The affordability of the Sustainable Development Goals: A myth or reality?
Patima Chongcharoentanawat, Kaleab Haile, Bart Kleine Deters, Tamara A. Kool & Victor Osei Kwadwo
#2016-027
Global governance in various forms has emerged as a salient means of
setting and driving common development goals that are of interest to the
world's functioning at large. However, literature is divided on the
attribution of achievements to the global social governance efforts. The
experience of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) showed the
importance of setting indicators at an early stage to support a sound
monitoring system. If the world is to start implementing the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) in 2016, we cannot afford a lag of several
years before putting monitoring tools in place and measuring progress
towards achieving these goals.
To answer the question on the level of resources required to fulfil the
SDGs target by country and income category, five low and lower middle
income countries were selected from Asia, Africa, and Latin America
based on availability of data and their classification as low and
lower-middle income countries: Cambodia, El Salvador, Ethiopia,
Indonesia, and Senegal. The required data for the assessment is sourced
from the World Bank Development Indicators Databank (WDID).
The estimation of the resource requirement to adhere to the poverty,
health and education targets of the SDGs involves computing three
indices for each dimension. For the income gap index, two poverty lines
underlie the composite resource gap as percentage of the GDP to meet the
SDGs targets on poverty. The education gap is constructed by normalising
seven indices that either directly capture or proxy the governance and
outcome targets on education in the SDGs. Thirdly, this research
employed a three-step approach in estimating the normative public health
expenditure gap; the staff expenditure gap; and the resource allocation
expenditure gap. To conclude, the viability of closing the cumulative
resource gap is assessed in light of a country's tax revenue.
Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals, Millennium Development Goals,
attribution, monitoring, fiscal stress, fiscal capacity, health,
education, poverty, Cambodia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Senegal
JEL classification: H21, E62, H51, H52, H53