Are we leaving no one behind in eradicating poverty and working towards the 2030 Agenda?

With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Member States committed to achieving sustainable development for all nations and peoples and for all segments of society. They pledged that no one would be left behind, and that they would endeavour to reach the furthest behind first.

Against this pledge, considerable progress has been made in economic and social development over the past decades. However, such progress has been uneven across and within countries and among groups of people; more than 10% of the world population are left living in poverty and the pace of poverty reduction has been decelerating in recent years.

Now, in the year 2020, the global community is facing the greatest health and human crisis since the creation of the UN 75 years ago. COVID-19 is upending billions of lives across regions and is likely to push the global economy down to the worst recession since the Great Depression in 1929; it has exposed and exacerbated vulnerabilities and inequalities in both developing and developed countries, deepening poverty and exclusion and pushing the most vulnerable even further behind.

This session will examine implications of the current crisis for the furthest behind. It will discuss comprehensive policies and strategies to “recover better” and use the recovery from the pandemic to build the kind of social and economic systems that will leave no one behind and improve the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable, including women and girls exposed to multiple discriminations.

Proposed guiding questions:

What did COVID-19 show us about our social and economic systems’ ability to cope with shocks and their impact on the poorest and most vulnerable?
How can we resume and accelerate progress towards SDGs while leaving no one behind, in particular by eradicating poverty and building more just, equitable and inclusive societies?
What lessons have we learned from the implementation of the SDGs and the response to COVID-19 thus far? How can we take advantage of policies and measures already being introduced to implement the 2030 Agenda, to address systemic vulnerabilities and recover better towards more sustainable, just, equitable and inclusive societies?
Which groups are especially vulnerable during and in recovering from the COVID-19 crisis? What are some promising actions to improve the situations of these groups and leave no one behind? How can we ensure that actions taken to respond to COVID-19 leave no one behind?
What kind of mechanisms (i.e., early-warning systems, rapid response funds) are necessary to enable coordinated actions at global, regional and national levels and among all segment of society to mitigate risks and enhance resilience of individuals, groups and communities in vulnerable situations, amid the current crisis?

Chair:

H. E. Ambassador Mher Margaryan, Armenia, Vice President of ECOSOC

Moderator:

Ms. Diane Elson, Professor Emeritus, University of Essex, UK, and Research Affiliate, Centre for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University, US, and Member of the Committee for Development Policy (CDP)

Resource persons:

Ms. Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS
Ms. Ifeyinwa Ofong, National Coordinator, WorldWIDE Network Nigeria and Board Member of the Habitat International Coalition, Nigeria

Lead discussants:

Ms. Rola Dashti, Executive Secretary of ESCWA
Ms. Anriette Esterhuysen, Chair of the Internet Governance Forum’s Multi-stakeholder

Advisory Group, South Africa

Ms. Sophia Bachmann, German UN Youth Delegate on Sustainable Development
Mr. John Patrick Ngoyi, Director, Justice, Development and Peace Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria (Together 2030)

Followed by interactive discussion

Respondents:

Ms. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA
Mr. Paul Ladd, Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)