In 2015, United Nation member-states adopted a set of 17 wide-ranging development goals to be met by 2030, which included eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, providing access to drinking water, ensuring gender equality and health care for all.
Unfortunately for humanity, that 2030 agenda is currently in trouble, according to the UN, in a report published in July.
In order have a chance at meeting those goals, governments are coming together at the UN General Assembly and are slated to commit to “act with urgency… for people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership, leaving no one behind,” according to a draft declaration.
The grim reality is that progress has been slow, and in some cases, things are even worse now than they were in 2015. The COVID-19 pandemic has halted progress in combating extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $2.15 per day. Additionally, the world has returned to levels of hunger not seen since 2005.
Furthermore, 1.1 billion people live in urban areas in slum-like conditions, more than two billion still do not have access to drinking water, 38 out of 1,000 children die before their fifth birthday, and the impacts of climate change are increasingly devastating.
Crippled by various world crises, from COVID to the war in Ukraine, many countries are crumbling under the weight of their debt and do not have the means to change course. “Countries are not able to pursue the development they want right now, but they can only opt for a recovery, where they go for the growth they can get,” United Nations Development Program (UNDP) head Achim Steiner said.
Getting out of poverty, having access to education, drinking water, or clean energy, being in good health, and living in peace are all development goals that are largely interdependent.
Global warming and extreme weather events it causes undermine most of the development goals as they destroy crops, infrastructure, and livelihoods, and that is why Steiner believes change must be comprehensive.
As the world’s leaders get together to try to point nations back in the right direction and still try to achieve those sustainable development goals that were set in 2015, our leaders should also take a long hard look at how our own country is doing, and what can be done better if in case we are also lagging, which is more often than not the case.
Meeting these ambitious goals will benefit billions of people. Now that we have encountered the different crises that those who formulated the goals never imagined would happen so soon, we can be more realistic as we continue to make those goals, which still need to be achieved, come to fruition.*
