MOOC BASED SEMINAR REPORT

On

BEYOND THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for Seminar in 1st Semester

Of

MBA ‘C’

By

MS. SHRISTHA BHANDARI

Under the Guidance of

MS. POOJA BAHUGUNA

(Assistant Professor, School of Management)

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT

GRAPHIC ERA HILL UNIVERSITY

DEHRADUN

SESSION 2020-2022
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Shristha Bhandari has satisfactorily presented MOOC based seminar on
the course title Beyond the Sustainable Goal Development in partial fulfilment of the
seminar presentation requirement in 1st semester of MBA degree course prescribed by
Graphic Era Hill University during the academic session 2020-2022

MS.POOJA BAHUGUNA

SIGNATURE
 INDEX

S.NO CONTENT PAGE NO

1 Acknowledgement 4
2 Course Detail 5
3 Course Description 6
4 Course Layout 7
5 Introduction 8
6 What Are The Sustainable Development Goals? 9
7 What Is Undp's Role? 9
8 Background on the Goals 10
9 Key MGG Achievements 10
10 The 17’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 11
11 Conclusion 14
12 Learning Outcomes 15
13 Conformation Mail 15
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am grateful to my college GRAPHIC ERA HILL UNIVERSITY, DEHRADUN and I sincerely

thank Ms. Pooja Bahuguna ma’am for giving me the opportunity to pursue Beyond the sustainable
development course, which has helped me in learning many new things and taught me to see the
things from different perspective. Lastly, I would like to express my thanks to all those who are
directly and indirectly associated with the MOOC report.

SHRISTHA BHANDARI
 COURSE DETAILS
Course Name: Beyond the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Addressing Sustainability and
Development

No. of Weeks: 6

University: University of Michigan

Taught by: Arun Aggrawal, Samuel Trask Dana Professor

Maria Carmen Lemos, Professor

Bilal Butt, Associate Professor

Pamela Jagger, Associate Professor

CONFIRMATION EMAIL
 COURSE DESCRIPTION

Sustainability and development pose unprecedented challenges as human societies grow and
seek to ensure future wellbeing and prosperity. In this course, the focus is on addressing the
twin challenges of sustainability and development with actionable knowledge for innovating
solutions to the world’s most pressing problems like climate change, poverty and inequality,
and biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. Rather than sustainability being a qualifier
for development (e.g. sustainable development), we conceptualize Sustainability and
Development as co-equal fields of inquiry and action that seek to build bridges between the
natural, social and applied sciences and the humanities. When sustainability and development
are placed on an equal footing, it requires us to think more explicitly about the trade-offs, co-
benefits and synergies between them, which we will be exploring in depth in each week.

Throughout the course, one will be introduced to the theoretical currents in Sustainability and
Development, and will garner an in-depth understanding of the United Nations’ 17
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The course will consider the methods and skills
necessary for designing innovative solutions to sustainability and development problems
through the emerging field of Sustainability Science.

In this course, one can explore three of the most pressing challenges undergirding the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including climate change, poverty and inequality,
and ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss with case studies to guide and challenge our
thinking. In the final week of the course, we will discuss the trade-offs, co-benefits and
synergies between these challenges, especially as they relate to designing innovative
solutions for achieving our sustainability and development goals.
 COURSE LAYOUT
Week 1:

Introductions to the Course

• This module is about the nuances between the terms 'sustainable development' and
'sustainability' AND 'development', as well as the history and scope of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs).

Week 2:

Climate Change

• This module is about the different ways in which the climate is changing, and how
and why different populations are disproportionately impacted by those changes.

Week 3:

Poverty and Inequality

• This module is about the historical background on poverty and inequality around the
world, different approaches to alleviate poverty and inequality, and opportunities for
reducing poverty and inequality in a sustainable manner.

Week 4:

Biodiversity Loss and Ecosystem Degradation

• This module is about why environmental changes happen, what the drivers and
impacts of these changes are, and how to share ecosystems between people and
wildlife while preventing environmental degradation.

Week 5:

Trade Offs and Synergies

• This module is about sustainability science and how it applies to sustainability and
development, transitions in human societies and how those lessons learned apply to
sustainability transitions, and how one can improve sustainability solutions for better
outcomes.

Week 6:

Conclusion

• This module is about brief conclusion of the course.

 INTRODUCTION

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member
States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet,
now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global
partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand
with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic
growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

The SDGs build on decades of work by countries and the UN, including the UN Department
of Economic and Social Affairs

 In June 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, more than 178 countries
adopted Agenda 21, a comprehensive plan of action to build a global partnership for
sustainable development to improve human lives and protect the environment.
 Member States unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration at the Millennium
Summit in September 2000 at UN Headquarters in New York. The Summit led to the
elaboration of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce extreme
poverty by 2015.
 The Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and the Plan of
Implementation, adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South
Africa in 2002, reaffirmed the global community's commitments to poverty
eradication and the environment, and built on Agenda 21 and the Millennium
Declaration by including more emphasis on multilateral partnerships.
 At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012, Member States adopted the outcome document "The
Future We Want" in which they decided, inter alia, to launch a process to develop a
set of SDGs to build upon the MDGs and to establish the UN High-level Political
Forum on Sustainable Development. The Rio +20 outcome also contained other
measures for implementing sustainable development, including mandates for future
programmes of work in development financing, small island developing states and
more.
 In 2013, the General Assembly set up a 30-member Open Working Group to develop
a proposal on the SDGs.
 In January 2015, the General Assembly began the negotiation process on the post-
2015 development agenda. The process culminated in the subsequent adoption of
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with 17 SDGs at its core, at the UN
Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015.
 2015 was a landmark year for multilateralism and international policy shaping, with
the adoption of several major agreements:
 Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (March 2015)
 Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development (July 2015)
 Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with
its 17 SDGs was adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York in
September 2015.
 Paris Agreement on Climate Change (December 2015)
 Now, the annual High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development serves as
the central UN platform for the follow-up and review of the SDGs.
 WHAT ARE THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS?

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were
adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end
poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.

The 17 SDGs are integrated—that is, they recognize that action in one area will affect
outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and
environmental sustainability.

Through the pledge to Leave No One Behind, countries have committed to fast-track
progress for those furthest behind first. That is why the SDGs are designed to bring the
world to several life-changing ‘zeros’, including zero poverty, hunger, AIDS and
discrimination against women and girls.

Everyone is needed to reach these ambitious targets. The creativity, knowhow, technology
and financial resources from all of society is necessary to achieve the SDGs in every
context.

WHAT IS UNDP'S ROLE?

As the lead UN development agency, UNDP is well-placed to help implement the Goals
through our work in some 170 countries and territories.

We support countries in achieving the SDGs through integrated solutions. Today’s

complex challenges—from stemming the spread of disease to preventing conflict—cannot
be tackled neatly in isolation. For UNDP, this means focusing on systems, root causes and
connections between challenges—not just thematic sectors—to build solutions that
respond to people’s daily realities.  

Our track record working across the Goals provides us with a valuable experience and
proven policy expertise to ensure we all reach the targets set out in the SDGs by 2030.
But we cannot do this alone.

Achieving the SDGs requires the partnership of governments, private sector, civil society
and citizens alike to make sure we leave a better planet for future generations.
 BACKGROUND ON THE GOALS

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were born at the United Nations Conference
on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012. The objective was to produce a set
of universal goals that meet the urgent environmental, political and economic challenges
facing our world. The SDGs replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which
started a global effort in 2000 to tackle the indignity of poverty. The MDGs established
measurable, universally-agreed objectives for tackling extreme poverty and hunger,
preventing deadly diseases, and expanding primary education to all children, among other
development priorities. For 15 years, the MDGs drove progress in several important
areas: reducing income poverty, providing much needed access to water and sanitation,
driving down child mortality and drastically improving maternal health. They also kick-
started a global movement for free primary education, inspiring countries to invest in
their future generations. Most significantly, the MDGs made huge strides in combatting
HIV/AIDS and other treatable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.

KEY MDG ACHIEVEMENTS

 More than 1 billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty (since 1990)
 Child mortality dropped by more than half (since 1990)
 The number of out of school children has dropped by more than half (since 1990)
 HIV/AIDS infections fell by almost 40 percent (since 2000)

The legacy and achievements of the MDGs provide us with valuable lessons and experience
to begin work on the new goals. But for millions of people around the world the job remains
unfinished. We need to go the last mile on ending hunger, achieving full gender equality,
improving health services and getting every child into school beyond primary. The SDGs are
also an urgent call to shift the world onto a more sustainable path. The SDGs are a bold
commitment to finish what we started, and tackle some of the more pressing challenges
facing the world today. All 17 Goals interconnect, meaning success in one affects success for
others. Dealing with the threat of climate change impacts how we manage our fragile natural
resources, achieving gender equality or better health helps eradicate poverty, and fostering
peace and inclusive societies will reduce inequalities and help economies prosper. In short,
this is the greatest chance we have to improve life for future generations. The SDGs
coincided with another historic agreement reached in 2015 at the COP21 Paris Climate
Conference. Together with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, signed in
Japan in March 2015, these agreements provide a set of common standards and achievable
targets to reduce carbon emissions, manage the risks of climate change and natural disasters,
and to build back better after a crisis. The SDGs are unique in that they cover issues that
affect us all. They reaffirm our international commitment to end poverty, permanently,
everywhere. They are ambitious in making sure no one is left behind. More importantly, they
involve us all to build a more sustainable, safer, more prosperous planet for all humanity.
 The 17’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

1. Eliminate Poverty
2. Erase Hunger
3. Establish Good Health and Well-Being
4. Provide Quality Education
5. Enforce Gender Equality
6. Improve Clean Water and Sanitation
7. Grow Affordable and Clean Energy
8. Create Decent Work and Economic Growth
9. Increase Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
10. Reduce Inequality
11. Mobilize Sustainable Cities and Communities
12. Influence Responsible Consumption and Production
13. Organize Climate Action
14. Develop Life Below Water
15. Advance Life On Land
16. Guarantee Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
17. Build Partnerships for the Goals

In September 2015, countries adopted a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end
poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Immunisation is one of the best buys
in global health and has a crucial role in achieving 14 of the 17 SDGs. As one of the most far-
reaching health interventions, it closely reflects the ethos of the SDGs: “leaving no one
behind”.
HEALTHY CHILDREN & FAMILIES = INCREASED PROSPERITY

Immunisation provides a platform for delivering nutrition interventions and work hand in
hand with good nutrition to help reduce child mortality. Vaccine-preventable diseases could
tip children into a malnourished state as they impair the absorption of essential nutrients.
Malnourished children are more likely to die from infectious diseases such as diarrhoea,
measles and pneumonia, many of which can be prevented by vaccines.

IMMUNISATION + NUTRITION = HEALTHIER FAMILIES

Immunisation and good nutrition go hand in hand. Vaccine-preventable diseases often tip
marginally nourished children into a malnourished state. Malnourished children are more
likely to die from infectious diseases such as diarrhoea, measles and pneumonia, many of
which can be prevented by vaccines.

IMMUNISATION = HEALTHY LIVES & WELL-BEING

Immunisation is one of the most cost-effective ways to save lives and promote good health
and well-being. Every year, vaccines save 2-3 million lives, and millions more are protected
from disease and disability. It routinely reaches more households than any other health
service and brings communities into regular contact with the health system. This provides an
effective platform to deliver other primary health care services and upon which to build
universal health coverage.

VACCINES = IMPROVED LEARNING

Immunisation increases educational attainment since vaccinated children learn more while
they are able to go to school and perform better, positively impacting on cognitive
development as well as long-term productivity. Moreover, schools are a platform for health
promotion, delivery of vaccines and other health services. The benefits flow both ways:
children of educated parents have a greater chance of being immunised and well-nourished
and thus enjoy better health.

IMMUNISATION = EMPOWERED WOMEN AND GIRLS

Immunisation is a gender-equal intervention. Globally, girls and boys are immunised at

similar rates. However, there are variations at sub-national levels and in some countries
because a range of different barriers inhibit women’s ability to access healthcare for their
children. Gavi supports countries to make focused efforts to identify and address gender-
related barriers to immunisation services, such as through training female health workers, as
empowering women is critical to improving child vaccination coverage.

WASH + VACCINES = LESS DISEASE

Vaccines, along with clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), are proven interventions
to prevent diarrhoeal diseases, a leading cause of child mortality in developing countries.
Investments in oral cholera and rotavirus vaccines WASH and health systems form an
integrated approach to help eliminate diarrhoeal disease.

EFFICIENT EQUIPMENT = CLEANER ENVIRONMENT

Immunisation brings newer, cleaner and more sustainable technology to developing

countries’ health systems. For instance, Gavi’s cold chain equipment optimisation platform
gives countries access to solar and energy efficient refrigeration, which is not only more
reliable and cost-effective but also more environmentally friendly. Our support includes
vaccine monitoring devices that ensure optimum energy usage and reduce wastage.

HEALTHY POPULATION = MORE PRODUCTIVE WORKFORCE

Investment in human capital can dramatically strengthen a country’s competitiveness.

Vaccinated, healthy children grow into a productive workforce and become strong
contributors to the economy. In addition, healthy children free up parents’ time so they are
able to work. In Gavi-supported countries, every US$ 1 spent on immunisation generates
US$ 54 in broader societal benefits of people living longer and healthier lives.

HEALTHY VACCINE MARKET = INNOVATION

Gavi makes vaccine markets work better by attracting more suppliers, dramatically reducing
vaccine prices and ensuring more equitable and sustainable access to vaccines and other
innovative products that meet developing countries’ needs. Since our inception in 2000, we
have contributed to a significant increase in new manufacturers supplying vaccines for Gavi
and the majority of the vaccine doses we procure are manufactured in developing countries.

BETTER HEALTH = INCREASED EQUALITY

Immunisation protects the health of communities, reduces the number of people forced into
poverty, and gives children an equal chance of a healthier and more productive future. By
focusing on the under-served communities and unimmunised (“zero dose”) children in the
poorest and most marginalised populations, especially the urban poor and those living in
remote rural settings and conflict areas, Gavi brings immunisation and primary health care
services to those furthest behind.

IMMUNISATION = HEALTHIER CITIES

By 2050, nearly 70% of the global population will be living in urban areas. The number of
people living in slums or informal settlements has also grown to over 1 billion, many of
whom lack access to basic health services. Strengthening urban immunisation programmes
protects them against the increased risk of disease outbreaks and is an opportunity to bring
integrated preventative services to urban and underserved communities.

VACCINES = MITIGATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT

The impact of climate change cuts across health and well-being, livelihood, and security of
people, particularly for the poorest and most vulnerable communities, such as people on the
move. Immunisation is critical to building people’s and systems’ resilience to and reducing
the risk of outbreaks due to climate-sensitive diseases, such as yellow fever, cholera and
Ebola, particularly in urban, fragile and post-disaster settings.

STRONG HEALTH SYSTEMS = LONG-TERM STABILITY

Effective, safe, and people-centred health systems are the backbone of social institutions in
every country, and immunisation is often the first point of contact between these systems and
the population. Through Gavi support, countries’ efforts to improve equitable access to
vaccines contributes to building public trust, stronger social cohesion, peaceful and inclusive
societies.

INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIP = UNPRECEDENTED PROGRESS

Leveraging the comparative advantage of each partner, the Vaccine Alliance’s innovative
public-private partnership model has transformed global progress by accelerating equitable
and sustainable access to vaccines both at scale and pace. Since 2000, Gavi support has
helped countries immunise more than 760 million children. This has helped to reduce deaths
from vaccine-preventable diseases by more than 60 per cent and played a key role in halving
the under-five mortality rate in those countries.

CONCLUSION
Today, the Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG) in the United Nations Department of
Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) provides substantive support and capacity-building for the
SDGs and their related thematic
issues,including water, energy, climate, oceans, urbanization, transport, science and technology,
the Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR), partnerships and Small Island Developing
States. DSDG plays a key role in the evaluation of UN system wide implementation of the 2030
Agenda and on advocacy and outreach activities relating to the SDGs. In order to make the 2030
Agenda a reality, broad ownership of the SDGs must translate into a strong commitment by all
stakeholders to implement the global goals. DSDG aims to help facilitate this engagement.
 LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Understood the world’s most pressing problems with a specific focus on poverty &
inequality, ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss, and climate change

• Critically analyzed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their relationship
to the world’s most pressing problems

• Used frameworks and evidence necessary to develop solutions

• Assessed relevant solutions that would help realize the SDGs and at the same time
solved the pressing problems

• Applied skills learned to implement solutions

COMPLETION CERTIFICATE