Kazakhstan shows huge progress in achievement of SDGs - UN Resident Coordinator Michaela Friberg-Storey
Addressing the participants, Michaela Friberg-Storey noted that the Sustainable Development Goals are not only the goals of the UN, but the goals of the world. In her words, each UN member country signed up for achieving them. Each country demonstrates 12% progress only, 30% lag and 30% show no progress or even regression in 140 indicators.
Michaela Friberg-Storey voiced the UN's forecast if the current trends persist. About 575 million people will live in extreme poverty in 2030. Only a third of countries of the world will achieve the goals on eradicating national poverty level by a half.
She said the world had just returned to the starvation level, «which we have not seen since 2015», and added that it was shocking. «Food prices remain high. Each of us, as a consumer, understands it. But those with the least money suffer the most. Gender equality is a contributing factor to the achievement of all Sustainable Development Goals. With the current lag rate, it will take almost 300 years to close the gender gap, «she noted.
She pointed out the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and climate change. Up to 84 million children will not be covered with secondary education, while 300 million children are predicted to graduate from the schools being unable to read and write, because of schools’ closure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to her, climate crisis will affect Kazakhstan more than other countries. This concerns drought and its impact on agriculture. «Kazakhstan plays an important role in growing wheat and other crops. Climate change hinders not only Kazakhstan’s economic development, but it can affect other countries, which depend on imports from Kazakhstan, for instance Afghanistan,» she noted.
The UN Resident Coordinator stressed that Kazakhstan shows a huge progress in achievement of the SDGs. Maternal death rates significantly decreased over the years of independence.
Friberg-Storey reminded of the Kazakh President’s recent Address to the Nation, which focuses, among other things, on access to drinking water, the problem of trans-border rivers and challenges Kazakhstan faces today, and which «cannot be solved by Kazakhstan only.» «We know, that a new Code on Water Resources is being drafted. A new ministry [Ministry of Water Resources - edit] was established,» she said, expressing confidence that these measures will bring a passive contribution for further implementation of the SDGs, in particular, in ensuring access to clean drinking water.
The Sustainable Development Agenda is a global commitment to solving the most pressing global problems, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation. It includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) designed to change the world by 2030.
