After many global consultations, a resolution titled ‘Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ was adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 25, 2015, heralding the commencement of yet another 15-year cycle of global development goals following the footsteps of MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) for 2000-15. This post-2015 global agenda contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets, which reflects the scale and ambition of the global community seeking to realise human rights, gender equality and empowerment of all. The SDG agenda is a plan of action for the people, planet and collective prosperity by seeking to strengthen global peace and larger freedom, and eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions. The five Ps of this development agenda revolve around: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership. Let us now revisit the Sustainable Development Goals (UNGA, 2015): * End poverty in all its forms everywhere; * End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture; * Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages; * Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all; * Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; * Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all; * Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all; * Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all; * Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation; * Reduce inequality within and among countries; * Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable; * Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns; * Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts; * Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development; * Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and biodiversity loss; * Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels; * Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development. The 5 specific targets of Goal-1 include eradicating extreme poverty (people living on less than $ 1.25 per day) by 2030 and reduce at least by half the proportion of people living below the poverty line; implement nationally appropriate social protection systems, ensure that everybody has equal rights to economic resources and boost the resilience of the vulnerable poor. Eradicating extreme poverty which currently stands at 17.6 per cent and bringing down the current poverty rate of 31.5 to 16 per cent by 2030 would be a big challenge for Bangladesh. The public, private and non-government sectors shall have to play major roles in achieving these targets. The 5 specific targets for Goal-2 include ending hunger and ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all and ending all forms of malnutrition; doubling agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers; ensuring sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices; and maintaining genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed animals. Realising the first and second targets would be big challenges for Bangladesh in the absence of a still inadequate social protection system for the poor and vulnerable population. The ministries of agriculture, food, land, fisheries and livestock are relevant for implementation of these targets. The 9 specific targets of Goal-3 include reducing maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100 thousand live births, reducing preventable deaths of newborns and under-5 children to at least 12 and 25 per 1000 live births; ending the AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria epidemics; reducing mortality from non-communicable diseases by one-third; halving the number of deaths and injuries from road accidents; and achieving universal health coverage. Bangladesh will face serious challenge in bringing down the maternal mortality ratio from the current 176 per 100 thousand live births to 70, and under-1 infant mortality rate from the current 30 to 12 per thousand live births. Eradicating AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria epidemics will also be a big challenge under the existing circumstances. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well as the private and NGO sectors are responsible for realising these targets. The 7 specific targets of Goal-4 include ensuring completion of primary and secondary education for all boys and girls as well as access to early childhood development and pre-primary education; equal access to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education; and ensuring literacy for all youths and adults. Among these, the first two targets will be difficult to implement, as the literacy rate still hovers around 60 per cent and no significant progress has been made in the areas of pre-primary education and early childhood development. The ministries of education, as well as primary and mass education are relevant for implementation of these targets. The 5 targets of Goal-5 include ending all forms of gender discrimination, eliminating violence against women and harmful practices like early, forced or child marriage; recognising the value of unpaid care and domestic work; and ensuring equal participation of women in leadership positions. Meeting these targets will be an uphill task in Bangladesh because of the social realities, citizens’ outlook and value systems in society. The ministries of women and children affairs, home affairs, labour and employment, and social welfare are relevant for realizing these targets. The 6 targets of Goal-6 include universal and equitable access to safe drinking water, adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene, improving water quality, increasing water-use efficiency, integrated water resources management and protecting water-related eco-systems. Of these, the first target is likely to be achieved as access to safe drinking water already stands at 98.3 per cent in Bangladesh. The achievement of sanitation target will be difficult as the current rate is only 63.8 per cent. The same goes for other targets, as there seems to be inadequate professionalism as well as distortions by vested quarters in the management of water-resources sector. The ministries of local government and rural development, as well as water resources are relevant for achieving these targets. The 3 targets of Goal-7 are ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services, substantially increasing the share of renewable energy in the energy mix and doubling the rate of improvement in energy efficiency. Bangladesh will face difficulty in achieving these targets as the country lags behind in fuel resources, and the transmission cum distribution systems as well as renewable energy programmes have so far failed to deliver the expected outcomes. The Ministry Power, Energy and Mineral Resources is most relevant for realising these targets. The 10 targets of Goal-8 include sustaining per capita economic growth at 7 per cent, achieving higher levels of economic productivity, promoting development-oriented policies that support productive activities, progressively improving resource efficiency in consumption and production, achieving full and productive employment for all, substantially reducing youth unemployment, eradicating forced labour, human trafficking and worst forms of child labour, promoting labour rights and safe working environment, implementing policies to promote sustainable tourism and strengthening the capacities of financial institutions for expanding access to financial services. Implementation of these targets would require socio-political stability as well as strengthening the capacity and efficiency of the government manifold through sweeping reforms in administrative and financial governance. The ministries of finance, planning, labour and employment, industries, civil aviation and tourism are relevant for implementation of these targets. The 5 targets in Goal-9 include developing quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialisation, increasing the access of small-scale enterprises to financial services, and enhancing scientific research cum technological capabilities. These would require massive investments both from the private and public sectors in infrastructures and industries as well as transnational collaborations. The ministries of industries, jute and textiles, communication, science and technology, posts, telecommunication and information technology are relevant for achievement of these targets. The 7 targets of Goal-10 include progressively sustaining income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of population at a higher rate than national average, empowering and promoting socio-economic and political inclusion of all, ensuring equal opportunities and reducing inequalities by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting supportive laws, policies and actions; adopting fiscal, wage and social protection policies for achieving greater equality; improving the regulation, monitoring and enforcement of global financial markets and institutions; ensuring enhanced voice for developing countries in the international economic and financial institutions; and facilitating safe, orderly, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people. All these would require an overhaul of the domestic and international legal cum regulatory regimes. The ministries of finance, law, justice and parliamentary affairs, expatriate welfare and overseas employment are relevant for realizing these targets. The 7 targets of Goal-11 include ensuring adequate, safe and affordable housing for all, providing access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems and improving road safety; enhancing inclusive and sustainable urbanisation and capacity for participatory and integrated planning and management of human settlements; protecting and safeguarding the world’s cultural and natural heritages; significantly reducing the losses caused by disasters; reducing the adverse environmental impact of cities; and providing access to safe, inclusive, accessible and green public spaces. Implementation of these targets would be very difficult in Bangladesh due to rapid and unplanned urbanisation (currently 30 per cent), over-population, and excessively high population density especially in urban centres, as well as resource constraints. The ministries of communication, housing and public works, environment and forests, cultural affairs, and disaster management are relevant for achieving these targets. The 8 targets of Goal-12 include implementing a 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production patterns, achieving sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources, halving per capita food waste at consumer level and reducing food losses in production and supply chains; achieving environmentally sound management of chemicals and wastes; reducing waste generation through prevention, recycling and reuse; encouraging companies to adopt sustainable practices; and promoting sustainable public procurement practices. All these would require massive efforts by the regulatory arms of the government as well as the relevant private and non-government entities. The relevant ministries for achieving these targets are agriculture, jute and textiles, industries, food, planning, environment and forests. The 3 targets of Goal-13 are strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity to face climate-related hazards and natural disasters; integrating climate change measures into national plans, policies and strategies; and improving education, awareness-raising, human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation and impact reduction. These would require colossal efforts, especially by relevant government organisations like the ministry of environment and forests, department of environment, ministry of planning, ministry of disaster management and relief, and the department of disaster management. The 7 targets of Goal-14 include prevention and reduction of marine pollution; sustainable management and protection of marine and coastal eco-systems; minimising and addressing the impacts of ocean acidification; effectively regulating harvesting and preventing over-fishing and illegal cum unregulated fishing; conserving at least 10 per cent of marine areas; prohibiting certain fisheries subsidies that contribute to over-capacity and over-fishing; and increasing economic benefits to least developed countries from sustainable use of marine resources. Achievement of these targets would require closer coordination, efficient cum effective management of marine resources by relevant public entities like the ministries of fisheries and livestock, shipping, and water resources, the department of fisheries as well as defence organisations like the Navy and Coast Guards. The 9 targets of Goal-15 include ensuring conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland fresh water ecosystems and their services; sustainable management of all types of forests; combating desertification, restoring degraded land and soil; ensuring conservation of mountain eco-systems; taking urgent action to reduce the degradation and bio-diversity, loss of natural habitats, promoting fair sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources; taking urgent action to prevent poaching and trafficking of protected flora and fauna; introducing measures to prevent and reduce the impact of invasive alien species; and integrating ecological and biodiversity values into local and national development plans and processes. All these would require heightened surveillance and effective monitoring cum regulatory roles by government entities like the ministries of land, agriculture, fisheries and livestock, environment and forests, planning, Chittagong hill tracts affairs, and the departments of forests, and fisheries. The 10 targets of Goal-16 include significant reduction in all forms of violence and related deaths; ending abuse, exploitation, trafficking and violence against children; promoting the rule of law and ensuring equal access to justice for all; reducing illicit financial and arms flows, strengthening the recovery and return of stolen assets, and combating all forms of organised crimes; substantially reducing corruption and bribery; developing effective, accountable and transparent institutions; ensuring responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels; broadening developing countries’ participation in global institutions; providing legal identity to all; and ensuring public access to information and protecting fundamental freedoms. All these would require flourishing of good governance and inclusive democratic practices as well as strengthening the watchdog role of constitutional bodies and democratic institutions in Bangladesh. Relevant entities for realising these goals are Cabinet Division, Prime Minister’s Office, the ministries of public administration, home affairs, law, justice and parliamentary affairs, information, Anti Corruption Commission, Jatiya Sangsad, political parties, and the civil society at large including NGOs. The Sustainable Development Goal-17 stipulates the means of strengthening the implementation as well as revitalisation of Global Partnership for Sustainable Development. It refers to financial and technological aspects, capacity building especially in developing countries, promotion of universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system, and also addresses like policy and institutional coherence, multi-stakeholder partnerships, data, monitoring and accountability issues. The ministries of foreign affairs, finance, planning and commerce are relevant for achieving this goal. The SDGs appear to be a long list of idealistic wishes that are sought by the global community in the light of existing realities, future potential as well as resource constraints of the planet. All these may turn out to be mere utopian dreams if the egalitarian ideals on which these are founded are not accepted globally and sufficient efforts and resources are not deployed to transform these goals and targets into a reality on the ground.