The Accountant-Jan-Feb 2017

PEN OFF
The UN recognizes that eradicating poverty in all its
forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is
the greatest global challenge and an indispensable
requirement for sustainable development.
the oceans, seas and marine resources for
sustainable development.
Goal 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.
Goal 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.
Goal 17. Strengthen the means of
implementation and revitalize the Global
Partnership for Sustainable Development.
The UN is quick to caution stakeholders
about the immensity of the task ahead. It
adds that the promoters of the document,
and the rest of the world, are meeting
at a time of immense challenges to
sustainable development. Billions of
the world’s citizens continue to live in
poverty and are denied a life of dignity.
There are rising inequalities within and
among countries. There are enormous
disparities of opportunity, wealth and
power. Gender inequality remains a key
challenge. Unemployment, particularly
youth unemployment, is a major concern.
Global health threats, more frequent
and intense natural disasters, spiraling
conflict, violent extremism, terrorism
and related humanitarian crises and
forced displacement of people threaten
to reverse much of the development
progress made in recent decades. Natural
resource depletion and adverse impacts
of environmental degradation, including
desertification, drought, land degradation,
freshwater scarcity and loss of biodiversity,
add to and exacerbate the list of challenges
which humanity faces. Climate change
is one of the greatest challenges of our
time and its adverse impacts undermine
the ability of all countries to achieve
sustainable development. Increases in
global temperature, sea level rise, ocean
acidification and other climate change
impacts are seriously affecting coastal
areas and low-lying coastal countries,
including many least developed countries
and small-island developing States. The
survival of many societies, and of the
biological support systems of the planet,
is at risk.
As I was driving along Uhuru
Highway a short while ago, a thin, young
girl of possibly fourteen, fifteen or sixteen
was idling on the sidewalk, sniffing a
plastic bottle of glue, with a very small
baby strapped to her back: she is just one
of countless young girls in that state in
the cities, towns and villages in Kenya.
She has no family: her mother is possibly
a prostitute: her father is a man who uses
prostitutes: the father of the baby on her
back is probably a street boy: what is the
future of that young girl and that of the
baby strapped to her back? It is very easy
for the delegates of the various countries
represented at the United Nations to
publish well-meaning documents, which
promise heaven on earth. But we must be
realistic: are you and I doing enough to
make Kenyans aware of the difficulties of
eradicating poverty in Kenya? Do we take
concrete steps to provide employment
and explain to employees that all of us
have to make sacrifices to increase the
wealth we must create for society? Our
culture tends to prevent us from helping
those around us – as is the case the world
over. So are the Sustainable Development
Goals realistic? Or will we have 34 goals
in 2030 (twice as many as those of 2015)
which reiterate the same targets because
we never achieved those of 2015?
64 JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2017