4/8/16, KJS

Looking back, 2015 was a key moment for the international development business; namely, non-profits, public sector enterprises and workers around the world whose job it is to battle poverty, disease, conflict – more vaguely known as aid workers or humanitarians.

The Millennium Development Goals of 2000-2015 have migrated into the Sustainable Development Goals of the next 15 years, a process that consumed an industry deciding how to structure, measure, market and realize such massive goals.

In many respects the last 20 years have served the poor well, most notably: freeing more than half of those living in extreme poverty; halving  under-five mortality and maternal mortality and the overall burden of disease in Africa by 60%.

No, the MDG’s were not all met (or measured) but the degree to which they were, especially in relation to the funds made available, is astounding.

Still, today, just 1% of the people own 50% of the world’s assets. And now, through 17 Global Goals and 169 targets, the aim is for nothing less than the elimination of poverty and exclusion – opening up equity and opportunity to the 99%. 

By Aid Worker, we’re talking the front-line agent here, not technocrats, administrators or heads of organizations, nor the Ambassadors, political appointees or Ministers at the United Nations ceremonies. The middle managers and below, those that implement – they too are sharpening their understanding of humanitarianism.

Many of them are not far removed from original intentions: to have impact, to reduce pressure on the future, to save lives, avert needless deaths, fight environmental thoughtlessness; or more simply, the belief every creature has intrinsic value and that’s more important than making tons of money.

The motive of a humanitarian is impact, not a career. And there are many questions about the Sustainable Development Goals: questions about the game and the business of international development, how effective organizations really are and the prospect of ending poverty once and for all.

Growth To the aid worker, the issues of monitoring, or not having the SDG’s pre-financed, for example, isn’t really the point. The point is what the developing world will be like in 15 years if the plans are met.

To meet the scale of the SDG’s financing we would need about $11.5 trillion per year. That’s an incremental 1.5-2.5% of world GDP. To put that in perspective, Sub-Saharan Africa’s current total GDP is around $2 trillion. A $127 trillion plan would imply at least a 7% GDP across all of Africa. As a benchmark: the IMF revised its prediction from January predicting a GDP growth rate of 4 percent, now stating that the sub-Saharan Africa region will grow at 3% in 2016, down from 3.4% in 2015.

The aid worker knows well that Earths systems are already at capacity. We’re limping out of a recession yet global production and consumption levels already supersede the planet’s capacity by ~50% annually. And that man controls 3/4 of Earth’s available freshwater, has modified 3/4 of all ice free land and modulates the planets air, biodiversity, ocean chemistry and biology.

Those who care deeply about the earth itself know that sustainability means living as part of the sphere of Nature. As Pope Francis put it in New York last September: ‘Nature is a gift [from the Creator]; Man is not authorized to abuse it; To harm nature is to harm man.’ The central operating premise of the career environmentalist.

Skin in the Game  Muhammad Yunus recently warned that unless the purpose of business is reformulated, the world would wind up with almost all the wealth of the planet concentrated in the hands of a few people. Indeed, a recent study shows that the 85 richest people on the planet hold the same wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people in the world.

The poorest 5% of people experienced no increase in their real incomes since 1990. Of all income generated by global GDP growth between 1999 and 2008, in fact, the poorest 60% of humanity received only 5%. It will take 207 years to eliminate poverty at this rate.

Yet, the SDGs barely comment on regulation of the financial markets. Even tax evasion and avoidance, which drain poor countries $1.7 trillion per year, aren’t in there.

Trade revenue, the greatest boost for the developing world and the path to sustainable development, isn’t even a priority. Goal 17.10 does call for more trade liberalization and more power for the WTO but lacks vision, plans or accountability.

The world asks so little of industry.

Companies have, and will continue to have their frontier markets ploughed by public money; and yet, are not (really) obligated, included or held accountable to these markets’ social development.

The Goals set a horizon-full of opportunities for the private sector to earn a return. Just think: today, Africa generates $540 billion in tax revenue per year. 10% of that devoted to the energy sector lights up and powers Africa. Then, GDP growth rates could reach double digits. How many customers is that.

And in return? According to a July 2015 report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) developing countries lose almost 2 percent of their national income every year to the externalization of funds by corporations.

We don’t have good answers as to why industry doesn’t invest more up-front in development or take more risks. What we do know is that the perpetual donor aid/charitable-giving paradigm will never end this way.

Letting Go Without pre-finance or the mainstreaming of social business, the Global Goals are mouthwatering business plans for the supra-national lending institutions which will finance development for the next 15 years.

Where is the commitment of development finance organizations if the debt issue is entirely evaded in the SDG’s, refusing a unified call for debt cancellation which drains developing countries of more than $700 billion per year.

Shouldn’t policy be removing barriers so the poor can have natural success in the marketplace. Shouldn’t development banks and donors be taking bets on countries – not still trying to own them.

As representatives of the poor and its causes, we are in the room because they can’t be. This is also true for the lender in this space, the business person or the banker asked to take on risk. Would they charge themselves market rates for loans to buy toilets, stop their kids death by mosquito, source clean drinking water or have a safe pregnancy.

It’s complicated. What industry isn’t. Or is it?

Is there fair and effective distribution of power in the world where no group is absolute?  Of course not, absolutely not. Is humanitarian work any way of solving that? In a small way perhaps.

Momentum is building on the urgent need to halt and reverse extreme economic inequality. But it’s a whole different way of thinking, acting, working living….

Perhaps this brings us to the point of the Global Goals then: not operational or attainable, not even about costs, but a call to action across all sectors for a generation: How this world can right-size, abolish social injustice and powerlessness. The world you wished for before you blew out the candles….

To have it, we will need an extravagant enhancement of the world bodies now serving the poor, a complete re-engineering of the term value, and then, true incentives for industry to have a positive social impact.

 / / KJS