By: Staff Writer
September 26, 2023
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said in their report, “The 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals Halfway to 2030,” that multiple crises that have hit the region have set the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) targets into reverse.
The report said that more than halfway through the 15-year period agreed upon to reach the SDGs, ECLAC estimates that only 25 percent of the targets for which information is available appear to be on course to be met by 2030; progress towards 48 percent of the targets is in the right direction but too slow for them to be met, while for the remaining 27 percent, progress has gone into reverse.
These data show that action is urgently needed to get back on track towards meeting the SDGs and, in particular, to counteract backsliding from some of the targets, boost progress towards those for which the trend is in the right direction but too slow, and ensure that targets on course to be met stay on track.
The report also said: “Since 2015, ECLAC has been intensively promoting ownership of the SDGs at the thematic level, bearing in mind the comprehensive nature of the 2030 Agenda. ECLAC subsidiary bodies —which deal with matters such as statistics, gender, science, innovation and information and communications technologies (ICTs), social development, population groups and development, and South-South cooperation— closely support the preparation of diagnoses and public policy proposals aligned with the SDGs. This work is reflected in the annual reports that the subsidiary bodies submit to the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development.”
It added: “Recognition and ownership of the various principles of the 2030 Agenda is fundamental to facilitate fulfilment of the SDGs, and stakeholder coordination is especially important. This has led to the strengthening of collaboration mechanisms among agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system, reflected in the joint organisation of events, preparation of documents and formulation of projects aimed at sensitization, ownership, prioritisation, implementation and monitoring of actions aimed at achieving the SDGs.”
Meanwhile, the report also said: “ECLAC is conducting analyses on one of the key aspects for achieving the 2030 Agenda: its financing. These analyses address the challenges of domestic resource mobilisation, external sources of financing and the identification of innovative instruments and new cooperation mechanisms to promote sustainable development financing in the region. The exploration of non-traditional sources of financing has led to the identification of alternatives such as climate change funds, the coordination of development banks or the inclusion of environmental criteria in investment projects that could facilitate financing”
It continued, “One of the main lessons that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has left the countries of the region is the importance of setting medium- and long-term goals and designing strategies by consensus among relevant stakeholders. In this context, ECLAC has drawn attention to the importance of strengthening foresight capacities within countries, with a view to new and more effective forms of governance. These tools, which combine government action with multi-stakeholder proposals, will be key to identifying, designing and implementing actions to accelerate the achievement of all the SDGs.”