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Building a sustainable future amidst colliding crises

High-level Political Forum examines SDG progress in face of COVID, conflict and climate change

July 5^th, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has launched a broadside against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the best hope we have for a liveable and prosperous future. On top of that, we are facing the terrible consequences of the war in Ukraine on human lives, food supplies and a mounting fuel crisis.

Poverty and hunger have increased, and hundreds of millions of people are facing greater challenges to their well-being – from poorer physical and mental health, to reduced incomes, to more violence and less education.

The stark reality is that unless governments act quickly, the goal of no poverty by 2030 is now out of reach due to the “triple threat of COVID-19, conflict and climate change”, according to a report by the UN Secretary-General.

Building a sustainable future amidst colliding crises

This year’s High-level Political Forum (HLPF) is more critical than ever to take stock of what has been lost, and how we can get on the fast track and create an inclusive recovery based on green and renewable energy.

The High-level Political Forum (HLPF) hopes to fast track renewable energy projects and programmes. Photo: Shutterstock

A path forward

The COVID-19 crisis has taught us hard but important lessons. Extraordinary measures were taken by governments to cushion the pandemic’s impact, including adaptive social protection to guard poor and vulnerable households from falling, or falling deeper, into poverty, and tackling the disproportionate effects on women.

Complex, interconnected crises are the new normal. Simply reacting to crisis after crisis only leads to short-term fixes. We must combine development and crisis response if we are not to be caught in ‘two steps forward, one step back’ when it comes to each new challenge.

We will need short-run emergency measures to contain the looming cost-of-living crisis. But moving ahead and out of crisis mode is possible with robust and cumulative responses that build long-term, sustainable and inclusive ways forward.

Crisis can be turned into opportunity for a concerted push towards a sustainable, inclusive and resilient future.

Galina fled with her parents to Soroca, Moldova in the early days of the Ukraine war. With the help of the DACIA Youth Resource Center, she obtained employment documents and got a job at a local garment factory. Photos: UNDP Moldova

COVID-19 and the SDGs

The 2030 Agenda and the SDGs must remain our global compass.

The poorest and most vulnerable were hardest hit by the pandemic and the socio-economic responses are uneven. Many developing countries’ finances have been stretched to breaking point, leaving them unable to invest in green recovery or to adapt to climate change.

And we are just beginning to grasp the implications for governance, social cohesion, rule of law, gender equality and human rights.

While the HLPF will examine the particular effects of COVID-19 on all the SDGs—they were designed to be interlinked—it will particularly focus on those related to quality education (SDG 4), gender equality (SDG 5), life below water (SDG 14), life on land (SDG 15) and partnerships (SDG 17).

Oceans need our help

Even before the pandemic, which has created vast amounts of medical waste, much of which ends up in the ocean, the science was clear. The ocean is under threat and needs urgent action. More than half of all marine species are threatened with extinction by 2100.

The health of the ocean has a direct impact on all the SDGs.

A COVID-19 recovery must protect the ocean and support those who depend on it for their livelihoods. UNDP is actively supporting local and national governments as they link their development plans to ocean protection.

A recovery plan for those who depend on the ocean for livelihoods and their ways of life is urgently needed. Photo: Shutterstock/Nokuro

The lay of the land

Land resources underpin our societies and economies. They provide food, water, fuel and other essentials to life on Earth.

Some 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods, as well as shelter, food and medicine. Healthy forests are vital for a range of economic activities, including agriculture and tourism.

Management of these critical resources has become unsustainable. But the good news is that restoring land comes with enormous financial payoffs—the economic returns of reducing degradation, greenhouse gasses and biodiversity loss could be as high as US$125 trillion to $140 trillion every year.

Over the next decade, repurposing $1.6 trillion out of the annual $700 billion in perverse subsidies given to the fossil fuel and agricultural industries would enable governments to restore some 1 billion hectares of degraded land by the year 2030.

Reimagining the future, together

The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have shown how fragile human progress can be, and both have re-emphasized the importance of the SDGs as the blueprint for a liveable and just future for everybody.

There are no more ‘band aid’ solutions. New, complex crises require re-writing the rule book. Partnerships for the SDGs means focusing on the root causes of challenges and truly understanding how they connect. UNDP as the lead UN development agency is tapping into its extensive global network to build solutions that make a difference in peoples’ daily lives. We are investing in an “SDG Push” which will identify ways to fast-track efforts to help countries recover at the same time as building more inclusive and sustainable societies.

No organization or country do this alone. We need to strengthen existing partnerships and forge new ones to learn the hard lessons of the past two years, and recommit to building a world that is habitable, sustainable and offers opportunities for everybody.

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