Do you know what the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mean? Are you aware of SDGs? Do you know how important it is? How much do you contribute to SDGs from your personal level and how much do you and your organization contribute to SDGs? Want to know, to which Goal of UN SDGs AgriClear has contributed and is contributing?
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. To transform the current world into a better one, the United Nations unanimously established Agenda 2030 in 2015, which included 17 SDGs. The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic, and environmental sustainability.
Recently, Ipsos conducted a survey for the World Economic Forum from 28th April to 7th May, 2021 on SDGs priorities, among 28 countries where 20,000 adults participated. According to this survey, the top three SDG priorities for the global public are SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), and SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing). Sigrid Kaag- Minister of Finance, the Netherlands said of the SDGs- "The ambitions are as great as they are unavoidable – a livable world is in the interest of all of us – citizens, businesses and governments – that requires a great effort together." Therefore, continuous and massive collective effort is necessary to achieve all these goals. For this greater global change, various companies both government and private organizations of various countries, are contributing to achieving various goals of SDG. Currently, people from all around the world are facing various social, economic and environmental challenges, so ongoing SDGs global cooperation can really help all of us to change and uplift the world that we live in.
Alignment of AgriClear with the SDGs
AgriClear, an IT product, contributes to the transparency and traceability of the agro supply chain. AgriClear's major goal is to track farmers' good agricultural practices and make all of the information of the supply chain available to final consumers. AgriClear, being a good contributor to modern agriculture also supports a number of UN SDGs which includes;
Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
As stated in target 1.4, AgriClear encourages the participation of women in agriculture as well as the adoption of available modern technology like the internet, mobile phones and agritech products like AgriClear. With its help, various issues can be solved easily and they can even get access to microfinance. Also, with traceability of the agro supply chains, agro-enterprises and farmers can receive a higher income which positively affects their livelihood.
Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
AgriClear promotes safe agricultural practices, offers practically all of the product information a consumer could possibly need through its platform, and educates consumers about issues like food fraud and other types of food adulteration.
As stated in targets 2.1 and 2.3, AgriClear assists consumers in determining whether or not the agricultural products they are consuming are safe as well as women's and small-scale producers' ability to increase their income by offering digital labels through our platform that supports product value addition.
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
According to the latest data from ITU, globally only 30 % of tech science and technology professionals are women . And in financial services institutions, women held 21% of board seats, 19% of C-suite roles, and 5% of CEO positions in 2021 . It indicates that there is a low level of female participation in most sectors. To increase women participation to help them become financially independent, AgriClear encourages women participation. 83% of the AgriClear team are female and are also led by a woman. With conscious efforts we added "female owned business" as a product's claim while tracking the supply chain of the products which encourages female farmers to become financially independent. We also make sure to include female led businesses to onboard as our clients in coordination with local women based organizations in Nepal like Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal (WEAN).
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
AgriClear supports farmers to use safe and good agricultural practices, which directly or indirectly help to increase economic productivity. It also encourages new innovation and the adoption of new farming technologies. AgriClear enables farmers to use new technologies, diversify their crop production, and add value to their produce, as was specified in target 8.2.
References:
1. Dimovska, Matilda. “Sustainable Development Goals.” United Nations Development Programme, https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals. Accessed 31 October 2022.
2. Minister Kaag: Prevention of Priority in Policy Document BHOS ...” NewsBeezer, 18 May 2018, minister-kaag-prevention-of-priority-in-policy-document-bhos-news-article/. Accessed 31 October 2022.
3. Okuda, Atsuko. “Tackling the digital gender divide in Asia.” ITU, 23 May 2022, https://www.itu.int/hub/2022/05/digital-gender-divide-asia-unicef-rosa/. Accessed 31 October 2022
4. Rogish, Alison, and Natalie Pfaff. “Gender diversity in global financial services.” Deloitte, 16 June 2022, financial-services/gender-diversity-in-global-financial-services.html. Accessed 1 November 2022.