Without ignoring successes that have been achieved, economic development of Indonesia at the moment still presents huge challenges. Millions of people still live in poverty; welfare improvement is still not divided equally across all regions; income inequality tends to rise and environmental damage continues to occur, including deforestation as one of the highest in the world.
As stated by Prof. Dr. Armida Alisjahbana, SE, MA, Professor of Economics Universitas Padjadjaran, the phenomenon shows the yet achieved sustainable development. Sustainable development is often defined as development that can meet the present needs without compromising the opportunity of future generations to meet their needs. In other words, it is an equitable development of intra-generational and inter-generational. Prof. Armida concluded that we must undertake lots of efforts so that Indonesia can achieve essential sustainable development.
In September 2015, UN member states agreed on the sustainable development agenda in 2030 consisting 17 objectives and 169 targets of sustainable development or abbreviated SDGs. This global agreement is of great importance to Indonesia. SDGs help us, especially political leaders and policy makers, to continue focusing on long-term priorities and development agendas. In a democratic country such as Indonesia, the cycle of short-term political agendas often override long-term. SDGs help us reduce the risk.
The targets of SDGs are very comprehensive aiming to eradicate poverty, protect ecosystems, and improve the well being for all. Inevitably, the number of targets to be achieved is a challenge. These targets should be achieved by 2030, one and a half decade from now. Without the synergy of all the parties, it is unlikely that we will reach the target. Therefore, all stakeholders, be it the government, private sector, civil society including academia, must work together to help each other and complement each other.
With this in mind, Universitas Padjadjaran established Center for Sustainable Studies Development Goals, or SDGs Center, in order to support the need for synergies. The missions of the SDGs center are to produce policy recommendations based on research and the resulting innovation and strategies to achieve; to monitor progress toward achieving the SDGs independently; to put SDGs in mainstream of research and policy, and; to facilitate dialogue among stakeholders. All the missions are aimed at achieving the vision of SDGs Indonesia in 2030.
SDGs Center is led by Prof. Dr. Armida Alisjahbana, SE, MA, Unpad Professor, and State Minister of National Development Planning/Head of Bappenas during Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono presidency. Prof. Armida at the moment is also a UN independent advisor for SDGs. Later SDG Center will be the forum for variety of multi-disciplinary research related to SDGs on a global, national, and local levels. In addition, SDG Center will also be a facilitator in sharing various research findings related to both of Universitas Padjadjaran and its networks for cooperation. In addition, the SDGs Center will also be the central to increasing the capacity of relevant analytical skills SDGs involving academia, government and related parties.
SDGs Center University of Padjadjaran was inaugurated on Friday, May 20, 2016 in the same event as the seminar presenting two key speakers of Prof. Dr. Emil Salim of University of Indonesia and Dr. Andy Sumner of King’s College London.
University holds a strategic position in achieving the SDGs. In addition to research climate that emphasizes the importance of analytical sharpness, academic institutions always put independence in conducting the study. Long-term oriented policy as SDGs sometimes hampered by short-term interests manifested in the political process. In democratic countries, SDGs supporting policies, therefore, have to gain political support. Political support cannot be achieved without public support. An increasingly educated public will certainly support a policy that has been studied in depth by a credible and independent institution. SDGs Center University of Padjadjaran hopes to play the role optimally so that sustained development agenda in 2030 can be achieved for the sake of better and more prosperous Indonesia in the future. *
