Boost global partnership to implement SDGs: Momen tells world leaders

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has told the world leaders that there are huge gaps in global partnership to implement the SDGs and called for commitments under the Doha Programme of Action for LDCs to be kept.

Speaking at the roundtable discussion as part of the two-day SDG Summit at the UN Headquarters yesterday (Monday), he also highlighted Bangladesh's concerted efforts to implement the SDGs claiming that the country has made famines a matter of the past.

"We're continuing our efforts to implement the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. Bangladesh is working to achieve the goals with the participation of all or the 'whole-of-society'," the minister said.

Calling the SDGs "the Magna Carta" of the present time, he said Bangladesh has made various efforts to reduce poverty and hunger. "We have made famines a matter of the past,"

As a result, he recalled that the country reduced extreme poverty to 5.6 percent in 2022 — down from 25.1 percent in 2006.

"But there're huge gaps in the global partnership to implement the SDGs. We want the implementation of commitments under the Doha Programme of Action for LDCs," Momen said.

He said Bangladesh wants a rules-based global trading system.

The minister laid emphasis on imposing minimum conditions for concessional loans and life-saving technology.

"We believe that there needs to be sufficient incentives for the private sector so that it comes forward alongside the public sector to implement the SDGs," he observed.

Momen spoke at the programme on behalf of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Meanwhile, the world leaders at the summit deplored that progress on most of SDG targets is moving much too slowly and warned of the peril the world faces unless it acts with urgency to rescue a set of 2030 development goals to eliminate hunger and extreme poverty and to tackle climate change.

They also adopted a political declaration to accelerate action on implementing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The adoption of the 10-page document, by the Heads of State and Government and high representatives gathered at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, came at a critical juncture as global crises — including armed conflict, adverse climate impacts and the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic — threaten the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

The high-level 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly began Monday along with the 2023 SDG Summit.

It reviewed the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and provided high-level political guidance on transformative and accelerated actions for achieving the goals.

"Now is the time for a global plan to rescue the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are woefully off-track halfway towards their 2030 deadline," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his opening remarks to the SDG Summit, known formally as the high-level political forum on sustainable development.

He said only 15 percent of the targets are on track and many are going in reverse. "Instead of leaving no one behind, we risk leaving the SDGs behind."