SDG Setback ‘ Tremendous ’ as COVID-19 Accelerates Slide

Open drainage ditch, Ankorondrano-Andranomahery, Madagascar. Credit: Lova Rabary-Rakontondravony/IPSBy Gareth Willmer and Fiona BroomMay 26 2020 (IPS) Crucial global goals to reduce hunger and poverty and curb climate change have gone backwards or stalled, the United Nations Secretary-General warns in a new report, as the COVID-19 outbreak moves from being a health crisis to becoming the “worst human and economic crisis of our lifetimes”. The number of people suffering hunger has increased, climate change is occurring faster than predicted, and inequality is increasing within and among countries, António Guterres says in his ‘Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals’ 2020 report. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were launched four years ago to address the most pressing global needs for a sustainable future, including education and health improvements and reductions in social and economic inequalities. “The effects of the pandemic and the measures taken to mitigate its impact have overwhelmed the health systems globally, caused businesses and factories to shut down and severely impacted the livelihoods of half of the global workforce,” he says in the report. It comes on top of an existing slowing in progress towards many of the SDGs, and Guterres had launched a Decade of Action in September to turn things around. The latest report, published last week (14 May), illustrates “the continued unevenness of progress and the many areas where signif...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Food & Agriculture Headlines Health Poverty & SDGs Coronavirus Source Type: news