With countries hammered by the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, a weak global economy, and amplified by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, UN Secretary-General António Guterres sounded the alarm yesterday as he briefed Member States on the ‘Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals: Towards a Rescue Plan for People and Planet’ report.
“Halfway to the deadline for the 2030 Agenda, we are leaving more than half the world behind. We have stalled or gone into reverse on more than 30 percent of the SDGs,” said the Secretary-General. “Unless we act now, the 2030 Agenda will become an epitaph for a world that might have been.”
The report reveals the number of people living in extreme poverty is higher than it was four years ago. Hunger has also increased and is now back at 2005 levels, and gender equality is some 300 years away. With current trends, only 30 percent of all countries will achieve SDG 1 on poverty by 2030.