The SDG Summit shows that there is a lot of work to be done

During the SDG Summit, previous to the celebration of its General Assembly, the United Nations made public that only a 15% of the Sustainable Development Goals are on track. Between 2015, when they were passed, and 2030, year in which they have to be met, the year 2023 is situated in the equator of the 2030 Agenda. This is very important news. “It’s time to make the alarms sound” said the communiqués, even though there was no criteria specified on why was only 15% of SDG achieved.

During the opening of the Summit events, the Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, who for a long time has been denouncing all global agendas serious non-compliance, had a special reference to the role of territorial governments. “Without local and regional authorities -he said- the implementation of SDG is impossible”. During the Local and Regional Governments Forum, included in the Summit, the executive director of UN Habitat, Maumunah Mohd Sharif reiterated in the approach and expressed its gratitude to the local and regional governments “for having the priority of implementing the 2030 Agenda” and talked of 6 transitions in which territorial governments must have a fundamental role.

In the Summit, that intende to illustrate high impact localization policies of local and regional governments to accelerate the implementation of SDG, the compromise of regions to the 2030 Agenda was reiterated. It was explained that the Global Taskforce (the association platform of local and regional governments) has presented 7 reports about the state of localization of the SDG in the world based in 3500 examples of local and regional governments. Beyond the global, some members of ORU Fogar were there presenting their Voluntary Regional Report, as was the case of the País Vasco, with the presence of Jonan Fernandez, Secretary General of Social Trancition and 2030 Agenda, and the Manabí Prefect of Ecuador, Leonardo Orlando. The work of Regions4 accompanying all of these processes was also of relevance. 

The highlight was, however, he intervention of the Sucre, Colombia, Governor, Héctor Olimpo Espinosa who, as a clear reference with everything that is going on in his region, said: “there is no SDG worth it if we do not eradicate violence. Regional governments must spring into action and lead the collective fight to take Colombian youth out of violence, offering them opportunities”. As such, the “Estrategia Sucre Escucha” was presented, a plan that has allowed to rescue thousands of young people from drugs and drug trafficking. (The Governor Espinosa intervention has become an article in our web and newsletter). 

The Summit explained, with great diversity of events and spaces in which we have to highlight the Side-Event organized byt the Kenya Council of Governors “Primary Care Facilities at the Sub national level” and in which diverse members of ORU Fogar participated in, the Manabí Prefect of Ecuador, Leonardo Orlando, had an interesting intervention in which the efforts to bring primary care to the countryside of this province was highlighted. “During the pandemic -he explained- we have treated a million people, reaching all parishes. To follow the Health and Well-being SDG, we also have to pay attention to the SDG 1 “Eradication of Poverty””. The Prefect claimed for an adequate financing to keep working for this goal. 

The intervention of Isidre Sala, delegate of the Catalan Government, had a very different nature. He explained that the Catalan Government in putting emphasis on prevention, as much as in healing. “A lot is being targeted in favor of health eating and also in favor of de-medicalized health”.

The presence in New York allowed the different delegations of ORU Fogar to have bilateral meetings, but also meetings with heads of different United Nations agencies, from UN Habitat to UN Women, going from UNICEF to the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). In UN Women, representatives of ORU Fogar announced the creation of a Gender Working Group inside the organization. In the DESA, different regions had meetings with the aim of being present in the SDG Investment Fair, a space in which to present projects to possible funders.