THE United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs), which include eradicating poverty, represent the interest of the wealthy one per cent of the population, asserted Dr Stacey-Ann Wilson, lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of West Indies, Mona, at a UN conference on Monday.

“The sustainable development goals (SDGs) address fundamentally the poor and not the rich. So the one per cent remains the same while the 99 per cent have to adjust,” she said, giving her own views at a conference held at the Hyatt Hotel in Montego Bay, which continued until yesterday.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) hosted a cluster meeting for the Caribbean National Commissions for UNESCO entitled ‘The Caribbean in Action for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs’.

There’s a lot of money in eradicating poverty, she reasoned, and the new markets that it provides for capital. The SDGs are set for attainment by 2030, but various nations are at divergent stages of meeting these goals.

It would take 207 years to globally eliminate poverty, and the global economy would need to grow 175 times, she argued, but the data source underlying that statement wasn’t immediately clear.

Nevertheless, Dr Wilson qualified the statement: “If we are worried about the growth we have now and the impact on our environment, then imagine doing that 175 times more.”

She added that rather than speak about sustainability, living the UN speaks on sustainable development.

“This is not just a challenge for the Caribbean, but a challenge for challenging the global economy of capital accumulation and industrialisation,” she said, adding that growth lacks the human feel.

The 17 SDGs replace the eight previous Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) adapted from the United Nations Millennium Declaration 15 years ago. The MGDs goals included the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, amongst others.

Bruno Pouezat, UN resident coordinator in Jamaica, acknowledged the progress and shortfalls made by the region in attaining the SDGs to date. But low growth remained a major concern, he said.

“The region suffers from low growth, with growth levels way below East Asia and Africa virtually every year since the 1970s,” he affirmed, adding that high debt repayment removed the ability to invest in infrastructure-led growth.