Looking at the 2020 targets: implementation and review
Wednesday, 7 July 2021
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Virtually (held New York time)
Official meeting
Statements
Statements
When the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was negotiated, Member States decided that certain targets within the SDGs should be achieved with an accelerated timeline, including those agreed in other intergovernmental processes such as the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC), and others. These “shared” targets have a completion date of 2020 in those parallel processes, and by carrying over this deadline to the SDGs, Member States effectively raised the ambition of the 2030 Agenda as a whole.
There are 21 targets meant to mature in 2020 in the areas of food security, health, education, water, employment, infrastructure, cities, sustainable consumption and production, climate, oceans, terrestrial ecosystems and partnerships. None of these targets were achieved in 2020.
The Secretary-General’s SDG progress report of this year shows that there has been some progress in some of these targets, but nowhere is the progress adequate. There has been, for instance, a decline in road traffic injuries (though this is still the leading cause of death globally for young people); an increase of ODA for scholarships; an increase in the number of countries that have developed youth employment strategies and national urban policies; an increase in climate-specific financial support; a doubling of key biodiversity, marine, freshwater and terrestrial areas from 2000 to 2020; a slowing-down of deforestation; and progress in instruments and policies to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and to address invasive alien species. On the other hand, many local livestock breeds are deemed at risk of extinction, the world’s river basins and wetlands are under increased threat, youth unemployment has increased significantly, mobile-broadband networks and e-waste recycling are progressing much too slowly, and species extinction risk has worsened by about 10 per cent over the last three decades. In addition, bilateral investment treaties with LDCs have slowed in 2020, and after an initial increase in support to high-quality, timely and reliable data especially in LDCs, this is now faltering due to the pandemic.
So, though 2020 has passed for these targets, now is the time to intensify efforts to achieve them, keeping in mind that many of them, especially those related to biodiversity, are being reviewed and likely made more ambitious through their own parallel processes. This session will thus provide the opportunity to discuss how to accelerate achievement of these targets and how best to reflect the increased ambition coming from related intergovernmental processes while maintaining the integrity of the 2030 Agenda.
Proposed guiding questions:
- What would be the best ways to accelerate achievement of the 2020 targets?
- What would be the best way to update the targets?
- What role should the General Assembly and the HLPF play in keeping the ambition of the 2020 targets?
Chair:
- H.E. Mr. Juan Sandoval Mendiolea (Mexico), Vice President of ECOSOC
Highlights:
- Ms. Olga Algayerova, Executive Secretary of UNECE, Presentation of regional dimensions
Interactive panel discussion
Moderator:
- Mr. Manish Bapna, Interim President and CEO, World Resources Institute
Panellists/Resource persons:
- H.E. Mr. David Donoghue, Distinguished Fellow of ODI, former co-facilitator of the negotiations on the elaboration of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
- H.E. Mr. Peter Thomson, UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Ocean
- Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
Lead discussants:
- Mr. Jean Todt, United Nations Special Envoy for Road Safety
- Ms. Alice Ruhweza, Africa Region Director for the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
- Mr. Javier Surasky, Professor and Chair of the International Cooperation Department of the Institute of International Relations at the La Plata National University, Argentina (Together 2030 Stakeholder Group)
H.E. Mr. David Donoghue
Distinguished Fellow of ODI, former co-facilitator of the negotiations on the elaboration of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Born in Dublin in 1952, Ambassador David Donoghue had a long and varied career in Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs.
He was involved for many years in the Northern Ireland peace process. He was one of the Irish Government’s negotiators for the ground-breaking Good Friday Agreement (1998), which has provided a political framework for lasting peace and stability in Northern Ireland.
Ambassador Donoghue served at different times as the Irish Ambassador to Russia, Austria and Germany. From 2001-4 he was the Director General of Ireland’s development co-operation programme, today known as Irish Aid, and oversaw in this capacity a programme growing significantly in budget allocation and thematic and geographic range. He also served as Political Director from 2009-13, a post which gave him responsibility for Ireland’s overall foreign policy.
From 2013-17 Ambassador Donoghue was the Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations in New York. At the request of the President of the General Assembly, he served as co-facilitator (with Kenya) for the UN negotiations which led to the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015. He also served as co-facilitator (with Jordan) for the negotiations which produced the New York Declaration on large movements of refugees and migrants, adopted at a special summit in September 2016.
Ambassador Donoghue retired from the Irish foreign service in September 2017. He is actively involved in the processes arising from the New York Declaration which will give rise, respectively, to a Global Compact on Refugees and a Global Compact on Migrants, each of which will be completed in the autumn of 2018. He is contributing to the work of a number of think-tanks and academic institutions on these issues and also on the challenges associated with implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
H.E. Mr. Juan Sandoval Mendiolea
DPR of Mexico Mission, Vice President of ECOSOC and Former Co-Chair of the STI Forum
Ambassador Juan Sandoval-Mendiolea has been Deputy Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations since February 2015. He was appointed co/chair of the Science Technology and Innovation Forum by the President of ECOIOC in December 2017. He was a co-chair with Japan for the 2018 STI Forum. Prior to this assignment, he served as Director General for United Nations Affairs. In this capacity, he was promoted to the rank of Ambassador of Mexico in October 2014.
Ambassador Sandoval served as Legal and Human Rights Counselor at the Mexican Embassy in France, and as Deputy and Interim Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS) from 2001 until 2006, where he oversaw legal issues and hemispheric security, including drug enforcement, transnational organized crime, terrorism and corruption. In the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he has also been Deputy Director General of the Directorate for Inter-American Regional Organisms and Mechanisms (2006-2007), and during this time he also served as Deputy National Organizer of Summits. He was Director of Cabinet of the Under-Secretary of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights from 2007 until 2013. He led the process for Mexico’s admission to the Wassenaar Arrangement, the Australia Group and the Nuclear Supplier's Group.
Mr. Manish Bapna
Interim President and CEO, World Resources Institute
Bio: Manish Bapna is the Interim President and CEO of the World Resources Institute, a global research organization that works to address the urgent sustainability challenges related to food, forests, water, climate, energy, cities and the ocean. Manish oversees WRI’s programs, chairs WRI’s management team and works to strengthen the impact of WRI research. He led WRI’s efforts to establish offices in China, India and Brazil and helped launch WRI programs on cities, energy, finance and adaptation. Previously, he was the Executive Director of the nonprofit Bank Information Center and a Senior Economist at the World Bank. He also was a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company.
Ms. Olga Algayerova
Executive Secretary of UNECE, Presentation of regional dimensions
On 13 April 2017, the Secretary-General appointed Ms. Olga Algayerova of Slovakia as the next Executive Secretary of the UNECE. She took office on 1 June 2017.
Ms. Algayerova brings to the position a combination of leadership and diplomatic skills with deep knowledge of the region with its challenges and opportunities and a strong focus on building and nurturing partnerships among key stakeholders with the United Nations.
Prior to her appointment, she served as Permanent Representative of Slovakia to the International Organizations in Vienna, Austria (since 2012). She was previously President, Slovak Millennium Development Goals (2010-2012); State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2006-2010) and Corporate Export Manager, Zentiva International, a.s. (2004-2006).
Born in 1959, Ms. Algayerova holds a Master in Contemporary Diplomacy from Malta University, a Master in Business Administration from The Open University Business School, United Kingdom and a Dipl. in Engineer of Economy from the University of Economics Business Faculty, Bratislava.
On 12 July 2017, Ms. Olga Algayerova was sworn-in by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. António Guterres.
