Opening the event, the Head of the ITB Quality Assurance Unit, Dr.rer.nat. Poerbandono, S.T., M.M. said, “ITB has many publications, especially in the fields of climate action and clean energy, but the products are not comparable to the publications that have been done. Therefore, it is hoped that through SDGs, it could become the face of ITB in its sustainability roles,” he said.

The webinar was led by Dr. Ir. Tirto Prakoso, M.Eng. as the Head of ITB SDGs Center. In the range of 2020-2030, countries in the world including Indonesia are targeting the achievement of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) to end poverty, reduce inequality, and protect the environment. However, in the process, the world was shaken by a pandemic that greatly affected almost all sectors, such as economy, social, environment, and education.

Dr. Tirto disclosed that this pandemic is also predicted to become endemic in the future. This could impact the efforts to achieve SDGs which were targeted to be attained in 2030. Therefore, this webinar discussed the development and potential of SARS-COV2 virus to become endemic and its impact on the achievement of SDGs.

The Impact of COVID-19 towards the development of SDGs

In her presentation, Vivi Yulaswati said that COVID-19 had an impact on many fields, such as the emergence of economic, social, and environmental risks. During the pandemic, there was an increase in internet access and mobile phone ownership in all regions. This requires an increase in internet access infrastructure and social assistance for the poor.

If we look at history, pandemics brought changes to civilization in previous centuries, for-example, Spanish flu pandemic. Therefore, this pandemic also had the impact of changes such as the emergence of Society 5.0.

The redesign of Indonesia's economic transformation needs to be carried out including competitive human resources, a green economy, integration of the domestic economy, productivity of the economic sector, digital transformation, and the transfer of new state capital. To achieve this, positive constructive cooperation is needed. The pandemic carries the risk of achieving the SDGs targets, but at the same time opens opportunities for reform of various systems.

Teti Armiati gave a number of responses to close the presentation session. "If COVID-19 becomes endemic, zoning risk maps and 3T protocols (testing, tracing, treatment) still need to be in place. At this time there has been a shift in the pandemic management, this can be seen from 2020 to 2021, so it is hoped that in the future there will be a pandemic recovery due to the existing data,” she said.

Repoter: Tarisa Putri (Teknik Kimia 2019)
Translator: Aghisna Syifa Rahmani (Biologi 2020)