The Sustainable Development Goals: No More Business As Usual

Summer Edition , June 28th, 2017 “The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development… is an important sign of hope. Solemn commitments, however, are not enough… Our world demands of all government leaders a will which is effective, practical and constant, concrete steps and immediate measures for preserving and improving the natural environment and...

Sustainable Development Goals and National Development Agenda

Summer Edition , June 28th, 2017 Sustainable Development Goals and National Development Agenda Bhutan joined the international community and over 150 world leaders during the 70th UN General Assembly (UNGA), 25th September 2015, in adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs.  The 17 goals, 169 targets, and 231 indicators of the SDGs...

How Ireland is Adopting the Sustainable Development Goals

Summer Edition , June 28th, 2017 The 17 Sustainable Development Goals, with their accompanying 169 targets, are a blueprint for the future development of mankind and of the planet. Never before has the world come together on an agenda of this kind. Breathtaking in its scope and ambition, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is...

Sustainable Development Goals and Gross National Happiness

Summer Edition , June 28th, 2017 Are there commonalities between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Gross National Happiness (GNH)? Let me go straight to the point. They are compatible in the sense that the former is only a subset of GNH, just as democracy is a subset of GNH. They are incompatible in how...

SDGs: Value-added for GNH? Challenges and Innovations of a Development Alternative from a Socio-cultural Lens

Summer Edition , June 28th, 2017 Introduction Gross National Happiness (GNH) is a living example of a development alternative, a unique voice against the backdrop of a GDP-centric, climate negative and globalised world. Upheld as holistic development with values, its moral concept, conceptual framework and index of measurement offer an innovative path for conceptualising, shaping...

The Role of Local Government in Sustainable Development

Summer Edition , June 28th, 2017 Not If or When or Why, but How? The roles of Local Government (LG) is intertwined with national development. In that sense, the question is no longer whether we believe that Local Government is ready or not to take on more responsibilities and authority – although there are voices...

Parliamentary Action for SDGs

Summer Edition , June 28th, 2017 I watched the United Nations General Assembly agree on the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015, I was thinking about the Philippines. The Philippines is not one of the poorest nor least stable places in the world, but gross inequalities leave many living in poverty and squalor;...

The Challenge Of No Data and Poor Data

Summer Edition , June 28th, 2017 Introduction On September 2015 world leaders adopted the Agenda 2030, the most comprehensive and ambitious global framework for sustainable development. The agenda’s most visible components are its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its 169 associated targets. Attracting much less attention, the United Nations Statistical Commission agreed on March...

Goodbye Poverty, Hello Equity: How Can Bhutan Do It?

Summer Edition , June 28th, 2017 “Worrying where our next meal will come from… not having someone to care for me when I am sick… asking my neighbours to look after and feed my three-year old daughter and my mother when I go to work… yes poverty is real…” A single mother of three, Dorji...

Eradicating Poverty, Addressing Climate Change, Protecting The Terrestrial Ecosystem

Summer Edition , June 28th, 2017 This paper presents a rationale behind the prioritisation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Bhutan. Bhutan, being a mountainous country, is highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change, according to a series of reports produced by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The prioritised Sustainable Development Goals...