Addressing ministers at UN Headquarters in New York, he referred to as for pressing motion to rescue lagging Sustainable Growth Targets (SDGs) amid warfare, inequality and monetary pressure.
“Transformation will not be solely vital – it’s doable,” he declared, highlighting landmark commitments adopted in current months: the Pandemic Settlement on the World Well being Meeting in Geneva, pledges to increase marine protected areas on the third UN Ocean Convention in Good, and the new imaginative and prescient for world finance agreed in Sevilla on the fourth Worldwide Financing for Growth Convention.
“These should not remoted wins, they’re indicators of momentum and indicators that multilateralism can ship.”
The remarks opened the ministerial section of the Excessive-level Political Discussion board on Sustainable Growth (HLPF), the UN’s central platform for reviewing the 2030 Agenda and its 17 SDGs.
Get again on observe
Mr. Guterres warned that the world stays far off observe to fulfill the 2030 targets.
“Solely 35 per cent of SDG targets are on observe or making reasonable progress. Practically half are shifting too slowly. And 18 per cent are going backwards,” he stated.
He urged governments to behave with urgency and ambition.
“The Sustainable Growth Targets should not a dream. They’re a plan – a plan to maintain our guarantees to probably the most susceptible individuals, to one another, and to future generations.”
Citing positive factors since 2015, together with expanded social safety, declining baby marriage and rising ladies’s illustration, he stated the SDGs stay “inside attain” if world leaders channel sources and political will.
The Secretary-Common additionally linked growth and peace, noting ongoing violence in Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine and elsewhere.
“At each step, we all know sustainable peace requires sustainable growth,” he stated, calling for speedy ceasefires and renewed dedication to diplomacy.
ECOSOC President Bob Rae addresses the ministerial section of the HLPF.
Double down on multilateralism
Bob Rae, President of the Financial and Social Council, echoed the Secretary‑Common’s name, warning that world disruption – from local weather change to financial disarray – requires deeper solidarity.
“The SDGs should not elective beliefs, however slightly important commitments,” he stated.
“Now will not be the time for us to desert our beliefs…it’s now truly the time to double down on our multilateral obligations to 1 one other.”
Mr. Rae cautioned that shrinking nationwide budgets and rising nationalist politics are undermining progress however insisted that “multilateralism delivers actual, tangible advantages for individuals at each degree of society.”
He referred to as for nearer partnerships with civil society, native governments, and the personal sector, stressing that SDGs should be “built-in into budgets and insurance policies all over the world, not as at odds, however because the core of how governments ought to serve their individuals.”
Match ambition and supply
Philémon Yang, President of the Common Meeting, emphasised aligning political commitments with concrete motion.
He praised the Compromiso de Sevilla and final yr’s Pact for the Future, which goal to reform world monetary methods, scale up local weather finance, and strengthen worldwide tax cooperation.
“The hole between ambition and supply can solely be closed via solidarity, sources and political will,” he stated.
“The deadlines for the 2030 Agenda are quick approaching,” he warned. “Whether or not we prefer it or not. And whereas progress is lagging, now we have the instruments and ambition to ship.”
Accountability and partnership
The HLPF, established on the landmark Rio+20 UN Convention on Sustainable Growth in 2012, serves as the first UN platform for monitoring SDG progress, together with via Voluntary Nationwide Opinions (VNRs).
This yr’s discussion board, convened below the auspices of the ECOSOC, runs till 23 July with a deal with 5 targets: well being, gender equality, first rate work, life beneath water, and world partnerships.
Greater than 150 international locations have offered VNRs – with 36 reporting this yr – showcasing nationwide efforts and challenges in implementing the 2030 Agenda.
Mr. Guterres praised the evaluations as “acts of accountability” and “templates for different international locations to observe and study from.”
With simply 5 years left to fulfill the worldwide targets, he urged ministers to “rework these sparks of transformation right into a blaze of progress – for all international locations.”
