The UNSDG in State Participation

Team Members: G. Hayes, H. Lydiatt, and O. Moye*

*Note: The team members are listed in alphabetical order. While the infographic and the blogpost are created by all the members, Hayes and Moye are the only contributors to the podcast and the advocacy letter. The involved team members for each assignment contributed equally.

732438-2463657 - Grace Hayes - Jan 30, 2022 619 PM - Grace Hayes International Organizations Infographic Final.pdf

Infographic

Please look at the infographic for the topic explored by the team.

Podcast

Please listen to the team's podcast with Google Chrome. The transcript can be found here.

UNSDG_StateParticipation.mp3

Advocacy Letter

Please read the team's letter to UNSDG Chairwoman, Amina J. Mohammed.

732438-2463664 - Grace Hayes - Apr 4, 2022 1038 AM - Grace Hayes INTL 4240 Advocacy Letter.pdf

Blog Post

Developing State Participation in UN Sustainable Development Goal Six

Introduction to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, leaders all across the world recognized that the current trajectory of global politics and social welfare programs did not set the global community up for a sustainable or equitable future. To rectify this issue, member states under the United Nations (UN) agreed to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 to address global poverty and inequality while simultaneously acting to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change. Each of these goals covers a pressing issue that needs to be solved to protect humankind around the world. UN SDG Six particularly highlights an existing problem, and the importance of collaborative solutions, that targets the basic human right of life for every individual. This SDG focuses on ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. While this goal seems fairly simple and intuitive, many countries are still not on track to achieve this goal by the established time (UNSDG 2021).

Existing Problems with State Compliance: The Case of Goal Six

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Six Logo (UNSDG 2021)

The problem of clean water and sanitation are serious global issues that are yet to be solved. In an attempt to achieve universal access to safely managed drinking water as well as sanitation services, the United Nations added clean water and sanitation as a Sustainable Development Goal. However, despite the raised awareness, less than thirty-three percent of the one hundred ninety three countries that agreed to participate are actively working to achieve this goal. Because of existing problems with state compliance, the United Nations is advocating for all nations to participate in evaluating current state progress. Furthermore, the United Nations is arguing that all nations need to focus on discovering solutions to the lack of available water and sanitation (United Nations 2021).

Developing vs Developed States

When categorizing states based on their economic structure and power, there is typically one of two labels assigned to each country: developed or developing. This label is based on a country’s Gross National Income (GNI) and does not take into consideration other factors that may affect a country’s development. While this label certainly excludes many aspects of life within a given state, it does give an indication as to the economic resources countries have to take care of their population and put towards broader social policies (United Nations 2014).

The reason why it is important to highlight the difference between the two types of countries is because it helps experts understand which states may need additional economic support when enacting broader policies (United Nations 2014). The differences between the economic capabilities of countries can lead to variation in compliance because states that may not have the financial resources to meet this goal may unintentionally fail to meet the expectations of the UNSDG (Chayes and Chayes 1993). Sustainable Development Goal Six is quite simple in wording, “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” However, for countries that already have limited economic resources, this may be a tough goal to achieve relative to countries that have a greater GNI and more money to put towards this concern (UNSDG 2021). Accessible and sustainable water and waste management is essential for every state, but failing to recognize the unique financial challenges developing states face in achieving this goal and provide adequate economic support spells disaster in meeting this objective across the entirety of the global community.

How to Help

Two hands catching falling water (Medium 2021)

States require motivation to participate in international organizations, typically something that they would benefit in. For the developing states that struggle for various aforementioned reasons to comply with this goal for themselves and for others, there would need to be the solution to help them to be able to comply.

A potential solution would be to implement aid from the international organizations to developing countries. This would be in the beginning stage of the formation of the policy, or in this case the goals, as typically, “ IOs help to coordinate global responses and the global rules themselves, and they monitor and enforce actors’ compliance with those rules” (Gutner 2016).

Drawing of a recycling bin in front of a body of water, water towers, and water barrels (Babon 2021)

For example, the International Development Association has been helping to give aid as a branch of the World Bank to developing countries. Most of the aid is in the form of financial funding, which the association agreed to provide (IDA). In this organization’s example, it is apparent the benefit and improvement in compliance by the member states through having clear set rules of aid to which the members agree. By establishing rules that the states who agreed to the international organization and signed for the goal proposition would have to also agree to. Through having these rules of compliance, the states are held accountable as they would see the expectations upfront, and the rules can be increasingly enforced.

Sources

Babon, Paul. 2021. “Water Sanitation Month Poster.” Dribbble. https://dribbble.com/shots/6111560-Water-Sanitation-Month-Poster.

“Country Classification - United Nations.” 2014. United Nations.

https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wesp/wesp_current/2014wesp_country_classification.pdf.

“Global Sustainable Development Report 2023: Call for Inputs | Department of Economic and Social Affairs.” 2021. United Nations.

https://sdgs.un.org/news/call-inputs-global-sustainable-development-report-2023-34347.

Michon, Xavier, and Jaffer Machano. 2020. “The Future of Development Is Local.” Foreign Policy.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/22/sustainable-development-goals-sdgs-think-local-cities/.

“Progress Charts - SDG Indicators.” 2021. United Nations. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2021/.

“Spotlight on SDG 6: Clean Water.” 2021. Medium. https://medium.com/una-nca-snapshots/spotlight-on-sdg-6-clean-water-6a35c69a8fa9.

Tamar Gutner. 2016. “International Organizations in World Politics”.

https://books.google.com/books?

id=bO55CwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

“The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021.” 2021. United Nations.

https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2021/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2021.pdf.

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