TIME FOR FIRM PATH ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS.

Byline: AHSAN NISAR

The world today is dealing with a crisis of monumental proportions. The vicious, novel coronavirus is wreaking havoc across the globe, destroying lives and ruining livelihoods. The primary cost of the pandemic as seen in the loss of human lives is distressing, but the secondary euects on the global economy, on livelihoods and on sustainable development prospects are even more alarming. The International Monetary Fund estimates that the world has entered into a recession, and while the full economic impact of the crisis is diflcult to predict, the costs of the pandemic will no doubt be astronomical, with preliminary estimates placing it at a whopping US$2 trillion. The pandemic has utterly exposed fundamental weaknesses in our global system. It has shown beyond doubt how the prevalence of poverty, weak health systems, lack of education, and above all sub-optimal global cooperation, is exacerbating the crisis.

The on-going crisis has reinforced the interdependence of our world. It has brought about the urgent need for global action to meet people's basic needs, to save the planet and to build a fairer and more secure world. This is what the SDGs, the global blueprint to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity, are all about. Sadly, this ferocious pandemic has come at a time when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were getting good traction and a significant number of countries were making good progress in their implementation. What the world cannot auord to do even at these crucial times is to shift resources away from priority SDGs actions. The response to the pandemic cannot be de-linked from actions on the SDGs. Indeed, achieving the SDGs will put us on a solid foundation and a firm path to dealing with global health risks and emerging infectious diseases.

Achieving SDGs Goal 3 will mean strengthening the capacity of countries for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks. UNESCO estimates that some 1.25 billion students are auected by this pandemic, posing a serious challenge to the attainment of SDGs Goal 4; and according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) some 25 million people could lose their jobs with those...