Salman Ahmed Shaikh

UN SDGs endeavour to achieve sustainable development focusing on human development, equality, peace, justice and environmental sustainability.

This article shows the contrast between humanitarian catastrophe being experienced in Gaza and the lofty goals to which commitment is articulated and progress is monitored in UN SDGs. Let us see what each goal yearns for and what the reality in Gaza is at the moment concerning these goals.

SDG 1: ‘End poverty in all its forms everywhere.’ Gaza is also part of the world and should have come in the definition of everywhere. It is where more than 2 million human beings live. But, almost 90% of them are in poverty right now.  

SDG 2: ‘End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.’ Even in the less extreme situation before Israel’s recent brutality started in October 2023, people in Gaza were provided with minimum food calories only enough to survive. Now, after the onslaught started by Israel on defenceless people of Gaza, UN says that entire population in Gaza is facing hunger crisis. Such frugality and dehumanization goes starkly against the beautiful goal espoused in SDG 2. 

SDG 3: ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.’ Almost all hospitals in Gaza are virtually closed. They have no electricity supply and medicines remaining. They do not have fuel to run generators. World saw how new born babies in intensive care died one after the other when electricity was gone. WHO has admitted that Gaza is now simply uninhabitable, totally catastrophic and it faces public health disaster with infections and diseases spreading.   

SDG 4: ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.’ Schools sheltering people had been bombarded and ruined. Even the UN run schools had been bombarded. There is simply no educational institution operating. An overwhelming majority of civil casualties in Gaza comprises of children. In just over 3 months, more than 10,000 children had been killed by indiscrete bombardment by Israel.

SDG 5: ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.’ In Gaza, 2 mothers are killed every hour and 7 women every 2 hours. Two-thirds of the more than 23,000 human beings killed in Gaza comprises women and children. Pregnant women find no health facility. Either women have lost their lives or their parents, spouses and children in almost every household.

SDG 6: ‘Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.’ Right now, Gaza simply does not have clean water for drinking or sanitation facilities. Even during the humanitarian pause, only a handful of trucks were allowed to come with water and energy supplies. They were not enough to fill the needs of 2.3 million human beings.

SDG 7: ‘Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.’ Most parts of Gaza have no electricity. Telecommunication and internet services are also disrupted. Even the hospitals do not have enough fuel to run generators and operation theatres. 

SDG 8: ‘Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.’ Almost every market in Gaza is closed. People have lost jobs and livelihood. 

SDG 9: ‘Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation.’ Half of the homes and more than 70% of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed. Almost all hospitals and every school is out of service.

SDG 10: ‘Reduce income inequality within and among countries.’ There is absolutely no comparison of a typical Israeli settler and a person living in Gaza. Compared to $52,000 per capita income in Israel, a human being living in Gaza has no clean water to drink, no food, no electricity, no home and he and his family is prone to die in one or the other indiscrete bombardment in densely populated residential areas and shelters.

SDG 11: ‘Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.’ Gaza has no safe zone at all. Almost everyone has lost home. 70% of all homes and more than 50% of all buildings have been destroyed in Gaza by Israel’s bombardment.  

SDG 12: ‘Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.’ People in Gaza are not sure where will the next meal or sip of water come from. They have been displaced in millions. They do not have any means to grow their food or even get aid since the call for humanitarian pauses and corridor had been dismissed by Israel.

SDG 13: ‘Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by regulating emissions and promoting developments in renewable energy.’ Forget about sustainability challenges hundreds of years from now. As per UN, Gaza is the most uninhabitable part of the world right now. But, it is the most densely populated. Due to constant pushing of people from Northern Gaza to Southern Gaza together with destruction of homes and buildings, people are left stranded in open sky with no water, food, medicine, shelter and even a peaceful night. Human beings outside hospitals had been bulldozed in their sleep.

SDG 14: ‘Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.’ People in Gaza cannot use the coastal area for food. Despite having a coastal zone, people in Gaza face acute shortage of water for drinking and sanitation. 

SDG 15: ‘Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.’ All these words lose their meaning in Gaza. There is no agriculture, water and health facilities. Aid is stopped at the borders. People are forced to travel on donkey carts. Elderly people with limited mobility are left to die in open sky. Rubble, blood, torn body parts and corpses are everywhere with complete breakdown of municipality and cleaning services.

SDG 16: ‘Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.’ United States of America alone has vetoed against peace, has vetoed against uninterrupted aid, has vetoed against ceasefire and is constantly providing political, diplomatic and security support to Israel’s brutality and bombardment.

SDG 17: ‘Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.’ With the ongoing digital genocide, desperation has taken over hope of global cooperation for a common cause. Loss of 23,000 people in just over 3 months where majority of them are women and children did not ignite conscience of global political powers. International law has been put in trash bin with continuous violation. War crimes are overlooked by secular democracies and media.

Amidst all this, it seems odd to talk of lofty SDGs and their future progress when 2.3 million human beings including women, children and elderly in Gaza are discarded, dehumanized and trashed as waste and only to be bombarded to become extinct. Spare a moment to think what if you and I were one of the persons living in Gaza right now.