World leaders gathered at the 77th UN General Assembly against a backdrop of conflict, geopolitical complexities, global energy and economic crises, the Covid-19 pandemic, and devastating impacts of climate change.
Unfortunately, there is little hope that the assembly will unravel any of these complexities any time soon. However, the gathering was the perfect venue for ringing warning bells over some of the missed humanitarian causes.
One of the important questions that was raised: Which sustainable development goals have been reached?
The United Nations General Assembly laid down and adopted 17 goals in 2015 and member states agreed to act on ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent an urgent call to action by all countries — developed and developing — in a global partnership. They recognise that eradicating poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies to improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth, while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
However, coronavirus put brakes on sustainability plans in many parts of the world and nipped in the bud development efforts.
No wonder that the UN and several other global organisations used the general assembly to send an SOS to world leaders.
According to a recent report by the Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers, nearly every one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seems unattainable by 2030.
The Sustainable Development Goals report 2022 says the confluence of crises — the pandemic, climate change, and the war in Ukraine have created ‘spin-off impacts’ on food security, health, education, the environment, peace, and security. The combined crises could lead to an additional 75 million to 95 million people living in extreme poverty in 2022.
The world also faces a global education crisis with an estimated 147 million children who have missed more than half of their in-classroom instruction over the past two years. Girls and women are disproportionately affected by the socio-economic fallout of the pandemic, grappling with an increase in unpaid care work and domestic violence.
The UN Secretary-General, the President of the 77th General Assembly joined world leaders and goodwill ambassadors in a global call to rescue the SDGs and put them back on track to build a better world that “leaves no one behind”.
He was optimistic with the belief that it is not too late to re-set the course toward sustainable development. World leaders have been urged to firmer commitments to ensure successful SDG implementation.
Guterres said “the world has a long to-do list,” and asked for more finance and investment from the public and private sectors.
Even so, these goals cannot be achieved separately or individually. More integration between the planet’s inhabitants and greater resilience of governments are required, but the current conflicts and crises render these impossible.
The Sustainable Development Goals of the UN’s 2030 Agenda is a blueprint for a fairer future for everyone and the planet. However, the perils of today have moved humanity off the right track.
