Protecting and advancing human wellbeing and ending poverty

Advancing human well-being is at the heart of sustainable development. It is about upholding human rights, eradicating poverty and deprivations across multiple dimensions, closing opportunity gaps and expanding capabilities – including those needed to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences as well as ensuring gender equality. Protecting the well-being of all people is also about safeguarding the natural environment on which everyone depends, including future generations, and tapping into synergies across the SDGs.

COVID-19 has tragically laid bare shortfalls in many areas and threatens to push millions of people back into poverty. Pandemic response efforts and long-term development plans must work to eliminate poverty and hunger; reduce inequalities in opportunities; ensure access to quality health care and reduce exposure to disease; increase access to quality education and other services; and address persistent gender inequality.

All of this is demonstrably possible, but recovering and building back better will require cooperation, collaboration and dialogue among multiple stakeholders to ensure no one is left behind, including the most vulnerable.

Proposed guiding questions:

What are some promising actions to support progress toward advancing human well-being that generate synergies across Sustainable Development Goals and Targets? Are there trade-offs from these actions and if so, how can they be mitigated?
What are the most critical interventions and partnerships needed over the next 2 years, 5 years, 10 years to protect and advance human well-being and end poverty?
Which groups are especially vulnerable to poverty and lack access to capability enhancing services?
What are ways to ensure that actions leave no one behind? How might COVID-19 facilitate or complicate efforts to reduce vulnerabilities among marginalized groups?
Are there examples of successful partnerships and initiatives for advancing human well-being? Can these be scaled up or adjusted to fit other contexts?
How can science and technology support well-being in the context of COVID-19 and in the future?

Chair:

H.E. Ambassador Omar Hilale, Morocco, Vice President of ECOSOC

Keynote speaker:

Mr. David Nabarro, WHO Special Envoy on COVID-19

Moderator:

Ms. Cristina Duarte, former Finance Minister of Cabo Verde and member of Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) and the UN High-Level Advisory Board (HLAB) on Economic and Social Affairs

Resource persons:

Ms. Imme Scholz, Professor and Deputy Director, German Development Institute
Mr. Githinji Gitahi, Global CEO and Director General, AMREF Health Africa Group

Lead discussants:

Ms. Ilze Brands Kehris, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and Head of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Ms. Jane Miano, Founder and Coordinator, Focus of Disabled Persons, Kenya (Stakeholder Group of Ageing / Stakeholder Group of Persons with Disabilities)

Followed by interactive discussion

Respondents:

H.E. Mr. Vladislav Smrz, Deputy Minister for Policy and International Relations, Ministry of the Environment, Czech Republic
H.E. Ms. Eryka Mouynes, Vice Minister of Multilateral Affairs and Cooperation, Panama