Despite the recent challenges, a number of experts from the UN institution and ministers of member states expressed optimism about the future of the world economy and health sector during the 2022 session of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) this week.
The speakers expressed optimism that the world can improve the resilience of its socioeconomic and health systems, according to a statement released by the UN.
The partakers shared 5 main solutions to enable recovery from the pandemic.
They highlighted challenges that were unforeseen when the SDGs were adopted in 2015, including the awful global pandemic, current conflicts, and the resulting food crisis and setbacks in education, that disrupt the process of development and hinder SDG implementation.”
In his address at the opening of HLPF 2022, Collen Vixen Kelapile, UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) President, noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and reversed progress on many SDGs.
At the same time, he said, the awful pandemic had served as a “wake-up call” to tackle fundamental problems facing societies, and highlighted the opportunity to build back better using the 2030 Agenda as a blueprint for recovery.
Summarizing the main messages from the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) being presented at this year’s HLPF, Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General noted that many countries have begun to introduce innovative policies to build back better, including through national resilience plans, strengthened social protection measures, and expansion of the digital economy.
On her part, Suriya Chindawongse, ECOSOC Vice President, called for equity and empowerment, sustainability and synergy, a balance between people and planet, and a harmonized UN architecture to achieve the mutually reinforcing SDGs.
Meanwhile, Kaylash Satiyarti, SDG Advocate and 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, India, condemned the increase in child laborers and the loss of access to education by children in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Moreover, Liu Zhenmin, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, affirmed the need to address vaccine inequality, prioritize low-carbon recovery, reform the international financial and debt architecture, renew the social contract between governments, and their people to deliver global public goods, and generate and use robust data.
On the other hand, Li Andersson, Minister for Education, Finland, stressed the need to invest in education, foster the potential of innovation, and enhance efforts towards gender parity in the colloquiums of the forum.
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