Sustainable Development Goals can guide our Covid-19 recovery

With nations now looking to recover from the pandemic, it is critical to understand where we are in our development journey and chart a recovery with the aim of "building forward better." More importantly, the SDGs allow for an assessment of the progress towards achieving key development goals. As experts argue that the intense floods in Europe and China are most likely due to climate change, we cannot discount future large-scale crises that will disrupt the progress towards our socioeconomic well-being if imbalanced development continues. The SDGs offer a tool for countries to benchmark themselves internationally, also charting their progress in key development areas domestically. While some may question the relevance of long-term and lofty targets when Malaysia and the world are grappling with a crisis, it would be myopic if the link between the current crisis and development is not established.