SDG 9: Industries, Innovations and Infrastructures- Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
As human population continues to increase on the earth, so does the demand for goods and services. This has caused the development of various industries to meet these ever increasing needs.
The history of industrialization can be traced back to 18th century England, where they witnessed a quick and steady move from small scale production and primarily manual labour to more mechanised production and large industries.
From that time up till now, we have witnessed remarkable industrial growth in many countries of the world. In transportation, food production, agriculture; irrespective of whatever product is made or service is rendered, industries exist to meet such needs.
However, many countries still lack sufficient industrial strength, while those who already excel in the field, exert some degree of harm to the environment.
The 9th SDG seeks to address industries and ways to better them.
What are the 3 I s?
Industries are sustained by innovation and infrastructure. In this ever advancing work, if you refuse to be updated then you’d become outdated.
With every passing moment, new techniques and equipment are being developed. For a country to compete on a Global Economic scale, its industries must apply the best practices and utilise recent technology.
While Industries are large scale business ventures that utilise raw materials to produce specific end products, Innovation is the successful implementation of new ideas or finding alternative ways to do things.
Infrastructure refers to the organisational and physical structures and systems through which industries function.
Why Should We Care?
1. EMPLOYMENT: A serious problem faced by people across the world especially in developing countries is unemployment. There are limited jobs and many people are either unemployed or underemployed.
This is very bad as these people do not have steady sources of income and have to depend on others for livelihood.
If more industries are set up with better infrastructure, there will be more job opportunities.
2. NATIONAL ECONOMIC GROWTH: With the increase in employment that comes with increased industrial development, nations will experience economic growth as these two things are intimately interwoven.
3. GLOBAL BENEFITS: Currently, there is a lot of dependency on developed countries from their developing counterparts. This puts strain on the economies of these countries and lead to other issues like mass migration and brain drain.
If the developing countries become more industrial, this dependency will reduce and nations of the world can now focus more of other pressing problems and meeting other SDGs.
What Can We Do?
Building industries and developing infrastructure is a responsibility of the government. There is only so much we can do.
We can use the power of social media to push policy makers into making better efforts as regards to industrialization.
The 9th SDG is really important to meeting other goals. We need industries, innovation and infrastructure to make real, sustainable changes in the world.
