Reaffirm Commitment to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals.
Leaders Call for International Finance Reform “Text Must Become ‘More Than a Piece of Paper’,”
The 2023 SDG Summit began a new phase of accelerated progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals with high-level political guidance on transformative and accelerated actions leading up to 2030.
Convened by the President of the General Assembly, the Summit marked the halfway point to the deadline set for achieving the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. It was the centrepiece of the High-level Week of the General Assembly. It responded to the impact of multiple and interlocking crises facing the world and is expected to reignite a sense of hope, optimism, and enthusiasm for the 2030 Agenda.
Kicking off the second half of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, on 18-19 September 2023 in New York, the world leaders at the SDG Summit 2023 have adopted a sweeping Political Declaration to reaffirm their shared commitment to end poverty and hunger everywhere, combat inequalities within and among countries and build peaceful societies that leave no one behind.
The adoption of the 10-page document by the Heads of State and Government and high representatives gathering at the United Nations Headquarters in New York came at a critical juncture as global crises — including armed conflict, adverse climate impacts and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic — threaten the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
“The SDGs need a global rescue plan,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his opening remarks to the SDG Summit, known formally as the high-level political forum on sustainable development, under the auspices of the General Assembly. “At the halfway point to the SDG deadline, the eyes of the world are on you once again,” he added.
Welcoming the endorsement by the Political Declaration of the need to reform today’s outdated, dysfunctional and unfair international financial architecture, he stressed that “this can be a game-changer in accelerating SDG progress”.
Now is the time for a global plan to rescue the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are woefully offtrack halfway towards their 2030 deadline, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday in New York. Mr. Guterres spoke at the opening of a high-level forum at UN Headquarters, where world leaders adopted a political declaration to accelerate action to achieve the 17 goals to drive economic prosperity and well-being for all people while protecting the environment.
“The SDGs aren’t just a list of goals. They carry people’s hopes, dreams, rights and expectations everywhere,” he said. In 2015, countries adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They embarked on a journey to achieve the 2030 Agenda to promote prosperity and address inequalities while protecting the environment. The 17 SDGs offer the most practical and effective pathway to tackle the causes of poverty, violent conflict, human rights abuses, climate change and environmental degradation. Each of the 17 goals contains targets, with 169 overall, but the Secretary-General warned that currently, only 15 per cent are on track, while many are going in reverse.
The political declaration “can be a game-changer in accelerating SDG progress,” he said. It includes a commitment to financing for developing countries, clear support for his proposal for an SDG Stimulus of at least $500 billion annually, and an effective debt-relief mechanism.
It further calls for changing the business model of multilateral development banks to offer private finance at more affordable rates for developing countries and endorses reform of the international finance architecture, which he has labelled “outdated, dysfunctional and unfair.” This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity.
It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in greater freedom. The declaration recognises that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainabl e development.
All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan. We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet. The countries are determined to take the bold and transformative steps urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path.
As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets which we are announcing today demonstrate the scale and ambition of this new universal Agenda.
They seek to build on the Millennium Development Goals and complete what these did not achieve. They seek to realise the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. They are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental. The Goals and targets will stimulate action over the next fifteen years in areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet.
UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis noted that despite commitments, 1.2 billion people were still living in poverty as of 2022, and roughly eight per cent of the global population, or 680 million people, will still be facing hunger by the end of the decade. The international community cannot accept these numbers, he said. “With concerted, ambitious action, it is still possible that, by 2030, we could lift 124 million additional people out of poverty and ensure that some 113 million fewer people are malnourished,” he said.