‍The latest increases in fuel and food prices, coupled with Stage 6 electricity load shedding power outages, are genuinely starting to test the resilience of South Africans. If middle-income earners feel the pinch, it’s hard to ignore the added strains of the low-income and poor population.

The floods in the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa have also caused havoc on infrastructure, making travel across the province extremely challenging. With most companies now transitioning back to an in-office or hybrid working environment, the impact has been increased traffic flow and further delays on the road. However, people have persevered and have still managed to get to work, and businesses continue to operate despite all odds.

What are the solutions that we can explore to overcome this debacle?

The answers we seek certainly need to involve collaboration, practical implementation, and notably, accountability.

‍In 2015, South Africa adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development founded by the United Nations, which aims to alleviate poverty and promote peace and prosperity for all.

At this plan's core, there are 17 Sustainable Development Goals that allow all participating countries to track their progress along the way.

In 2017, Cape Town led the pack. It launched the Cape Town Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development Data, which included methods for collecting and converting data to accurately communicate progress towards meeting the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).

In 2019 a country report was launched containing all available indicators supported by a visual presentation in The Global Tracker Platform. By the same year, South Africa had shown improvement with some indicators within all 17 goals.

Progress was slowed by the Covid-19 pandemic, natural disasters and the war in Ukraine that caused significant supply chain shortages.

However, in April of this year, South Africa signed the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) to get back on track towards achieving the SDGs.

Building a better tomorrow in the face of adversity

South Africa has many strengths that can be utilized to overcome its existing weaknesses, such as harnessing our increasing young population to pave the way towards promoting a mindset of equality rather than perpetuating past discrimination.

Finance and Accounting professionals are also in a vital position to build the bridge between embracing the UNSDGs, steering sustainability initiatives and effectively monitoring and communicating results.

Accounting associations such as the ACCA have committed to the UNSDGs internally. They have partnered with other associations such as PrimeGlobal to work on several projects addressing talent-related challenges. SAICA has also called on all of its members to ‘adopt’ SDGs in helping the world reach the SDG’s by 2030.

The recent events and collaboration toward common goals provide much hope for building a better tomorrow and creating sustainability in the face of these adversities.