UN Says SDGs In Danger

The deputy UN chief, Amina Mohamed, said that the global economy is under severe stress and the Sustainable Development Goals Goals (SDGs) are in " urgent need of rescue,” noting that the vast majority of the world’s nations will still need external finance to achieve their development goals.

Speaking on behalf of the UN chief at the Financing for Development Forum on Monday, she said: "The global economy is under severe stress. Many developing countries are reeling from the crippling effects of an uneven recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the ticking time bomb of the climate crisis. In addition, vaccine inequities continue and the war in Ukraine is now sending shockwaves through global food, energy, and financial markets."

In the same connection, she called for rapid financial assistance, saying, "Financing for development is an essential part of the solution."

Thus, the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy, and Finance was established to ensure high-level political leadership; get ahead of the food security, energy, and financing challenges; and implement a coordinated global response, Mohamed told the partakers.

Meanwhile, the President of the Economic and Social Council, Collen Vixen Kelapile, brought the attendees up to date on an increasing array of interrelated global crises that underline that no country, rich or poor, is immune to external shocks.

Kelapile elaborated that the SDGs are facing perhaps the “greatest threat” since their adoption.

He said: "COVID-19 has exacerbated trends that are "contributing to cataclysmic effects" on development, noting that the poorest and most vulnerable are impacted the greatest.

“Millions of people around the world have been pushed deeper into extreme poverty. Inequality is rising, and the gap between developed and developing countries is growing,” the senior UN official noted.