United Nations, CMC: Guyana’s President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, Monday said he believes that significant progress can only be made in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) if national efforts are matched by commitments being fulfilled.
In addition, Ali told the two-day 2023 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, also known as the SDG Summit, that significant progress can be achieved if an international environment fosters advancement for all countries.
He said that action on the Bridgetown Initiative, liquidity support, debt sustainability, development funding, and governance reforms of international financial institutions are critical to this.
Under the Bridgetown Initiative, Caribbean countries have noted that rich countries can borrow at interest rates of between one and four percent, while it’s around 14 percent for poorer countries,
The SDG Summit is a pivotal milestone in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, marking the halfway point of its implementation. It presents a crucial opportunity to accelerate our collective efforts towards sustainable development.
The SDG Summit will also address the world’s complex challenges due to various interconnected crises. Its objective is to rekindle hope, optimism, and enthusiasm for the 2030 Agenda.
Ali told the summit that the event is at the mid-point of implementing Agenda 2030 in a crisis.
“Be it food, energy, climate, and the destabilizing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the combined effect of these crises has significantly derailed the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
He said the increased cost of financing, rising debt to gross domestic product (GDP), and unsustainable balance sheets have placed the developing world in a precarious position.
Ali, quoting a recent report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), said the gap in financing to achieve four critical SDGs for Latin America and the Caribbean, including access to water and sanitation, energy, building infrastructure that promotes sustainable industrialization and innovation, and making cities sustainable, would require US$2.2 trillion.
He said additionally, the debt-to-GDP ratio in the Latin America and Caribbean region in 2022 was 117 percent, and inflation stood at 9.2 percent.”
“This is the situation of just one region of the world,” Ali said, adding that Guyana’s expansion of its economy has allowed the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country to focus heavily on the SDGs.
“For example, investment per capita in health has increased by 62 percent, education by 64 percent, and security by 153 percent over three years. But national commitment alone will not be enough to achieve the SDGs, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable.”
Ali said that a significant part of the problem is the need for more progress with Goal 17 on global partnerships and the failure of the international community to deliver on its commitments.
International financial commitments, be it the 0.7 percent of Gross National Product (GNP) for official development assistance (ODA).
He said this was a commitment made 50 years ago, similar to the US$100 billion annually under the Paris Agreement to developing countries, among others that still need to be met. “Additionally, our international financial architecture is out of sync with the needs of developing countries and must be reformed. Developing countries are faced with higher food inflation, five percent higher than the rest of the world in most cases.
“To compound this, for developing countries, the average interest on external borrowing is three times higher than that of developed countries. We will not have a world where everyone everywhere enjoys their full human rights, peace, and security and is free from poverty and hunger unless the right to development is realized and respected.”
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