report could generate a lot of interest among the Governments, academicians etc at national and international levels. It has also set forth a healthy competition for improving the state scores, which is only possible through effective planning, implementation and monitoring of development schemes and good governance.

On 4th June 2021, the third SDG India Index Report for 2020 was released as SDGII 3.0. It revealed that India as a country is making good progress with 66 score out of 100 towards achieving SDGs based on the performance of 115 indicators covering 70 targets of 17 SDGs. However, some of the states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam could not show the desired performances. Assam is placed at 26th place out of 28 states with 57 score out of 100. Most of the NE states like Mizoram, Tripura, Sikkim, Manipur have shown better performances. Time has come to analyse the loopholes impacting on the results so as to initiate course corrective measures by the Government in right earnest.

The comparative analysis of the last three SDGII:

The first SDG India Index 1.0 was published by NITI Aayog in December 2018 covering 13 SDGs, 39 targets with 62 indicators. The SDG India Index is a composite index worked out based on the assigned weightage to each indicator. The states/UTs are categorized as Aspirational for score of 0 to 49, 50 – 64 as Performer, 65 – 99 as Front Runner and score of 100 as achiever based on the secured score of the composite index. Assam with score of 47 placed at Aspirational category. It paced at 27th position out of the 29 states.

The second SDG India Index 2.0 covering 15 SDGs with 59 targets and 100 indicators was published in December 2019. Assam could improve its performance from Aspirational to Performer category with score of 55. The state placed at 23rd position out of 28 the states.

A comparative analysis of performance of SDG India Index 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 of Assam revealed some interesting facts in the development scenario of the state.

The incremental rate of performance improvement of SDGII score has reduced from 12% to 4% in 2019-2020 in Assam. SDG wise performance in some of the critical development sector like 2(Zero hunger) and 4(Quality education), 5(gender equality) and 9(infrastructure) remained to be in the aspirational category. These sectors are basically falling under the jurisdiction of departments like Social Welfare, Education, Home, Labour welfare, IT, Science & Technology etc. However, the performance of SDG 3 (Health), 11 (Resilient city) and 13 (Climate action) mostly dealt by Health & FW, UDD/GDD and Environment & Forest Departments have shown improvement in their performance in 2020.One of the worries for the public health is the slipping of the performance of SDG 6 (Sanitation & clean water) mostly dealt by PHE from Front runner to the performer category in 2020.

SDGs are indivisible goals and cannot be achieved by targeting one sector and neglecting others. It requires a coordinated convergence approach of all departments at all levels. The State government aspires to develop Assam as one of top five states by 2026. SDGII is one the most acceptable indexes accepted by the Central Government and by UN agencies. Therefore, state Government has to chalk out a time-bound action plan for improving the performance of Index in Assam.

Five years have already passed since adoption of SDG and at the current pace and performance it would be impossible to achieve these ambitious targets for the critical indicators. To improve this situation, there is an urgent need to identify the bottlenecks in the system and initiate course correction measures at highest level of Government. Overall, there is need to provide additional impetus in the critical sector of development of the state particularly, to catch up the national targets annually and SDGs by 2030.

In this respect, Assam was the first state to adopt SDGs and had prepared 'Assam Agenda 2030' as a document of strategies and actions to achieve SDGs in extensive consultations of departments, experts and other stakeholders, District SDGs Manual, State/District Indicator framework and capacity building of officials upto district level by 2019. The efforts of Assam in developing in-house implementation framework through setting up of Centre for SDGs at AASC was recognized at national level. The Centre was set as knowledge hub of SDGs and had been functioning successfully with technical experts/advisers collaborating with UNDP/ UNICEF and others. It was closed in March 2020.

With so much work done on SDGs, the state is not able to improve its SDG Index due to various shortcomings in the effective monitoring of the implementation framework at appropriate level of government. One of the basic lacunae is the lack of robust monitoring system of SDG indicators at state/district level. SDGs call for multi-dimensional innovative approach of monitoring and management with a dedicated team of officers/experts. At present, there is no such dedicated unit to oversee the implementation and monitoring of SDGs in the Government except T&D as the nodal department.

In order to achieve a faster progress and create a visible impact, among other systematic governance issues, the state Government may think of prioritizing certain SDGs for short-term action (2021-2023), a few for medium-term action (2023-2026) action and the remaining ones for long-term (2026-2030) action along with the implementation framework already developed under 'Assam Agenda 2030' with suitable modification as warranted with ultimate aim of achieving all the SDGs by 2030.