Brief critical analysis of the Sustainable Development Goals agenda just signed by all countries, the reasons it will fail, and the need for radical alternatives building on what people are already doing. Presentation made at Indigenous Terra Madre 2015, at Shillong, Meghalaya, India.

1. Sustainable Development Goals
vs.
Radical Well-being Alternatives
Ashish Kothari
Kalpavriksh

2. Sustainable Development Goals
Agenda 2030
Major improvement over Millennium Development
Goals
• Sustainability as cross-cutting
• Urgent need to tackle inequality
Preamble:
“We envisage a world of universal respect for human
rights and human dignity, the rule of law, justice,
equality and non-discrimination … A world in which
consumption and production patterns and use of all
natural resources are sustainable. One in which
humanity lives in harmony with nature and in which

3. But unlikely to achieve this
vision…
Fundamentally flawed on many counts

4. … violence against
nature, cultures,
communities, and
individuals!
‘Development’ =
economic growth
at all costs

5. Eradicating poverty, tackling
inequality?
• ‘Economic growth’ will take >100 years
to ‘lift’ 2 billion people out of poverty
• With 12-fold increase in size of global
economy … sustainability out of the
window!
• No radical redistribution of resources,
no target to reduce wealth/consumption
by super-rich

6. Better governance?
• SDGs: more accountable governments,
public participation … good, but
• No radical redistribution of power
towards people / communities
• Continued reliance on nation-states
• No space for governance by indigenous
peoples / local communities

7. False or partial solutions:
Technofixes, market solutions,
green growth, REDD/REDD+,
CDM, geoengineering,
climate-start agriculture …
green economy

8. Need radical alternatives …

9. India: alternative initiatives for well-being
Water
Crafts
Shelter
Food
Energy
Governance
Livelihoods
Conservation
Village
revitalisation
Urban sustainability
Learning
Health
Producer
companies

10. www.alternativesindia.org
www.vikalpsangam.org

11. Eco-swaraj:
Radical ecological democracy
(Radical = going to the roots, challenging the conventional)
• achieving human well-being, through:
– empowering all citizens & communities to participate in
decision-making
– ensuring socio-economic equity & justice
– respecting the limits of the earth
Community (at various levels) as basic unit of organisation,
not state or private corporation

12. Worldviews from elsewhere …
• Indigenous peoples’ territorial struggles and notions of
well-being
– buen vivir: sumak kawsay (Andes), suma qamana
(Bolivia), kume mongen (Chile)
– ubuntu (S. Africa), umuntu (Uganda), ukama
(Zimbabwe), eti uwem (W. Africa)
• Europe’s degrowth movement

13. • Diversity and pluralism (of ideas, knowledge, ecologies,
economies, polities, cultures…)
• Self-reliance for basics (swavalamban)
• Cooperation, collectivity, and ‘commons’
• Rights with responsibilities/duties
• Dignity of labour
• Respect for subsistence
• Qualitative pursuit of happiness
• Equity / equality (gender, caste, class, ethnic, generational)
• Simplicity, enoughness, sufficiency (aparigraha)
• Decision-making access to all
• Respect for all life forms
• Ecological sustainability
Many radical pathways,
common values & principles?

14. Towards a sustainable and
equitable society … 5 pillars
•Ecological sustainability
–Conservation of nature, sustainable use of resources
•Social well-being & justice
–Equality between men/women, classes, castes, etc
•Direct / radical democracy
–Decision-making by citizens, accountable govt
•Economic democracy
–Means of production in hands of producers, localised self-
sufficiency, economy of caring/sharing
•Cultural and knowledge diversity
–Knowledge as public resource, respecting cultural/ethnic diversity

15. So what to do with SDGs?
Use positive goals / targets to push
policy changes / hold govts
accountable … but
Continue community level resistance
and reconstruction, indigenous visions
and practices to build a future we want
‘when people lead, the leaders follow’

16. • www.kalpavriksh.org
• www.vikalpsangam.org
• chikikothari@gmail.com
For more information….