Police and sanitation vehicles block access to 1st Street ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Sunday, September 17, 2023.
A 10-page political declaration to be adopted by leaders at the start of the summit recognizes that the goals are “in peril” and expresses alarm that progress is either moving too slowly or regressing to pre-2015 levels. It reaffirms more than a dozen times, in different ways, leaders’ commitment to achieve the SDGs, or sustainable development goals, reiterating their individual importance.The leaders have committed to accelerating action.
“The SDGs need a global rescue plan,” the UN chief said. He called the summit “the moment for governments to come to the table with concrete plans and proposals to accelerate progress.” As an educator for 39 years, she urged every country’s leader to invest in children, saying they will “help us build a more peaceful, stable world.”Guterres said the most important initiative to rescue the overall plan is the proposal of an “SDG stimulus,” which aims to offset challenging market conditions faced by developing countries.