A new report is calling for more efforts to be put in place if poverty and hunger are to be eradicated.
UN’s SDG report 2023, shows a lot of effort is also needed to enhance gender equality and climate action that are off the track.
The UN’s 17 SDGs are aimed at eradicating poverty, ending hunger, enhancing gender equality and climate action.
The report says an assessment of the around 140 targets for which trend data is available shows that about half of these targets are moderately or severely off track; and over 30 per cent have either seen no movement or regressed below the 2015 baseline.
Under current trends, 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030, and only about one-third of countries will meet the target to halve national poverty levels.
Shockingly, the report says the world is back at hunger levels not seen since 2005, and food prices remain higher in more countries than in the period 2015–2019.
“The way things are going, it will take 286 years to close gender gaps in legal protection and remove discriminatory laws.”
This new report comes days after launch of Kenya Demographic Health Survey which showed that quite a number of Kenyans are still going to bed on an empty stomach.
In fact, the survey released on July 3, shows that the highest proportions of households reporting lacking food or money to purchase food were recorded in Turkana (80 per cent), Vihiga (59 per cent), Marsabit (58 per cent), Busia (57 per cent), Homa Bay (57 per cent) and Samburu (55 per cent) counties.
The likelihood of lacking food or money to purchase food decreased with increasing household wealth.
More than half (53 per cent) of households in the lowest wealth quintile said they did not have enough food or money to buy food.
The proportion of households that reported lacking food or money to purchase food is higher in rural areas (33 per cent) than in urban areas (23 per cent).
The latest KDHS was the 7th to be carried out in Kenya, following similar surveys conducted in 1989, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008–09 and 2014.
KDHS seeks to provide up-to-date information on socio-economic, demographic, nutrition and health indicators for planning, monitoring and evaluation of various health programmes and policies.
Generally, the 2022 KDHS shows an improvement in many aspects of health indicators.
Besides this, the report provides indicators to monitor and evaluate Kenya’s achievements towards Agenda 2030 on SDGs.
KDHS shows that the prevalence of stunting among children less than five years was 18 per cent in 2022, representing a significant decrease from 35 per cent in 2008–09.
This indicates a reduction in chronic undernutrition.
The UN report shows that halfway to the deadline for the 2030 Agenda, more than half the world is being left behind.
The report which was released June 10, shows progress on more than 50 per cent of targets of the SDGs is weak and insufficient; on 30 per cent, it has stalled or gone into reverse. These include key targets on poverty, hunger and climate.
“Unless we act now, the 2030 Agenda could become an epitaph for a world that might have been. A fundamental shift is needed—in commitment, solidarity, financing and action—to put the world on a better path. And it is needed now,” part of the report warns.
The report highlights the existing gaps and urged the world to redouble its efforts. The report also emphasises the immense potential for success through strong political will and the utilisation of available technologies, resources, and knowledge.
The report says early efforts after the SDGs were adopted produced some favourable trends.
For instance, extreme poverty and child mortality rates continued to fall.
Inroads were made against such diseases as HIV and hepatitis.
Some targets for gender equality were seeing positive results.
Electricity access in the poorest countries was on the rise, and the share of renewables in the energy mix was increasing.
Globally, unemployment was back to levels not seen since before the 2008 financial crisis.
The proportion of waters under national jurisdiction covered by marine protected areas more than doubled in five years.
“But it is clear now that too much of that progress was fragile and most of it was too slow. In the past three years, the coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine and climate-related disasters have exacerbated already faltering progress. It is time to sound the alarm.”
In education, the impacts of years of underinvestment and learning losses are such that, by 2030, some 84 million children will be out of school and 300 million children or young people attending school will leave unable to read and write.
If ever there was an illumination of the short-sightedness of our prevailing economic and political systems, it is the ratcheting up of the war on nature.
A small window of opportunity is fast closing to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius, prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis and secure climate justice for people, communities and countries on the front lines of climate change. Carbon dioxide levels continue to rise to a level not seen in 2 million years.
The report says at the current rate of progress, renewable energy sources will continue to account for a mere fraction of energy supplies in 2030, some 660 million people will remain without electricity, and close to 2 billion people will continue to rely on polluting fuels and technologies for cooking.
The report says the compounding effects of climate, Covid-19 and economic injustices are leaving many developing countries with fewer options and even fewer resources to make the goals a reality.
The report has highlighted five key urgent actions.
It calls for the strengthening of social cohesion in order to secure dignity, opportunity and rights for all while reorienting economies through green and digital transitions and towards resilient trajectories.
The trajectories must be compatible with the goal of the Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.