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Japan Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan ranks in the top 20 on SDG index
Japan remains the only non-European country in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Index top 20, but has lost ground on its previous ranking, according to a U.N.-initiated list released Tuesday. The SDG Index , released annually by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) nonprofit, rates U.N. member states on a range of indicators including hunger, sustainability, peace and access to justice. This year, Japan ranked 19th, behind Estonia and Belgium and above Portugal and Hungary. The country showed improved performance in the category of 'no poverty' but did worse in fields like 'zero hunger' and 'press freedom.' 'Population with rent overburden,' which tracks households where housing costs represent more than 40% of disposable income, was also an area where Japan's performance declined somewhat. Housing costs have steadily risen as burgeoning inflation takes root in Japan. In April, rents for houses in Tokyo's 23 wards increased 1.3% year-on-year, the largest spike since March 1994, according to Japan's Consumer Price Index. Japan performs well on metrics like 'no poverty' and 'good health and well-being,' but faces significant challenges in areas including 'sustainable diet' and 'gender equality,' said Guillaume Lafortune, vice president of the SDSN and one of the report's lead authors. The recently released World Economic Forum's 2025 Global Gender Gap report placed Japan 118th out of 148 countries. Last year, the fourth-largest economy ranked 18th in the SDG Index, ahead of Iceland and Hungary but behind Belgium and Portugal. Its 2024 ratings highlighted improvement in a number of areas including poverty alleviation, academic output and crime, while declining in access to and affordability of justice. Japan's position in the rankings has slowly declined from 13th place in 2015 — when the index began — as other countries in Asia have gained ground. SDSN spokesperson Alyson Marks, however, said rankings from the past are not fully comparable due to revisions and changes in data. Policies and actions that have negative effects on other countries, described as negative international spillovers, are also taken into account. Lafortune said spillovers from unsustainable consumption — or importing resources and energy exceeding Earth's regeneration capacity — and vulnerability to supply chain disruption proved a challenge for Japan in achieving its climate goals. Across Asia, the picture was broadly improving. East and South Asia had made the most progress on their SDGs since the index began being carried out due to progress in reaching socio-economic goals. Mega economies China (49th) and India (99th) both improved their rankings, entering the top 50 and top 100, respectively. Nepal, Cambodia, the Philippines, Mongolia and Bangladesh were also rapidly gaining ground. But elsewhere the picture was less positive. Globally, press freedom and corruption perception were on a downward trajectory since the index began 10 years ago, while obesity levels were on the rise. And just 17% of SDG targets are on track to be achieved by 2030, with conflict and financial constraints hampering progress.
India Today
21-04-2025
- Health
- India Today
The malnutrition blight: Why 40% of Gujarat kids under 5 are underweight
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue April 2025)The Census suggested that 7.8 million children should be enrolled in AWCs, but the CAG report showed only 4.1 million, indicating a 'massive gap'—between 2015-16 and 2022-23, some 3.7 million children (48.1 per cent) had missed out on the supplementary nutritional diet provided at anganwadis. Also, only 18.8 per cent of those in the 3-6 age group were enrolled in the AWCs for preschool advertisement AWCs offer a range of critical services in backward areas of India's rural and urban landscape. This is where children, lactating mothers, pregnant women and adolescent girls get supplementary nutrition; children gain access to key health services like vaccination; and mothers and families get educated on childcare, hygiene and nutrition. For children aged 3-6 years, preschool education is also offered. The anganwadis play a pivotal role in controlling malnutrition and stunting among growing children, so when a report highlights 48.1 per cent of them 'missing', it's shorthand for how poorly Gujarat is doing on a range of social and health indices. And this is despite an array of schemes and budgetary allocations. The NITI Aayog's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index 2023-24, released in July 2024, said that nearly 40 per cent of children in Gujarat under five are underweight or stunted, and over 38 per cent of the population is undernourished. The state also lags behind many peers in addressing the issue of hunger. Gujarat's performance is concerning as its SDG-2 score has dropped from 49 in 2018 to 41 in 2019, and now stabilised at 46 in 2023-24, suggesting limited progress in tackling malnutrition.'Tribal areas are the worst affected due to landscape and distance,' says social activist Neeta Hardikar, whose NGO Anandi has been working in the tribal regions of Gujarat to spread awareness about health, education and women's empowerment. 'In aspirational districts like Dahod, AWC numbers have not increased. But the biggest concern is the staff. Just two people per anganwadi is too little. Workers are stretched thin and unable to give quality attention to women and children.'The SDG Index also notes that 62.5 per cent of pregnant women aged 15-49 in Gujarat are anaemic, contributing to intergenerational malnutrition cycles. 'Intergenerational malnutrition requires persistent intervention. Initial findings of a recent study we did on food security across 30 households of each village in five talukas of Dahod district revealed that only two of the five food types prescribed for a nutritive diet show up on their plate on an average day,' says Hardikar. 'Allocated ration is not enough and does not reach intended beneficiaries.'advertisement In the past four months, the Bhupendra Patel government has announced two new initiatives to counter malnutrition—the Mukhyamantri Paushtik Alpahar Yojana to provide protein-rich snacks to students in state-run and grant-in-aid schools with budgetary funds of Rs 607 crore annually; and the Nutrition Mission, with an allocation of Rs 75 crore to enhance obstetric and newborn care. The MoWCD submitted in the Lok Sabha in December 2024 that the proportion of stunted children in Gujarat dropped from 53.6 per cent in 2022 to 40.8 per cent in 2024; the share of underweight children fell from 23.1 to 21 per cent over the same there is a long way to go. Hardikar says schemes and allocations don't translate into results on the ground. 'Anganwadi workers are not trained for the complex job at hand. Understanding around contraception is still abysmally low. Child and maternal mortality from malnutrition is under-reported as the anganwadi and ASHA workers are in denial. Any discussion on the issue at the gram sabhas is only to demand explanations; we need constructive feedback sessions rather than a punitive process,' she says. 'Keeping up the morale of the anganwadi and ASHA workers is critical here.'advertisementSubscribe to India Today Magazine
