Welcome to the United Nations
Foreword
This is a special year for the 2030 Agenda. In September, for the first time since the adoption of the SDGs, leaders will gather at the United Nations in New York for a comprehensive stock take of global progress achieved thus far. This will be crucial to help us reinvigorate our efforts, identify shortfalls and correct our course for the SDGs where we are not on track.
Important challenges persist in the achievement of the SDGs. Some 10% of the global population still live in extreme poverty; 16% of students of lower secondary school age do not attend schooli and the figure climbs to 20% for girlsii. The proportion of undernourished people worldwide increased from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016iii. Since 1970, one tenth of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity and one third of freshwater biodiversity have been wiped out, and we are on course to lose another 10% of terrestrial species by 2050iv. Our collective efforts to address climate change still fall far short of putting the world on a pathway in line with the Paris Agreement long-term temperature goal. Pathways reflecting current NDCs imply global warming of about 3°C by 2100, with warming continuing afterwards.
Development is non-linear and the 2030 Agenda is relevant for all countries, regardless of their stage of development. When it comes to the OECD countries, as shown by our study Measuring Distance to the Targets, more than one third of our members are on average making progress toward the SDG targets on Health, Gender equality, Energy, Infrastructure, Means of Implementation, and all five “Planet” goals. However, more than half of our members have made little or no progress towards targets relating to Eradicating Poverty, Food, Education, Reducing Inequalities and on Institutions. And when it comes to Goal 8 on ‘Promoting Sustained, Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth, Full and Productive Employment and Decent Work for All’, a third of OECD countries is actually moving away from the SDG targets.
The High Level Political Forum (HLPF) plays a crucial role in sustaining the momentum around the Global Goals, providing a setting for the exchange of ideas and experiences, and helping to raise the bar. The focus of this year’s HLPF on “Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality” resonates well with OECD’s continuous efforts to address inequalities of opportunities and outcomes, and to place people’s well-being at the heart of all policy-making. Partnerships, multi-stakeholder engagement and peer-to-peer exchanges are essential to the 2030 Agenda. To this end, since 2017, the OECD has convened the meeting of the members of the Council on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to bring together senior officials from its member and partner countries, international organisations and social partners. In the 2019 edition of the meeting, we discussed inequalities, environmental objectives, and the financing dimensions of the 2030 Agenda, in line with the focus of UN deliberations at the HLPF this summer and at UNGA in September.
In this pivotal year, the OECD remains committed to playing the role of the “best supporting actor” in the SDG process putting its know-how, evidence, and tools at the disposal of countries. This includes supporting interested countries’ institutional planning at all levels of government for implementation. We will continue to support the international community through our Action Plan on the SDGs adopted in 2016, leveraging expertise from the entire Organisation, and increasingly engaging in the UN processes through our office in New York.
The OECD will continue to work with the international community to design, develop and deliver Better Policies for Better Lives.
