"We must not abandon our promises to end poverty, protect the planet and leave no one behind," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres
by María Josefina Arce
In recent years, the world has stagnated in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, in many of which it has experienced a setback, putting at risk essential goals related to hunger, poverty and climate.
This is the panorama that a new edition of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, the UN's central platform for the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda, which is in session in the US city of New York.
"We must not abandon our promises to end poverty, protect the planet and leave no one behind," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
But the latest progress report on the Sustainable Development Goals shows how much remains to be done to achieve economic, social and environmental sustainability.
In the last three years, 165 million more people fell below the poverty line as the world was paralyzed by COVID 19 and armed conflict.
Today, according to international organizations, 700 million citizens around the world live in extreme poverty, a situation that particularly affects children.
UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, has pointed out that 300 million children currently live in extreme poverty, a problem that is not confined to developing countries, as 69 million children in 40 of the richest nations live in this sad condition.
There has also been no progress in areas such as equal access to education for girls, and work and leadership opportunities for women.
The current meeting, attended by governments as well as non-governmental organizations, representatives of indigenous peoples and other sectors of society, is a follow-up to last year's Sustainable Development Goals Summit and paves the way for the Summit of the Future to be held next September.
It is a new opportunity to accelerate action to achieve, over the next six years, the goals reflected in the 2030 Agenda, adopted in 2015, which places human equality and dignity at the center and calls for a change in the style of development.
