UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres has said that only 15 per cent of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets are on track, calling on key actors to rescue the goals.<\/p>\n
Guterres, at the opening of SDG Action Weekend at the UN headquarters in New York on Saturday, rallied a diverse cross section of civil society actors to use their passionate voices and energetic grassroots networks to help rescue the SDGs.<\/p>\n
With world leaders set to convene on Tuesday for the annual high-level opening of the General Assembly, the UN hosted an energetic range of actors.<\/p>\n
They include youth groups and women\u2019s organisations, mayors, community activists and business leaders, looking to boost support for the hoals ahead of the SDG Summit.<\/p>\n
The summit, slated to hold on Monday and Tuesday, 18 to 19 September will mark the mid-point of the SDGs, between their 2015 launch and their 2030 deadline.<\/p>\n
As things stand, the goals UN member countries\u2019 promised when they adopted the 2030 to \u2018leave no one behind\u2019 are in serious trouble: despite some progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years, widespread implementation gaps had emerged across all 17 goals, which aim to tackle everything from poverty, hunger and gender equality, to access to education and clean energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cLagging public interest in achieving the goals, geopolitical friction and perhaps most critically, the global coronavirus pandemic, have left the SDGs in need of a global rescue plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, only 15 per cent of the targets are on track, with many going into reverse,\u201d the secretary-general said.<\/p>\n
According to him, Monday\u2019s SDG summit will be the moment for governments to come to the table with concrete plans and proposals to accelerate progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he stressed that the SDGs were not about checking boxes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are about the hopes, dreams, rights and expectations of people and the health of our natural environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are about righting historic wrongs, healing global divisions and putting our world on a path to lasting peace,\u201d the UN chief said.<\/p>\n
According to Guterres, everyone needs to step up to help revive the Goals and ensure a better life for people and the planet.<\/p>\n
He went on to salute the courage and conviction of the activists in attendance, saying that he knew their global fight for the SDGs \u201ccomes at a risk to your safety \u2026 liberty [and] even your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI urge you to keep going,\u201d he said, and similarly urged members of the business community in attendance \u201cto see that sustainable development is best business plan of all\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the women and young people joining us \u2013 keep calling out for change in your communities and fighting for your rights and a place at every table, the Secretary-General said.<\/p>\n
The UN chief said: \u201cTo the local authorities here \u2013 the SDGs will not be rescued in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will be rescued in your communities. So continue listening to the people in your communities and embedding their needs and concerns across your policies and investments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: NAN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres has said that only 15 per cent of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets are on track, calling on key actors to rescue the goals. Guterres, at the opening of SDG Action Weekend at the UN headquarters in New York on Saturday, rallied a diverse cross section of civil society actors to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1,20,8],"tags":[223,225,224],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinumtimesng.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinumtimesng.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinumtimesng.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinumtimesng.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinumtimesng.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3181"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/platinumtimesng.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3184,"href":"https:\/\/platinumtimesng.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3181\/revisions\/3184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinumtimesng.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinumtimesng.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinumtimesng.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinumtimesng.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}