Entering 2023, the world is at the halfway mark in its lagging plan to end poverty and hunger and to reach other ambitious goals this decade of providing quality education and work, boosting clean water and energy, and reducing inequalities.
But the United Nations and its allies are giving up on efforts to clinch at least some of the 17 anti-poverty Global Goals for 2030 that have been set back by the COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine, and other major crises.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a devastating blow to the SDGs, which were already off track before the pandemic forced the closure of schools, government services, and workplaces around the world," said the U.N. Foundation's director of policy planning Megan Roberts.
"Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has only worsened prospects, including by triggering global food shortages that disproportionately affected the world’s poorest people," she said. "Next year offers a series of key moments that together can serve to generate the leadership, commitments, and partnerships needed to bend the SDG curve."
The pandemic erased more than four years of progress in eradicating poverty and, by the end of the decade, an estimated 574 million people mostly in Africa, or almost 7% of humanity, will still be impoverished.
This upcoming year marks the halfway point to achieving the #GlobalGoals by 2030. @UNDP shares some key moments for sustainable development in 2023. https://t.co/0HZMWowoMM pic.twitter.com/gHgJdlJPDz
— United Nations (@UN) January 1, 2023
'Negative spillovers'
A meeting of world leaders is planned for March in Qatar to plan new ways of helping countries that are furthest from reaching the SDGs by 2030. The next high-level U.N. review of global progress is set for later this year in New York.
The world was already off track to fulfilling the 2030 targets well before COVID-19 traveled around the globe, killing more than 6.6 million people and infecting at least 660 million people, according to the latest figures.
An SDG index and dashboards that track progress in the European Union and partner nations shows progress there has "stalled" as of last month. The E.U. is on track to achieve around two-thirds of the targets, but with the other one-third there has been insufficient progress or they are "heading in the wrong direction," especially those related to responsible consumption, climate and biodiversity, said independent experts with New York-based U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, or SDSN, and SDSN Europe.
"Through unsustainable consumption and trade," they said, "the E.U. generates large negative spillovers on the rest of the world."
