Sustainable Development Goals

The Assam government's decision to hold a Cabinet meeting in each district headquarters every month is aimed at prioritising the performance of districts in achieving targets and implementing various schemes and projects. The North East Region District SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) Index and dashboard developed by the NITI Aayog can be a ready reckoner for the State government in identifying the gaps and setting the district level development agenda. The NER SDG Index is the first of its kind in the country as it focuses on a region and ranks 120 districts of eight states of the region on SDG goals and targets. According to NITI Aayog, the special index offers insights into the social, economic, and environmental status of the region and the districts in their march towards achieving the SDGs. The Index will be prepared and published annually, and reports will be disseminated to be used as a tool in the hands of all interested stakeholders - policymakers, government functionaries, civil society organisations, academia, businesses, and citizens at large. Assam became the first state in the region in 2016 to align its development schemes with SDGs and in having an SDG Vision. The NER SDG index, however, reveals that only in respect of five SDGs Assam districts have figured among the top five good performing districts of the region. No district of the state has figured among top five districts in respect of 10 SDGs - Zero Hunger; Good Health and Well-being; Quality Education; Gender Equality; Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy; Decent Work and Economic Growth; Reduced Inequalities; Sustainable Cities and Communities and Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. Kamrup district of the state has figured among the top five districts in respect of SDG 1 of No poverty which is aimed at ending poverty by 2030. The district has also figured in the list in respect of SDG 7 of Affordable and Clean Energy. Two districts – Udalguri and Karbi Anglong have figured in the list of top five in respect of SDG 12 of Responsible Consumption and Production, Darrang and Sivavagar have figured in SDG13 of Climate Action. Six of the seven good performing districts in respect of SDG 9 that aims to provide ample opportunities for industry, innovation and infrastructure, are from the state – Kamrup (Metropolitan), Morigaon, Hailakandi, Jorhat, Nagaon and Nalbari. The objectives of the NER SDG Index, as stated by NITI Aayog are to rank the districts of the eight states of the region based on their relative performance across the 15 SDGs (SDG 14 and SDG 17 are not relevant in the region), identify critical gaps and challenges in performance and achievements to strategise necessary corrective measures so that suitable interventions can be undertaken to iron them out, promote healthy competition among the States towards achieving the goals, create a platform for collaboration and enable districts to learn from the good practices of their peers and identify data gaps in the statistical system of the States and the sectors in which robust and more frequent data collection needs to be instituted. Based on the score, each district is categorised into one of the four categories of Aspirant (score of 0-49), Performer (50-64), Front Runner (65-99) and Achiever (100- achieved the target set for 2030). All districts in Sikkim and Tripura have been categorised in the Front Runner category while 23 districts in Assam fall in this category. The disparities among districts within a state as well as among districts in the region call for states prioritising development goals based on NER SDG rankings. The dashboard will the State government as well as Autonomous Councils in reviewing the resource allocations under various heads of the state budget keeping in mind the performance of the districts in respect of achieving the SDGs. Monitoring and evaluation play the crucial role of ensuring that implementation of development schemes and projects are progressing as intended and in making a course correction if deficiencies are observed. The state cabinet decision that ministers will review the performance of two districts while going to a cabinet meeting held in a district headquarters and two districts on their way back is a welcome move, but the outcome of such review will produce more results if the ministers and officials make optimal use of the NER SDG rankings and dashboard to identify the gaps. The challenge, however, is to ensure that the primary objectives of these meetings do not get lost in optics of refurbishing government offices, beautification of roads near the Cabinet meeting venue and attention of the government and district authorities concerned are more focussed on development priorities for the entire district. Expediting the preparation of the Assam SDG Dashboard to make available more elaborate development indicators for each district should get more priority to ensure that the state can achieve all SDG goals by 2030.