HLPF: Realizing the SDGs in extraordinary times.

Byline: Sadia Babar

When US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau opened the Bretton Woods Conference almost eighty years ago, he reminded delegates that failures of international cooperation had led to the Great Depression, social division, and ultimately war. "Prosperity, like peace, is indivisible," he said. That message speaks across the ages. We are again facing extraordinary global challenges that can be met only through international cooperation. Large swaths of the developing world are being excluded from global prosperity. Extreme poverty is rising. Hard-won gains in health, education, and nutrition are under threat. Already obscene economic inequalities between and within countries are widening due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The window of opportunity for averting a climate catastrophe is about to slam shut.

It may rightly be asserted then, that the start of the "Decade of Action" to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been marked by the start of an unprecedented period of overlapping crises. Against this grim backdrop, international cooperation for SDGs recovery has gained new urgency. This renewed urgency was taken up by the first in-person meeting of the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in three years which reviewed five SDGs in particular: SDGs 4 (quality education), 5 (gender equality), 14 (life below water), 15 (life on land), and 17 (partnerships for the Goals). The consideration of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic across all SDGs and the integrated, indivisible, and interlinked nature of the Goals became an important underlying theme throughout the meeting.

Building Back Better Eradicating poverty, combating climate change, and recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic are defining challenges of our time. They test the international community's resolve to drive forward the 2030 Agenda to achieve the SDGs. These challenges require increased solidarity, bold multilateral action, and strengthened partnerships to "build back better" by creating more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive societies. As morning newspapers during the two-week conference were filled with stories about the Russian war in Ukraine, rollbacks in women's rights, unprecedented heat waves, and the fall of three governments, countries were called on to prioritize action to form a blueprint of global recovery.

They were to ensure equitable vaccine access, tackle food and environmental...