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SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

The Sustainable Development Goal 17 (abbr. SDG 17 or Global Goal 17) is about “partnerships for the goals.” One of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015, the official wording is: “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development”. SDG 17 refers to the need for the nonhegemonic and fair cross sector and cross-country collaborations in pursuit of all the goals by the year 2030. It is a call for countries to align policies.

SDG 17 is a vision for improved and more equitable trade, as well as coordinated investment initiatives to promote sustainable development across borders. It is about strengthening and streamlining cooperation between nation-states, both developed and developing, using the SDGs as a shared framework and a shared vision for defining that collaborative way forward. It seeks to promote international trade and an equitable trading system. The Goal has 17 targets to be achieved by 2030, broken down into five categories: finance, technology, capacity building, trade and systemic issues. Progress towards targets will be measured by 25 indicators. All these targets are regarded as means of implementation targets.

With US$5 trillion to $7 trillion in annual investment required to achieve the SDGs, total official development assistance reached US$147.2 billion in 2017. This, although steady, is below the set target. In 2016, six countries met the international target to keep official development assistance at or above 0.7 percent of gross national income. In 2017, international remittances amounted US$613 billion, with 76 percent invested in developing countries. The bond market for sustainable business is also growing. In 2018 global green bonds reached US$155.5billion, up to 78 percent from 2017.

Humanitarian crises brought on by conflict or natural disasters have continued to demand more financial resources and aid. Even so, many countries also require official development assistance to encourage growth and trade. The global progress map for SDG 17 shows that significant and major challenges remain in the majority of the world. Many regions of strong economic status perform very poorly, like the United States and much of Europe.

Background
The Sustainable Development Goals are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations to be implemented by the year 2030. A successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society. These inclusive partnerships built upon principles and values, a shared vision, and shared goals that place people and the planet at the center, are needed at the global, regional, national and local level.

Sustainable Goal 17 targets long-term investments to empower sectors and companies in need, more adaptable in developmental countries. Its main aim reaches improving the following aspects of a country that include energy, infrastructure, transportation systems, IT infrastructure to different communications technologies channels.

The framework of development covers evaluating and following up with rules and regulations, the sector’s structure to attract more investment projects to the country and thus improving its economical standards.

TargetsIndicator(s)
Finance
17.1    Strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support to developing countries, to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection		17.1.1    Total government revenue as a proportion of GDP, by source
 
17.1.2    Proportion of domestic budget funded by domestic taxes
17.2    Developed countries to implement fully their official development assistance commitments, including the commitment by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income for official development assistance (ODA/GNI) to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries; ODA providers are encouraged to consider setting a target to provide at least 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries17.2.1    Net official development assistance, total and to least developed countries, as a proportion of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee donors’ gross national income (GNI)
17.3    Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources17.3.1    Foreign direct investment, official development assistance and South-South cooperation as a proportion of gross national income
 
17.3.2    Volume of remittances (in United States dollars) as a proportion of total GDP
17.4    Assist developing countries in attaining long-term debt sustainability through coordinated policies aimed at fostering debt financing, debt relief and debt restructuring, as appropriate, and address the external debt of highly indebted poor countries to reduce debt distress17.4.1    Debt service as a proportion of exports of goods and services
17.5    Adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for least developed countries17.5.1    Number of countries that adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for developing countries, including the least developed countries
Technology
17.6    Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge- sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism		17.6.1    Fixed Internet broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, by speed
17.7    Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed17.7.1    Total amount of funding for developing countries to promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies
17.8    Fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacity-building mechanism for least developed countries by 2017 and enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology17.8.1    Proportion of individuals using the Internet
Capacity-building
17.9    Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the Sustainable Development Goals, including through North- South, South-South and triangular cooperation		17.9.1    Dollar value of financial and technical assistance (including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation) committed to developing countries
Trade
17.10  Promote a universal, rules-based, open,
non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization, including through the conclusion of negotiations under its Doha Development Agenda		17.10.1  Worldwide weighted tariff-average
17.11  Significantly increase the exports of developing countries, in particular with a view to doubling the least developed countries’ share of global exports by 202017.11.1  Developing countries’ and least developed countries’ share of global exports
17.12  Realize timely implementation of duty-free and quota-free market access on a lasting basis for all least developed countries, consistent with World Trade Organization decisions, including by ensuring that preferential rules of origin applicable to imports from least developed countries are transparent and simple, and contribute to facilitating market access17.12.1  Weighted average tariffs faced by developing countries, least developed countries and small island developing States
Systemic issues
Policy and institutional coherence
17.13  Enhance global macroeconomic stability, including through policy coordination and policy coherence		17.13.1  Macroeconomic Dashboard
17.14  Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development17.14.1  Number of countries with mechanisms in place to enhance policy coherence of sustainable development
17.15  Respect each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development17.15.1  Extent of use of country-owned results frameworks and planning tools by providers of development cooperation
Multi-stakeholder partnerships
17.16  Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, in particular developing countries		17.16.1  Number of countries reporting progress in multi- stakeholder development effectiveness monitoring frameworks that support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals
17.17  Encourage and promote effective public, public- private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships17.17.1  Amount in United States dollars committed to public-private partnerships for infrastructure
Data, monitoring and accountability
17.18  By 2020, enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts		17.18.1  Statistical capacity indicator for Sustainable Development Goal monitoring
 
17.18.2  Number of countries that have national statistical legislation that complies with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics
 
17.18.3  Number of countries with a national statistical plan that is fully funded and under implementation, by source of funding
17.19  By 2030, build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product, and support statistical capacity-building in developing countries17.19.1  Dollar value of all resources made available to strengthen statistical capacity in developing countries
 
17.19.2  Proportion of countries that (a) have conducted at least one population and housing census in the last 10 years; and (b) have achieved 100 per cent birth registration and 80 per cent death registration

Custodian agencies
Custodian agencies are in charge of reporting on the following indicators:

  • Indicator 17.1.1 and 17.1.2: International Monetary Fund (IMF)
  • Indicator 17.2.1 and 17.9.1: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
  • Indicator 17.3.1: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
  • Indicator 17.3.2, 17.4.1 and 17.17.1: World Bank (WB)
  • Indicator 17.5.1: UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
  • Indicator 17.6.1: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UNESCO-UIS)
  • Indicator 17.6.2: International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
  • Indicator 17.7.1: United Nations Environmental Programme-Climate Technology Centre and Network (UNEP-CTCN)
  • Indicator for 17.8.1: International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
  • Indicator 17.10.1, 17.11.1, 17.12.1 and 17.13.1: World Trade Organization (WTO), International Trade Centre (ITC) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
  • Indicator 17.14.1: United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)
  • Indicator 17.15.1 and 17.16.1: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
  • Indicator 17.18.1 and 17.19.2: Department of Economic and Social Affairs-Statistics Division (DESA-UNSD)
  • Indicator 17.18.2 and 17.18.3: PARIS 21
  • Indicator 17.19.1: PARIS 23

Criticism
Partnerships with private finance
There are concerns that Target 17.17 could undermine the rest of the SDGs. Indeed, according to a 2018 UN Report, “in terms of costs, private finance is more expensive than public finance, and public-private partnerships can also incur high design, management and transactional costs due to their complexity and the need for external advice”. In addition, negotiations of these public-private partnerships can cause project delays of some years.

Organizations
The following United Nations organizations are involved in SDG 17, being custodians of one or several indicators:

  • International Monetary Fund (IMF)
  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
  • UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
  • World Bank (WB)
  • UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNTAD)
  • UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UNESCO-UIS)
  • International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
  • United Nations Environmental Programme-Climate Technology Centre and Network (UNEP-CTCN)
  • World Trade Organization (WTO)
  • International Trade Centre (ITC)
  • United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
  • United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)
  • United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
  • Department of Economic and Social Affairs-Statistics Division (DESA-UNSD)
  • PARIS 21

India and SDG 17
Role of India in global development and partnership has undergone notable transformation. India has involved itself in crafting of policy coalitions such as ISA (International Solar Alliance), CDRI (Coalition for Disaster Resilience Infrastructure), BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), and its New Development Bank, IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa), India-Africa Forum Summit, India-PSIDS, India-CARICOM, The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi­ Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)etc. These provide a forum and platforms to both Global South and the North for cooperation on multiple fronts. Working towards global partnership, has therefore assumed considerable importance as a policy imperative for the country. Some of the initiatives in this direction include:

1. Domestic Resource Mobilization

India has improved its tax-to-GDP ratio in the last six years, to 17-17.5 percent (after including the Centre and States’ tax revenue). It has undertaken tax reforms, measures to ensure compliance and to improve taxation including that of the resident and non-resident tax-payers.

Policy reforms and simplification have led to improvement in predictability, fairness and automation. This has helped India to figure in the top 100 in the World Bank’s Ease of doing Business (EoDB) ranking in recent years, The Goods and Services Tax (GST) reform replaced all indirect taxes levied on goods and services by the Central and State governments. India raised the concern on illicit financial flows. This has been a major challenge to taxation efforts. Addressing such a challenge requires concerted and collaborative efforts of all countries- both developed and developing nations. Expeditious progress on Multilateral Convention on Mutual and Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MCMAATM) and allied initiatives for information sharing can be very useful for all countries.

2. Improving Public Expenditure Efficiency
India undertook many structural changes and removed plan/non plan distinction . This is integrated within statutory revenue capital framework. This has facilitated the initiation of a monitorable Output-Outcome Monitoring Framework (OOMF). OOMF combined the outputs and outcomes for all schemes /programmes along with financial outlays. Public Finance Management System (PFMS) has empowered the system by improving accountability, responsiveness and transparency. Fiscal Reporting Protocol has improved as a part of Government Integrated Fiscal Management System (GIFMIS).

3. Promoting Entrepreneurship and the Private Sector
A key business reform undertaken over the year are lending help in improving the business environment and is resulting in a steady improvement across the indicators in the Ease of Doing Business Index. India has taken several initiatives that improved the efficiency of cross border trade, reducing the border and documentary compliance time for both exports and imports.

Startup Ecosystem in India has become the third largest startup hub in the world and it has attracted an investment of USD 12 Billion in 2019, and more investments expected in ensuing years in future. There are 61400 startups recognized by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). 14000 startups were recognized during fiscal 2022 (Economic Survey 2021-22).

To improve the legal environment, the Patent Rules 2003 and Trade Mark Rules 2017 have been amended and made user friendly. Under the Startups Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP) scheme, 80 percent rebate for patent filing fee and 50 percent for trade mark filing is provided to Startups.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) enhances the economic growth and it is a major source of non-debt financial resource for the private sector. It has been realized that private investment can play a crucial role in securing high growth, employment, and improved productive efficiency.

Government of India has initiated a comprehensive set of reforms and opened several sectors for bringing in investments; these sectors include defense, railways, coal mining, digital sectors, insurance intermediaries. India has an impressiverecord in FDI equity inflows that stood at USD 456.79 billion during the period from April 2000 to December 2019. India was among top 10 recipients of FDI in 2019, attracting USD 49 billion inflows (16 percent increase from the previous year).

India has a considerable young work force which is likely to peak by 2047. To harness the potential of Young demographic dividend, the government of lndia started to ramp up investment in crucial sectors such as education, health, skilling and decent jobs especially for young people.

For boosting the rural incomes, several measures have been initiated by the Government including e-cash transfers to farmers. Government is aiming to double the farmers’ income by 2022, and overall revival of rural economy.

4. Strengthening South-South Cooperation

  • India’s steadfast commitment is demonstrated in the areas that cover regional and global cooperation for mutual learning, capacity building and progress. It has abiding commitments to South-South Cooperation. With the help of the Indian Technical & Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme, the capacity building efforts of India has reached 160 countries across the developing world, especially the small islands developing countries and the least developed countries (LDCs). An allocation ofUSD30 Million has been made to fully sponsor training programs to more than 14000 professionals annually. In furtherance of cooperation, India has extended more than 300 Lines of Credit (LoC) amounting to USD 30.66 billion to 64 countries so far.
  • India’s efforts of cooperation and participation are moving forward. The launch of technological upgrade and extension of Pan Africa e-Network Project stands as a testimony. Upgraded project is renamed as e-VidyaBharati and Arogya Bharati Network Project (e-VBAB). Under this, tele -education and tele- medicine services are offered.
  • The South Asian Satellite launched by India in 2017 provides granular data for weather monitoring. Farmers in the sub region get the benefit from better weather forecasting, better communication and improved disaster links.
  • Under India-UN Development Partnership Fund, India supports projects in developing countries for realizing the SDGs. India has committed USD 150 million over a decade to the India-UN Partnership Fund. With a cumulative contribution of USD 38 million, IBSA Fund has over 20partner countries from the Global South for implementing 32 projects. 66 percent of the IBSA Fund is devoted to LDCs.

5. Coalition Based Approach
– Under this approach innovative measures/steps have been undertaken that include recent launch of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and the International Solar Alliance (ISA). CDRI is meant to provide a platform for generation and exchange of knowledge on different aspects of disaster and climate resilience. CDRI serves as a fulcrum to pool in the technical expertise from a vast array of stakeholders and, to create a mechanism that lends assistance to developing countries to upgrade their capacities with regard to infrastructure development in accordance with their risk context and economic needs.

– ISA is founded with France for scaling up the solar energy. 86 countries have joined the alliance. Government oflndia has approved support ofUSD 70 million to CDRI and USD 26 million to ISA.

6. Revisiting ODA Commitments and Performance
For realizing the developmental goals, the domestic resource mobilization has to be augmented and increased because of lesser assistance from high income nations which are a part of DAC. However, the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) needs to honor their commitment of providing 0.7 percent of GNI as ODA. With current levels of ODA, it is becoming difficult to fulfill the aspirations of 2030 Agenda charted for Sustainable Development or the international commitments made in Addis Ababa Action Agenda.

Share of DAC members fell to 50 percent in 2018, only Denmark, Luxemburg, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, UK and UAE met the ODA /GNI target of0.7 percent.

7. 7 Improving Data, Monitoring and Accountability
Vast geographical, economic, demographic and social diversity are the challenges that need to be dealt with and carving out the way for effective monitoring and measuring the progress. However, India has taken significant strides in this direction. The National Indicator Framework (NIF) is the key monitoring instrument at the national level to monitor the progress on SDGs and associated targets. NITI Aayog has developed the SDG India Index to measure the performance of States and Union Territories. In view of diversity and differences across the country, NITI Aayog and MoSPI are developing specific State and District Indicator Framework (S/DIF).

8. Challenges and Way Forward
SDG 17 and associated targets are vital to the achievement of all SDGs. Role of frontier technologies is to bring in revolutionary changes, viz Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are going to change the landscape of manufacturing and services sector. It is imperative to pay urgent attention to realize the aspiration of Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM) for horizon scanning, early warning and technology assessment.

India has undertaken multiple initiatives towards partnerships in fulfillment ofSDG17.

Global Partnerships face several challenges viz., declining foreign aid and FDI, particularly to developing and least developed countries.

A strong mutual support is needed for adequate and relevant data generation and sound statistics in order to assess the needs and identify gaps.

FOR MORE DETAIL DISCUSSION ON SDG 17 – PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOAL, LISTEN TO THE PODCAST EPISODE ON ‘RESEARCH WITH NJ’.

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