The U.N. Chose Way Too Many New Development Goals

In northern rural Bangladesh, the autumn lean season is the most difficult time of year, especially in Rangpur, where close to half of the 15.8 million residents live below the poverty line.

The landless poor in Rangpur primarily work as day laborers on neighboring farms. But in September, while waiting for crops to mature in the fields, there is no farm work to be done. Wages fall, and at the same time, food becomes scarce because harvest is still months away, so the price of rice goes up.

World leaders at the U.N. recently began a yearlong conversation about global goals for the next 15 years. Many will rightly talk about poverty, food, water and the environment. Few will mention energy. Yet we should.

Access to energy is one the most important drivers of development, e.g. improving living standards during the Industrial Revolution to more recently, helping lift 680 million Chinese out of poverty. Currently almost 3 billion people, mostly in Africa and South-east Asia, live without modern energy, instead using wood and dung as a source of fuel.

An election sharpens attention on how to ensure that the poorest in society benefit. As the next general election approaches, it is timely to focus attention on the challenge of Tuberculosis (TB) — a scourge affecting the poorest Indians the most — because its treatment is one of the most cost-effective transformative interventions that can be made. 

New research undertaken by India Consensus squarely places TB treatment among the top investments that India can make in order to help achieve the UN’s Global Goals.