Creating Sustainability in Growing Consumerist Societies

I live in a generation and in a geographical location where I'm constantly thrown between wealth creation, consumerism and sustainability. My line of work is a perfect balance between a totally unsustainable jet-setting lifestyle, and the noble provision of information regarding ongoing sustainable development and environment negotiations around the world. The irony of the use of new technologies and media we employ to disseminate the information we gather from these on-site meetings never fails to escape me.
But the organization has heard good things about its work and the use of our reports in policy briefs which in turn influence decision-makers, so I sleep a little easier every night (even with the knowledge that my carbon footprint is huge- you can calculate your carbon footprint here, thanks to The Nature Conservancy).

In the year 2000, former UN Secretary General Koffi Annan proposed, and states agreed to, the millennium development goals (MDGs)- a set of 8 goals aimed at addressing the major challenges of the developing world to be achieved by 2015. Courtesy of the UN Millennium Development Goals website, these goals are:

Picture courtesy of Millennium Campaign Africa

Unfortunately, the world has failed to achieve most of the goals. This is due in part to the process that lead to the acceptance of the goals, and the potential unrealistic target dates given the rise in population and poor infrastructure in the most vulnerable countries and regions. But it is largely because these goals did not address the root causes of the problems, but merely treated the visible symptoms.

In the last 2 years or so, some conscious policy-influencers and decision-makers have been engaged in a process to create the new MDGs. These have been dubbed the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the process has been as rigorous as any that seeks to draw worldwide participation. The United Nations, that is leading this process, even asked for submissions and preferences through the MyWorld2015 survey (which some have found to be counter-intuitive to the cause of global sustainable development). Several other efforts over the last 2 years took place, in a bid to make this process as inclusive and participatory as possible. The entire process and the negotiations towards compromised, attainable goals have been conducted under the broad banner of the Post-2015 development agenda.

On 3 May 2014, the Open Working Group (comprising concerned member states of the UN and other stakeholders) tasked with working on the SDGs released the Zero Draft on the Proposed Sustainable Development  Goals. The draft includes a lengthy preamble containing states affirmations and reaffirmations on making the world a more equal place, as well as 17 distinct goals to be attained by 2030. These are:

1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere

2. End hunger, achieve food security and adequate nutrition for all, and promote sustainable agriculture

3. Attain healthy life for all at all ages

4. Provide equitable and inclusive quality education and life-long learning opportunities for all

5. Attain gender equality, empower women and girls everywhere

6. Secure water and sanitation for all for a sustainable world

7. Ensure access to affordable, sustainable, and reliable modern energy services for all

8. Promote strong, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and decent work for all

9. Promote sustainable industrialization

10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

11. Build inclusive, safe and sustainable cities and human settlements

12. Promote sustainable consumption and production patterns

13. Promote actions at all levels to address climate change

14. Attain conservation and sustainable use of marine resources, oceans and seas

15. Protect and restore terrestrial ecosystems and halt all biodiversity loss

16. Achieve peaceful and inclusive societies, rule of law, effective and capable institutions

17. Strengthen and enhance the means of implementation and global partnership for sustainable development

They strike me as being both noble and necessary. The Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform describes the goals as follows: "Sustainable Development Goals are ... action oriented, global in nature and universally applicable to all countries, while taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities. They integrate economic, social and environmental aspects and recognize their interlinkages in achieving sustainable development in all its dimensions." This zero draft is the most recent of efforts to synthesise all the views  and priorities of UN member states. The fact that it is a zero draft reflects that fact that there is still more negotiation to be done.

It's a great effort, but perhaps what remains to be seen is whether these proposed goals: address the underlying concerns of systemic economic inequality; take into account the role, function, and knowledge of customary, indigenous and local communities; and smooth the road to a sustainably prosperous world for present and future societies. The last idea is one to be dwelt upon perhaps the most, as the promise of prosperity through the 20th century conjured up images of cars on wide paved roads, leisure trips via airplanes, big plates of rich food, big concrete houses and spacious offices in tall air-conditioned buildings, happy industries producing for local and international populations, and many other shiny things.

Much as it was a wrong initial vision, it is what people have come to accept and expect. It is the reason many young graduates will not consider blue-collar jobs. These are the measures of success for us, and for many in the developing world.

To erase that vision and replace it with bicycle rides to work, small vegetarian meals, do-it-yourself gardens, and containers converted into smart houses seems more like a rip-off than a reward for good behaviour.

What incentives can effectively elicit the desirable behaviour-change? Perhaps none. But what can be done, in order for 2030 to be a year of celebration and not of mourning (as 2015 will be) is to strive to change the education system right from the word go. Very much like the campaigns to recycle in the US were driven by school-going children, what must happen in the developing world is an effort to reprogram the minds of young children concerning what success looks like. If they believe that it is less about having "stuff" and more about experiences, then sustainability may be achieved in their lifetime. But education alone is not enough. Actions speak louder than words in text books: they have to see it in action. I only need one phone, but I have three. It is physically impossible for me to drive two cars at once, but I have them all the same.

What are you willing to give up to give the next generation a chance?

And Then We Bought Into The Lie...

...that the system was going to fail anyway, so why not just jump ship. In this quest to allow children (real, or desired) to have a better life than their parents, we began to tear down the system.

Instead of supporting the public education system that had consistently and ably provided us with a decent education, we took our children to international schools, and then sent them abroad. Instead of giving back to the public health system- for the numerous times we had used it to get us back to good- we pumped our hard earned cash into the private health care system (not realizing that it was the same doctors who also consulted and worked within the public health system in our towns and cities).

Instead of maintaining the public garbage system, and the need to keep our streets and neighbourhoods clean, we allowed corruption to seep through the system so badly, that all we have now are relics of the dustbins that once drove around the cities and towns. What we have instead is a host of privatized companies now providing the services we still pay the government for.

But what hurts most is the things we do to ourselves that destroy us. Let me not even get into the rant concerning the cross-country railway line that should have been build 28 years ago, but that is still a pipe dream because some politician (WHO IS STILL HOLDING OFFICE!!!) stole the donor-funding that was earmarked for it. No, let's stick with the less dagger-in-the-back twisting pain that is our road transport. Growing up, my parents and older brothers were full of stories about the buses they took from home to school, and to work, and to church, and to shop. The image of these buses plying any route I know are only an unclear memory in my head. Yet again, this fiend privatization strikes again- causing someone to have a crazy idea that if they can create an elite of matatu-owning people, Kenya would be a better place. So they began- using every mechanism to undermine the government-run transport system, and now we have matatus. It's interesting that the debate about matatus only revolves around replacing 14-seaters, but completely ignores the fact that we had a regulated, affordable system that works, and that we STILL have the vehicles to make that system work again. No, it doesn't- because the very people who destroyed the system (and who are currently reaping the profits from the privatized network of road demons) are the people we elected to create better public policy for us. Did anyone think about the implications for shutting down a public transport system would play out? The number of man-hours lost in traffic (by my very conservative estimation its about 40,000 in the Westlands area only) each day, and what that means for development? The number of lives lost as matatu drivers strive to meet their quotas?
Would it have mattered if they did?

And how did we do this? Well, we didn't speak up when the services began to wane. We didn't raise a furor when the teachers complained about their salaries, or the doctors and nurses complained about the conditions they had to work in. We kept silent when our brothers and sisters in the city councils all over the town became greedy and corrupt, and completely mismanaged the monies we entrusted them with to maintain the cleanliness of our shared spaces. We allowed politicians to politicize the transport system, and systematically shut down every avenue for affordable public transport every Kenyan deserves. Those of us who could bought cars, and those of us who couldn't began to walk in silence.

What kind of citizens are we if we allow the public officials who have failed us to get away scott-free? An Ethiopian friend told me the other day that Kenya is seen as the capitalist utopia of Africa. If this is what we are striving for, and privatization at all costs (and usually at the expense of the 70% who cannot afford this uber expensive private life) is what we are working towards, then we have arrived.

Silence* kills societies that work. But let us not live under the illusion that this is "all we have to work with." That is a lie. It is not. We make these choices every day. In our history in this society-creation we had to do post independence, we made some pretty bad choices. But  it's still our country. We can start making some good ones- good ones for us all, not just a few of us.

*Song by Muthoni, The Drummer Queen