UNITED NATIONS, Sep 25 (IPS) – When the UN’s 193 member states assessed the current status of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2030, the verdict was largely a failure – and with little or no no successes.
The link between hunger and poverty was best characterized by Alvaro Lario, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), who warned last week that under current trends, 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty by 2030 – and just as many will go hungry in 2030 just like in 2015 (600 million people).
“Hunger remains a political issue, driven mainly by poverty, inequality, conflict, corruption and an overall lack of access to food and resources. In a world of plenty that produces enough food to feed everyone, how can hundreds of millions go hungry?” he asked.
According to the UN, all developing countries also face serious debt problems. These countries cannot finance progress on the SDGs if they face exorbitant financing costs and have to pay more on debt service than on healthcare or education.
“Developing countries face borrowing costs that are up to eight times higher than those of developed countries – a debt trap. And one in three countries in the world is now at high risk of a budget crisis. More than 40 percent of people living in extreme poverty are in countries with serious debt problems,” UN Secretary General António Guterres warned last week.
The senior section of the General Assembly attracted approximately 88 heads of state, six vice presidents, 43 heads of government, four deputy prime ministers, 41 ministers, seven heads of delegations, plus three high-level speakers from UN observer states.
High-level meetings included the SDG Summit and a forum on Financing for Development (FfD). Active participants also included dozens of civil society organizations (CSOs).
Mandeep S. Tiwana, Chief Officer – Evidence and Engagement at CIVICUS, says a key reason why the SDGs are not on track is that 85% of the world’s population lives in countries with severe social space constraints, which require meaningful seriously hamper partnerships with civil society and cause hardship. communities of sustainable development innovations, service delivery to the most excluded, and most importantly, transparency, accountability and participation in the way development policies are implemented.
The ambitious SDG Stimulus put forward by Secretary General Guterres, he stressed, must be accompanied by guarantees for civil liberties and effective partnerships with civil society.
Otherwise, funds intended for sustainable development, where “no one is left behind”, are likely to be channeled to support networks of patronage and support repressive state apparatuses, he noted.
“In this 75th year of celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is unacceptable that civil society activists and investigative journalists should be prosecuted for exposing high-level corruption and serious human rights violations.”
He said demanding transformative social and economic policies is a dangerous activity in far too many countries around the world.
“The world is facing an acute leadership crisis due to a toxic mix of authoritarianism and populist nationalism that leads to unapologetic promotion of perceived national interests at the expense of the rules-based international order intended to create a better world for all to create.” Tiwana stated.
Guterres gave a new political twist to the SDGs when he said the “goals” were actually “promises”
“A promise to build a world of health, progress and opportunity for all. A promise to leave no one behind. And a promise to pay for it.”
This was not a promise to each other as diplomats from the comfort of this room, he argued. “It was – always – a promise to people.”
People crushed under the grinding stones of poverty. People starving in a world of plenty. Children were denied a seat in a classroom. Families fleeing conflict in search of a better life. Parents watch helplessly as their children die from a preventable disease. People who lose hope because they can’t find a job – or a safety net when they need one. Entire communities are literally on the brink of destruction due to the changing climate. The SDGs are therefore not just a list of goals, he explained.
In an interview with IPS, Amitabh Behar, Interim Executive Director of Oxfam International, said: “Unfortunately, in Oxfam’s programmatic, advocacy and campaign work, we see clearly that we are not yet on track to achieve results at the halfway point. the SDGs.”
The latest UNSG progress report shows that 80% of SDG targets show weak progress or regression. A lot of blame is being placed on the pandemic, but in reality it is only exacerbating an already bleak trend.
According to him, Goal 10 is the furthest away from all the goals by many measures. Inequality between countries has increased for the first time in thirty years.
Oxfam, a global organization that fights inequality to end poverty and injustice, brings this focus on inequality (Goal 10) and how it cuts across the entire 2030 agenda, said Behar, who was previously Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam India used to be.
At this year’s General Assembly, Oxfam pushed leaders to make bold commitments and, importantly, take action to get the SDGs back on track.
“We know what works to tackle these challenges, and we know there are more than enough resources to do it. We must ensure that resources and capacity are in the hands of those on the front lines tackling these complex issues.”
He said the lives and futures of millions of the most vulnerable people are being directly affected by the decisions and actions leaders take now and that “we are running out of time”.
“We heard leaders reiterate their commitment to tackling issues of inequality, hunger, poverty and more. If they can work together to prioritize and finance the solutions to these problems, there is still hope to get the 2030 agenda back on track.”
Asked what it really takes to accelerate the pace, Behar said: “We are not seeing the financial and policy commitments from leaders needed to tackle the big challenges of our time – economic, gender and racial inequality, the climate crisis and ongoing conflicts. and humanitarian crises”.
Most of the trends and barriers contributing to the dire state of SDG implementation were already in place before COVID, he said, including the widespread reluctance to implement highly redistributive fiscal policies at the national level – or other measures to contain the crisis . power of the top 1% of large corporations, and the inability of rich countries to meet their obligations or responsibilities, climate finance, official development assistance (ODA), debt relief and international financial reform.
“We support the Secretary-General’s emphasis on the importance of financing the SDGs and his call for an “SDG Stimulus”, including a surge in development financing, reform of multilateral development banks, action on debt relief , the expansion of emergency financing in the country. invest in basic services and clean energy, and to tackle the root causes of this situation.”
“We call on leaders to work on these areas so that we can regain the momentum we have lost on the SDGs and get back on track before we are too late,” he stated.
IPS UN office report
Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
Follow IPS News UN Bureau on Instagram
© Inter Press Service (2023) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service