Samoa is among those nations that have been identified in the Pacific as not being able to reach their Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

To understand better and past the jargon or technical terminologies, we have to understand what SDGs are.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognise that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Countries have committed to prioritise progress for those who're furthest behind. The SDGs are designed to end poverty, hunger, AIDS, bring change to current impasse on the future of the planet and end discrimination against women and girls.

The creativity, knowhow, technology and financial resources from all of society is necessary to achieve the SDGs in every context.

There are 17 SDGs and they have been incorporated in national policies and strategies that the Government launches in public forums and holds press conferences about. For example, they would release the Samoa Health Strategy 2030 or an agricultural policy that would have a roadmap/plan to achieve this goal.

How many agricultural, economic, health and education strategies and policies have been released since 2015 and how many have been achieved?

If they were being achieved, then why are we having revised strategies and policies every year.

The Pacific Island Forum has released a report which shows that many of the Pacific nations will not even reach 20 per cent of the goals that have been set.

Each of the Pacific nations have their own issues to deal with and their own reasons on why this target will not be reached.

For Samoa, just like any other Pacific nations, when the nation draws up its policies and aligns it to the SDGs, its implementation is given funding.

The UN through its financing structures has set means of funding the SDGs and nations have to tick all the boxes in their indicators when funding is released.

So why has Samoa not been able to reach their goals? From the outside, it seems like there is a complacent and relaxed attitude towards working towards the goals.

There is so much resource and energy poured into coming up with the policies and it all seems to stop after an official launch is done where hotels are hired, caterers are called and people given bags which contain educational material along with souvenirs.

What happens after that process? It seems in the case of Samoa, there is very little action towards achieving this.

Eradication of violence against women and children is one of the SDGs. Latest figures on violence against women and the increasing number of children in places like the Campus of Hope are indicators that the holistic approach required is not even being attempted.

In the case of Samoa, many believe that it is just the work of the Samoa Victim Support Group and nobody else’s. The nation is losing in excess of $100 million each year to violence.

Another SDG is removing poverty and hunger. How many children are not going to school because they do not have lunch or how many children can be spotted outside shops and in the streets selling items?

Outside the nightspots in Apia, teenage girls and boys are selling garlands and other products. These numbers seem to be on the up.

Does it look like the policies made to combat poverty are working?

Here is a list of the 17 SDGs which are supposed to be incorporated into national strategies: No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well Being, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry Innovation and Infrastructure, Reduced Inequalities, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life on Land, Peace Justice and Strong Institutions, and Partnerships for the Goals.

Electricity bills are a daily struggle, and we are still using 60 per cent diesel energy to supply power, Samoa lacks 500 nurses, children are still hungry, and there are many more examples which are just around us.

To achieve this, a lot of bureaucracy has to be removed and a mindset needed that it is everyone’s goal to achieve this.

The past administration may have not seen this and were too busy grabbing power to have any real thoughts to the SDGs as this would solve a lot of problems for Samoa and people would start living a better quality of life.

“The world is facing a confluence of crises that threaten the very survival of humanity. All of these crises – and ways to prevent and navigate them – are addressed holistically in the SDGs. We ignore them at our own peril,” said Liu Zhenmin, the Under-Secretary-General for United Nations Economic and Social Affairs in their latest report.

The warning has been given more than once. The problem is everyone is ignoring the massive challenges that lie ahead and that all these goals can be achieved.

These are not something that the UN has decided to do because it is the UN, these are real issues affecting real people.

And finally, to answer that question - why do ostriches bury their heads in the sand?

As big as the bird is, it is not the smartest creature around, the act of burying its head is done because the ostrich believes that if they do not see the problem then there is no problem.

Do not be the ostrich whether you are the government, the civil society organisation or an everyday Samoan.