ECLAC urges countries to revitalize commitments and accelerate progress towards compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals

Countries must revitalize their commitments and promote transformative initiatives that involve all sectors of development, redirect the region towards compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, at the same time, prepare the strategy for the next decade, underlines a report released today by José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), within the framework of the Sixth Meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Developmentwhich is held until Friday, April 28 at the organization’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile.

The highest representative of ECLAC presented the document Latin America and the Caribbean in the middle of the road to 2030: advances and proposals for accelerationwhich assesses the regional progress and challenges of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and proposes seven transformative initiatives that have the synergistic capacity to simultaneously drive the achievement of various SDGs.

The sixth report on regional progress and challenges on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development looks first at overall progress towards achieving all the SDGs and then, in more depth, at progress towards five of them , which will be analyzed during the High Level Political Forum to be held in July at the United Nations headquarters in New York: clean water and sanitation (SDG 6); affordable and clean energy (SDG 7); industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9); sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), and partnerships to achieve the Goals (SDG 17).

“We are exactly in the middle of the period for the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda, but not halfway, since only a quarter of the goals have been met or are expected to be met in 2030; This situation urgently calls on the countries of the region to strengthen their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ”, stressed José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs during his presentation.

ECLAC estimates that only 25% of the goals for which information is available show a behavior that makes it possible to anticipate their fulfillment in 2030. On the other hand, it is estimated that 48% of these reveal a correct trend but insufficient to achieve the goal respective, while the remaining 27% exhibits a regressive trend. Therefore, 75% of the goals are at risk of not being met, unless decisive actions are taken to recover the correct path.

The report highlights an important positive consequence of the 2030 Agenda in the region: the gradual creation of an institutional footprint that has unequivocally strengthened the countries’ capacities to discuss future challenges, to talk about solutions, to forge alliances and improve data-driven policies.

Likewise, it underlines the effort made by the countries and the United Nations to improve the availability of data for monitoring the SDGs: The available statistical series went from 72 to 492 between 2020 and 2023, while the available indicators increased from 67 to 172 in the same period.

The report urges the region to redouble efforts with bold, innovative and transformative actions and policies to accelerate progress towards achieving the SDGs. To do this, he argues, it is imperative that countries revitalize commitments and the means of implementation, through high-impact or accelerator initiatives.

In this sense, ECLAC proposes seven transformative initiatives that, due to their synergistic capacity and their vision of the future, can convene multiple actors and have a positive impact on various SDGs simultaneously. These are: (i) The energy transition and related industries; (ii) The bioeconomy: sustainable agriculture and bioindustrialization; (iii) The digital transformation; (iv) The promotion of exports of modern Internet-enabled services; (v) The care society and gender equality; (vi) sustainable tourism; and (vii) regional economic integration.

“At ECLAC we have begun to work more on strengthening the capacities of countries and their institutions in terms of future studies and dialogues, in line with the Summit of the Future convened by the Secretary General of the United Nations for September 2024 ”, stressed the Executive Secretary of ECLAC.

He added that the objective of the organization, stated in chapter V of the report, is that foresight and anticipation capacities increasingly guide the respective dynamics of collective action and policy design towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

“At ECLAC, we trust that the Latin American and Caribbean countries, with the determined support of the United Nations agencies, funds and programs, will revitalize the commitments and means of implementation of the SDGs, through high-impact initiatives that reactivate and accelerate progress towards the achievement of the Goals and targets, and that also reactivate and nourish the hopes of the populations of the region that a more prosperous, productive, inclusive and sustainable future is possible and is under construction”, he concluded.