Announcement

UN Sustainable Development Group: Delivering on commitments and scaling up financing to achieve the SDGs

11 May 2022
A woman in a yellow shawl in a blue chair speaks into a microphone at a UN meeting.
Caption: Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed at the meeting of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG) principals today, 11 May, 2022. Ms. Mohammed chairs the UNSDG on behalf of the UN Secretary-General.
Photo: © UNIDO

The United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG) met today in Vienna to assess impacts and challenges of the global effects of the war in Ukraine and discuss ways to ensure an effective and integrated multilateral response to countries to rescue the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), leveraging the Secretary-General’s report on Our Common Agenda.

The Group members – the heads of UN entities working on sustainable development – discussed the current landscape of financing for development, including the important catalytic role of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in supporting countries to mobilize financing for the SDGs.

Group members also spoke to importance of securing an effective balance between humanitarian and development aid while recognizing that investing in sustainable development is critical to prevention and sustaining peace.  

A group of UN officials pose for a photo together, next to a tall glass row of windows.
Caption: The United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG) met today in Vienna to assess preliminary impacts and challenges of the global spillover effects of the war in Ukraine. The group members are the heads of UN entities working on sustainable development.
Photo: © UNIDO

As the multiple crises  - the climate emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine - stretch the fabric of the international development system, the Chair of the Group, Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed echoed the Secretary-General’s calls for a structural change in the international financial and economic system of the world so it can truly work in the interest of sustainable development—for all countries and for all people.

She added that this also means addressing vulnerabilities to global shocks with short and long-term measures that work in complement and go beyond traditional income per capita measures, unleashing sufficient and predictable development finance to keep the promise of the SDGs.

The Group also discussed needed institutional changes – including by the UN development system and donors – to ensure UN support at greater scale and urgency to put the SDGs back on track.