1.5
SOLIDARITY
An ‘off the shelf’ cure for fragmentation?
I n 2015, countries and communities joined hands to craft and agree on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a historic plan of action for people and planet. Much progress has been made, including reducing poverty and child mortality. Yet life expectancy dropped between 2019 and 2021 in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the first such drop since 1950. The pandemic has stalled, and even reversed, steady improvements in public health. At the current rate of progress, universal health coverage, a pathway to delivering on everyone’s right to health, remains beyond reach, with approximately two billion people facing the effects of “catastrophic or impoverishing health spending”. Just 15% of the Sustainable Development Goal targets are on track. HOW DID WE END UP WITH THE FUTURE WE HAVE? Consider the fact that taxpayers give fossil fuel companies $11 million in subsidies every minute – which are supercharging
human rights, the rule of law, gender equality and civic space. Today, another ‘disease’ afflicts our countries and institutions, sickening people and planet: a virus of fragmentation. The 2030 Agenda, with its globally shared promise to leave no one behind, represents the best, ‘off the shelf’ cure. BRIDGING COUNTRIES Time, political will, financing and action remain in short supply. In this time of polycrisis, with global threats growing in number and complexity, we must think and act differently. As United Nations secretary-general António Guterres says, we must prepare for the health threats to come – from the next pandemic to climate threats – to prevent them where we can and respond fast and effectively where we cannot. The World Health Summit and the SDG Summit in 2023 represent new opportunities to secure the rights and well-being of all and protect our planet. That includes extending universal health
The virus of fragmentation is afflicting our countries and institutions, sickening people and planet – but, with its globally shared promise to leave no one behind, the 2030 Agenda offers an ‘off the shelf’ cure
By Achim Steiner, administrator, United Nations Development Programme
the climate emergency – even as droughts, floods, fires, hurricanes and heatwaves are harming and destroying the livelihoods of millions of people. Violent conflicts are at their highest levels since the Second World War. We are seeing pushback on
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Health: A Political Choice – From Fragmentation to Integration
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