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If you have not heard about it already, here is some good news. Africa will soon be officially declared to be free of polio – a highly infectious viral disease.

Over the past 10 days, I have been traveling across India giving a set of public lectures on sustainable development. During this visit I have had the privilege of interacting with a wide range of individuals – politicians, civil servants, fellow academics and the common man on the street. We have discussed and debated the numerous successes the country has achieved in the past five decades as well as the challenges it currently faces.

In a recent report, Philip Alston – the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights – points to the flip side of human progress. He argues that the impact of climate will be greatest on the people living in poverty and that climate disruption will threaten democracy and human rights in large parts of the world.

Over the past decade, “social entrepreneurship” – defined variously as “the use of new approaches to solve old social problems” (Swab Foundation) and “entrepreneurship carried out for societal benefit” (Skoll Foundation) – has attracted increased attention in business circles. This has corresponded with the interest to actively involve businesses in achieving the SDGs.

Building resilient and sustainable infrastructure – promoted most directly in SDG 9 – is not only important for low-income countries but is also a challenge in many parts of the developed world, where new investments and innovations are required to upgrade existing roads, bridges and tunnels.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the launch of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019 (SOFI) report at the United Nations in New York. The report does not make for pleasant reading.

Around the turn of the millennium UN organizations began encouraging partnerships with business, while at the same time inviting business to contribute to achieving key global goals, including poverty reduction, decent work conditions for all and the protection of environmental resources. The UN has strengthened its emphasis on partnerships significantly since then, and partnerships are promoted as a main instrument for reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as manifested in Goal 17.

Large parts of the African continent continue to face an acute shortage of energy. Hundreds of millions of people do not have any access to electricity. And the few that do enjoy access to the grid, are often not guaranteed continued power supply throughout the day. As governments struggle to boost power generation, they are increasingly being forced to make hard decisions and address numerous tradeoffs.

The Norwegian government has recently issued a white paper on sustainable food systems. Offering a holistic perspective, it highlights Norway’s desire to strengthen its engagement on increased sustainable food production, improved nutrition, creation of jobs as well as effective food governance.

I recently had the pleasure of riding the Madaraka Express – a Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project that connects Nairobi to the port city of Mombasa. It gave me a first-hand experience of how a Chinese “mega project” works, and how it is being financed, maintained and expanded to other parts of Kenya.

Together with the Norwegian Consulate General in Mumbai, the National Foundation for India and Samhita Social Ventures, we recently organized a forum in Mumbai on the role of business in promoting sustainable development in an Indian context.

Malawi has been consistently democratic since 1994, when it re-introduced a multiparty democratic system of governance after several decades of dictatorship. But what has been the democratic dividend in terms of economic development?

Together with the University of Calcutta, the Oslo SDG Initiative recently organized a workshop in Kolkata, India, aiming to provide a better understanding of the role of human agency and feedbacks to behaviors, values and norms that affect the functioning of Earth Systems. 

I recently attended a fascinating national conclave on institutionalising the SDGs in New Delhi and was pleasantly surprised to find that several state governments in India are showing considerable interest in incorporating the SDGs in planning development projects and programs. But one of the most important debates at this event highlighted the challenges associated with a much-talked-about idea in the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development – “leave no one behind”.

To what extent is the Indian government promoting and institutionalising the SDGs within a broader policy framework? And how is the 2030 Agenda being integrated in state planning, budgeting, monitoring and financing for SDGs? The Oslo SDG Initiative was represented by Professor Dan Banik and Professor Sidsel Roalkvam in the second National Conclave on Institutionalizing SDGs in New Delhi on 4^th and 5^th February 2019.

The transformative agenda may be weakened, and distorted. We recommend that the most problematic indicators be re-examined.

Special Issue of Global Policy, 2019, edited by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr & Desmond McNeill.

Prof. Dan Banik has begun writing a new weekly column on poverty reduction and sustainable development in Malawi's biggest national newspaper, The Nation.

A delegation from the Oslo SDG Initiative recently visited Beijing to interact with various stakeholders on sustainable development and the national follow-up of the SDGs in China. In addition to dialogue with several think tanks and organisations, Prof. Dan Banik also gave guest lectures at UNDP China and the CPC Central Party School.

During the past couple of weeks, I have been giving a series of talks on sustainable development at various Chinese universities in Beijing as well as interacting with UN agencies, think tanks and civil society organizations. A common theme that has emerged in these interactions is that China has strongly endorsed the 2030 Agenda, and that the sustainable development discourse is growing in popularity within the country. The interesting question is why.

The start of a new year provides an opportunity to reengage in conversations on how best to achieve sustainable development. The SDGs have been around for more than three years now, and by all accounts progress has been mixed. The 2030 Agenda appears to be at a crossroads and important decisions must be taken for the world to even have a reasonable shot at achieving the ambitious goals. In my view, one issue in particular warrants special attention in 2019: political enthusiasm and leadership for sustainable development.

2018 has been an eventful year for the Oslo SDG Initiative! We would like to thank all of our supporters and collaborators, and look forward to continuing our work in 2019.

Consumption, not population, is the elephant in the room of the sustainable development agenda.

With an estimated price tag of $5-7 trillion, the SDGs require a broad commitment from various sectors, both at national and international levels. Many businesses appear to have embraced the SDGs, but if they are to play a constructive role, the enthusiastic rhetoric must be operationalized in practice.

The Oslo SDG Initiative recently organized several events with Indian partner institutions in New Delhi and Kolkata.