Sustainable Development Goals in peril due to overseas aid cuts: Guterres
(United Nations News) Recent deep cuts to overseas aid budgets by governments, will have “direct, negative impacts” on the ability of the world to reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN chief warned on Friday.
Secretary-General António Guterres expressed his concern over the fall in Overseas Development Aid (ODA) following a meeting of the UN Chief Executives Board, which brought together the heads of 30 entities, to discuss ways of alleviating the crises holding back economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and boost implementation of the SDGs.
He noted that the current “moment in history” had thrown up “cascading challenges” including a climate emergency, uneven economic recovery, and the triple crisis of food, energy and debt, all exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mr. Guterres said that a critical ingredient of the UN’s ability to “rescue” the SDGs and provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance was “predictable and additional funding”, underpinned by the commitment of nations to provide 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income, to overseas aid – a target adopted in a UN General Assembly resolution, for advanced economies, back in 1970.
He acknowledged that a number of countries have met, “and in some cases” gone beyond, the threshold.
Read more at: United Nations News
Source: CARICOM TODAY