After discovering the SDGs’ matrix, its challenges, its interests, … (Click here to discover the 1st step of our approach “SEE” with our posts dedicated to each SDG) Here is the 2nd step of our approach SEE, ANALYZE, ACT & SHARE! It consists to find out the SDGs international applications to understand the specific challenges in the different states where we are going to. Here is the ANALYZE step and it is about Poland!
POLAND PROFILE
- Capital: Warsaw
- Number of inhabitants: 37.97 millions
- Currency: Złoty (1€ = 4,2 PLN)
- Official language: Polish
- President: Andrzej Duda, since August 2015
- Government: Parliamentary Democracy
- GDP: 2020 estimated GDP per capital: $35,651 (World Bank), around 41rd worldwide rank
- HDI: 2018 HDI: 0.872, ranked the 32th worldwide (high ranking).
- Gini: 2019 Gini: 28,5% (represents the income inequality or wealth inequality within a nation)
- Climate & geography: Poland enjoys a temperate climate under the dual influence of oceanic and continental. Temperatures vary from -5 ° C in winter to 30 ° C in summer. It is essentially a lowland country, located in the great northern European plain. Only the south of the country has mountainous terrain. About 75% of Polish territory is below 200 m altitude.
- Economic situation:
(+) Poland has become a dynamic market and a major player in Europe, being the tenth largest economy in the EU. It is the only state of the European Union not to have experienced recession during the economic crisis of 2008-2010.
(+) In Poland, agriculture employs 10% of the working population and contributes around 2.1% of GDP (World Bank, 2019). More than 60% of the total land area of Poland is occupied by agriculture and the country is generally self-sufficient in terms of food supply.
(-) According to the updated IMF forecast of April 14, 2020, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, GDP growth is expected to fall to -4.6% in 2020
(-) The median gross salary is 686 euros and nearly 1.5 million employees are on "flexible contracts" which lead to precariousness.
- Health care: Universal health care ranked 50th/191 by the World Health Organization
Poland’s international commitment to contribute to reach the SDGs by 2030
The 2030 Agenda adopted by the UN in 2015 coincided with the broad public debate in Poland on giving new impulses to the polish development. As the results, Poland presented its SRD (Strategy for Responsible Development) adopted in 2017. Under the main objective “to create conditions for increasing incomes of the Polish citizens along with increasing cohesion in the social, economic, environmental and territorial dimensions”, Polish SRD has three specific objectives that are, in many aspects, aligned with the Agenda 2030 and its SDGs:
1. Sustainable economic growth increasingly driven by knowledge, date and organizational excellence (SDGs 2,3,4,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,16,17)
2. Socially sensitive and territorially sustainable development (SDGs 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10,11,16)
3. Effective state and economic institutions contributing to growth as well as social and economic inclusion (SDGs 3,8,9,11,14,16,17)
Main challenges for Poland on the way to the SDGs
To meet the goals by 2030, Poland must deal with the following challenges of the sustainable development:
On the Economic pillar:
- Construction of a strong, modern industry and support for entrepreneurship
- Investments in innovation and development of modern technologies, high value-added products and use of the digital revolution
- Support the internationalization of Polish enterprises and promote the creation of polish brands abroad
On the Social pillar:
- Reduce social exclusion, poverty, all kinds of social inequalities
- Improve the quality of citizens’ life
- Develop human and social capital through access to knowledge and education, skills and healthcare
On the Environmental pillar:
- Improve the condition of the environment and sustainable management of resources
- Increase the available water resources and achieve high water quality, rational management of natural and geological resources as well as effective waste management
- Improve the air quality in Polish cities
- Protect the soils against degradation
- Reduce the impact of noise and electromagnetic fields, what will positively affect the health of residents
To combine the three pillars on the right path, Poland needs to reinforce education for sustainable development, to strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of state and its institutions, to develop coherence in the development policies, to achieve effective monitoring and to enhance strong partnerships between administration and stakeholders (public entities, businesses, NGOs, citizens, …).
Is Poland on the right path to contribute to reach the SDGs?
On the three pillars (Economic, Social & Environmental), Poland succeeded to align its SRD with the 2030 agenda and its SDGs. This successful integration of the agenda 2030 within the national strategy permits Poland to be ranked 29th out of 156 countries in 2019 according to the SDG index. However, challenges mentioned above need to be faced faster in Poland to enforce the movement necessary to reach the SDGs by 2030!
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