ECOSOC President Urges Global Solidarity to Rescue SDGs by 2030 – Press Briefing | United Nations

Rae, who is presiding the 4th meeting of the UN ECOSOC High-level political forum (HLPF) on sustainable development, noted that the world remains off-track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) by 2030, but stressed that “it’s not a litany of failure.”

He said, “we ‘ve seen significant areas of improvement. We’ve reduced childhood mortality quite substantially in the last five years, we’ve had major success on improving maternal and childhood health. These have been very significant. We have more women going to school than ever before, more girls participating in the education system. We can point to many areas in which we’re in fact not necessarily on track, but where we have improved, compared to where we were before.”

The Canadian Ambassador said, “some decisions that have been taken with respect to the global economy and decisions that have been taken with respect to the funding of the critical institutions that we have created since 1945 have and are having a negative impact on the ability of countries to achieve what has to be achieved.”

He said, “nation states that have the means to provide greater support for sustainable development have chosen not to do so for their own domestic reasons. And that also represents a significant challenge for all of us and for the global system.”

Rae said, “a retreat from global solidarity will have a negative impact on our ability to improve the lives of the people of the world.”

Asked about the United States withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) he said it was “It’s not a great day,” but added, “it’s not the end of the WHO. And frankly, it’s not the end of the world, because we have to build organisations that are resilient enough to deal with the impact of short term and, in my view, misguided political decisions by governments.”

The ECOSOC President said, “let’s hold to account the people who should be held to account. It’s the member states who have to take responsibility. And yes, some member states more than others.”

He said, “the two largest donors – not donors, the two largest assessed contributions, taxes to be paid to the UN – who have not been paying their taxes are China and the United States. And they are two members of the Security Council. So, we have to have a much more candid conversation about who is responsible for what prescription.