Latin America and the Caribbean must accelerate the pace to achieve compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030

Latin America and the Caribbean must accelerate the pace to achieve compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the 2030 Agenda, warned today the representatives of the 33 countries of the region, United Nations agencies and regional, multilateral organizations and civil society present at the Sixth Meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Developmentwhich ended this Friday, April 28, at the ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile.

At the close of the meeting, the delegates insisted that, although we are in the middle of the period agreed by the member states of the United Nations in 2015 (to reach 2030), we have not yet reached halfway in compliance of the goals. For this reason, initiatives are required in which all relevant actors participate, with vision and a sense of the future, with high impact, who work on the structural transformations that the region needs to resume and sustain the path to 2030, they emphasized.

According to the analysis carried out by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) delivered at this Forum, only 24.6% of the goals were achieved or would be achieved with the current trend; in almost half of the goals (48.4%) the trend is correct, but not enough to achieve them; and in 27.0% of the goals the trend is backwards.

In the three days of the Sixth Meeting of the Forum of Countries -which brought together more than 650 people, including nearly 170 government representatives, more than 300 from civil society, including academia, and the private sector; around 150 representatives of the United Nations system, and resident coordinators – the implementation and compliance of five SDGs in the region were evaluated: SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and clean energy), SDG 9 ( Industry, innovation and infrastructure), SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) and SDG 17 (Partnerships to achieve the Goals), and experiences, good practices and challenges that countries have had to face in this task were learned.

On the third and last day of the Forum, a high-level round table entitled “Road to the SDG Summit. Transformative initiatives: creating opportunities to reinforce the commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its full implementation at all levels”, in which María del Carmen Squeff, Permanent Representative of Argentina to the United Nations, the country that exercises the Presidency of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development; José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC; Pedro Luis Pedroso, Ambassador Special Representative of Cuba to the United Nations to coordinate the Presidency of the Group of 77 and China; Paula Narváez, Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations, the country that holds the Vice Presidency of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC); and Luis Felipe López-Calva, Director General of the World Bank’s Poverty and Equity Global Practice.

On the occasion, the panelists highlighted the importance of reinforcing the commitment of the countries to the 2030 Agenda and thinking about those transformative initiatives that make it possible to address the enormous challenges they face, as well as expanding development cooperation, especially the South-South cooperation, and access to long-term financing for middle-income countries, which include most Latin American and Caribbean nations.

In this regard, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, recalled the seven transformative initiatives that have the capacity to produce synergistic and multiplier effects to simultaneously promote the achievement of various SDGs, presented by the UN regional organization in the main document of the Forum, Latin America and the Caribbean in the middle of the road to 2030: advances and proposals for accelerationwhich constitutes the sixth report on regional progress and challenges of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“The promotion of these transformative initiatives -energy transition, bioeconomy, digital transformation, promotion of exports of modern services, the care society, sustainable tourism and regional integration- will require new instruments for the design and implementation of public policy based on a long-term strategic vision. The exploration of futures and the prospective capacity of various actors that define public policy is essential to take advantage of the best opportunity scenarios”, Salazar-Xirinachs indicated.

In turn, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC appreciated the knowledge and contribution with which the United Nations System as a whole supports the countries of the region in achieving the SDGs.

In the closing session, representatives of youth and the Mechanism for Civil Society Participation in the Sustainable Development Agenda and in the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development read a statement in which They reaffirmed their commitment to the 2030 Agenda and warned that the SDGs will not be achieved on the current path, especially in substantive areas for life such as health, education, gender equality, participation and justice, among others.

At the closing ceremony, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC was accompanied by the President of the National Council for the Coordination of Social Policies of Argentina, Marisol Merquel, who officiated as President of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development 2023 .

Merquel pointed out that after three intense days of dialogue on issues that concern our region, “I am convinced that we have a huge challenge ahead.”

“Undoubtedly, the building of alliances is the essential tool that will allow us to advance and accelerate progress and achieve the great aspirations that the 2030 Agenda raises, putting the dignity of all the people who inhabit this world at the center of the action”, Merkel added.

Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC remarked that in the different analysis and dialogue tables that were held in these three days, the need to speed up the pace has been a common point. “He We are concerned that, in the mid-term to 2030, only a quarter of the targets have been met or are projected to be met. There is a lot of homework to do,” he stated.

“One of the lessons learned in these years has been what we have called the positive ‘institutional footprint’ that the implementation of the 2030 Agenda has left in our countries, with public, private and civil society institutions that strive to comply the SDGs. The institutional capacities built in these last eight years have strengthened the set of instruments for measurement and design of public policy for compliance with the 2030 Agenda. This Forum is an essential part of that institutional footprint, which has been growing and strengthening year after year. , innovating and opening new perspectives”, indicated José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs. “In its seventy-fifth anniversary, ECLAC redoubles its commitment to continue working for a more productive, inclusive and sustainable future,” he added.

At the end of the meeting, the representatives of the countries approved a final document with the “Conclusions and recommendations agreed upon by the governments meeting at the Sixth Meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development”in which they reaffirm their commitment to effectively implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, ensuring that no one is left behind, including its Goals and targets, which are integrated and indivisible and combine the three dimensions of sustainable development —economic, social and environmental—, and stress that the Agenda is people-centred, universal and transformative, and that the eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest challenge facing the world and It is an essential requirement for sustainable development, so it is crucial to reach the furthest behind first and empower those who are in situations of vulnerability.

In the 110-paragraph document, the countries also express their concern that the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2020 at the latest have not been fully met and, in this regard, call on the international community to to strengthen measures to address these specific challenges, including the protection of biodiversity, the development of disaster risk reduction strategies, the increase in the availability of timely, quality and disaggregated data, the participation of youth and increasing financial resources, capacity building and technology transfer to developing countries.

In addition, they recognize that inequalities continue to be a predominant feature of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, and that the fight against inequality requires, among other things, increasing investment in social services, including social protection services, and expanding economic opportunities, through a partnership between governments, national and local authorities, the private sector, the international financial system, civil society, academia and other relevant stakeholders, so that, through joint work and in in line with national plans and policies, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is fulfilled.

They also recognize the work of ECLAC as an essential component of the United Nations system for development, given its convening capacity, as an intergovernmental platform for advice and dialogue on policies. They also commend the countries of the region that have already submitted the voluntary national reviews and those that are preparing to do so, to continue their efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular by integrating it into their national strategies and adapting their arrangements. institutional.

The conclusions and recommendations of this Forum will be presented by the presidency of the 39th session of ECLAC -exercised by Argentina- to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in 2023 , to be held in July in New York under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council, together with the report on the results of the whole system of the Platform for Regional Collaboration for Latin America and the Caribbean 2022.