Social Development And The Sustainable Development Goals In South Asia

This book assesses the roadmap for the implementation of the SDGs in South Asia, focusing in particular on the areas of poverty reduction, inequality, health/well-being and water and sanitation. South Asia is amongst the fastest growing regions in the world, with an aggregate GDP in excess of two trillion US dollars, but at the same time it has significant deficits in human development, with 37 per cent of the world's poor and nearly half of the world's malnourished children. For South Asia, the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a constructive opportunity to end many of the region's deprivations in a time-bound and systematic manner. Starting with the legacy of the Millennium Development Goals, the book goes on to provide a country-by-country overview of strategies for addressing the problems of poverty, health, water and sanitation. South-South Cooperation and in particular the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) are discussed and, finally, the editors present a summary of policy priorities for social development. This book aims to be a useful resource for researchers, policy influencers, planners, implementers, students, and activists aiming to push to achieve the SDGs.

Global progress on the Sustainable Development Goals will depend to a large extent on the collective action of South Asia to implement them. The sub-region indeed accounts for almost one fourth of the world's population, 36 per cent of the world's poor and nearly half of the world's malnourished children. The sub-region's success in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, however, hinges on addressing current capacity gaps and strengthening the means of implementation. Recognizing the host of challenges faced by the sub-region, UNESCAP has attempted in the present Report, to unpack the 2030 Agenda at the sub-regional level, outlining tangible, high priority and relevant policy actions that are critical to achieve sustainable development in South Asia. The Report identifies seven key priorities that can help accelerate the SDG achievement in South Asia by leveraging the relationships between the Goals. Based on rigorous policy simulations and evidence, it offers insight into ways a regionally coordinated sustainable industrialization strategy could generate more than 56 million new jobs by 2030 in South Asia, and lift 71 million additional people out of poverty, relative to a business-as-usual scenario. It is hoped that this Report will be useful for analysts and practitioners of development policy in the sub-region and beyond, in stimulating a debate on the ways and means of bringing sustainable prosperity to all in the dynamic and population subregion of South Asia.

This volume studies the governance and implementation of the sustainable development goals in Southeast Asia, in particular the difficulties in the shift from the international to the national, the multi-level challenges of implementation, and the involvement of stakeholders, civil society, and citizens in the process.

The book aims to explore South Asian third sector – the nonprofit organizations as provider of social services. The book defines social welfare and describe its relationship to social service programmes and individual well-being; understands the social policy development from the problem identification to policy implementation; describes the range of organization of social service agencies that are responsible for providing social welfare programmes; explores the various roles that professional and non- professional helpers provide in the delivery of social welfare and their influence in promoting change in policy development; and understands the umbrella concept of Child welfare, welfare of people with disability and elderly welfare in welfare policy.

This book invites readers to think about future directions in social development. The book succinctly presents the historical context and progress of social development. By reflecting on the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals, it discusses the increasing global relevance of several critical themes and issues such as human rights and good governance, participation, peace, gender, environment, religion and spirituality, aging, social protection and partnership. It appreciates the importance of goals and targets, but calls to look beyond them to visualise future directions in social development. The book argues that values-driven social development needs to focus on knowledge creation, dissemination and training, draw on multidisciplinary knowledge and professionals, promote conscientious consumption, create less unequal societies and engage in innovation that brings happiness to everyone.

South Asia has experienced significant progress in improving human and physical capital over the past few decades. Within the region, India has become a global economic powerhouse with enormous development potential ahead. To foster human and economic development, India has shown a strong commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda. This chapter focuses on the medium-term development challenges that South Asia, and in particular India, faces to ensure substantial progress along the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. We estimate the additional spending needed in critical areas of human capital (health and education) and physical capital (water and sanitation, electricity, and roads). We document progress on these five sectors for India relative to other South Asian countries and discuss implications for policy and reform.

The aim of this report is to present an overview of the 17 Goals using data currently available to highlight the most significant gaps and challenges.

South Asia’s growth rate has returned to pre-pandemic levels, but inflation is higher, and the Russia-Ukraine war will add to these pressures, negatively impact external balances, and exacerbate financial vulnerabilities. Higher energy prices provide an opportunity to transition to greater use of carbon pricing, consistent with a green, resilient, and inclusive development model. The theme chapter explains why gender equality has remained elusive in South Asia, and the region is unlikely to meet its 2030 sustainable development goals in this area. The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated existing gender disparities as well as generated new ones. It is forcing a shift in priorities and funding across public and private sectors, with far-reaching effects on the well-being of women and girls. Plans for building back better after the crisis featuring large investments in digital infrastructure and green technologies have been discussed among policy makers, but gender should be a cross-cutting theme in the design of these policies.