According to a new assessment released by the global organization, trillions of dollars will be required to accomplish the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were adopted by all members of the UN back in 2015.
This is due to the fact that the global dilemma of sustainable development is primarily a financial one. According to a UN statement issued on April 10, 2024, developing nations are unable to address the multiple crises they are facing due to their staggering debt loads and exorbitant borrowing rates.
In the meantime, billions of people have been impacted by climate disasters, rising geopolitical tensions, and a global cost-of-living crisis, which has hampered progress toward healthcare, education, and other development goals, it continued.
The SDGs can only be saved at this point by a “massive surge of financing” and a “reform of the international financial architecture,” the statement said.
To close the development funding gap, investments of over $4.2 trillion are required. According to the 2024 Financing for Sustainable Development Report: Financing for Development at a Crossroads (FSDR 2024), this amount was $2.5 trillion before to the start of the COVID-19 epidemic. On April 9, the report was made available.
heavily indebted
The analysis estimates that between 2023 and 2025, the least developed nations (LDCs) will pay down $40 billion in debt annually. From $26 billion in 2022, this will represent more than 50% of the total.
More than half of the debt increase in vulnerable nations can be attributed to stronger and more frequent disasters brought on by the ongoing climate crisis.
The poorest nations currently pay interest on interest payments at a rate of 12% of their total revenue, which is four times higher than ten years ago. According to a UN statement, around 40% of the world’s population lives in nations where interest payments are paid by the government more frequently than for health or education.
Furthermore, significant financial sources for development are currently slowing down. “For instance, since 2010, domestic revenue growth has stagnated, particularly in low-income countries (LDCs), partly as a result of tax avoidance and evasion. Global average tax rates have decreased from 28.2 percent in 2000 to current levels of corporate income tax. to 21.1 per cent in 2023, due to globalization and tax competition,” according to the report.
The statement went on to say that promises made on climate finance and official development assistance (ODA) from OECD nations are not being fulfilled at the same time as this:
While aid to refugees residing in donor nations contributed significantly to the expansion in ODA, which reached an all-time high of $211 billion in 2022 from $185.9 billion in 2021, the whole amount remains insufficient for development. In 2022, just four nations achieved the UN aid target of 0.7% of GNI.
The Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 established the international financial system, which is now unfit for use. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were founded as a result of the Bretton Woods Conference, which took place in the United States.
The research states that what is urgently needed is a new, cohesive structure that is better able to handle crises, increases investment in the SDGs, particularly through stronger multilateral development banks, and enhances the global safety net for all nations.
There are just six years left to accomplish the SDGs, and in the poorest nations in particular, hard-won development gains are being undone. According to UN estimates, approximately 600 million people—more than half of them are women—will remain in extreme poverty in 2030 and beyond if current trends continue.