Understanding SDG 8

In the year 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration to commit to a new global partnership towards reducing extreme poverty and to set out a series of goals with time-bound targets. These came to be known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and had 8 goals, 21 targets and 60 indicators to be achieved by the end of 2015. Now that we are in 2015 - What is the post-2015 development agenda?

The new post-2015 development agenda builds on the foundations of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The members of the United Nations are now in the process of defining Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of the new agenda that aims to finish the goals of the MDGs. This agenda will be adopted by Member States at the Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015. Amongst the 17 proposed SDGs, one of the most important is SDG 8 that aims to, ‘Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.’ There is little doubt globally that creation of good quality livelihoods could be a powerful tool for promoting the economic, social and environmental dimensions of all the proposed sustainable development goals in general and SDG 8 in particular.

India’s Skilling to Livelihood Challenge

While the world’s population is ageing rapidly, India has one of the youngest populations in the world and is thus at a strategic advantage with regards to demographic dividend, but is unable to gain much economic advantage from this. The skilling to livelihood ecosystem and its current state is a major concern area for India, especially in rural parts, where historically livelihoods have been agriculture dependent and are diminishing rapidly with the use of modern equipments and agricultural practices. In India, the industries say that they do not find enough skilled manpower and the youth in rural communities say that they do not find any employment opportunities. The underlying problem here is that almost three fourths of the Indian population is unskilled and has very low access to livelihood opportunity markets.

There is umpteen proof and evidence that India’s future, be it economic or otherwise, will be defined by its ability to produce skilled youth and the extent to which it will meaningfully absorb its growing working population. To do so, the livelihoods sector must increase its annual training capacity ten times, from 4.4 million to 50 million, while at the same time increase its annual job creation seven times from 5.5 million to 35 million. This problem of scaling up on all fronts cannot be solved by traditional business models riding on training or placements, national policy changes, industry led hiring processes, CSR funds etc. Innovation in the field of livelihood sector is the only way out. Currently, the Indian livelihood sector does not have a single cohesive supply or value chain, from skilling to livelihoods. Most of the business models and players in this sector can be easily categorised as one of the below:

1. Trainers – The vocational education and skills training ecosystem
2. Job Creators – Direct inclusive employers
3. Marketplaces and Matchmakers – Companies connecting job seekers to better opportunities
4. Platforms and Supply Chain Enhancers – Ventures creating placement platforms, training distribution channels or enhancing supply chains

While there is (enough potential) overlap between these categories, currently available models are functional only in a single category. There is not a single business model that operates at scale and covers this entire spectrum from training to the platform and supply chain in the livelihoods sector of India. For such a market challenge, innovation and incubation of newer business models that are more holistic in approach and encompass the entire skilling to livelihood platform are much needed.

Innovation to Incubation for Livelihoods at Scale

Innovation in literal terms means a new solution or a model, or a positive change that reduces cost, increases efficiency and access of a solution or a model. Once an innovation has been tested and validated for performance, it requires ‘incubation’ to reach scale. Incubation of an innovation thus becomes the most important determinant in order for the innovation to first stay alive and then reach the target audience and create an impact. Timely incubation of an innovation ensures faster delivery of solutions, robust mechanisms for delivery, economic viability and sustainability of the delivery mechanism. Even if the innovation has been successfully completed, it can die off as just another great idea due to lack of appropriate incubation. There is an immediate need for innovation and incubation engines to create and support business models that generate sustainable livelihoods in large numbers by working holistically from skilling to livelihood.

For the urban unemployed youth, getting skilled, searching for livelihood opportunities, reaching out to employers or placement agencies, registering on an online job portal and appearing for interviews is perhaps an easy task. However, imagine rural unemployed youth - mostly marginalised school dropouts and women, doing all of these and much more to get a decent job. Getting all these pieces together in this rather long and complex livelihood fulfilment process is a difficult and uphill journey for them and this calls for innovative models. These models would also need to factor in the fact that in most cases, the cost of linking a trainee with livelihood will need to be borne by other stakeholders, rather than the trainee. Currently in India, there are hardly any such business models. Hence, for India to reach a state where no one is left behind and all youth have a decent livelihood, it is imperative to innovate and sufficiently incubate many social business models that mobilise trainees, skill them, create ‘ready to work’ pools of youth, link them with opportunities for livelihood fulfilment and become a livelihood portal that acts as a medium between industries and these pools of skilled youth.  q