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2030 SDGs: Collaboration is Key to Global Sustainability

The world is racing fast. But to where? We argue that the destination is looking more like 1930 than 2030. To change the trajectory to a better, brighter future, a lot remains to be done.

The world is racing fast. But to where? We argue that the destination is looking more like 1930 than 2030. To change the trajectory to a better, brighter future, a lot remains to be done. In a world increasingly fragmented by interests, wars and politics, how can nations work together to achieve global sustainability?


In the Global Trends 2030 report published in 2012 by the US National Intelligence Council (NIA), a combination of global trajectories were projected to result in “alternative worlds”. While the report does “not seek to predict the future”, it “provides a framework for thinking about possible futures and their implications”.

The benefit of this type of document for leaders is huge. For one, it offers a sort of ‘chessboard’ for playing on a fluid global template with the objective of an eventual win for the greatest number of people. Those who ignore this template do so to their peril.

The mega trends captured in the report are playing out to some degree: individual empowerment fast tracked by technological advances creating a level playing field that defies geography; diffusion of power with centrifugal forces weakening the hegemony of the US on global power and influence; demographic patterns increasing the flow of population from less developed to developed parts of the world; pressure on food, water and energy due to increase in the global population.



The game-changing trends are also shaping up: crisis in the global economy, governance gaps, increasing conflicts and a widening scope of regional instability among others.

As institutions and governments get overwhelmed by problems on multiple fronts, the slightest missteps may be cataclysmic; leading to a version of the world that gags the freedoms of citizens, imposes martial law to quell uprisings, with ultra nationalists recreating a global economy in ‘silos’ rather than one that is free and integrated. With increasing distrust between leaders and followers, the world by 2030 may look more like the past than the future.

The antidote to this depressing version of the future is for global leaders to manage the trends in such a way that creates a win for the greatest number of people on the planet. A situation where a few winners emerge has historically fueled suspicion and instability. For example, major global institutions like the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund ((IMF) have policies that appear to be skewed against most of the developing world. Equally, the long-term strategic posture of the US, the EU and now China appears to view Africa and the developing world as pawns for exploitation. A number of reports point to many of these policies fueling conflicts in different parts of the African continent.

Any version of the future that doesn’t address the systemic problems that fuel local and global instability will not create a sustainable world. In this unfortunate contraption, everyone loses!

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