The Senior Special Assistant to Governor Seyi Makinde on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Hon. Kunle Yusuf (MON), has shared the opinions of senior SDG Advocates, SDGs Funds Crucial for Global COVID-19 Response by Solberg and Akufo-Ado
The President of Ghana and the Prime Minister of Norway, Nana Akufo-Addo and Erna Solberg, respectively have reiterated the importance of SDG funding in global covid-19 response in a letter addressed to world leaders.
The Covid-19 has seemingly reversed global gains in good health (SDG3) and continually impacts about 1.25 billion students world wide, albeit negatively (SDG4), according to the UNESCO.
Akufo-Addo and Solberg insist that, “the pandemic has exposed fundamental weaknesses in our global system. It has shown how the prevalence of poverty, weak health systems, lack of education, and a lack of global co-operation exacerbate the crisis.”
A pandemic like coronavirus which affects the world adversely, needs a concerted global effort, insists Nana Akufo-Addo.
The immediate focus of countries to save lives is justifiable and this is why the SDG resources should be channeled towards helping countries achieve good health, Solberg states.
Asides SDG 3 and 4 which border on good health and education, International Labour Organisation (ILO) projects that 25 million people could lose their jobs.
Additionally the pandemic continues to affect the ability of local communities to achieve sanitation targets (SDG 6), while increasing pervasive inequalities (SDG10) and worsening poverty incidence around the world.
The letter insists that the coronavirus attacks all of the SDG goals, taking many countries several years backwards in their effort to create a fairer, better society for their people.
However, there is light at the end of the tunnel, the leaders say.
“Our world has the knowledge, capacity and innovation and if we are ambitious enough, we can muster the resources needed to achieve the Goals,” writes Addo and Solberg.
The leaders insist that the coromavirus pandemic is an opportunity to reinforce the trust in humanity, not minding that some SDG gains have been eroded.
“This should not deflate our energy. They should rather spur us to accelerate and deepen our efforts during this Decade of Action to ‘recover better’, and build a healthier, safer, fairer and a more prosperous world,” they conclude.
