Lara García "The role of the regional institutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals"

Lara García Fernández, 20/01/2019

The role of the regional institutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

After de deadline for getting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in 2015, the United Nations settled a new development agenda for 2030. This new program revolves around a key concept: sustainability[1].

But today, in the context of crisis of the multilateral system[2], who’s gonna supervise the projects? Who’s gonna lead the countries action? Since the environment is a matter of all, but of course (in the short term) is more meaningful what happens to your neighbour than what is occurring in the other side of the world, could the regional institutions be helpful nowadays? Go on reading to find out more about this idea…

The analgesic is too little? Let’s try with the antibiotic!

The MDG have focused on mitigating the symptoms of poverty, rather than going deeply into its core-causes. Let’s say that the MDG worked as analgesic. In fact, they did so:

Figure 1: Poverty headcount ratio at $1.10 a day per % of world population

Source: World Bank. Database: https://data.worldbank.org/topic/poverty?end=2014&start=2000

Perhaps it’s time to move one step further. Let’s go from the micro to the macro solutions. Why not killing the bacteria once and for all?

This is the porpoise of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) addressed in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the so-called Agenda 2030[3].

Sustainability: the trending topic that encompasses super-developed, developed, undeveloped, developing, redeveloping and all kind of areas that comes up to your mind

Recently, I have read a paper talking about the concept of resilience. The discussion dealt with the continual feedback between human actions and ecosystem responses. We agree on it: nowadays, what we do have consequences on our planet (and our planet well knows how to reply)[4]. So, why not become environmentally friendly and improve the relationship?

The SDG have taken this phenomena into account, so it ins’t weird that the concepts of sustainability and resilience appear several times along the 17 statements.

Figure 2: 17 Proposed Sustainable Development Goals

Source: ClassReading1: Hearn, S. And Strew, “The Post-2015

Sustainable…”

However, sustainability and resilience requires global action. The point is:

Who’s gonna solve multilateral development problems under the multilateralism crisis?

Homi Kharas defended in 2011 a division of the efforts among the United Nations, the DAC, the World Bank and the G-20, to squeeze the must points of each institution in terms of development. The porpoise was the establishment of a common path to achieve real development[5].

From my point, this paper is old-fashion nowadays, and little narrow. It’s true that these institutions (still today) are the most leverage in global development, but there are more actors that should be considered.

Yet Kharas (together with Jenks) might have changed his mind, or perhaps the geopolitical situation pushed him to do it. In 2016, they wrote Towards a New Multilateralism. In this new report, they include much more actors involved in development[6].

So let’s answer the question: I’m afraid that I cannot come up with one development manager, legitimated by the rest of the actors. But Kharas and Jenks mention something that has been so inspiring to me.

The role of the regional institutions

The authors affirm: “specific context needs to determine strategy”[7], although the strategy might sometimes clash with other inter-estates global institutions[8].

From my perspective, Kharas and Jenks are right; but since the porpoise to achieve has been settled (remember: sustainability). The world is huge, the multilateral system is in crisis… So, why not giving prominence to regional institutions?

One example could be the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Its mission is development in the Balkans, the Central Asia and Turkey.

Well… its creation took place in 1991, so I cannot omit the intention of the European Union (its main equity partner) of filling in the gap left by the USSR after the fall of the Berlin Wall[9]. However, grants are not giving for free, there is always self-interest behind.

But truly, who may understand your concerns better than your own neighbour? Moreover, pollution issues, natural disasters, water scarcity and other problems related to the environment very often cross the borders. It should be agreed that most of them have global skills, but today the multilateral system is in the hospital. Until it’s fully recovery, regionalism could be a momentary solution.

The EBRD is not alone: there are development banks in Africa, in Latin America and also in Asia[10]. So, what do you think about moving from multilateralism to regionalism to get the SDG?

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[1]ClassReading1: Hearn, S. And Strew, “The Post-2015 Sustainable…”: https://cic.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/publication_hearn_strew_dev_goals_april2015.pdf

[2] https://elpais.com/economia/2018/09/21/actualidad/1537549917_365184.html

[3] Ibidem.

[4] ClassReading2: GRAID (2016): https://graid.earth/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/GRAID-Talking-Point-Development-in-the-Anthropocene.pdf

[5] ClassReading3: Kharas, H. “The evolving international…”: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/G20-Global-Views.pdf

[6] ClassReading4: Jenks and Kharas, H. (2016): https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Toward-a-new-multilateralism.pdf

[7] Ibidem.

[8] Ibidem.

[9] https://www.ebrd.com/who-we-are/history-of-the-ebrd.html

[10] https://www.asociacionproade.org/blog/los-bancos-regionales-de-desarrollo/