The coronavirus pandemic makes it more necessary than ever to act in favor of sustainable development

As COVID-19 drastically changes lives and livelihoods across the globe, the United Nations held a policy debate on Monday where a number of multilateral solutions to alleviate the pandemic were emphasized, while seeking to get back on track toward achieving the Organization’s seventeen Sustainable Development Goals.

“Our commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals has not changed, but the urgency to act has changed,” said Mona Juul, President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), during a debate entitled “Joining Forces: Effective Policy Solutions for the Covid-19 Response.”

Juul said that, while working to make progress that will help the world overcome the health emergency, including a vaccine, “we are only beginning to realize the true magnitude of the social and economic crisis that awaits us.”

As an example, he said that almost half of the global workforce is in immediate danger of becoming unemployed, while reversing other global goals such as increasing poverty for the first time since 1998; malaria mortality levels that threaten to return to those recorded 20 years ago; and violence against women and girls.

“These are incomprehensible setbacks to our hard-won development gains,” said the head of ECOSOC, adding that “we must ask ourselves: how can we find a solid foundation in the new normal underway?”

Better reconstruction needed

He went on to point out that, although this virus affects everyone, it has not affected all people equally, but has exposed and aggravated inequalities in societies.

“These disparities should be our catalyst and a call to build back better,” he said, arguing that national responses should be based on human rights and that country-specific measures should take into account special situations.

Juul also said the pandemic “highlights the need to strengthen multilateral cooperation, governance and, above all, global solidarity.”

After stressing that “we are currently sailing in dangerous waters”, the president of the Economic and Social Council pointed out that the Sustainable Development Goals are “our letter of introduction to overcome the storm”.

“Now is really the time to fulfill our promise to leave no one behind,” he concluded.

The 2030 Agenda is the compass to navigate the world

Under-Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed said lives and livelihoods around the world depend on the ability of the United Nations to support governments in the fight against this “unprecedented health, humanitarian and socio-economic” crisis.

After describing the Sustainable Development Goals, which are included in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as “the compass” necessary to guide us, he also cited the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Addis Ababa Programme of Action on Financing for Development, among the pacts that should mark the world’s navigation chart.

“We will have to take into account a double mandate: to respond urgently to curb the effects of the pandemic, and at the same time to help in the action of governments and the population so that they can recover a better and more resilient future,” Said Mohammed.

Similarly, he said that when the time came to allocate resources, special attention would be paid to the needs of countries affected by conflict and disasters, the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States.

The pandemic has destabilized global growth

For his part, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, Liu Zhenmin, stressed that “the pandemic has destabilized global economic growth” and has led the planet into a major global recession that threatens the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Faced with the challenges posed by the stagnation of national financial resources, high levels of debt and the fragility of health systems, he focused on other large-scale aspects, such as education, human rights, food security, sustainable development and “a lasting impact on migration and on the attitude towards foreigners and migrants”.

Zhenmin underlined the need to build on the lessons learned throughout the crisis to accelerate progress in delivering on the promise of the 2030 Agenda during the Decade of Action, the provision of services for sustainable development and to reverse the trend towards inequality.

The director of the International Labour Organization, Guy Ryder, argued that an effective response to the human cost of COVID-19 requires global solidarity that includes international coordination on health, social and economic policy.

Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, maintained that fundamental guarantees are at the core of addressing the COVID-19 crisis and called for support to increase efforts to leave no one behind.

Finally, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Qu Dongyu, highlighted the impact of the pandemic on food security and nutrition, and the need to promote effective global solutions in response to the crisis.

Source: UN News