All eyes are on India to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, says Bill Gates

During the United Nation Sustainable Development Summit, a high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly highlighted 17 ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that aim to remove poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change in the next 15 years.

In an exclusive e-mail interview of The Economic Times, Bill Gates, American business magnate and philanthropist, talked about what role India needs to play to achieve these 17 goals and why these are important.

Bill Gates told the business daily that “All eyes are on India.”The world would have not achieved its poverty reduction targets without China coming through; in the similar way, it will not achieve many of its SDGs targets without India coming through, he added.

While India has significantly achieved some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) goal in the education and health sector, SDGs currently gives the Indian government in opportunity to provide better primary healthcare to all, said Gates.

On being asked about what role Indian businesses will play in achieving these goals? Bill Gates told ET that the country has a deep-rooted and growing tradition of philanthropy. This sector has significant expertise that can be applied to addressing India's most challenging health and development challenges, he added.

Asserting that it's clear that the MDGs have been instrumental in fostering global collaboration and accountability among wealthy and developing countries, Gates said that the private sector and NGOs aim to bring down extreme poverty, improve maternal health and reduce child mortality rate. These factors could catalyze global action on the issues that affect the most vulnerable communities, he asserted.

Gates further added that the SDGs put forward a shared vision of a world to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, foster inclusive economic growth and combat climate change by 2030.

Speaking about the funding part to achieve these 17 goals, the 59-year-old tech czar told the business daily that the SDGs are not a largely aid-driven agenda unlike MDGs. He further added that following are the three sources of finance for the SDGs:
· Domestic in-country resources
· Traditional aid
· Private finance

According to Gates, “The main source of financing for the SDGs will be resources from developing countries themselves, through domestic revenues like taxes which should be applied towards development outcomes.”
(Image: UN.org)