BY YOHANES JEMANEH
The UN High-level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development is the central global forum for providing political leadership, guidance and recommendations on implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were unanimously adopted by the world leaders in September 2015. The Forum provides an opportunity for countries, civil societies, and businesses to highlight the efforts they are taking to achieve the SDGs and to engage in mutual learning through the exchange of ideas and best practices.
This year, the forum was held between 5 and 18 July 2022 with a theme of “Building back better from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. It was held in the presence of representatives from 193 member states to chart the best way forward to bring the implementation of the SDGs back on track. The forum also witnessed an in-depth review of SDG 4 on education, Goal 5 on gender equality, Goal 14 on life below water and Goal 15 on life on land as well as Goal 17 on partnerships for the Goals which is considered each year.
The Forum took place as multiple crises around the world are putting the very viability of achieving the SDGs by 2030 at risk. The poorest and most vulnerable are being hit the hardest. An urgent rescue effort and collective actions are needed to rapidly change course and set the world on track towards a sustainable future, guided by a renewed commitment to multilateralism and international cooperation.
“We are facing continued vaccine inequity, rising inflation, major supply-chain disruptions, and crippling geopolitical uncertainties. We are on a dangerous path to harming future generations, if we do not act now. It is within our power to turn the tide,” United Nations Economic and Social Council President Collen Vixen Kelapile, said in his concept note to this year’s forum.
Accordingly, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed the necessity to capacitate the underdeveloped world to cope up with natural and manmade disasters. “We need to make resources available immediately to help the poorest countries and communities,” he said. He also called on the global financial system to recognize the opportunities in new technology and renewable energy.
The HLPF will demonstrate the continuing commitment of the international community to step up international solidarity and to launch ambitious recovery policies that advance the SDGs. Both are indispensable in tackling conflicts around the world.
“The urgent need for international solidarity and multilateral cooperation cannot be stressed enough,” said UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs LIU Zhenmin. “We need to act swiftly to drive transformative change. We must remain committed to the people-centered and planet-focused path to prosperity that we set out in the 2030 Agenda. This can only happen if we all act together.”
Including Ethiopia, some 44 countries, both developed and developing have presented their Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) of national implementation of the SDGs on the forum. These VR countries are Andorra, Argentina, Belarus, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, El Salvador, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malawi, Mali, Montenegro, The Netherlands, Pakistan, The Philippines, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Switzerland, Togo, Tuvalu, United Arab Emirates and Uruguay.
The Forum also marked the official launch of The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022. The report provides a global overview of progress toward the SDGs based on the most recent data. The 2022 report is expected to demonstrate the devastating impacts of the multiple and interlinked global crises – the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and the conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere – across the SDGs, it was learned.
The report is aimed at supporting policymakers in looking beyond current crises and emergencies and reflecting on scenarios on how the world can reach the Sustainable Development Goals and its climate change objectives.
The report responds to the General Assembly mandate for the high-level segment of the Council. It builds on the call of the Secretary-General, in his statement presenting Our Common Agenda that members must make full use of their unprecedented capacity to predict and model the impact of policy decisions over time.
The present report takes stock of recent technological and policy trends and their impacts on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. It concludes that the world’s actions in the past year have largely not been in line with the global best-case scenario in low energy demand (LED), LIU Zhenmin said in a statement.
The report also highlighted several positive developments that indicate a possible acceleration of the global sustainable energy transition and policy action toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, while promoting energy access, as an enabler for all SDGs.
The sustainable development pathway indicated in the report would result from policies that build on new insights on synergies and trade-offs among the Goals and pursue decent living standards for all. It would also be made possible through the use of a wide range of new technologies.
This includes, in particular, using the significant untapped potential of digital innovations aimed at responding better and more effectively to the needs of consumers and at improving related production and other processes.
It offers an inclusive and effective path for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development. It identifies several urgent actions that should be taken today in order to deliver on sustainable development and our climate objectives in the coming years and by 2050.
Representing Ethiopia in the forum, State Minister Finance of Finance Semereta Sewasew said that Ethiopia is striving to achieve SDGs while fighting against trending social and economic problems including COVID 19, inflation, inefficient supply chains, geopolitical tension, and climate change.
The country is still endeavoring to achieve its long-standing development interests by implementing a 10-year development plan. It is undertaking encouraging works on renewable energy. Over the past four years, the nation has planted 18 billion trees to resist climate change impact through its green legacy program. The country is also working to realize primary economic, social and environmental affairs as stipulated within SDGs under agenda 2030, according to Semereta.
The Forum culminated in the adoption of a ministerial declaration. Accordingly, in their final declaration adopted after the meeting, the 193 member states strongly reaffirmed their commitment to the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, recognizing it as the blueprint for an inclusive, sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerating the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development, leaving no one behind.
Secondly, the countries expressed grave concern over the increment in the global poverty rate. They also stressed the importance of achieving global food security and express deep concern over the drastic increase in hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity, increasing the risk of famine around the world, especially in developing countries.
The countries reiterated their commitment to leave no one behind, as the pandemic and the deteriorating global economic situation are harming especially the poorest and most vulnerable affecting the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
“We reaffirm that there can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development. We are gravely concerned, in this regard, by the increased and ongoing conflicts in the world, which are affecting global peace and security, respect for human rights, and sustainable development,” the countries emphasized in the declaration.
This year, Africa was in the spotlight at HLPF with the presentation of Africa’s collective position from the 8th Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, and a record 21 African countries presented their reviews of sustainable development progress to the forum. Ministers from the countries presented the Voluntary National Reviews from and a Regional VNR lab was held to highlight the growing momentum behind both national and local reviews.
UN representatives to Africa suggested new liquidity into African countries to resist current global problems and achieve SDGs. The liquidity and sustainability facility launched by UN Economic Commission for Africa will help reduce debt burdens.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 20 JULY 2022
