The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) They were adopted in 2015 by world leaders with the purpose of eradicating poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity for all. These have specific goals that are intended to be achieved by 2030.
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The Center for Sustainable Development Goals for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cods) of the Universidad de los Andes annually presents an index with the purpose of evaluating the progress and compliance of the 2030 Agenda. The report presented at the end of 2023 shows evidence that the region has less compliance of 60 percent of the indicatorswith low or scarce levels of progress in the implementation of the different SDGs.
In the region, there is a lack of alignment of public policies with the concept of sustainability and development promoted by the Agenda and the Paris Agreements.
According to the results, Latin America and the Caribbean faces, as a region, great challenges in meeting the objectives due to the high levels of inequality that occur in most countries, the informal labor markets that generate great vulnerability in the economically active population and the lack of awareness and public policies that seek to protect natural resources.
Additionally, great inequalities are evident between countries such as Guatemala and Honduras with levels of compliance less than 50 percent, while Brazil achieves compliance close to 70 percent, being the country with the highest percentage of compliance in the SDG index.
Major achievements in the region
Among the indicators with the greatest achievement are: SDG 1, on the end of poverty, and SDG 13, on climate action. Both objectives have compliance greater than 70 percent on average in the region.
In the first case, it is evident that although the region saw an increase in poverty levels during 2020, as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, on average significant progress has been made in reducing the percentage of people who live in poverty by income, using the extreme poverty lines of 1.9 dollars per day or 3.5 dollars per day.
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Now, in the case of SDG 13, it is highlighted that the production of C02 emissions in the countries of the region is relatively low compared to other countries and regions of the world; However, Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the regions most affected and vulnerable to climate change, with an increase in the number of natural phenomena associated with changes in climate that occur annually.
Impact of covid-19
Another important finding of the SDG index is that the trend in the progress of compliance with the SDGs is quite low, with all countries presenting indicators with significant lags and decreasing trends. In other words, if countries continue with the current trend, few objectives and goals will be met.
The above highlights the need to have a strategy that allows compliance with the 2030 Agenda and, more importantly, implement sustainable policies where the limits of the planet are respected and the development and social well-being of all populations, including social groups, are promoted. usually left behind as are women, indigenous population, disabled population, migrants and ethnic minorities.
A detailed analysis of the changes observed during 2020 and how the covid-19 pandemic affected the progress of the SDGs, highlighted that, in the economic sphere, the region's growth (SDG 8.1) was negatively affected in all the countries that make it up, except Guyana and the Dominican Republic, with negative growth rates of their gross domestic product (GDP).
Additionally, the region is characterized by high levels of informality and labor instability, which was one of the factors that caused the economic and social effect of the pandemic to be much greater than in other regions of the world. The region is also characterized by high levels of economic inequality and opportunities, with an unequal distribution of resources between and within countries.
(Also read: Report: Latin America is not making enough progress in meeting the SDGs)
Covid-19 also generated an increase in inequality levels, which even before the pandemic were already increasing, added to the fact that the reduction in inequality had been stagnant since 2017. This reveals that, even without the pandemic, the compliance with the SDG 10, on reducing inequalities for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, already presented problems.
In the social sphere, it is highlighted that the region faces great challenges in meeting SDG 3, on health and well-being, in which an increase in maternal and infant mortality is evident during the pandemic. These rates in some countries have not been able to return to pre-pandemic levels, revealing that there are structural problems with access to health services for women during pregnancy.
Likewise, the region has been characterized by a high vaccination coverage rate for children under 5 years of age; However, since 2016 there has been a reduction in the vaccination rate. This phenomenon was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and is worrying, given that vaccination is one of the main mechanisms to prevent infant and child mortality under 5 years of age and the existence of preventable pathologies in boys and girls.
Education and gender
With respect to education (SDG 4), it is evident that the region faced the covid-19 pandemic with low internet coverage in schools. In countries like Paraguay, for example, less than ten percent of schools had internet access. Furthermore, although the enrollment rate did not decrease during 2020 and 2021, it is not fully known what the effect of virtual education was on the learning that children and adolescents had during this period.
Another SDG worth highlighting is the fifth, of gender equality, where the lack of data that allows the monitoring and analysis of progress or setback in the fulfillment of its objectives is highlighted. In those indicators where data is available, it is evident that women and girls are those who face greater barriers to access to education, employment and opportunities, with a burden of care and unpaid work, which has not been recognized in many countries as a problem that must be solved.
(Also read: Latin America will not achieve the education goals of the 2030 Agenda)
The environmental challenge
In the environmental sphere, Latin America and the Caribbean is the most biodiverse region on the planet; However, it faces great challenges in complying with the SDGs related to the environment, such as SDG 13, on climate action, SDG 14, on underwater life, and SDG 15, on life on land. In the case of access to clean water sources (SDG 6), despite Latin America and the Caribbean being one of the regions in the world with the greatest number of water sources, these have decreased significantly in the last 40 years.
It should be noted that the number of protected areas per country, although it has increased in recent years, is heterogeneous between countries. While there are nations like Paraguay with a percentage of protected areas of less than 5 percent or Dominica with 0 percent of protected areas, the Dominican Republic has 81.45 percent of protected areas according to Key Biodiversity Areas.
MÓNICA PINILLA AND CARLA PANYELLA
Deputy director and project coordinator of the Center for Sustainable Development Goals for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Universidad de los Andes
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