Mr. President of ECOSOC,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am pleased to present the Secretary-General’s report on the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals, and to bring to your attention some ways forward on the SDGs.
The report shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a very significant impact in a number of SDG areas, undermining decades of development efforts.
The global community is at a critical moment in its pursuit of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. To date, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken close to four million lives, devastated the global economy, and upended all spheres of human life.
Before the pandemic, progress was being made in some important areas, for example, on:
- reducing poverty,
- improving maternal and child health,
- increasing access to electricity, and
- advancing gender equality.
However, those advancements were not happening fast enough. And in some truly transformative areas – such as reducing inequality, lowering carbon emissions and tackling hunger – progress had either stalled or reversed. In short, even by early 2020, we were not on track to meet the SDGs.
Excellencies,
The Secretary-General’s progress report uses the latest available data and estimates to reveal the devastating impacts of the crisis on the SDGs:
- The pandemic-related economic downturn pushed an additional 119 to 124 million people into extreme poverty, in 2020.
- The equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs were lost.
- The number of people suffering from hunger, which was already climbing before the pandemic, may have increased by 83-132 million.
- An additional 101 million children and youth fell below the minimum reading proficiency level, wiping out the education gains achieved over the last two decades.
- The crisis is also exacerbating inequalities – threatening the livelihoods of 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy, and sharp increases in the Gini index of income inequality in many countries.
- Women and children have faced increased domestic violence.
- Up to 10 million additional girls are at risk of child marriage in the next decade as a result of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the slowdown associated with COVID-19 has done little to slow the climate crisis. Preliminary data show that concentrations of major global greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increased in 2020. The global average temperature in 2020 was about 1.2°C above the pre-industrial level, dangerously close to the 1.5°C limit, called for in the Paris Agreement.
Furthermore, the world fell short on 2020 targets to halt biodiversity loss. And, 10 million hectares of forest were lost per year between 2015 and 2020.
Distinguished Delegates,
This report also shows that some of the means of implementation required to support SDG transformation have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 crisis:
- Global flows of foreign direct investment fell by 40% in 2020, compared to 2019.
- The value of global merchandise trade is predicted to fall by 5.6%.
- While net official development assistance increased in 2020 to a total of $161 billion, this still falls well short of what is needed to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, and to meet the long-established target of 0.7% of GNI of developed countries.
- In addition, the numerous fiscal impacts of the pandemic are leading to debt distress in many countries.
Overall, this report paints a worrying picture regarding the state of the SDGs, six years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda.
Yet, we need to remain confident, distinguished delegates, that the SDGs still remain within reach, provided that we do the following:
- act on the systemic shortfalls revealed by the pandemic;
- leverage our hard-won policy wisdom from previous crises, and
- harness on-going advances in science and technology.
Our actions must also deliberately move us to a development pathway that is more inclusive and sustainable than our pre-2020 trajectory.
In this context, I would like to propose three elements to guide our efforts.
First, we must set equitable conditions for all countries to recover.
Today, we are witnessing a great divergence appearing between countries. Some, where COVID-19 is sufficiently under control, are returning to growth and health, while others continue to be dragged down by the pandemic.
Such a divide has costs for the entire world, including for those that are on the path to recovery. Studies estimate the economic costs alone to be in the trillions, with up to half being borne by advanced economies. Costs in human suffering, and the potential of the pandemic to re-emerge in more virulent forms, are beyond calculation.
Equitable, and accelerated access to COVID vaccines and treatments, is the first step towards curbing this divergence.
But this will not be enough.
The pandemic has exacted an unequal financial toll across countries, damaging disproportionately those that were already in difficult circumstances to start with, and eroding their capacity to recover.
We need a global recovery plan against the economic devastation.
Governments and financial institutions can support and accelerate recoveries by meeting ODA commitments, fully extending existing mechanisms and creating new ones, especially those that can alleviate debt burdens, and crowd in private investment from wealthier nations.
The richest countries must accelerate the implementation of measures such as the planned ‘sizable’ increase in the IMF’s special drawing rights to support recovery in developing countries.
Debt service suspension, as encouraged by the G20; and grants for debt relief also allow vulnerable countries to maintain essential spending.
The international community must come together in solidarity to make these happen and ensure a more resilient economic recovery
Second, countries must ensure that SDG losses from the pandemic do not translate into a long-term erosion of capabilities.
SDG reversals – such as in extreme poverty and hunger, health, learning and gender equality – can be held at bay, and turned around relatively quickly, through targeted support.
For example, social protection programmes – many launched or expanded in the last year – can be made more robust and inclusive. Measures can be taken to safely re-open schools, as well as to strengthen remote learning, when needed.
But SDG setbacks over the last year, can also translate into long-term erosion of human capabilities, if:
- rates of poverty eradication slow permanently,
- schooling stops prematurely,
- childhood vaccination rates fall off, or
- if women are unable to return to paid work due to the additional burden of care work at home.
Enabling universal access to social protection, health care and education, can stop SDG reversals from turning into long-term losses. Providing early childhood care, paid maternity leave and flexibility in work hours, can strengthen the economic empowerment of women, even as efforts continue to change restrictive social norms.
Third, we must all act smartly to leverage scientific knowledge and new technological developments.
In the Global Sustainable Development Report from 2019, scientists identified strategically important entry points for SDG implementation, where powerful interlinkages across goals and targets could produce huge impacts across multiple SDGs.
We are now advocating for Universal access to clean energy, sustainable food systems, eradicating the digital divide, and transformations towards sustainable transport and sustainable cities, and in all of these areas, smart and multi-stakeholder action can lead to cascading benefits across the SDGs.
Governments, cities, business and industries must use the recovery to adopt low-carbon, resilient and inclusive development pathways that will:
- reduce carbon emissions,
- conserve nature,
- create better jobs,
- advance gender equality and
- tackle growing inequities.
The ability of governments to respond effectively and recover better will also depend on the availability and use of data. Over the last year, the data and statistical community has faced unprecedented disruptions in statistical operations, and has seen a spike in demand for data to monitor and mitigate the effects of the global pandemic.
International and domestic resources to support data for decision making is more urgent than ever. New partnerships, data innovations and new measures have been introduced that will profoundly change statistical production processes in many countries.
We can build on the immense community resilience of the past year, where governments acted decisively to combat the pandemic, and provided support against lost jobs and livelihoods. The world witnessed an accelerated digital transformation and a unique collaboration to develop life-saving vaccines and treatments, in record time.
Our success will largely depend on our collective response over the next 18 months. A brighter future is possible. This crisis can be the wake-up call that drives us to transform our world, deliver on the 2030 Agenda, and keep our promise to current and future generations.
Let us work together for the global recovery.
I thank you.