Foreword – UNCTAD SDG Pulse 2023

In times of high uncertainty, credible data and statistics give us solid ground to shape debates and inform decisions. This 2023 edition of the SDGSustainable Development Goal Pulse helps us understand and navigate our progress towards the 2030 Agenda at a time where global cascading crises are threatening its very survival. According to the SDG Progress Report -—
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—-, only 12 per cent of SDG targets are on track for achievement by 2030.

This SDG Pulse zooms into this alarming story. The fifth edition of SDG Pulse shows that too many countries have indeed fallen back from their targets due to several factors, including unrelenting economic shocks, worsening climate change impacts, and fragmenting international cooperation. Furthermore, we track how bleak conditions for financing for development – marked by insufficient ODAOfficial Development Assistance (ODA) are resource flows to countries and territories which are: (a) undertaken by the official sector; (b) with promotion of economic development and welfare as the main objective; (c) at concessional financial terms (implying a minimum grant element depending on the recipient country and the type of loan). In addition to financial flows, technical co-operation is also included -—
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—-., growing debt distress, concentrated FDIForeign Direct Investment (FDI) is an investment involving a long-term relationship and reflecting a lasting interest and control by a resident entity in one economy (foreign direct investor or parent enterprise) in an enterprise resident in an economy other than that of the foreign direct investor (FDI enterprise or affiliate enterprise or foreign affiliate) -—
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—-. flows, and the lack of multilateral development investments at scale – have led to rising inequalities between and within countries.

With this background, the 2023 SDG Pulse explores new sources for financing development, sharing the first-ever preliminary estimates for an SDG indicator on illicit financial flows, worked alongside the UNODCUnited Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the UN Regional Commissions. We also launched a global project to support interested countries of the South to report data on a new SDG indicator on development support, including South-South cooperationBroad framework of collaboration among countries of the Global South in the political, economic, social, cultural, environmental and technical domains. It includes trade, FDI, regional integration efforts, technology transfers, sharing of solutions and experts, and other forms. Involving two or more developing countries, it can take place on a bilateral, regional, intraregional or interregional basis -—
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—-. based on a voluntary framework developed by the countries.

This SDG Pulse also elaborates on the challenges of the energy transition. The world needs a 45 per cent cut in emissions by 2030, but early data indicate continued increase of emissions in 2022 after another record-breaking year in 2021. New technology has driven cuts in carbon intensityCarbon intensity is the amount of emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) released per unit of another variable such as gross domestic product (GDP), output energy use or transport -—
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—-. and most regions achieved a 5 per cent reduction in 2021. The boom in electric car sales and cleaner energy hold promise but remain out of reach for many. Investment in climate mitigation and renewables increased significantly in developed economies in 2021. But the poorest and most vulnerable were left behind in the green transition.

Lastly, this fifth edition of the SDG Pulse is structured according to the four transformations identified in UNCTAD15’s Bridgetown Covenant -—
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—- – multilateralism and trade, sustainability and resilience, development finance, and diversification, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable and those furthest behind.

This year’s In-Focus tackles the challenge of costing the achievement of SDGsSustainable Development Goal through six transition pathways. This will be an important contribution to the SDG Summit that the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has called forth for this September. This costing exercise is based on official data reported by countries, and will be extended in collaboration with UNDESAUnited Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UNDPUnited Nations Development Programme, as well as many other UN agencies, including UN WomenUN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women (UN Women). whoWorld Health Organization have enriched our analysis with a special focus on gender equality.

This SDG Pulse gives us the tools to understand the challenges ahead; let us harness this knowledge to recalibrate our efforts and get the 2030 Agenda back on track. SDGs are simply too big to fail.

Rebeca Grynspan
Secretary-General of UNCTAD

References

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