SAJC Cluster 1 Lecture 2 Notes (Sustainable Development; Measuring Progress)

St Andrew’s Junior College H2 Cluster 1: Development, Economy and Environment (Topic 1.1) H2_Cluster 1_Lecture 2_2024/pg 1 Lecture 2 Sustainable Development (II): Measuring Progress KEY QUESTION: How do we know that there is progress towards sustainable development? With the completion of this lecture, attached readings and tutorial, you should be able to understand: - ways to progress towards sustainable development as defined by the SDGs - use of quantitative targets and indicators in the SDGs to measure progress - the difficulty of measuring progress towards sustainable development using quantitative indicators in the SDGs due to the lack of capacity of some countries to collect data Lecture Outline 2.1 Monitoring Development Using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Box 1: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2.2 Economic Growth 2.2.1 Examples of Indicators (a) Economic growth: Gross Domestic Product (b) Poverty: International Poverty Line 2.2.2 Ways to Progress towards Economic Growth 2.3 Social Inclusion 2.3.1 Examples of Indicators (a) Health: Child Mortality Rate (b) Education: Completion rate (pre-primary, primary and secondary) 2.3.2 Ways to Progress towards Social Inclusion 2.4 Environmental Protection 2.4.1 Examples of Indicators (a) Combating climate change: Greenhouse gas emissions (b) Forest conservation: Forested Area as a Proportion of Total Land Area 2.4.2 Ways to progress towards Environmental Protection 2.5 The difficulty of measuring the progress towards sustainable development 2.6 Concluding remarks Readings: (1) Sustainable Development Goals: Selected targets and indicators (2) The challenges of measuring progress on SDG 11 (3) Cartoon series on the SDGs (please obtain from shared folder) In September 2015, the United Nations formally put forward a set of 17 goals (comprising 169 targets and 231 indicators) to help stimulate global action to move the world towards sustainable development for the period 2016-2030. These SDGs share the overarching purpose to end extreme poverty in all its forms in the context of sustainable development and to have in place building blocks of sustained prosperity for all.

St Andrew’s Junior College H2 Cluster 1: Development, Economy and Environment (Topic 1.1) H2_Cluster 1_Lecture 2_2024/pg 2 2.1 Monitoring Development using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) • With increasing research that is going into sustainable development, this spurred the global sustainable development agenda, resulting in the United Nations to develop and launch the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. The goals aim to end poverty, reduce inequality and build more peaceful and prosperous societies by 2030, so as to create a world where no one is left behind. • The SDGs are a series of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (see Box 1), each one including several targets and indicators. In total, there are