Tag: UN affairs

The Special Event entitled Keeping the SDG Promise: Pathways for Acceleration is taking place on the sidelines of the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) now underway, aimed at getting the SDGs back on track and leaving no country behind.

It will give a boost to the so-called “High Impact Initiatives” championed by the whole UN development system and key investment strategies, while also highlighting countries.

Speaking exclusively to UN News’s Mayra Lopes, the UN deputy chief emphasized six key transition areas for accelerating the SDGs which are essential to success: food systems, energy access and affordability; digital connectivity, education, jobs and social protection; and climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

UN News: The global community is meeting this week at the High-Level Political Forum. We still have six years left until the 2030 deadline for the SDGs. What is your message to leaders?

Amina Mohammed: Be leaders. Be leaders for people and what they need and the promises that are made in the SDG agenda. Be leaders for the planet and the things that we need to have put in place for a 1.5-degree world.

Be leaders and inspire, that are accountable to the UN Charter. And come away from the UN knowing that this is the place where you will hear those voices and their expectations and aspirations. And that should give you the energy and the inspiration to go back and do the right thing.

UN News: The United Nations system unites around these six key transitions or pathways to acceleration. Can you tell us more about these areas and why it is so important to leave no one behind?

Amina Mohammed: We had very clear marching orders from Member States when they really did get the wake-up call of how badly off-track we were with the SDGs last year. 15 per cent, 17 per cent in some places. Not a pass mark. And for that, we had to think if this is an acceleration to 2030, what is it that would get resources in to get behind investments that would deliver on the SDGs? All 17 of them. And you’re not going to go out there talking about 17 ideas.

These are signposts for getting us to where we need to get to. So, we sort of clarified what those investments could be. Where business would come, the public sector is already there, where we could scale up, where the UN could reposition itself to help accompany countries to that. And so, those transitions made sense because we were talking about food systems.

Why were we talking about food systems? We had felt the impact of COVID and what that did to disrupt the world. We felt the impact of Ukraine on the food systems directly. We, of course, responded with the Black Sea Grain Initiative and that saved many lives.

But I think it was apparent that we could do more. And dependency on others was not always the best way to go. That is also a system that takes away from us getting to a 1.5-degree world.

The second was the transitions on energy. How do we make sure that energy gets to everyone? Access – whether it was for cooking or to small-scale industries such as education and health – and to really look at it off-grid. Not everything has to be on the grid. We can find mini-grids that power up whole communities – and especially if we were trying to link that to food systems as well.

The third was connectivity. Of course, the new technologies are here now. How do we connect people? And in this particular instance, for what? Well, for financial services for women for one. We want to make sure that you can join the world without leaving your village, on e-commerce. That needs to be powered, to be connected.

And then we also thought that, well, education is not in a good place. So, that was a fourth transition. It’s not the transformation of education we want to achieve overnight. That’s the end game of what you want to put into it. But what is the first thing that perhaps needs attention? Young people are out of work. They’ve not had the education they ought to.

You want to connect them to markets. And to do that, if you’re transforming food systems skills, how could you do that with technology and do it better and make it more equitable? Close the divides that there are today. Create jobs that people feel they are losing or have lost.

And then, to put this in context, I think of two important things: the resilience of people that needs to be supported by, I would say, a social protection floor that takes from the country’s GDP. Then, you’ve got some resilience, and you can ensure that when you have these big knocks like COVID-19, that people are not knocked off track.

Last but not least, the enabling environment will become more difficult if we don’t take cognizance of what we would call the triple crisis: climate, biodiversity, and pollution.

UN News: I want to refer to the digital innovation part. I wanted to hear if you feel hopeful and how you think we can leverage this new technology?

Amina Mohammed: There was a gentleman who I met recently in Barbados. And he was the one who designed the search engine, the very first one we had called Archie. I said to him, so you tell me, what do you think about this new era of technology that you’re obviously very familiar with? And he said, “It’s very exciting, it’s very scary, and we’re not ready”. And I thought, well, that probably captured the reality.

The Secretary-General has put in place his offer to the Summit of the Future of how to put the guardrails around the potentials. There is a dark side to it, but there are so many opportunities, and I think that structure will help us to be safer.

It will help us to go further in a world that’s connected and we must do things about governance, about the way in which technology is used, whether it’s algorithms that are designed, have a bias against women.

But I think what is more important is when I said to him: “Is this like going from the horse and cart to the combustion engine when we industrialized?”. And he said, “No, it’s much more than that – because you’re talking about changing societies and the way we do things”. We will never be the same again because we will be so much more connected.

UN News: We are talking a lot about the SDG acceleration, but we have a very challenging landscape right now with wars and global tensions. How do you think we can still push for SDG acceleration in this scenario?

Amina Mohammed: Well, back to your first question. We need leadership. We need leadership at all levels. That’s not just the president of a country, but in all constituencies, business, civil society, young people.

That will be a key part of what should make us hopeful. Rebirthing the United Nations [as] a stronger town hall for a global village, so that voices here are not only heard but acted upon.

We don’t all have the same muscle on that floor, but we do have a voice, and we can take that out and we must remember every day that the representation of our people is so diverse, and the needs are so complex.

Perhaps more important to me is how we find the resources for the development agenda, for peace, for security. But not security in the way in which we pay for war; but security in which we invest in the prevention – which is development.

We find ourselves in a system which was designed for a 1945 recovery from World War Two. “May we never know the scourge of war again”. But we have. And the same principles we applied then, which was to say people have to have access to resources to rebuild their lives, are exactly the same principles we need to have today to say you need to have long term financing for your development, wherever you are in the world.

My hope is that acceleration happens because we all understand there’s an existential threat with a 1.5-degree world hanging in the balance, that people will no longer sit on the sidelines.

And how they react depends on how much injustice they think they’re being meted out by their local leadership, national leadership, and international leadership. So, this is a globe very much connected. Young people are full of energy. They are anxious because they don’t see a future.

If I go back to the creation of many terrorists, they’re not born. It’s an environment that excludes, an environment of injustice, an environment of no hope.

And therefore, a young person finds themselves easy fodder for those who would like to disrupt, in a way that is unfortunate.

So, I have hope that we have never been more equipped in a world with resources to do the right thing. We have an amazing framework and path to this through the SDGs. And I think that we should just get up and race this last mile and then deliver the promise of the SDGs.

With world leaders set to convene next week for the annual high-level opening of the General Assembly, the UN’s Midtown East campus on the weekend was host to an energetic range of actors – from youth groups and women’s organizations, to mayors, community activists and business leaders – looking to boost support for the Goals ahead of the SDG Summit.

The Summit on 18-19 September will mark the mid-point of the SDGs, between their 2015 launch and their 2030 deadline.

Streets around UN HQ in Midtown Manhattan will be cordoned off, roadblocks erected, and security heightened and tightened, as world leaders gather to take the pulse of the planet during a week of high-level events and come together to tackle global challenges.

The 78th session of UNGA begins on 6 September and will be followed by a series of key meetings and summits on 18 September, not forgetting of course the General Debate where each Member State enjoys a global platform to focus on issues of international importance.

Here’s what to look out for at UNGA 78:

1. Taking the world’s pulse

UNGA 78 President Dennis Francis, from Trinidad and Tobago, will gavel open on 19 September the annual General Debate, where global leaders will discuss speeding up progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the theme Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity.

All UN Member States and observers have the right to deliver a speech in the storied General Assembly Hall and through 25 September, their representatives will present and explore solutions to myriad intertwined global challenges to advance peace, security, and sustainable development.

A custom established in 1955 at UNGA 10 carries on today, with Brazil taking the podium first, followed by the United States, as host country of UN Headquarters, and the entire UN membership.

Tune in live or visit our UN Meetings Coverage, where colleagues produce daily summaries in English and French.

2. Sustainable Development Goals – The SDG Summit

As the centrepiece of UNGA 78’s high-level week, the SDG Summit will be the central platform for Heads of State and Government to provide political leadership on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, the wide-reaching global action plan focused on attaining the 17 SDGs.

Kicking off the high-level week, from 18 to 19 September, the SDG Summit aims to mark the start of a new era of progress towards the goals, which has slowed, culminating with the adoption of a forward-looking political declaration.

The 2030 Agenda is a promise, not a guarantee. At the halfway mark (the agenda was launched in 2015), that promise is in deep peril. Development progress is facing the combined impacts of climate disasters, conflict, economic downturn, and lingering effects of COVID-19.

“The SDG Summit in September must be a moment of unity to provide a renewed impetus and accelerated actions for reaching the SDGs,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said.

The two-day event will serve as a rallying cry to recharge momentum. It also aims to provide high-level political guidance, identify progress and emerging challenges, and mobilise further actions towards the 2030 finish line.

Learn more about the SDG Summit here.

3. Climate justice, the movers and doers

On 20 September world leaders will be looking to transform words into action at the Climate Ambition Summit. A political milestone for walking the talk to tackle the ever-worsening climate crisis, the event will focus on three acceleration tracks: ambition, credibility, and implementation.

The big issue: How best to move the world from emissions-producing fossil fuels to green, clean power.

The UN Secretary-General’s “to do” lists cite concrete actions needed from government, business, and finance leaders, from his Climate Action Acceleration Agenda to a guide to five critical actions the world must take to speed the shift to renewable energy.

“Now must be the time for ambition and action,” the UN chief has said. “I look forward to welcoming first movers and doers at my Climate Ambition Summit. The world is watching, and the planet can’t wait.”

Learn more about the Climate Ambition Summit here.

4. Shaping a brighter post-pandemic world

World leaders will consider the best road ahead, from bracing for future pandemics to building sustainable economies, with the overarching goal of improving the health of people and the planet.

Safer world: The UNGA President and the World Health Organization (WHO) will convene a meeting on pandemic preparedness for Heads of State and Government on 20. Leaders are expected to adopt a declaration that aims to mobilise political will at national, regional, and international levels. Learn more here.

Health for all: A meeting on universal health care on 21 September will consider lessons learned from COVID-19 alongside evidence-based recommendations to accelerate progress towards health care for all by 2030. Learn more here.

Walking the talk: Also on 20 September, a high-level dialogue on financing for development aims to provide political leadership and guidance on the implementation of the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda, a UN framework for mobilising resources to achieve the SDGs. It also expects to identify progress and emerging challenges as well as ways to trigger further successes. Learn more here.

Tackling TB epidemic: A high-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis will take place on 21 September with the key objective of implementing a review of progress in the context of the achievement of targets set in the 2018 political declaration, and in the SDGs. Learn more here.

5. Gearing up for Summit of the Future

A ministerial meeting on 21 September will see delegates laying the groundwork for the September 2024 Summit of the Future.

The UN Secretary-General wants this event to forge a new global consensus on readying the world for a future rife with risks but also opportunities.

Ministers will discuss how the multilateral system can address emerging global risks and challenges and present concrete, ambitious proposals to strengthen and transform the global system.

An action-oriented “pact for the future” is expected to be agreed by Member States.

Learn more about the preparatory meeting here.

Social media’s role in crushing hate speech

From COVID-19 to climate change, hateful exchanges among those with opposing views is a growing concern, said Latifa Akharbach, president of the High Authority of Audiovisual Communication (HACA) in Morocco.

The international community’s “failure” in managing and regulating migration “fuels the sponsors of hate speech” and helps them follow through with their plans, she said, calling on governments to adopt fair positions in the face of separation movements, terrorism, and violations of human rights.

She shared her perspective on the sidelines of the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) ninth Global Forum, in Fez, Morocco, where a panel on countering and addressing online hate speech on social media had revisited the UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, launched on this day in 2019.

Dwindling diversity is another concern, said Faouzi Skali, president of the Fez Festival of Sufi Culture. Promoting diversity must be understood across the media domain and social networks, especially at a time when it is already disappearing around the world, he explained.

Noting that 100 languages are spoken by 95 per cent of the world’s population, he said only “12 of them dominate all digital communication on a planetary scale”. At the current rate, “we lose about one language a week”, he added, noting that there are only 6,000 languages left of the 20,000 spoken in the Neolithic era.

Pre-TikTok

Had social media existed in 1994, the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda would have been “much worse”, according to survivor Henriette Mutegwaraba, who recalled the hate speech propagated via radio at the time.

“A message that used to take years to spread can now be put out there, and in one second, everybody in the world can see it,” she said. “If there was Facebook, Tik Tok, and Instagram, it would have been much worse. The bad people always go to youth, whose minds are easy to corrupt. Who is on social media now? Most of the time, young people.”

‘Dark age of intolerance’

Mita Hosali, Deputy Director of the UN Department of Global Communication (DGC), said young people are often seen today as vectors of such toxic trends as online hate speech.

“Increasingly, we are entering this dark age of intolerance, fueled by polarization and mis- and disinformation, and there are all kinds of ‘facts’ swirling out there,” she cautioned.

“It’s like a ladder of incremental extremism,” Ms. Hosali said. “You start at the bottom with a stereotype, move on to emojis and memes that lead to harmful speech. Harmful speech leads to hate speech, a torrent of hate builds up, and results in the incitement of violence. And then you have actual violence.”

Tech companies must now show effective leadership and responsibility around moderation to set up guard rails for respectful online discourse, she said.

“It really boils down to leaders, whether they are political, business, faith, or community leaders,” she said, emphasizing that such efforts must also start within the family and ripple across all circles of influence so that ordinary people fight back against hate speech. “In my view, young people are the catalysts for change.”

Thinking equal

Leslee Udwin met hate up close when she interviewed perpetrators of a vicious, deadly gang rape of a young woman for her film India’s Daughter.

“These rapists and murderers had been taught to hate,” she said.

With this in mind, she said she put down her camera and launched Think Equal, a UN-supported programme operating in more than 50 countries and founded on the principles of former South Africa leader Nelson Mandela: no child is born hating another human being.

“It’s the very foundation for responsible global citizens for peaceful, inclusive, cohesive societies, and for human development,” she said. “We have to take responsibility, particularly in their early years. We are negligent if we do not take pains to create pro-social brains in our youngest, most vulnerable children, and that is what Think Equal is about.”

Changing history

Valika Smeulders, chief historian at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, which held an exhibit, Ten True Stories of Dutch Colonial Slavery, at the UN, said academia and organizations like the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have been calling out museums since the 1990s to present more of the social history of slavery, the legacy of which permeates today’s society.

“It’s not just about history; it’s also about our common future,” she said. “The legacy of slavery is among us every day. We need to address that, especially all the types of discrimination and racism that are still around.”

Part of the solution is “to recognize that by understanding that past, we understand today’s society as well,” she said, adding that to have that conversation going on at the UN and having the exhibit as a ‘talking stick’ is “really important to us”.

‘No short cuts’

There are no shortcuts to making sure hate speech goes away, Ms. Hosali said.

Pointing to the #NoToHate UN campaign, she summed up a common thread, saying that “every one of us, in whatever walk of life we belong to, have to play a role”.

Find out more about what other people are doing to change the narrative with the UN’s UNiting Against Hate podcast series, learn about how the UN is working to combat hate speech here, and test yourself with our quiz.