CARIBBEAN-ECLAC warns SDGs cannot be achieved without cooperation

SANTIAGO, Chile, CMC—The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, says no social actor alone can achieve the fulfillment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Without cooperation and partnerships, there is no 2030 Agenda,” he told delegates attending the eighth meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development 2025.

The meeting ends on Friday and focuses on reaching agreements and sharing experiences to surmount the region’s lag in fulfilling the 2030 Agenda.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the start of the five-year countdown to 2030, and regional progress towards the SDGs.

The SDGs highlight the connections between sustainable development’s environmental, social, and economic aspects. As the term implies, sustainability is at the center of the SDGs.

The meeting here features a series of dialogues on global, regional, and national action. Participants will evaluate progress and exchange experiences and good practices regarding compliance with the global road map for development that the United Nations defined in 2015.

Salazar-Xirinachs told delegates that ten years after adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, there is still a lot of ground to cover.

“At this time, the world is facing a highly uncertain economic context, with the resurgence and intensification of geopolitical tensions, a reconfiguration of international alliances, and threats of various kinds to international cooperation and the multilateral system.

“Although we are lagging in achieving full compliance, can we still discuss the 2030 Agenda with optimism and hope?

“I think so because there is still commitment in the region – and perhaps more commitment today – and because there is still a lot of room for maneuvering on managing the transformations and improving how we do things. That’s where I think the big leaps forward for attaining the SDGs can come from,” Salazar-Xirinachs said.

According to ECLAC’s studies, less than one-fourth of the 2030 Agenda’s targets have been achieved or are forecast to be completed in the next five years in the region, which means that significant additional efforts are needed.

“In that regard, financing continues to be a huge challenge. It is also necessary to strengthen international and regional cooperation and multisectoral partnerships,” the ECLAC executive secretary said.

In a video message to the conference, the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, called for all stakeholders to continue accelerating SDG action and use this Forum to ensure that the region’s needs and priorities are represented on the global stage in a critical year.

“From the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development to the Third Ocean Conference and the Second World Summit for Social Development, official development assistance is vital, but alone it will never be enough to meet the scale of the challenges that we face, something this region has known for decades,” she said.

“Let’s make this Forum a turning point, a renewed commitment to the 2030 Agenda, a call for transformation, and a platform for joint action to bridge gaps, foster innovation, and build a more inclusive, prosperous, and sustainable future that leaves no one behind,” he added.

The Forum will discuss the eighth report on regional progress and challenges related to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean on Wednesday.

The “Latin America and the Caribbean in the Final Five Years of the 2030 Agenda: Steering Transformations to Accelerate Progress,” report prepared by ECLAC, is being unveiled in the framework of the dialogues on regional action.

ECLAC said the dialogues on national action would be held on Friday “through learning sessions on successful national experiences with accelerating the attainment of the SDGs, and participants will share good practices and challenges in preparing the voluntary national reviews (VNRs) that countries present each year to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum in New York.”