The UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) Demonstrates the Urgent Need for a Renewed Focus on SDGs 1, 2, 3, 8, 10, 12, 13, 16 and 17

In 2015, World Leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  The 17 SDGs call for action by all countries to promote prosperity while maintaining peace, protecting the planet, the people and building partnerships. With only ten years remaining to achieve these goals, countries are accelerating steps towards ending poverty, fighting inequalities, tackling climate change, and ensuring that no one is left behind.  Every month, the United Nations spotlights one of the 17 SDGs, highlighting its purpose, targets, and criticality in advancing Agenda 2030. 

BY NATHALIE NDONGO-SEH

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to strain the world in extensive and devastating ways, many countries are attempting to take steps of resilience in implementing effective policies to overcome the pandemic and its impacts. The advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reflected in Agenda 2030, remains pivotal to this implementation and achieving more inclusive, resilient and healthier societies.

According to the UN Secretary-General, Mr António Guterres, the 17 SDGs are designed to be “a blueprint for beating poverty and hunger, confronting the climate crisis, achieving gender equality and much more, within the next ten years.” UN Member States adopted the goals in 2015, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: a 15-year plan to achieve the SDGs.

Today, much progress has been made in achieving the goals: more people around the world are living better lives than ever before, with access to better healthcare, decent work and education. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, rising inequalities and climate change are immensely threatening to undo these gains.

In this Decade of Action and with less than ten years left to achieve the SDGs, greater leadership and rapid, unprecedented changes are needed to ensure that these gains are not lost. Thus, the UN high-level political forum on sustainable development (HLPF), to review progress made towards achieving Agenda 2030, took place from 6th to 15th July 2021. Organised under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the HLPF sought to establish ways to ensure a sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, whilst remaining on track to realising Agenda 2030.

This year’s theme was: "Sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that promotes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development," and a close focus was placed on the following SDGS 1, 2, 3, 8, 10, 12, 13, 16 and 17.

43 countries presented their Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) of actions taken to achieve the SDGs, whilst the HLPF ultimately adopted a Ministerial Declaration at the end of the session, aimed at enabling effective policies and international cooperation required to recover from the pandemic and realise Agenda 2030.

Significantly, the UN Secretary-General presented the annual Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021, which provides an overview of the world’s efforts to implement the SDGs, highlighting areas of progress and those where urgent action is needed.

The report stresses that progress towards the goals is not occurring fast enough for achievement by 2030, and is even moving backwards in some areas; highlighting that the world’s collective response in the next 18 months will determine whether the pandemic turns out to be a “much-needed wake-up call”.

Considering the SDGs under spotlight at the HLPF, the report warns that ending poverty (SDG 1) by 2030 is out of reach due to the “triple threat of COVID-19, conflict and climate change,” unless governments immediately implement substantial policy actions, including social protection systems. Globally, an additional 150 million people are at great risk of falling into extreme poverty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including 39 million Africans.

In the Kingdom of Eswatini, a significant 59 percent of Eswatini’s population live in poverty, whilst 29 percent live in extreme poverty. Devastatingly, a further 65,800 Emaswati are expected to have been pushed below the poverty line in 2020 alone, according to the United Nations Development System’s (UNDS) Rapid Socioeconomic Assessment of COVID-19 in Eswatini.

Goal 2; ‘zero hunger’, proves exceptionally worrisome with an additional 83-132 million people experiencing chronic hunger in 2020. Essential health services remain disrupted in 90 percent of countries across the globe, hindering progress towards SDG 3; ‘good health and well-being’.

Devastatingly, SDG 10; ‘reduced inequalities’, has been set back a staggering ten years by the pandemic. Globally, women and young people continue to bear the brunt of the crisis. 74 percent of women in sub-Saharan Africa work in the unprotected and volatile informal economy, while the vast majority of Emaswati (75 percent) earn their income from the informal sector or depend on a person who works in the informal sector. Women constitute 65 percent of the informal sector in Eswatini, whilst youth account for 25 percent. Thus, Emaswati women and young people, much like their global counter-parts, have felt deeply the innate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report shows that SDG 12; ‘responsible consumption and production’, is lagging behind with immense repercussions, driving the “three planetary crises: the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises”. SDG 13; ‘climate action’, is also a serious point of concern as greenhouse gases increased in 2020, despite worldwide lockdowns.

‘Peace, justice and strong institutions’, reflected in SDG 16, has experienced damaging setbacks, with rights and protection systems ‘shattered’ in some countries, and weakened in many others. Mr Guterres urged that; “There can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development,” continuing that, “climate change and other disasters are devastating livelihoods, fuelling conflicts and jeopardising peace and security for millions of people”. A renewed focus must therefore be placed on SDG 16 across the world.

Worldwide, foreign direct investment is anticipated to drop by 40 percent, hindering the ability of countries to invest in COVID-recovery, climate action and the SDGs. Progress towards goal 17; ‘partnership for the goals’ has therefore been stunted or reversed in many instances.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity for the world to recover in a more inclusive and resilient manner. The UN Secretary-General has emphasized, particularly at the HLPF, that countries must choose a recovery path that is people-centred and underpinned by economic reform, digital transformation, vaccine equality and climate action, ensuring that nobody is left behind.

The United Nations Development System in Eswatini continues to stand in solidarity with the people and Government of Eswatini in the nation’s recovery from COVID-19 and achievement of Agenda 2030, through the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2021-2025, which seeks to enable a “just, prosperous and resilient Eswatini, where nobody is left behind”.