“The time has come” to act to fulfill the promises to improve the future of humanity, called the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, this Monday (18), before dozens of leaders from a world hit by an avalanche of crises .
In a context of geopolitical tensions unprecedented in decades, this development summit, which opens the high-level week of the UN General Assembly in New York, could be overshadowed by the arrival of Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky.
The future of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by UN Member States in 2015 to achieve a better and more sustainable future for “more than half the world” by 2030, is critical – even more so for those suffering the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
These goals “embody the hopes, dreams, aspirations and expectations of people around the world,” the Secretary-General insisted. “The time has come for you to be heard,” he told the audience.
Halfway through, only 15% of the 17 SDGs are in the right direction, many are stagnant, and others are in retreat. This is a case of hoping that not even a single person of the approximately eight billion inhabitants of the planet goes hungry.
“In our world of abundance, hunger is an appalling stain on humanity and an epic violation of human rights,” said Guterres.
Financing
Leaving poverty, having access to education, clean water, clean energy, good health, combating climate change, or achieving peaceful societies are development goals that are interrelated.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) recalled, this Monday, that two thirds of indicators related to children are not able to reach their targets.
“If predicted progress continues, only a total of 60 countries – where 25% of the child population live – will have achieved their goals by 2030, leaving behind around 1.9 billion children in 140 countries,” he warned.
The multiple crises that have emerged in recent years – the Covid-19 pandemic, climate catastrophes, the war in Ukraine and the cascading impact on energy and food prices – threaten these objectives.
This summit is “a vital space to make changes”, recalled Abby Maxman, from the NGO Oxfam, who called on world leaders to make “meaningful commitments, followed by authentic actions”.
According to the declaration adopted by consensus, Member States commit to “act without delay” to implement this “action plan for people, the planet, prosperity, peace and partnership, leaving no one behind”.
From this perspective, they should “support” a reform of the international financial architecture, as many developing countries are paralyzed by the weight of their debt.
But “will this summit on the SDGs resurface the feeling of hope, optimism and enthusiasm, as was presented? I doubt it”, says Noam Unger, from the American think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
“The most vulnerable look to us”
The southern countries, whose leaders will be present this Monday, have a lot of hope. Faced with their demands and resentments, Western diplomats remember that development is their priority in this global diplomatic dance.
“The most vulnerable in the world look up to us, like this young woman I met in Chad last week, who fled unthinkable violence in Sudan,” said US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “This young woman is counting on us,” she added.
“There is a growing gap between the developing world and the developed world,” acknowledged a European diplomat.
It is necessary to “ensure that this distance does not grow even further”, he added, while admitting that the war in Ukraine “steals political and economic attention from urgent global problems, such as food security, climate catastrophes, inequalities, or access to finance.”
These existential questions, particularly in the case of the poorest countries, threaten to be overshadowed this week by the presence, for the first time, of the President of Ukraine in the UN rostrum on Tuesday, before a Security Council dedicated to his country in following day.
A visit that could further upset the countries of the South, if a “hard line” is adopted, demanding more weapons from their allies, warns Richard Gowan, from the International Crisis Group.
© Agence France-Presse
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