Achieving the  Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SIFAPlan and the SDGs

Since 2015, when the U.N. Member States agreed on Agenda 2030 and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there have been concerns that we are lagging behind in their implementation. These concerns have mounted since the onset of the COVID pandemic in early 2020.

The SIFAplan provides a range of powerful tools to help reverse the negative trend and accelerate the achievement of each SDG.

The whole SIFAplan is aimed at building a supplementary sustainable global economy that gradually replaces the unsustainable elements in today’s economy as public opinion evolves and demands change.

Here are some ways in which the elements of the SIFAplan can support the achievement of all of the SDGs and contribute to building a foundation for sustainable development:

• The SIFAplan provides every woman, man and child registered with the Plan with approximately US $500 in its initial year of implementation, compounded by around 7% p.a. for every year thereafter. This SIFA income is meant for personal and community development and may only be spent on environmentally friendly goods and services. It thus creates a foundation for a sustainable supplementary economy.
• There are two specially-trained SIFA development workers for every 1000 people to help implement the Plan. They are available to support whoever so wishes in making the choices that best meet their own priorities. They can act as teachers and counsellors helping people to combine their own insights into what is sustainable and compatible with national and international standards as these develop. In this way, people learn how sustainability relates to their own lives.
• Moreover, at the beginning of each period of 12 months, all participants are invited to decide, in local group discussions that are linked worldwide, which goods and services are considered sustainable and thus permitted to be ordered for a person’s SIFA income. At the same time, producers able to provide these goods and services sustainably would be selected. During each period of 12 months, each participant gains greater insight into which goods and services best promote sustainable development. In this way, each individual person becomes a knowledgeable implementer of sustainable development standards and sustainable development as it pertains to their own life and community. Together, all participants create a powerful and knowledgeable grassroots force for global change and for the achievement of the SDGs.
• Each individual is allowed to spend up to half of their SIFA income on community development. This will enable communities to develop sustainably, building such infrastructure as energy and water systems, sewage disposal systems and well-lit roads connecting communities. They can send individuals for medical training to help the communities, and build schools and community centres. They can create parks and green spaces within human settlements to promote the retention of fresh-water systems and biodiversity, and connect these to provide green corridors; they can arrange for clean-ups of garbage and marine pollution, and build recycling centres. They can provide community members with lessons in sustainable gardening and farming; or sustainable consumption and production. The longer the plan is in operation, the more sustainable human behaviour and community development will be.
• For people who already earn around $500 annually, an extra income of $500 per family member means a fortune, which would quickly help to meet the basic needs for both individual and community development sustainably in poorer areas.
• In richer countries, this amount would mean a much smaller percentage of individual income, but still enough to open up new markets both locally and worldwide for an array of sustainable goods and services on which to spend the SIFA supplementary income. Advertising could become a powerful educational tool to help people to think critically and individually and make sustainable choices. Businesses will have the opportunity to provide for this new market for sustainable goods and services as they are ready and without conflict, as the SIFA income grows annually and the focus on sustainability increases. Thanks to thegroup discussions to determine what is and what can be offered through the SIFAplanand increasing advertising for sustainable goods and services, sustainability will increase exponentially as more people actively participate in the Plan.
• People’s jobs will focus increasingly on the supplementary economy and on meeting people’s physical needs sustainably. For the growing number of people whose physical needs are met, the focus will be on immaterial goods and service, meaning the personal, professional, artistic, cultural development and other services that stimulate people’s creativity. This immaterial economy can grow ad infinitum without having an impact on the natural environment or deplete natural resources. At the same time, as an added benefit, it will inspire, stimulate, invigorate and expand the leisure economy that is emerging as artificial intelligence takes over manual and also mental tasks from human beings.
• This shift in people’s thinking about living sustainably at all levels will accelerate the achievement of the SDGs.