| dc.description.abstract | The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was launched in
2015 to end poverty and set the world on a path of peace, prosperity
and opportunity for all on a healthy planet. The 17 Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) demand nothing short of a transformation
of the financial, economic and political systems that govern our
societies today to guarantee the human rights of all. They require
immense political will and ambitious action by all stakeholders. But, as
Member States recognized at the SDG Summit held last September,
global efforts to date have been insufficient to deliver the change
we need, jeopardizing the Agenda’s promise to current and future
generations.
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020 brings together the
latest data to show us that, before the COVID-19 pandemic, progress
remained uneven and we were not on track to meet the Goals by
2030. Some gains were visible: the share of children and youth out of
school had fallen; the incidence of many communicable diseases was
in decline; access to safely managed drinking water had improved;
and women’s representation in leadership roles was increasing. At the
same time, the number of people suffering from food insecurity was
on the rise, the natural environment continued to deteriorate at an
alarming rate, and dramatic levels of inequality persisted in all regions.
Change was still not happening at the speed or scale required.
Now, due to COVID-19, an unprecedented health, economic and social
crisis is threatening lives and livelihoods, making the achievement
of Goals even more challenging. As of the beginning of June, the
death toll had surpassed 400,000 and was continuing to climb, with
almost no country spared. Health systems in many countries have
been driven to the brink of collapse. The livelihood of half the global
workforce has been severely affected. More than 1.6 billion students
are out of school, and tens of millions of people are being pushed back
into extreme poverty and hunger, erasing the modest progress made
in recent years. | en_US |
