UN Secretary Reiterates Importance of Sustainable Development Goals

The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed progress in addressing the 17 sustainable development goals defined by the United Nations.

According to the 2020 Sustainable Development Goals Report, before the COVID-19 pandemic, progress remained uneven. But now, the world is far off track from meeting the goals by 2030. meet the Goals by 2030. In particular, the number of people suffering from food insecurity has increase, the natural environment is continuing to deteriorate, and economic inequality persisted worldwide.

“Everything we do during and after this crisis [COVID-19] must be with a strong focus on building more equal, inclusive and sustainable economies and societies that are more resilient in the face of pandemics, climate change, and the many other global challenges we face,” said António Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations.

Gutteres noted that the root causes and uneven impacts of COVID-19 demonstrate precisely why the world needs the UN’s 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and underscore the urgency of their implementation. “I have therefore consistently called for a coordinated and comprehensive international response and recovery effort, based on sound data and science and guided by the Sustainable Development Goals,” he said.

The secretary general called for the world to put continue to prioritize the SDGs. “I call for renewed ambition, mobilization, leadership and collective action, not just to beat COVID-19 but to recover better, together,” said Gutteres.