tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20341967965156120572024-02-07T00:07:57.359-05:00The Lady B Bless Humanitarian Foundation Blog Lady B Blesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13943856896444374736noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-8405138305560836462022-11-28T22:31:00.001-05:002022-11-28T22:31:45.673-05:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #17 Partnerships for the Goals<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Z7Bx9qq59AV0o_WrFN6YTNq9cexXYWyQuakIMRFqX-SVIkYw2S3fespjd3iSQEfEbYwuTcEWz6WvYQ6Z6PJqWsuCHOWPk6WrP_o5uI0Z8h4whJfC-EyxLSJwioKU2TQyUGX8AAB74_DjyjStv_hlKTryRh09j3YN8tUFzm9L9Gwjo2KDgkGUdZlT/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Z7Bx9qq59AV0o_WrFN6YTNq9cexXYWyQuakIMRFqX-SVIkYw2S3fespjd3iSQEfEbYwuTcEWz6WvYQ6Z6PJqWsuCHOWPk6WrP_o5uI0Z8h4whJfC-EyxLSJwioKU2TQyUGX8AAB74_DjyjStv_hlKTryRh09j3YN8tUFzm9L9Gwjo2KDgkGUdZlT/w567-h319/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-03.jpg" width="567" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="357" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IkqciRZwqHo" width="429" youtube-src-id="IkqciRZwqHo"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many developing countries are struggling to recover from the pandemic despite a record-high level of official development assistance (ODA) and a strong rebound in global foreign direct investment (FDI) and remittance flows. Among other challenges, developing countries are battling record inflation, rising interest rates and looming debt burdens. With competing priorities and limited fiscal space, many are finding it harder than ever to recover economically. With the pandemic far from over and stark disparities in vaccine distribution among countries, there is also the threat of a “two-tiered” COVID-19 recovery. To build back better from the pandemic and rescue the Sustainable Development Goals, a full-scale transformation of the international financial and debt architecture will be required. The world is facing a multitude of crises across the social, health, environmental, and peace and security spectrums. To find lasting solutions, international cooperation must be scaled up – urgently. To stay ahead of crises, significantly more investment in data and statistics will be necessary.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Official development assistance has reached a new high, largely due to COVID-related aid, but still falls short of the target</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2021, net ODA flows by member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) amounted to $177.6 billion, an increase of 3.3 per cent in real terms from 2020. This level of ODA represented 0.33 per cent of donors’ combined gross national income (GNI), reaching a new peak. Yet it still fell short of the 0.7 per cent target, and is not enough to enable developing countries to get back on track in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals targets. The increase is mostly due to DAC members’ support for COVID-19-related activities (including prevention, treatment and care), with an initial estimate of $18.7 billion. Within this total, ODA for COVID-19 vaccine donations was $6.3 billion (or 3.5 per cent of total net ODA), amounting to nearly 857 million doses for developing countries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since 2015, net ODA has increased by 20 per cent. Despite fiscal pressures in all countries, ODA peaked in 2020 and again in 2021. The ongoing war in Ukraine is having a direct impact on ODA in 2022, due to increased spending on refugees. Military assistance to Ukraine and rising military spending by European nations is not considered ODA.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, it could lead to a sudden reshuffling of budgets and threaten development aid to the world’s poorer countries at a time when it is urgently needed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b>The importance of data and statistics for sound decision-making has never been clearer, but funding for this sector has stagnated</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Timely and high-quality data have proven to be critical in guiding decision-making for development, particularly during the pandemic. In 2021, 150 countries and territories reported implementing a national statistical plan, up from 132 in 2020, with 84 of those fully funded. The pandemic has delayed the development of new plans worldwide, meaning that many national statistics offices are implementing expired plans that may not fully cover their evolving development objectives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A recent survey found that the majority of national statistics offices in low-income countries experienced either moderate or severe delays in budget disbursement in 2021. Many of them relied on development aid from external sources, which has decreased during the pandemic, to implement their work programme. Over the next three years, they expect to face the most significant funding shortages in business and agricultural censuses, as well as population and housing censuses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Early analysis indicates that ODA for data and statistics amounted to $650 million in 2020, a slight decline from $662 million in 2019. The overall trend in funding for this sector has remained stagnant at 0.3 per cent of total ODA. Moreover, excluding a significant rise in funding for health data, funding received for other statistical activities that are considered fundamental declined by 18 per cent. Funding for data specific to the Sustainable Development Goals, such as gender data and climate data, declined even more than that in 2020. This indicates that even the most basic data activities were quickly deprioritized at the beginning of the pandemic, leading to serious data gaps and backlogs in countries most in need.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The pandemic has added extra weight to the debt burdens of low- and middle-income countries</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Total external debt stocks of low- and middle-income countries rose by 5.3 per cent in 2020 to $8.7 trillion. This was driven by an increase in long-term debt, which rose by 6 per cent to $6.3 trillion. As a result of the global pandemic, external debt ratios further deteriorated as the pace of external debt accumulation outstripped growth of export earnings in most low- and middle-income countries. In low-income countries, the total public and publicly guaranteed debt service to export ratio rose from an average of 3.1 per cent in 2011 to 8.8 per cent in 2020. The worsening of debt indicators was widespread and affected countries in all geographic regions. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa have seen the most pronounced deterioration in debt indicators: the ratio of debt to GNI rose from an average of 23.4 per cent in 2011 to 43.7 per cent in 2020, and the average debt-to-export ratio tripled over the same period.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Internet use has surged, prompted by the pandemic, although poorer regions still lag behind</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div><div>Since the emergence of COVID-19, the Internet has become vital for working, learning, accessing basic services and keeping in touch. The latest data show that uptake of the Internet has accelerated during the pandemic. In 2019, 4.1 billion people (or 54 per cent of the world’s population) were using the Internet. The number of users surged by 782 million to reach 4.9 billion people in 2021, or 63 per cent of the global population. In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, the number of Internet users grew by 10.2 per cent. This was the largest increase in a decade, driven by developing countries, where Internet use went up by 13.3 per cent. In 2021, growth returned to a more modest 5.8 per cent, in line with pre-crisis rates. The number of Internet users in LDCs increased by 20 per cent and accounted for 27 per cent of the user population between 2019 and 2021.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fixed broadband subscriptions continue to grow steadily, reaching a global average of 17 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in 2021. In LDCs, despite double-digit growth, fixed broadband remains a privilege of the few, with only 1.4 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Global foreign direct investment rebounded strongly in 2021, but flows to the poorest countries showed only modest growth</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Global foreign direct investment flows rebounded strongly in 2021, reaching $1.58 trillion, an increase of 64 per cent compared to 2020. Recovery was highly uneven across regions, however. Developed economies saw the biggest rise, with FDI reaching an estimated $746 billion in 2021 – more than double the 2020 level. FDI flows in developing economies increased by 30 per cent, to nearly $837 billion. Flows in LDCs saw a more modest growth of 13 per cent. Inflows to LDCs, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States combined accounted for only 2.5 per cent of the world total in 2021, down from 3.5 per cent in 2020.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">International investment in SDG-related sectors in developing countries increased by 70 per cent in 2021. Most of the growth came from renewable-energy and energy-efficiency projects. However, the share of total SDG investment in developing countries that went to LDCs decreased from 19 per cent in 2020 to 15 per cent in 2021.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Remittance flows to poorer countries remain robust, buttressed by strong economic activity and employment levels in many host countries</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2021, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $605 billion, a robust growth of 8.6 per cent from 2020. For a second consecutive year, remittance flows to these countries (excluding China) surpassed the sum of FDI and ODA. This significant rise was fuelled primarily by migrants sending money home to families facing economic hardships during the pandemic. Strong economic activity and employment levels in many large host countries that implemented fiscal stimulus programmes aided this growth. The cost of sending money across international borders continued to remain high, at 6.0 per cent on average, double the 3 per cent target.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is projected that remittance flows will increase by 4.2 per cent to reach $630 billion in 2022, less than half the growth seen in 2021. This decline is a direct impact of the crisis in Ukraine. Remittances to that country are expected to rise by over 20 per cent in 2022. However, many Central Asian countries dependent on the Russian Federation will likely see a decline in remittance flows.</div></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="text-align: justify;">Database is available at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.</span><p></p>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-40110609232968603452022-11-20T23:03:00.003-05:002022-11-20T23:03:42.226-05:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #16 Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij-dW6oDf5cLgd3M_syhhca1vFu0k5yLjbntJ42mBP6fnZ4FFTfnXFfvO2yeb4Pa7Qtunkx9GSBFPk83DrHc8SiQTb7sv3XRiht5F_axRPmuGYxKP-fxZHXm4LtlWkIkMo7Uwz1lZzM-DMCaSjPQCx6eZ03Z_ZzadrDKoNX6m60Sbrn73W30RcXdZ0/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij-dW6oDf5cLgd3M_syhhca1vFu0k5yLjbntJ42mBP6fnZ4FFTfnXFfvO2yeb4Pa7Qtunkx9GSBFPk83DrHc8SiQTb7sv3XRiht5F_axRPmuGYxKP-fxZHXm4LtlWkIkMo7Uwz1lZzM-DMCaSjPQCx6eZ03Z_ZzadrDKoNX6m60Sbrn73W30RcXdZ0/w600-h337/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-08.jpg" width="600" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="346" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aXPlRnb6ItQ" width="416" youtube-src-id="aXPlRnb6ItQ"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">Pleas for global peace are growing louder as the world witnesses the largest number of violent conflicts since 1946, with one quarter of the global population living in conflict-affected countries at the end of 2020. Amid these crises, and despite movement restrictions prompted by COVID-19, forced displacement has continued and even grown. As of May 2022, a record 100 million people had been forcibly displaced worldwide. This staggering number will increase along with the widening repercussions of the war in Ukraine. The cost of war and conflict is high, affecting the poor and vulnerable the most and leading to global impacts and escalating human rights violations and humanitarian needs. Exercising fundamental freedoms in the defence of others remains deadly, with 320 fatal attacks against human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists recorded in 35 countries in 2021. Ending armed conflicts, strengthening institutions and enacting inclusive and equitable legislation that protects the human rights of all persons are necessary preconditions for sustainable development.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Civilians continue to bear the brunt of violent conflicts, with record numbers forcibly displaced</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The United Nations recorded at least 13,842 deaths associated with 12 of the world's deadliest armed conflicts in 2021. Among them were 11,075 civilians, and 1 in 8 were women or children. Though unacceptably high, the number of civilian conflict-related deaths dropped by 17 per cent compared to 2020, and by 69 per cent compared to 2015. Many of these conflict situations are fragile, with a growing risk of escalation and associated violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In May 2022, the number of people forced to flee conflict, violence, human rights violations and persecution has surpassed 100 million. An estimated 41 per cent of people forcibly displaced worldwide were children, according to 2021 data. Children in particular have suffered immeasurable damage and disruption to their lives and development due to conflict, enduring physical and sexual violence, unmet basic needs, lack of access to education and wide-ranging mental health problems caused by trauma. Incidents of all forms of violence against children in Ukraine alone are estimated to be in the tens of thousands, disproportionately affecting institutionalized children and children with disabilities. Human rights violations in conflict-affected countries, including human trafficking and forced labour, have increased and international humanitarian law has been disregarded, undermining the global compact of humanity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to these more obvious consequences of war are other lasting and wide-ranging impacts. For example, the outbreak of war in Ukraine has caused food, fuel and fertilizer prices to skyrocket, disrupted supply chains and global trade and roiled financial markets, potentially leading to a global food crisis. While the humanitarian emergency in that country is currently in the global spotlight, many other conflicts require equal – and sustained – attention and compassion. Over the last decade, the world has spent $349 billion on peacekeeping, humanitarian relief and refugee support.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unless and until armed conflicts are ended, they will continue to affect all segments of society and hit the most vulnerable the hardest. To prevent further destabilization around the globe, the Secretary-General has called for all parties to armed conflicts to find alternative solutions to fighting and embark on a path of diplomacy and peace.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b>Tracing is key to curbing illict trade in small arms, but it needs to be strengthened through better global cooperation</b><div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Tracing is key to successfully investigating and disclosing the origins of illegal firearms – a crucial step in combating illicit trade in small arms. That said, systematic implementation of tracing remains a challenge globally. Between 2016 and 2020, an average of 28 per cent of seized weapons were reported as successfully traced, according to data from 20 countries. Close to 60 per cent of successfully traced firearms were identified through a national registry, and the other 40 per cent were traced internationally through a foreign registry. This indicates the importance of cooperative practices at the international level, though they are not yet sufficient. Destruction of weapons is another important measure to reduce illicit arms flows. From 2018 to 2019, national authorities destroyed an average of 48 per cent of weapons seized, found or surrendered.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><b>About a third of the worl's population – mostly women – say they feel unsafe walking alone in their local neighbourhoods at night</b><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Feeling unsafe in public can fundamentally erode one's sense of well-being and reduce trust and community engagement, becoming an obstacle to development. On average, about 69 per cent of the world's population report feeling safe walking alone at night in the area in which they live – a proportion that has remained stable from 2016 to 2021. However, stark differences are found among regions, with Latin America and the Caribbean reporting the lowest level of perceived public safety and Eastern and South-Eastern Asia reporting the highest. The proportion of women feeling safe walking alone in their local neighbourhoods at night is, on average, 10 percentage points lower than that of men (61 per cent versus 71 per cent), according to 2019–2021 data from 106 countries. This gender gap holds across all regions but is particularly pronounced in Australia and New Zealand (a 27-percentage-point difference) and Northern Africa and Western Asia (a 17-percentage-point difference).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Declining homicide rates continue to reflect strong gender differences</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Between 2015 and 2020, the global homicide rate declined by 5.2 per cent - from 5.9 to 5.6 homicides per 100,000 people. Globally, 8 out of 10 recorded homicide victims are male, although women and girls comprise about 60 per cent of all homicide victims killed by intimate partners or family members. Gender disparities are also found at the regional level. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the homicide rate declined by 6.9 per cent for males but increased by 2.7 per cent for females between 2015 and 2020. In Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, the homicide rate declined by 35 per cent for males but by 20 per cent for females.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By 2030, it is projected that the global homicide rate will decrease by 19 per cent from the 2015 level, to around 4.8 per 100,000 people. This falls short of the "significant reduction" by 2030 targeted in the Sustainable Development Goals. Accelerated progress will require additional policy interventions aimed at curbing lethal violence in the public arena, along with specific policies aimed at preventing gender-based killings within the home.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><b>Streamlined and transparent business processes can help curb corruption, which is found in every region</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Businesses around the world face obstacles and unfair competition due to corruption, which adversely impacts the sustainable development of national economies. Globally, almost 1 in 6 businesses face requests for bribe payments by public officials, most commonly in transactions involving electrical and water connections, construction-related permits, import licenses, operating licenses, and meetings with tax officials. The incidence of bribery varies across regions. Eastern and South-Eastern Asia and LDCs have the highest bribery incidence – affecting about 30 per cent of businesses, whereas the regions of Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe and Northern America have the lowest bribery incidence – 9 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively. Policymakers can reduce the prevalence of bribery by requiring that business processes, such as applications and payments for permits and licenses, are conducted online and are fully transparent.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Database is available at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.</div></div><p></p></div>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-21845417347052904662022-11-20T22:20:00.005-05:002022-11-20T22:20:48.148-05:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #15 Life on Land<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBc-F7nEOmQCgdgNWF92mZXXy1gaKkMPFtymhrHugfaw4IUbRsCv7bY-4k77i8X6-FFuPTg_QfeiZdk2nx6QJaBD4bELEqtfwaIRcFS6qB81KWh4fSlOvqh_5dIiznm-WOdQprvdJbwqZBWFGLXV35lysDbXRnAyA1v6WCrwVjO8KLhs_hRIfCzbul/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBc-F7nEOmQCgdgNWF92mZXXy1gaKkMPFtymhrHugfaw4IUbRsCv7bY-4k77i8X6-FFuPTg_QfeiZdk2nx6QJaBD4bELEqtfwaIRcFS6qB81KWh4fSlOvqh_5dIiznm-WOdQprvdJbwqZBWFGLXV35lysDbXRnAyA1v6WCrwVjO8KLhs_hRIfCzbul/w592-h333/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-04.jpg" width="592" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="342" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v0DK06GzpJg" width="411" youtube-src-id="v0DK06GzpJg"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Healthy ecosystems and the biological diversity they support are a source of food, water, medicine, shelter and other material goods. They also provide ecosystem services – the cleaning of air and water, for example – which sustain life and increase resiliency in the face of mounting pressures. Nevertheless, human activities have profoundly altered most terrestrial ecosystems: around 40,000 species are documented to be at risk of extinction over the coming decades, 10 million hectares of forest (an area the size of Iceland) are being destroyed each year, and more than half of key biodiversity areas remain unprotected.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In an effort to prevent and halt the degradation of such ecosystems, many countries are sustainably managing their forests, protecting sites critical to biodiversity, and enacting national conservation legislation and policies. However, other opportunities are being lost. The emergence of COVID-19 was an opportunity to integrate biodiversity considerations into economic recovery measures and build a more viable future. But biodiversity has been largely neglected in recovery spending.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The world’s forest area continues to shrink, mainly due to agricultural expansion</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The world’s forest area continues to decline, but at a slightly slower rate than in previous decades. The proportion of forests fell from 31.9 per cent of total land area in 2000 to 31.2 per cent in 2020, representing a net loss of almost 100 million hectares. Agricultural expansion is driving almost 90 per cent of global deforestation, including 49.6 per cent from expansion for cropland and 38.5 per cent for livestock grazing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Changes in forest area vary widely from region to region. Asia, Europe and Northern America showed an overall increase in forest area from 2000 to 2020 due to afforestation, landscape restoration and the natural expansion of forests. In contrast, significant losses were observed in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, mostly due to the conversion of forests into agricultural land.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The felling of forests continues, despite major gains in several regions. Between 2010 and 2021, the area of forest land under certification schemes increased by 35 per cent. The proportion of forests under a long-term management plan increased from 54 per cent in 2010 to 58 per cent in 2020. More than 700 million hectares of forest (18 per cent) were in legally established protected areas in 2020.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While nearly all forests in Central Asia, Europe and Western Asia fall under a management plan, the managed proportion remains low in Latin America and the Caribbean, Oceania and sub-Saharan Africa.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Global efforts to promote access and benefit-sharing of genetic resources gains momentum</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The world continues to make progress on implementing frameworks for the sustainable use of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. The Nagoya Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity provides a transparent legal framework for the implementation of fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources. As of February 2022, 132 countries and the European Union had ratified the Protocol, and 68 countries have devised at least one legislative, administrative or policy measure to ensure its implementation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also by that date, the number of contracting parties to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture had grown to 148 from 135 in 2015. Seventy-nine countries have submitted a national report on the implementation of the Treaty’s provisions, a sizeable increase from 12 countries in 2016. In addition, the number of Standard Material Transfer Agreements has increased, from 55,352 in 2015 to 81,556 in 2022, indicating that more users are benefiting from the Treaty’s Multilateral System for research, breeding and training.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The risk of species extinction continues to rise and is highest in Asia and small island developing States</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The risk of species extinction is increasing at a rate unprecedented in human history. The Red List Index, which measures the overall extinction risk of species in selected taxonomic groups, reveals a deterioration of 9.2 per cent between 2000 and 2022. Wide variations are found among regions in both the overall prevalence of extinction risk and the rate of deterioration. Central and Southern Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, and small island developing States suffer from more severe risk and faster deterioration than the global average. The main drivers of these declines are the unsustainability of agriculture and the over-harvest of wild species. Human activities such as logging and farming are encroaching upon habitats, putting about 20 per cent of reptile species, for example, at risk. To conserve and sustainably use biodiversity, key actions are urgently needed, including reversing the net loss of habitat, transforming land management and transitioning to sustainable agriculture.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Nearly half of areas identified as key for global biodiversity are under protection, though progress lags in four regions</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Given the wide variation in the distribution of biodiversity and the threats to it around the planet, it is important that protected areas be located strategically. Safeguarding key biodiversity areas (KBAs) through the establishment of protected areas or other effective area-based conservation measures is helping prevent the rapid loss of biodiversity. Globally, the mean percentage coverage of KBAs by protected areas increased from over one quarter in 2000 to nearly one half in 2021. Despite this encouraging trend, the growth of coverage has slowed in recent years. Moreover, coverage is uneven. Four regions – Northern Africa and Western Asia Central and Southern Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, and Oceania – still have mean coverage of less than 35 per cent across marine, terrestrial, freshwater and mountain KBAs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>National planning processes are increasingly reflecting the value of biodiversity; still, progress is too slow</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Biodiversity directly or indirectly contributes to the attainment of most SDGs. The number of countries incorporating ecosystem and biodiversity values into national accounting and reporting systems is steadily trending upwards. The majority of countries have established national targets in this regard, in accordance with the Aichi Biodiversity Target 22 of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020. By January 2022, 37 per cent of countries assessed are on track to achieve or exceed their national targets; 58 per cent have made progress towards their targets but at an insufficient rate; and 5 per cent reported that they are making no headway or moving away from their national targets. Despite important gains, Aichi Biodiversity Target 2 was not met by 2020. Building back better from COVID-19 is an opportunity to integrate biodiversity considerations into economic recovery measures to build a more sustainable future – while reducing the risk of future pandemics. However, this opportunity is not being seized. To date, biodiversity has been a largely neglected area in recovery spending.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Database is available at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.</div><p></p>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-12211982640950253992022-11-20T21:55:00.000-05:002022-11-20T21:55:03.495-05:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #14 Life Below Water<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdhsHkkplclf6czzojHIi0BxPT9odHv2_ZQQoHT8UeLdLx4lECwsdVjmJBAHHbapdvl1T_thr3YUe0KwD0Fw9zN7RNG8V2jT8BTCDEfMJWjFSnYXk_Z14asb3_0sM89XwKAYKPz99uX147KdUyulhZtFU-02nIuL_cmWlhKQKXWAx3HhVsd_GBVBh7/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdhsHkkplclf6czzojHIi0BxPT9odHv2_ZQQoHT8UeLdLx4lECwsdVjmJBAHHbapdvl1T_thr3YUe0KwD0Fw9zN7RNG8V2jT8BTCDEfMJWjFSnYXk_Z14asb3_0sM89XwKAYKPz99uX147KdUyulhZtFU-02nIuL_cmWlhKQKXWAx3HhVsd_GBVBh7/w575-h324/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-02.jpg" width="575" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="374" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bseQm52H7gU" width="450" youtube-src-id="bseQm52H7gU"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Human activity is endangering the planet's largest ecosystem – its oceans and seas – and affecting the livelihoods of billions of people. Continuing ocean acidification and rising ocean temperatures are threatening marine species and negatively affecting marine ecosystem services. Between 2009 and 2018, for example, the world lost about 14 per cent of coral reefs, often called the "rainforests of the sea" because of the extraordinary biodiversity they support. The oceans are also under increasing stress from multiple sources of pollution, which is harmful to marine life and eventually makes its way into the food chain. The rapidly growing consumption of fish (an increase of 122 per cent between 1990 and 2018), along with inadequate public policies for managing the sector, have led to depleting fish stocks. Combating the decline in ocean health requires intensified protection efforts and the adoption of solutions for a sustainable blue economy. This includes a "source-to-sea" approach that directly addresses the links between land, water, delta, estuary, coast, nearshore and ocean ecosystems in support of holistic natural resources management and economic development.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Increasing acidification is limiting the ocean's capacity to moderate climate change</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ocean absorbs around one quarter of the world's annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, thereby mitigating climate change and alleviating its impacts. This critical service, however, comes at a price: it is altering the carbonate system and increasing the acidity of the ocean. Ocean acidification threatens organisms and ecosystem services, endangers fisheries and aquaculture, and affects coastal protection by weakening coral reefs. Further increases in acidification are expected to accelerate over the coming decades. As acidification worsens, the ocean's capacity to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere will diminish, limiting its role in moderating climate change.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over the last two years, the number of observation stations reporting on ocean acidification has almost doubled, from 178 in 2021 to 308 in 2022. Gaps in reporting and data remain. Observation sites in the open ocean have indicated a continuous decline in pH over the past 20 to 30 years. Coastal observations, on the other hand, present a more varied picture due to multiple stressors.</div><p></p><div><br /></div><div><b>The proliferation of plastic, nutrient run-off and other forms of waste is killing marine life</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The main sources of marine pollution are land-based, leading to a seemingly unstoppable flow of litter, waste and run-off into the ocean. In 2021, a study estimated that more than 17 million metric tons of plastic entered the world's ocean, making up the bulk (85 per cent) of marine litter. The volume of plastic pollution entering the ocean each year is expected to double or triple by 2040, threatening all marine life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For coastal areas, eutrophication caused by nutrient pollution shows an increasing trend from 2016 to the present. This has resulted in a growing number of "dead zones" worldwide – from 400 in 2008 to around 700 in 2019. While COVID-19 may have reduced coastal pollution in some areas due to declining tourism and other activity, the pandemic does not appear to have eased coastal eutrophication globally.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Vast areas of the ocean are under protection, but more intensive efforts are still needed</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Marine protected areas (MPAs) and other effective, area-based measures to conserve biodiversity – including marine sanctuaries, parks and reserves – have seen substantial growth over the last decade. The global coverage of MPAs stood at 8 per cent of global coastal waters and oceans in 2021. Recent designations of MPAs will raise this share, edging closer to the 10 per cent called for in the SDG and Aichi Biodiversity target. For example, a high-seas MPA that is vitally important for seabirds was recently designated in the North Atlantic, covering almost 600,000 square kilometres.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is important that protected areas are strategically located – in sites most critical to the conservation of nature, such as key biodiversity areas (KBAs). That said, more than half (55 per cent) of marine KBAs, on average, are still not safeguarded.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div><b>Global fish stocks are still under threat, although the route to sustainability is clear and navigable</b></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Global fish stocks are under increasing threat from overfishing and from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. More than a third (35.4 per cent) of global stocks were overfished in 2019, up from 34.2 per cent in 2017 and 10 per cent in 1974. However, the rate of decline has recently slowed. The Southeast Pacific now has the highest percentage of fish stocks at biologically unsustainable levels at 66.7 per cent, followed by the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea (63.3 per cent) and the Northwest Pacific (45 per cent). In contrast, the Eastern Central Pacific, Southwest Pacific, Northeast Pacific and Western Central Pacific had the lowest proportion (13 to 21 per cent) of stocks at unsustainable levels. Improved regulations, together with effective monitoring and surveillance, have been successful in reverting overfished stocks to biologically sustainable levels. However, the adoption of such measures has generally been slow, particularly in many developing countries, based on limited preliminary data collected in 2020.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Pressure on fish stocks is lowering the contribution of sustainable fisheries to economic growth in some regions</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sustainable fisheries play an important role in local economies and in food security. They accounted for about 0.10 per cent of global GDP in 2019, a share that has not changed significantly since 2011. In the small island developing States in Oceania and LDCs, this proportion rises to 1.5 per cent and 0.90 per cent of GDP, respectively, reflecting a greater dependence of the world’s poor on fishing. While some regions have seen the contribution of fisheries to GDP rise, other regions are facing human-induced external pressures on wild stocks. For instance, the declining sustainability of several stocks in the Pacific Ocean has led to a worsening trend overall for Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, where sustainable fisheries fell from 1.06 per cent of GDP in 2011 to 0.80 per cent in 2019. The sustainable management of fish stocks remains critical to ensuring that fisheries continue to generate economic growth and support equitable development into the future.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Accelerated action is needed to support small-scale fishers, many of whose livelihoods collapsed under the pandemic</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Almost half a billion people depend at least partially on small-scale fisheries, which account for 90 per cent of employment in fisheries worldwide. Almost all small-scale fishers (97 per cent) live in developing countries and many face high levels of poverty and lack broader social and economic development opportunities. Since 2015, efforts to provide small-scale fishers with access to marine resources and markets have expanded in most regions. The average global composite score – measuring enabling frameworks, concrete actions of support and participation in decision-making by small-scale fishers - rose to an average implementation level of 5 out of 5 in 2022, improving from 3 out of 5 in 2018. Current challenges include improving reporting rates and accelerating progress in light of the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on small-scale fishing communities. In many locales, fishers were unable to catch, process or sell fish for long periods due to pandemic-related restrictions and collapsing markets.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Restoring fish stocks – and incomes – through traditional knowledge</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the village of Menarbu, in Indonesia, people are entirely dependent on the sea for their livelihoods since they are unable to grow vegetables for sale outside of their community. Yohanis Ayamisebahe, a local fisher, has a boat equipped with an outboard motor on which he transports his fishing lines, snorkel and kalawai (spear). In 2018, after noticing that conditions in the sea and fish stocks were deteriorating, his village introduced an indigenous community-based coastal resource management system called sasi. Since it was established, Mr. Ayamisebahe says that fish stocks are thriving and incomes rising. This traditional system, which dates back generations, is premised on the balance between people and their environment. It seeks to protect the coastal marine ecosystem through a prescribed set of rules, including when different species of fish can be harvested. The challenge for the community now lies in finding nearby outlets for their products, since the market is very far and gasoline is expensive.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Database is available at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.</div></div><p></p>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-23844366874818480622022-11-20T21:36:00.007-05:002022-11-20T21:36:43.468-05:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #13 Climate Action<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlZL4UfgyUr1yBCGw2FELOB3d9bd7sOtFTvAZGAPIv01OXofUBYBcVKbqO--pbkIzcPZAi7tfz-5BiV4g9L2YRH-ndC0f86P91TYcNfp2KWN1pposQ-B_v_pqEdv72i_LuAbRKlSfa9-rBJQY2LCqhNdsfKIucqxoT6xh9BRh-H-jq4_vSKWHzDdy1/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlZL4UfgyUr1yBCGw2FELOB3d9bd7sOtFTvAZGAPIv01OXofUBYBcVKbqO--pbkIzcPZAi7tfz-5BiV4g9L2YRH-ndC0f86P91TYcNfp2KWN1pposQ-B_v_pqEdv72i_LuAbRKlSfa9-rBJQY2LCqhNdsfKIucqxoT6xh9BRh-H-jq4_vSKWHzDdy1/w568-h320/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-56.jpg" width="568" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="346" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P2UpV5jvu7E" width="416" youtube-src-id="P2UpV5jvu7E"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">The world is on the brink of a climate catastrophe, and the window to avert it is closing rapidly. Increased heatwaves, droughts and floods caused by climate change are already affecting billions of people around the world and causing potentially irreversible changes in global ecosystems. To limit warming to 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as set out in the Paris Agreement, global greenhouse gas emissions will need to peak before 2025. Then they must decline by 43 per cent by 2030, falling to net zero by 2050, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body responsible for assessing the science related to climate change.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In response, countries are articulating climate action plans to cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts through nationally determined contributions. However, current national commitments are not sufficient to meet the 1.5 °C target. Under these commitments, greenhouse gas emissions are projected to increase by almost 14 per cent over the next decade. Immediate and deep reductions in emissions are needed across all sectors to move from a tipping point headed to climate calamity to a turning point for a sustainable future.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Rising global greenhouse gas emissions are resulting in record-breaking temperatures and more extreme weather</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2020, concentrations of global greenhouse gases reached new highs, and real-time data point to continued increases. As these concentrations rise, so does the Earth’s temperature. In 2021, the global mean temperature was about 1.11 ± 0.13 °C above the pre-industrial level (from 1850 to 1900), making it one of the seven warmest years on record (2015 to 2021).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While variations in global temperatures from year on year are to be expected, the long-term trend is a warming climate. With rising temperatures, the world is experiencing more and more extreme weather events. This translates into meltingcaps and glaciers, intense heat and rainfall as well as sea-level rise and other potentially cataclysmic events, with adverse social and economic consequences. Such extremes could be seen on every continent in 2021: record-shattering temperatures in Canada, deadly flooding in Europe and Asia, and drought in parts of Africa and South America. The global annual mean temperature is projected to rise beyond 1.5 °C above pre-industrial le ice vels in at least one of the next five years, edging precipitously closer to the lower target of the Paris Agreement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Fossil fuel emissions rebounded to a record high in 2021, erasing pandemic-related declines</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2020, social and economic disruptions caused by COVID-19 lowered energy demand around the world. As a result, global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions declined by 5.2 per cent in 2020 – the equivalent of almost 2 billion metric tons, the largest decline ever and almost five times greater than the 2009 drop following the global financial crisis. But it was only a temporary reprieve. With the phasing out of COVID-related restrictions, demand for coal, oil and gas increased. Consequently, energy-related CO2 emissions for 2021 rose by 6 per cent, reaching their highest level ever and completely wiping out the pandemic-related reduction seen in 2020.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Climate financing is just a fraction of what the United Nations says is needed to avert the worst scenarios</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Developed countries have jointly committed to mobilizing $100 billion dollars per year by 2020, further extended to 2025, for climate action in developing countries. According to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), developed countries have likely fallen short of that promise. Climate finance provided and mobilized by developed countries totalled $79.6 billion in 2019, up from $78.3 billion in 2018. Forward-looking scenarios by the OECD estimate that the $100 billion target will not be met until 2023.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While the $100 billion annual commitment is considered the bedrock of international climate finance, it is far below estimates put forth by the IPCC. The IPCC has estimated that $1.6 trillion to $3.8 trillion will be needed each year through 2050 for the world to transition to a low-carbon future and avoid warming exceeding 1.5 °C.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Climate change is humanity’s “code red” warning, impacting across the Sustainable Development Goals</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Human activity has irrefutably caused warming of the climate, at a rate unprecedented in the last 2,000 years, according to the IPCC. Its Sixth Assessment Report signals an urgent “code red” warning for humanity and outlines what the world can expect if global temperatures rise 1.5 °C or higher.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Disasters and extreme weather events</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Every region across the globe is already experiencing weather and climate extremes. As the planet warms, scientists anticipate increases in the frequency and intensity of heatwaves, flooding, precipitation, droughts and cyclones. If current trends continue, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction project that medium- to large-scale disaster events could reach 560 a year – an average of 1.5 a day – by 2030, a 40 per cent increase from 2015. The IPCC projects that about one third of global land areas will suffer at least moderate drought by 2100. With every additional increment of global warming, the projected changes in extremes will become larger. For instance, children under age 10 today are expected to experience a nearly fourfold increase in extreme weather events by 2100 under a 1.5 °C scenario and a fivefold increase under a 3 °C scenario.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Oceans</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sea levels have already risen faster than in any preceding century. Projections show that sea level could rise 30 to 60 centimetres by 2100, even if greenhouse gas emissions are sharply reduced and global warming is limited to well below 2 °C. A rising sea level would lead to more frequent and severe coastal flooding and erosion. Ocean warming will also continue with increasingly intense and frequent marine heatwaves, ocean acidification and reduced oxygen. About 70 to 90 per cent of warm-water coral reefs will disappear even if the 1.5 °C threshold is reached; they would die off completely at the 2 °C level. These impacts are expected to occur at least throughout the rest of this century, threatening marine ecosystems and the more than 3 billion people who rely on the ocean for their livelihoods.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Biodiversity</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even before the full fury of climate change has been unleashed, biodiversity loss is accelerating. Further losses in terrestrial, ocean and coastal systems are expected, with varying severity depending on the temperature threshold reached. For instance, endemic species in biodiversity hotspots face a very high extinction risk, which will double if the global average mean temperature rises 1.5 °C to 2 °C, but will increase tenfold at 1.5 °C to 3 °C. Declining ecosystems and biodiversity loss will affect nature-based services, threatening human health and our very survival. These conditions also increase opportunities for the emergence of new zoonotic diseases, such as COVID-19, and possible future pandemics.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Agriculture and food systems</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The droughts, floods and heatwaves brought on by climate change are putting added pressure on food production in many regions of the world. Parts of Africa and Central and South America are already experiencing increased, sometimes acute, food insecurity and malnutrition due to floods and droughts. Other projected impacts include devitalized soils, increased pest infestations and disease as well as weakened ecosystem services, such as pollination.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Vulnerable populations</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Climate change is affecting everyone, but the most vulnerable are hardest hit. The IPCC report estimates that 3.3 billion to 3.6 billion people live in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change. Hotspots of high human vulnerability are concentrated in small island developing States, the Arctic, Southern Asia, Central and South America, and much of sub-Saharan Africa. Poverty, limited access to basic services, conflict and weak governance limit adaptability to climate change, resulting in humanitarian crises that could displace millions from their homes. By 2030, an estimated 700 million people will be at risk of displacement by drought alone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Climate action now</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the latest IPCC report, “The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human well-being and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a livable future.” The report calls for urgent climate action now.</div><br /><br />Database is available at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.<div><br /></div>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-87167449852794572382022-11-05T06:50:00.004-04:002022-11-05T06:50:56.988-04:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #12 RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxKWctNijh-XX3PwOpQlMr5fcflcd42L8dfrltojZgwED6JcFq9u1OY-44CQsD0DH_MOBGU-0rzHIRoeRK-07JCSCzTepEm9Xs4b9MDInCXtK-fnzveugqD1KvUyr5q5k7-vaixQ0-IqjtyjEq-AzfcuHbQjVMxAImOYdfnLaxPGqFU5H6U0ChaMRQ/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxKWctNijh-XX3PwOpQlMr5fcflcd42L8dfrltojZgwED6JcFq9u1OY-44CQsD0DH_MOBGU-0rzHIRoeRK-07JCSCzTepEm9Xs4b9MDInCXtK-fnzveugqD1KvUyr5q5k7-vaixQ0-IqjtyjEq-AzfcuHbQjVMxAImOYdfnLaxPGqFU5H6U0ChaMRQ/w592-h333/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-07.jpg" width="592" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="393" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fYefSEYbV9c" width="486" youtube-src-id="fYefSEYbV9c"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Unsustainable patterns of consumption and production are root causes of the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. These crises, and related environmental degradation, threaten human well-being and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. If we continue on the prevailing development pathway, the Earth's finite capacity will be unable to sustain the livelihoods of current and future generations. Transforming our relationship with nature is key to a sustainable future. As the world develops strategies for sustainable recovery from the pandemic, governments and all citizens should seize the opportunity to work together to improve resource efficiency, reduce waste and pollution, and shape a new circular economy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b>Growing reliance on natural resources has set the Earth on an unsustainable course</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Domestic material consumption (DMC) measures the total amount of materials directly used by an economy to meet the demands for goods and services from within and outside a country. From 2000 to 2019, total DMC rose by more than 65 per cent globally, amounting to 95.1 billion metric tons in 2019. That translates to 12.3 tons per person. Two regions accounted for about 70 per cent of global DMC: Eastern and South-Eastern Asia and Europe and Northern America. During this period, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia showed the steepest rise in DMC, from 31 per cent in 2000 to 43 per cent in 2019. The main drivers of this growth are increased population density, industrialization and the outsourcing of material-intensive production from developed to developing countries. Increased dependence on natural resources exacerbates the pressure on sensitive ecosystems and ultimately affects both human health and the economy. Reducing this pressure requires increased resource efficiency, circularity measures and overall efforts to de-materialize economic growth.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b>Too much food is being lost or wasted – in every country every day</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">As the world faces rising food insecurity, too much food continues to be lost or wasted. In 2020, an estimated 13.3 per cent of the world's food was lost after harvesting and before reaching retail markets. These losses occur during on-farm activities, transport, storage, processing and wholesaling. This share has remained relatively constant since 2016, suggesting no changes in structural patterns of food loss. In addition, an estimated 17 per cent of total food available to consumers (931 million metric tons) is wasted at household, food service and retail levels, translating to 121 kilograms per person each year with about 60 per cent of this waste occurring in households. Food loss and waste are global problems; they happen in all countries, though food losses occur chiefly in developing countries while food waste occurs mostly in developed countries. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest level of food insecurity, but also the highest rate of food loss.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Both food loss and food waste have substantial environmental, social and economic consequences. For example, food that ends up in landfills generates 8 to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing food waste is one means through which countries can deliver on their Global Methane Pledge. When food is lost or wasted, so are opportunities for improving food security and decreasing the environmental footprint of food production and consumption.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>The vast majority of the world's electronic waste is not being safely managed</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">When electrical and electronic equipment is discarded, it becomes part of a fast-growing waste stream that contains both valuable and hazardous materials. The rapid rise in this e-waste is driven by growing consumption, short product life cycles and minor repairs. In 2019, the amount of e-waste generated globally was 7.3 kilograms per capita, out of which only 1.7 kilograms was managed in an environmentally sound way (meaning that all hazardous substances are dismantled and adequately treated, and recyclable materials are reclaimed). E-waste collection rates are relatively high in high-income countries, but are much lower in low- and middle-income countries - only 1.6 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and 1.2 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean. In low- and middle-income countries, the necessary infrastructure has not yet been developed or is insufficient to manage the e-waste that is locally generated and illegally imported. Moreover, due to the lack of regulations in these countries, e-waste is managed mainly by the informal sector, usually in an unsafe way. Used refrigerants, for example, are emitted in the open air and valuable components are selectively dismantled or extracted by open burning and acid baths, polluting the environment and negatively affecting human health.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>Renewable energy is taking off in developing countries overall, but the poorest, most disadvantaged countries are lagging behind</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The capacity of developing countries to generate electricity from renewable sources has soared over the last decade, from 109.7 watts per capita in 2011 to 245.7 watts per capita in 2020, outpacing population growth. Renewables represent over a third (36.1 per cent) of these countries' total electricity-generating capacity. Despite progress in developing countries overall, LDCs and landlocked developing countries are lagging far behind. From 2015 to 2020, the compound annual growth rate of renewable energy in developing countries was 9.5 per cent versus 5.2 per cent and 2.4 per cent, respectively, for LDCs and landlocked developing countries. At current average annual growth rates, it would take these countries almost 40 years to reach the same level of progress that developing countries achieved in 2020. Targeted action is needed for the deployment of renewables in countries most in need.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>Fossil fuel subsidies remain alarmingly high, despite a temporary drop in 2020</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Subsidies that promote the production and use of coal, oil, gas and other fossil fuels cause a range of adverse environmental and health impacts – from air and water pollution to climate change. Such subsidies are among the most significant financial barriers hindering the world's transition to renewable energy sources. In 2020, governments spent $375 billion on subsidies and other support for fossil fuels, a decline from $526 billion in 2019. However, this drop was mainly due to low oil prices and reduced demand during the pandemic rather than structural reforms. In 2021, commodity and energy prices rebounded sharply, and we are likely to see a jump in both consumption and production subsidies for fossil fuels. Today, countries that were hesitant to seize the opportunity presented by low international fuel prices to reform subsidy schemes might be forced to maintain or increase subsidies to offset the increasing fuel prices faced by consumers across the world. Such strategies will have fiscal consequences, however. They will also reduce the resources needed to invest in greener recoveries and sustainable growth. The answer to high fossil fuel prices is a quicker and scaled-up transition to renewable energy sources.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>More effort is needed to fully mainstream sustainable development and global citizenship in national education systems</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Knowledge about sustainable development, global citizenship and peace enables individuals to take appropriate action and positively contribute to the well-being of their communities. Around 90 per cent of countries report that Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education are at least partially mainstreamed in national education laws and policies, curricula, teacher education or student assessments in primary and secondary school. However, only 15 per cent of countries report high levels of integration in all four areas. Much lower rates of mainstreaming are reported in technical and vocational education (57 per cent) and in adult education (51 per cent). A recent global survey of primary and secondary teachers found that one in four teachers does not feel ready to teach themes related to these topics. More effort is needed to ensure that these issues are core components of national education systems.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div><span style="text-align: left;">Database is available at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.</span></div><div><br style="text-align: left;" /></div></div></div></div></div></div><p><br /></p>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-88545640593302635972022-11-05T06:41:00.001-04:002022-11-05T06:41:07.587-04:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #11 SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0VmcWZPqQIBRBUimddFOFqWIpNg-feXDI4C7P1YXBYqv7_vx_3RZlICg8YjdP0YIHJgD0TZnekefpFwXgJN963ngy6v3LvX2vnZdXqcQ6QdK8EIo6qGA-z8rC1AMIsn0wg8OinAWj9yujlwj37hfPSwHlGNf8e1NJbXqGFEaeBexQmMfKL7qvm_ry/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0VmcWZPqQIBRBUimddFOFqWIpNg-feXDI4C7P1YXBYqv7_vx_3RZlICg8YjdP0YIHJgD0TZnekefpFwXgJN963ngy6v3LvX2vnZdXqcQ6QdK8EIo6qGA-z8rC1AMIsn0wg8OinAWj9yujlwj37hfPSwHlGNf8e1NJbXqGFEaeBexQmMfKL7qvm_ry/w601-h338/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-09.jpg" width="601" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="353" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gh0lRJ1F9Fk" width="470" youtube-src-id="gh0lRJ1F9Fk"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today, more than half the world’s population live in cities. By 2050, an estimated 7 out of 10 people will likely live in urban areas. Cities are drivers of economic growth and contribute more than 80 per cent of global GDP. However, they also account for more than 70 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. If well-planned and managed, urban development can be sustainable and can generate inclusive prosperity. However, rapid and poorly planned urbanization leads to many challenges, including a shortage of affordable housing, insufficient infrastructure (such as public transportation and basic services), limited open spaces, unsafe levels of air pollution, and increased climate and disaster risk. The deep inequalities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and other cascading crises further highlight the importance of sustainable urban development. Strengthening the preparedness and resilience of cities, including through high-quality infrastructure and universal access to basic services, is crucial in the recovery phase and in our ability to respond to future crises.</div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Leaving no one behind will require an intensified focus on urban slums – home to 1 billion people</b></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2020, about one in four urban dwellers lived in slums or informal settlements. This translates into more than 1 billion people, 85 per cent of whom live in three regions – Central and Southern Asia (359 million), Eastern and South-Eastern Asia (306 million), and sub-Saharan Africa (230 million). The region with the highest percentage of slum dwellers is sub-Saharan Africa, where more than half the urban population live in slums. Empirical analysis shows that a 1 per cent increase in urban population growth will increase the incidence of slums by 2.3 per cent and 5.3 per cent in Africa and Asia, respectively. The reasons behind slum formation in developing regions are many: rapid urbanization; ineffective planning; lack of affordable housing options for low-income households; dysfunctional urban, land and housing policies; a dearth of housing finance; and poverty. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the world’s 1 billion slum dwellers must be given the support they need to lift themselves out of poverty and live free from exclusion and inequality. Adequate and affordable housing is key to improving their living conditions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Air quality is now being monitored in a record number of cities, but it remains substandard worldwide</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Air pollution poses a significant threat to human health worldwide. In 2019, ambient air pollution from traffic, industry, power generation, waste burning and residential fuel combustion resulted in 4.2 million deaths. Mortality is attributed to exposure to fine particulate matter of 2.5 microns or less (PM2.5) in diameter and other pollutants, which put people at increased risk of stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and lower respiratory infections. People with pre-existing chronic diseases have a higher risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19. Current scientific evidence also suggests that air pollution weakens the immune system against infectious diseases.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Global PM2.5 concentrations have steadily decreased, with an 11 per cent reduction over a decade. More countries now recognize the threat to human health posed by air pollution and the importance of measuring and communicating air-quality levels. A record number of cities (over 6,000) in 117 countries are now monitoring air quality, double the number since 2015. Despite this progress, 99 per cent of the world’s urban population live in areas that exceed the new WHO guidelines on air quality, established in 2021, for PM2.5 of less than 5 micrograms per cubic metre (reduced from the 10 microgram limit set in 2005). People in low- and middle-income countries are disproportionately affected by outdoor air pollution, with 91 per cent of the 4.2 million premature deaths.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to data from 2017–2019, which measured three-year annual averages, cities in Central and Southern Asia have the worst air pollution in the world, more than two times the global average.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Only about half the world’s city dwellers have convenient access to public transportation</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Between 2015 and 2030, annual passenger traffic globally is projected to increase by 50 per cent, and the number of cars on the road is likely to double. Public transportation systems that are well-designed and effective can promote mobility and enable people to access education, health care, employment and markets, while also reducing traffic congestion and pollution. They improve the efficiency, inclusivity and safety of urban areas, while also helping to battle poverty and climate change.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to 2020 data from 1,510 cities around the world, only about 37 per cent of urban areas are served by public transport. Due to variations in population density within cities, this translates to 52 per cent of the urban population with convenient access to public transport (meaning that they reside within 500 metres walking distance of low-capacity transport systems – such as bus stops or trams – or within 1,000 metres of high-capacity systems, such as trains and ferries). City governments still have a massive task ahead of them in seeking to enhance the availability and use of accessible, inclusive, safe, reliable and efficient public transport systems.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>As cities continue to grow, the longstanding problem of municipal solid waste continues to mount</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As urbanization increases, the world’s cities and metropolises are struggling to cope with the mounting problem of municipal solid waste. When such waste is not collected and managed responsibly, it can become an incubator for infection and a source of plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022, an average of 82 per cent of municipal solid waste globally was being collected and 55 per cent was being managed in controlled facilities. Municipalities in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania have an average collection rate of less than 60 per cent. In Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean, cities have relatively higher collection rates, ranging from 70 to 85 per cent. In Central and Southern Asia, the gap between the collection rate and controlled management rate is larger than in other regions, suggesting that many cities still rely on open dumpsites. Significant investment is needed in the development and maintenance of waste management infrastructure, especially in low- to middle-income countries. This must be accompanied by improved policy interventions and strengthened environmental law enforcement for controlled management of municipal solid waste.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Open public spaces in congested urban areas play a vital role in social and economic life, but are not widely accessible</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In preparing for a post-COVID world, urban planners are rethinking the link between economic recovery and the equitable distribution of open public spaces. Parks, boulevards and playgrounds, for example, not only enhance the quality of urban life, but are places where people can interact, playing a vital role in social and economic life. Data for 2020 from 962 cities around the world point to poor distribution of such spaces. Only about 37.8 per cent of urban residential neighbourhoods are conveniently located within 400 metres walking distance to an open public space. That translates to about 45.2 per cent of the urban population. As policymakers and city authorities work to redesign and retrofit the spatial configuration of urban areas, it is important to consider the distribution of open public spaces as well as green areas throughout the city.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>More local governments are adopting disaster risk reduction strategies, but a broader disaster and climate risk management approach is now needed</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The impact of disasters is felt first and foremost by those on the front lines. Thus, local disaster risk reduction strategies are critical. Between 2015 and 2021, the number of countries reporting the existence of such strategies nearly doubled, from 51 to 98. Considering all the countries reporting, the average share of local governments that have adopted such strategies increased from 51 per cent in 2015 to 66 per cent in 2021. Countries have made efforts to align disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and development plans at the local level. However, a multi-hazard approach to local resilience-building is essential given the systemic and cascading nature of risk, often fuelled by climate change and, more recently, by the COVID-19 pandemic.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Database is available at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.</span></div><div><br /></div>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-35155414989957501502022-10-22T08:49:00.000-04:002022-10-22T08:49:10.218-04:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #10 Reduced Inequalities<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidMvrpRRPo2SP9WRN75K6BoASBag7Im5cYHEt4rLH3C6Y_pOyPsmmtJelOfL6obOCWctFyHw93PjjMXSm0PTQTazQAD9JI9gdzlKpiYcn3Esslj9deNnBzT_MTw5NaKY5GiTR7U7iWzt9ihOlyhJ1jeB4Wg9VJleHzZqQU7NI1V5gxn5gXBM3K17-x/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidMvrpRRPo2SP9WRN75K6BoASBag7Im5cYHEt4rLH3C6Y_pOyPsmmtJelOfL6obOCWctFyHw93PjjMXSm0PTQTazQAD9JI9gdzlKpiYcn3Esslj9deNnBzT_MTw5NaKY5GiTR7U7iWzt9ihOlyhJ1jeB4Wg9VJleHzZqQU7NI1V5gxn5gXBM3K17-x/w572-h322/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-06.jpg" width="572" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="353" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dq0iypmVztk" width="425" youtube-src-id="Dq0iypmVztk"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Before the COVID-19 crisis, encouraging signs across a number of indicators suggested that income inequality was narrowing. In many countries, for instance, the incomes of the poorest people rose faster than the national average, though inequalities in other areas persisted. Now, the effects of the pandemic appear to be reversing any positive trends. Those with relatively low incomes are at risk of falling behind. The pandemic has also intensified structural and systemic discrimination. Emerging markets and developing economies are experiencing slow recoveries, widening disparities in income between countries. The number of refugees worldwide reached the highest absolute number on record in 2021; sadly, that year also saw a record number of migrant deaths. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine rages on, forcing even more people from their homes and creating one of the largest refugee crises in recent memory.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>The war in Ukraine is adding to already record numbers of refugees worldwide</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">By mid-2021, the number of people forced to flee their countries due to war, conflict, persecution, human rights violations, and events seriously disturbing public order had grown to 24.5 million, the highest absolute number on record. For every 100,000 people worldwide, 311 are refugees outside their country of origin. This is a 44 per cent rise from 216 per 100,000 people in 2015. In absolute terms, countries in Northern Africa and Western Asia were the largest regional source of refugees (8.4 million), followed by countries in sub-Saharan Africa (6.7 million), and Latin America and the Caribbean (4.5 million).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The ongoing war in Ukraine has created the worst refugee crisis in recent history. As of 23 May 2022, the movement of more than 6 million people from Ukraine to other countries has been registered, the majority of whom are women and children. In addition, at least 8 million people have been displaced inside the country to escape the conflict.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>Large numbers of migrants lost their lives last year on sometimes treacherous migratory routes</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Last year, 5,895 people died fleeing their countries via various – sometimes dangerous – routes. This surpasses pre-pandemic figures and makes 2021 the deadliest year on record for migrants since 2017, according to the International Organization for Migration's Missing Migrants Project. The widespread impact of the pandemic forced many people seeking safety, reunification with family, decent work and better opportunities to take risky migratory routes.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">At least 3,411 people died on maritime and land routes to and through Europe in 2021 - the majority of migration-related fatalities recorded worldwide. On the overseas route in the Atlantic towards Spain's Canary Islands, nearly 1,180 deaths were recorded, the most fatalities on this route since data collection began in 2014. It was also the deadliest year on record for migrants along the border between the United States and Mexico, where at least 717 people died, 51 per cent more than in 2020.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>COVID-19 increased relative poverty in many countries, but others bucked the trend</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The proportion of the population living on less than half the national median income is an important measure of social exclusion, relative poverty and inequality of income distribution within a country. If this proportion grows, it indicates the poorest are falling behind in relative terms. Before COVID-19, 13 per cent of people, on average, lived on less than half the national median income. However, this average share masks wide variations, from less than 5 per cent in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to around 25 per cent in Brazil and South Africa.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Currently, only 18 countries have data for 2020, most of which are in Latin America and the Caribbean. Among those, two thirds saw rates of relative low income increase in 2020, suggesting that the effects of the pandemic have intensified social exclusion. However, other countries experienced large declines. Brazil, for example, lowered the share of people living on less than half the median income from 24.1 to 18.3 per cent, thanks to large social transfers targeted to the poorest people in that society.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>The pandemic has caused a rise in income inequality, jeopardizing two decades of steady progress</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating global income inequality. As a result, the steady progress over the last two decades is now in jeopardy. Projections suggest that between-country inequality rose by 1.2 per cent between 2017 and 2021, the first such increase in a generation. Before the pandemic, inequality was expected to have fallen by 2.6 per cent over the same period.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Forecasts suggest that income inequality within countries will also have increased in emerging market and developing countries. Although the magnitude of this increase is expected to be relatively small – around 1 per cent, on average – it halts the steady decline in income inequality seen in these countries since the start of the millennium. Worse yet, this increase may become entrenched, since pandemic-induced disruptions to education and the disproportionate adverse effects on low-income households may worsen intergenerational mobility. Meanwhile, high inflation and surging public debt levels may hamper countries' ability to support these vulnerable groups.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>Discrimination remains widespread, with women and persons with disabilities at heightened risk</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The spread of COVID-19 has intensified structural and systemic discrimination and pervasive inequalities, which harm millions of people and hold back every society. Addressing discrimination through evidence-based policies allows societies to transform into more inclusive, equal, resilient, just and sustainable systems anchored in human rights.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Roughly one in five people have experienced discrimination on at least one of the grounds prohibited under international human rights law, according to data from 49 countries and territories collected between 2017 and 2021. In countries where disaggregated data are available, women are more than twice as likely as men to experience discrimination on the grounds of sex. Moreover, women living in urban areas are slightly more likely to experience discrimination than their rural counterparts. Among persons with disabilities, it is pervasive, with about one third reporting personal experiences of discrimination.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>Workers' share of national income is eroding, exacerbating income inequality</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Labour income data are key to understanding inequality. Measuring labour's contribution to GDP provides an indication of whether higher national income will lead to increased material living standards for workers. While employment is the main source of income for many workers, income derived from capital disproportionately benefits the affluent. Therefore, a decline in the labour share of income from 2014 to 2019 ‐ from 54.1 per cent to 52.6 per cent ‐ represents upward pressure on inequality. This drop is consistent with other related evidence going back to the 1970s, suggesting that workers are losing relative earning power over the long term.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">As a region, Europe and Northern America is driving the decline in the labour income share, given its weight in overall global income. Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) and Central and Southern Asia have also experienced significant declines. On a more positive note, data from sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern and South-Eastern Asia showed increases in the labour income share, though these increases are typically occurring from a lower starting point.</div></div></div></div></div></div><div><br /></div>Database is available at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.<br /> <p></p>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-37464486622593969902022-10-22T08:41:00.004-04:002022-10-22T08:41:57.420-04:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoi0BVLMnsGI4qczBTqRfTP66oHtfQyyBmXRWtU27FtpPQEXOX-NPkuqiZVwX0y0izPLGDvO5NMfCvNnrnfts9HSKT94MLqkwB02MC2nVOzgoatWc9Wjl0vSA8xsZzKTMjYlzR8kka1G3aO7owjpaFenfPxaCPXpLXLoGFs0nfIWhKFYKozEuWxL-A/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoi0BVLMnsGI4qczBTqRfTP66oHtfQyyBmXRWtU27FtpPQEXOX-NPkuqiZVwX0y0izPLGDvO5NMfCvNnrnfts9HSKT94MLqkwB02MC2nVOzgoatWc9Wjl0vSA8xsZzKTMjYlzR8kka1G3aO7owjpaFenfPxaCPXpLXLoGFs0nfIWhKFYKozEuWxL-A/w576-h325/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-55.jpg" width="576" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xx1KgyJUxj4" width="414" youtube-src-id="Xx1KgyJUxj4"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of industrialization, techological innovation and resilient infrastructure in building back better and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Economies with a diversified industrial sector and strong infrastructure (e.g., transport, Internet connectivity and utility services) sustained less damage and are experiencing faster recovery. In 2021, global manufacturing rebounded from the pandemic, although the recovery remains incomplete and uneven. In LDCs, recovery has been sluggish and remains uncertain; almost one in three manufacturing jobs was negatively impacted by the crisis. Women, youth and low- and middle-skilled workers suffered the most losses. Overall, higher-technology industries performed better and recovered faster, providing a strong example of how important technological innovation is to achieving Goal 9.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b>Manufacturing in more developed countries has rebounded, leaving least developed countries behind</b></div><p></p><div><div style="text-align: justify;">After dropping 1.3 per cent in 2020, global manufacturing production grew by 7.2 per cent in 2021, surpassing its pre-pandemic level. However, recovery remains uneven among countries. High-income countries benefited from massive policy support to firms and households and the rapid roll-out of effective vaccines. In contrast, recovery in LDCs has been sluggish, due to subdued and volatile global demand, global trade disruption and tighter domestic economic policies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The global share of manufacturing value added (MVA) in total GDP increased from 16.2 per cent in 2015 to 16.9 per cent in 2021. Eastern and South-Eastern Asia expanded its share from 25.5 to 26.1 per cent over the same period, due to strong global demand for manufacturing and exports in the region. However, the share in LDCs was only 12.5 per cent in 2021. The same disparities are reflected in MVA per capita. While Europe and Northern America reached an all-time high of $5,000 in 2021, MVA per capita in LDCs decreased to $135 – comparable to 2018.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Jobs in manufacturing have not regained ground lost during the pandemic</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a result of prolonged lockdowns and travel bans, nearly one in three jobs in manufacturing supply chains worldwide have likely been terminated, seen a reduction in working hours or pay, or been the target of other cutbacks. Globally, the share of manufacturing jobs in total employment declined from 13.7 per cent in 2019 to 13.1 per cent in 2020. The impact has been particularly pronounced in middle-income countries, which have long leveraged participation in production chains as a source of employment and growth. The decline in manufacturing employment in middle-income countries sank to 8.9 per cent in 2020, compared with 3.4 per cent in low-income and 3.9 per cent in high-income countries. Some of the worst effects were felt in garment supply chains, which employ large shares of women workers. Despite a rebound in 2021, the fragile and uneven nature of the recovery means that global manufacturing employment has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. Fiscal stimulus and vaccination coverage were crucial factors in determining the strength of labour market recovery in 2021.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The passenger airline industry is still struggling to recoup catastrophic losses</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The number of airline passengers travelling internationally totalled 1.8 billion in 2020, a decline of 60 per cent from the previous year. Seat capacity dropped by half, bringing air traffic totals down to levels not seen since 2003. Financial losses for the airline industry totalled $370 billion in 2020, and airports and air navigation services providers lost a further $115 billion and $13 billion, respectively. Global air passenger traffic recovered modestly in 2021 with 2.3 billion passengers, compared with 4.5 billion in 2019, resulting in financial losses of $324 billion. In 2021, domestic air traffic reached 68 per cent of 2019 levels, while international traffic remained weak – at 28 per cent – mostly due to sporadic outbreaks of COVID-19 variants and travel restrictions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In contrast with passenger traffic, air cargo traffic exceeded pre-pandemic levels by the beginning of 2021 and is maintaining robust growth. This upturn has been driven by a resurgence of economic activity along with a roaring e-commerce industry during the pandemic.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The lack of credit or other support has dealt a death blow to many small-scale industries</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Small-scale enterprises were hit hard by the pandemic, and many collapsed. Due to their scale, limited financial resources and greater dependency on supply chains, these industries are more vulnerable to economic downturns than their larger-scale counterparts. The impact has been even more severe for small informal enterprises, partly because they have been unable to access formal lines of credit or COVID-19-related government support.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Government support plays a key role in helping small enterprises survive and thrive during and after a crisis. However, only about one in three small manufacturers are benefiting from a loan or line of credit, according to limited survey data collected in 2020–2021. Such stimulus is rarely available in low-income countries. Only 15.7 per cent of small-scale industries in Africa received those forms of credit, compared with 44.2 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Higher-technology industries are proving far more resilient in crises than their lower-tech counterparts</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Higher-technology manufacturing industries fared better than lower-tech industries during the pandemic, and therefore recovered faster. Most industries using medium and high technology – such as computers, electronics and pharmaceuticals – have already returned to pre-pandemic production levels, except for motor vehicle and other transport equipment manufacturing. Production of motor vehicles is facing larger challenges worldwide due to supply chain disruptions of resources and intermediate goods. In comparison, lower-tech industries, such as textiles and clothing, or coke and refined petroleum products, remain below their pre-pandemic levels. The manufacture of basic consumer goods, such as food products, has seen a stable growth trajectory since the pandemic, with limited losses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to 2019 data, the share of medium- and high-tech manufacturing in total manufacturing in Europe and Northern America was 47.7 per cent compared with 21.4 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and 10.5 per cent in LDCs.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Most of the world’s population are covered by a mobile-broadband signal, but blind spots remain</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In most developing countries, mobile broadband (third generation (3G) or higher) is the main, and often, the only way to connect to the Internet. But in addition to connectivity, potential users need an Internet-enabled device and the skills to use it. The relatively high cost of such devices, along with the lack of literacy and digital skills, remain steep barriers to mobile Internet adoption and use.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Between 2015 and 2021, 4G network coverage doubled, reaching 88 per cent of the world’s population. Although 2021 estimates show that 95 per cent of the world’s population are covered by a mobile-broadband network, the gap remains significant for LDCs and landlocked developing countries, where 17 per cent of the population are without coverage. This means that SDG target 9.c – to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020 – has not been met.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While virtually all urban areas of the world are covered by a mobile-broadband network, gaps persist in rural areas. In LDCs, 14 per cent of the rural population have no mobile network coverage at all, while another 12 per cent have only 2G coverage.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Database is available at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-57716623571730100202022-10-14T09:57:00.002-04:002022-10-14T09:57:25.445-04:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #8 Decent Work and Economic Growth<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK_9H5XFIwMVym9KDWRV8mhBl1c1Q_Ca3BuSv6dX_UZKuieTcbJLc_3nRAB4qc-mpD5_zc9-N56g7jR1n8bG_QwweNjH18QnNZySSZ0Cc9xOT4xiGWgBZZtJ9NJZwPqKFBH-LWX1xmqPEh1SK0YfojQKUJQAb7xVSYHx-ieYG2IQGUzGo95GMsLC-3/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-53.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK_9H5XFIwMVym9KDWRV8mhBl1c1Q_Ca3BuSv6dX_UZKuieTcbJLc_3nRAB4qc-mpD5_zc9-N56g7jR1n8bG_QwweNjH18QnNZySSZ0Cc9xOT4xiGWgBZZtJ9NJZwPqKFBH-LWX1xmqPEh1SK0YfojQKUJQAb7xVSYHx-ieYG2IQGUzGo95GMsLC-3/w568-h320/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-53.jpg" width="568" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="353" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xCtuDnU1k3k" width="425" youtube-src-id="xCtuDnU1k3k"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated the worst economic crisis in decades and reversed progress towards decent work for all. Although the global economy began to rebound in 2021, bringing some improvement in unemployment, recovery remains elusive and fragile. Recovery patterns also vary significantly across regions, countries, sectors and labour market groups. Developed economies are experiencing a more robust recovery, while least developed countries (LDCs) continue to struggle with weak economic growth and labour market fallout due to workplace closures. Many small firms, particularly those in low- and lower-middle-income countries, are especially disadvantaged, with limited capacity to remain viable. Labour market groups most affected by the crisis - women, youth and persons with disabilities - are the last to recover. By the end of 2021, global economic recovery had been hampered by new waves of COVID-19 infections, rising inflationary pressures, major supply-chain disruptions, policy uncertainties and persistent labour market challenges. The conflict in Ukraine is expected to seriously set back global economic growth in 2022.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Various shocks, including the war in Ukraine, continue to hinder robust economic recovery</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The global economy is slowly improving, although recovery remains fragile and uneven. Globally, real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita increased by 1.4 per cent in 2019, then fell sharply in 2020, by 4.4 per cent, rebounding in 2021 at an estimated growth rate of 4.4 per cent. Before the Ukraine crisis, global real GDP per capita was projected to increase by 3.0 per cent in 2022, and 2.5 per cent in 2023. The war in that country is now likely to cut growth to 2.1 per cent in 2022.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For LDCs, real GDP grew by 5.0 per cent in 2019, and showed zero growth in 2020 due to pandemic-related disruptions. Real GDP of LDCs is estimated to have increased by 1.4 per cent in 2021. It is projected to rise by 4.0 per cent in 2022, and 5.7 per cent in 2023 - still well below the 7 per cent target envisioned in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The pandemic has resulted in volatile shifts in labour productivity, affecting small firms and the poorest countries the most</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The impact of COVID-19 has resulted in unprecedented and volatile shifts in global labour productivity. In 2020, sharp declines were seen in both output and employment, and global output per worker dropped by 0.6 per cent - the first decline since 2009. However, since working hours plunged by 8.9 per cent, productivity measured on a per-hour basis surged by 4.9 per cent. Lower-productivity firms and sectors and lower-paid workers were disproportionately affected by the pandemic, while high-productivity enterprises and high earners saw far less damage. Many small firms are disadvantaged, with limited capacity to remain viable over an extended period. In 2021, global output per worker rebounded sharply, rising by 3.2 per cent; however, productivity in LDCs declined by 1.6 per cent. The average worker in a high-income country produced 13.6 times more output than the average worker in a low-income country in 2021.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Labour market recovery remains shaky</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The global unemployment rate is projected to remain above its 2019 level of 5.4 per cent, at least until 2023. In 2021, unemployment declined slightly to 6.2 per cent, which still translates into 28 million more unemployed persons in 2021 than in 2019. Furthermore, the level of unemployment underestimates the full employment impact of the COVID-19 crisis, since many who left the labour force have not returned. It also does not reflect the reduction in working hours for those who remained employed. In 2021, 4.3 per cent of global working hours were lost relative to the fourth quarter of 2019 - equivalent to a deficit of 125 million full-time jobs (based on a 48-hour work week). Labour market recovery has been inadequate and unequal. In 2021, the unemployment rate improved the most in high-income countries, but worsened in LDCs, landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS). The groups that were disproportionately impacted since the onset of the pandemic – women, youth and persons with disabilities – are having the hardest time recovering.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Informal employment was not an option for many workers displaced at the start of the pandemic</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2019, 2 billion people worldwide (60 per cent of global employment) worked in the informal sector. Although these jobs are characterized by low quality and lack of social protection, they have traditionally been a source of income for workers displaced from the formal sector. This was not the case in the early months of the pandemic due to COVID-19 containment measures and mobility restrictions. Rather than becoming unemployed or shifting to informal jobs, as in previous crises, laid-off employees and self-employed workers left the labour force. Emerging evidence from 29 countries shows that informal employment was disproportionately affected by job losses in most of these countries in 2020. In Latin America and the Caribbean, informal workers were twice as likely to lose their jobs than their formal counterparts. As economic activity gradually resumed, informal employment, especially self-employment, has strongly rebounded in some regions, and many informal workers have returned from inactivity. For example, informal jobs accounted for over 70 per cent of net job creation in many Latin American countries since mid-2020.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rising poverty and pandemic-related disruptions are forcing millions of children into child labour</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Worldwide, 160 million children (63 million girls and 97 million boys) were engaged in child labour at the beginning of 2020. This is an increase of 8.4 million children since 2016, translating to almost 1 out of 10 children engaged in child labour worldwide. Nearly half of them are involved in hazardous work that directly jeopardizes their health, safety or morals. Additional economic shocks and school closures caused by COVID-19 mean that children already in child labour may be working longer hours or under worsening conditions; many more may be forced into the worst forms of child labour due to job and income losses among vulnerable families. The latest evidence warns that, globally, 9 million additional children are at risk of being pushed into child labour by the end of 2022, compared to 2020, as a result of rising poverty driven by the pandemic.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Youth training, education and employment have suffered massive disruptions, with women facing the biggest challenges</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The proportion of the world's youth not engaged in either education, employment or training (NEET) increased from 21.8 per cent in 2015-2019 to 23.3 per cent in 2020, due to the pandemic. This represents an increase of almost 20 million women and men aged 15 to 24. Although youth represented only 13 per cent of total employment before the crisis, they made up 34.2 per cent of the 2020 decline in employment. Meanwhile, both technical and vocational education and on-the-job training suffered massive disruptions, forcing many young people to quit their studies. Globally, young women are much more likely than young men to find themselves unemployed and without education or some form of training programme to fall back on. In 2020, the NEET rate was 31.5 per cent for young women, compared to 15.7 per cent for young men. The development and implementation of national youth employment strategies is increasing across most regions. More than half of the 81 reporting countries in 2021 have operationalized such strategies, while slightly less than one third have developed one, but have not provided conclusive evidence on implementation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Database is available at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/. <p></p><p></p>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-75590947975032042302022-10-14T09:45:00.006-04:002022-10-14T09:45:41.315-04:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #7 Affordable and Clean Energy<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-nx3rYiKMbIL7kUip6tWPxGpaEheDZNBJRtcKkQvHihAAP1yw2iK2iMa1PoZwno2cisH9EcK2SLMf7vKq_eq5Tj103IR2TBBaXuBk8KcFfA-Vp5jaxtV4oKAo_6RBIAe3gxtZ7JwkUQBNTWGC0GXmcknm2CJWZVsEgl-3dmKvkf_lg29-vVZsUbn7/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-nx3rYiKMbIL7kUip6tWPxGpaEheDZNBJRtcKkQvHihAAP1yw2iK2iMa1PoZwno2cisH9EcK2SLMf7vKq_eq5Tj103IR2TBBaXuBk8KcFfA-Vp5jaxtV4oKAo_6RBIAe3gxtZ7JwkUQBNTWGC0GXmcknm2CJWZVsEgl-3dmKvkf_lg29-vVZsUbn7/w576-h324/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-51.jpg" width="576" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="349" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qEh8ggmDQFc" width="420" youtube-src-id="qEh8ggmDQFc"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The world continues to advance towards sustainable energy targets. Nevertheless, the current pace of progress is insufficient to achieve Goal 7 by 2030. Improvements in energy efficiency, for example, will need to accelerate to reach the climate goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Hundreds of millions of people still lack access to electricity, and slow progress towards clean cooking solutions means that the health of 2.4 billion people is at risk. Huge disparities in access to modern sustainable energy persist, leaving the most vulnerable even further behind. In some countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has weakened or reversed advances already made. Rising commodity, energy and shipping prices have increased the cost of producing and transporting solar photovoltaics modules, wind turbines and biofuels worldwide, adding uncertainty to a development trajectory that is already far below Goal 7 ambitions. Achieving energy and climate goals will require continued policy support and a massive mobilization of public and private capital for clean and renewable energy, especially in developing countries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Progress in electrification has slowed, with the challenge of reaching those hardest to reach</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The global electricity access rate increased from 83 per cent in 2010 to 91 per cent in 2020. Over this period, the number of people without electricity shrank from 1.2 billion to 733 million. However, the pace of progress has slowed in recent years, due to COVID-19 and the increasing complexity of reaching those hardest to reach. In 2018–2020, the electricity access rate rose by an average of 0.5 percentage points annually compared to 0.8 percentage points in 2010–2018.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2020, over three quarters (77 per cent) of the global population without electricity lived in sub-Saharan Africa, mainly in rural areas. Due to economic pressures imposed by the pandemic, up to 90 million people connected to electricity in Africa and developing countries in Asia could not afford to have an extended bundle of services that year. If current trends continue, only 92 per cent of the world’s population will have access to electricity in 2030, leaving 670 million people unserved. A major push is needed to reach those living in least developed and in fragile and conflict-affected countries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Intensified efforts are needed in least developed countries to jump-start access to clean cooking fuels and technologies</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Between 2010 and 2020, the proportion of people with access to clean cooking fuels and technologies increased by 12 percentage points, reaching 69 per cent. This means that an estimated 2.4 billion people still relied on inefficient and polluting cooking systems in 2020. Much of the progress was concentrated in five countries: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan. Excluding those countries, the global access rate remained unchanged over this period. While more than half of those without access live in Asia, 19 of the 20 countries with the lowest proportion of the population with access were LDCs in Africa. If current trends continue, only 76 per cent of the global population will have access to clean cooking fuels and technologies by 2030. The adoption of clean cooking solutions can reduce health risks from household air pollution, support a green and healthy recovery and fuel economic growth in low- and middle-income countries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Meeting global energy and climate objectives will require a major push in the deployment of renewables, with massive finance mobilization</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The share of renewables in total final energy consumption reached 17.7 per cent in 2019, 1.6 percentage points higher than in 2010. However, total renewable energy consumption increased by a quarter over this period. The electricity sector continues to see the fastest progress: the share of renewables in that sector increased from 19.7 per cent in 2010 to 26.2 per cent in 2019. That said, the electricity sector represented only a fifth of global final energy consumption in 2019. The heat sector represents half of this global consumption, but progress there was negligible: the share of modern renewables totalled 10.1 per cent in 2019, a gain of less than 2 percentage points from 2010. Renewable energy used in transport reached 3.6 per cent in 2019, up from 2.6 per cent in 2010. Traditional uses of biomass – such as the burning of wood for heat – remained stable, still representing more than a third of total renewable energy use in 2019. Effective climate action will require</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The target for global energy efficiency remains within reach, but only with significant investment on a systematic scale</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Improving energy efficiency is fundamental to meeting global climate goals. The 2030 target calls for an annual improvement in energy intensity of 2.6 per cent, a doubling of the rate observed between 1990 and 2010. Global primary energy intensity – defined as the ratio of total energy supply to GDP – improved from 5.6 megajoules per US dollar (2017 purchasing power parity) in 2010 to 4.7 in 2019, with an average annual improvement rate of 1.9 per cent. To meet the Coal 7 target, and make up for lost time, energy intensity improvements until 2030 will need to average 3.2 per cent a year. The target remains within reach, but only with significant investment in cost-effective energy efficiency improvements on a systematic scale. Regional progress varies due to differences in economic structure, energy supply and electrification. The only region that has reached the target so far is Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, with an annual average rate of 2.7 per cent in 2010–2019, driven by strong economic growth.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>International public financing for renewable energy had already slowed before the pandemic, despite the growing urgency of climate change</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">International public financial flows to developing countries in support of clean energy decreased for the second year in a row. They amounted to $10.9 billion in 2019, down by nearly 24 per cent from the previous year. The five-year moving average also decreased for the first time since 2008, from $17.5 billion in 2014–2018 to $16.6 billion in 2015–2019. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic may mean another drop in 2020.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Loans captured over 52 per cent of commitments in 2019. Grants comprised almost 17 per cent, signalling an increase in debt-free instruments to support developing countries. Another up-and-coming instrument is shares in collective investment vehicles, such as investment funds, which grew to $191 million in 2019, up by 91 per cent from 2018. LDCs received 25.2 per cent of commitments in 2019 compared with 21 per cent in 2018, but the amount decreased from $3.0 billion to $2.7 billion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Database is available at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-4568643073614446182022-10-01T09:06:00.001-04:002022-10-01T09:06:05.176-04:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #6 Clean Water and Sanitation<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP80xjP6VLSJQFetdhaRleuzhGLlO4RDiNLrm9dRdDjQ_XZL4lMRfBYuJxOStg_TtVMyC8aGcTNTo9vHyc9bRTVUqVoCvqBcWehJ3w8cXRYXeMVJtvcrqduyVoDtZtRDrTnXF9RPzESAlvqiBLJO4zIBku1miFdOdoK9bRHXYcTJgjayzuWASmcTV5/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-52.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP80xjP6VLSJQFetdhaRleuzhGLlO4RDiNLrm9dRdDjQ_XZL4lMRfBYuJxOStg_TtVMyC8aGcTNTo9vHyc9bRTVUqVoCvqBcWehJ3w8cXRYXeMVJtvcrqduyVoDtZtRDrTnXF9RPzESAlvqiBLJO4zIBku1miFdOdoK9bRHXYcTJgjayzuWASmcTV5/w647-h364/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-52.jpg" width="647" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="321" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ldQo1V6tScc" width="386" youtube-src-id="ldQo1V6tScc"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, it becomes increasingly clear that safely managed drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services are vital to human health. But unless progress picks up speed - dramatically - billions of people will still lack these essential services in 2030. Water is fundamental to many other aspects of sustainable development and is under threat. Demand for water is rising due to rapid population growth, urbanization and increasing pressure from agriculture, industry and the energy sector. Decades of misuse, poor management and the over-extraction and contamination of freshwater and groundwater supplies have exacerbated water stress and deteriorated water-related ecosystems. This, in turn, affects human health, economic activities, and food and energy supplies. Urgent action is needed to shift the current trend. To ensure a sustainable and equitable distribution of water to meet all needs, the average global implementation rate of improved water resources management needs to double. Additional efforts are needed to increase investment in water and sanitation and to further cooperation among countries sharing transboundary waters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Meeting drinking water, sanitation and hygiene targets by 2030 will require a fourfold increase in the pace of progress</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The proportion of the global population using safely managed drinking water services increased from 70 per cent in 2015 to 74 per cent in 2020. Still, 2 billion people were without such services that year, including 1.2 billion people lacking even a basic level of service. Eight out of 10 people who lack even basic drinking water service live in rural areas, and about half of them live in LDCs. At the current rate of progress, the world will reach 81 per cent coverage by 2030, missing the target and leaving 1.6 billion people without safely managed drinking water supplies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">From 2015 to 2020, the world population using safely managed sanitation services increased from 47 per cent to 54 per cent. If historical rates of progress continue, the world will reach 67 per cent coverage by 2030, leaving 2.8 billion people without access. Over the same period, the population practising open defecation decreased by a third, from 739 million people to 494 million. The world is on track to eliminate open defecation by 2030.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Frequent and proper hand hygiene is essential to containing COVID-19 and controlling other infectious diseases. Yet, over 1 in 4 people still lack access to handwashing facilities with soap and water at home. Coverage increased from 67 per cent to 71 per cent from 2015 to 2020.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Universal access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene is critical to global health. To reach universal coverage by 2030, current rates of progress would need to increase fourfold. Achieving these targets would save 829,000 lives annually. This is the number of people who currently die each year from diseases directly attributable to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene practices.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The world's wetlands are being lost at an alarming rate; it's time to protect and restore them on a massive scale</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wetlands are considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems and are breeding grounds for 40 per cent of the world's plant and animal species. Unsustainable use and inappropriate management of wetlands not only result in the loss of ecosystem services but can also pose direct risks, including disease. Moreover, the degradation of wetlands releases stored carbon, fuelling climate change. Over the past 300 years, over 85 per cent of the planet's wetlands have been lost, mainly through drainage and land conversion, with many remaining wetland areas degraded. Since 1970, 81 per cent of species dependent on inland wetlands have declined faster than those relying on other biomes, and an increasing number are facing extinction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Other water-related ecosystems across the planet – such as lakes, rivers and reservoirs – are also changing rapidly. One in five river basins have experienced high (i.e., above natural) fluctuations in surface water over the past five years. Population growth, changes to land cover and land use, and climate change are key drivers of these changes. Urgent efforts are needed to protect them and to prevent further degradation of these precious biological habitats.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Early remediation of water pollution will require active monitoring, which is sorely lacking in the poorest countries</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Improving water quality is essential to protecting human and ecosystem health. Assessments in 2020 of rivers, lakes and aquifers in 97 countries showed that 60 per cent of water was of good ambient quality. However, of the 76,000 water bodies assessed, only 1 per cent were in the poorest countries. For at least 3 billion people, the quality of the water they rely upon is unknown due to the lack of monitoring. Data are also lacking on groundwater, which often represents the largest share of freshwater in a country. Out of all reporting countries, only around 60 per cent included information about groundwater.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Agricultural and untreated wastewater pose two of the gravest threats to environmental water quality globally since they release excess nutrients into rivers, lakes and aquifers, damaging ecosystem function. Accelerated progress is needed to enhance farming management practices and improve wastewater treatment rates to protect freshwater quality, especially in regions with high population growth, such as Africa. With a well-developed monitoring system, water-quality issues could be identified at an early stage, allowing mitigation measures to be introduced before severe deterioration occurs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Stress on water resources in Northern Africa and Western Asia is already at dangerous levels</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Water stress occurs when the ratio of freshwater withdrawn to total renewable freshwater resources is above the 25 per cent threshold. High water stress can have devastating consequences for the environment. It can also curtail or even reverse economic and social development, increasing competition and potential conflict among users. Globally, water stress reached a level of 18.6 per cent in 2019. Although it remained at a safe level (below 25 per cent), this average masks substantial regional variations. Northern Africa and Western Asia had a critical level of water stress that year, at 84.1 per cent, an increase of 13 per cent since 2015. More than 733 million people - 10 per cent of the global population - live in countries with high and critical levels of water stress (above 75 per cent).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Promoting and improving water-use efficiency relieve water stress. Water-use efficiency improved by 12 per cent from 2015 to 2109 - from $17.4 to $19.4 per cubic metre. But in agriculture, the largest water use sector, it was only $0.63 per cubic metre in 2019. Increasing the productivity of agricultural water is key to improving water-use efficiency, particularly in arid countries reliant on agriculture.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Most countries still lack cooperation agreements on shared water resources, a potential source of conflict</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Transboundary rivers, lakes and aquifers are shared by 153 countries around the world. Ensuring that these waters are managed equitably, sustainably and peacefully, particularly in the context of climate change, requires countries to put in place operational arrangements for water cooperation. According to data collected from 129 countries, 32 countries reported that 90 per cent or more of their transboundary water was covered by operational arrangements in 2020, an increase from 22 countries in 2017. In Europe and Northern America, 24 out of 42 countries have such levels of coverage, compared to 5 out of 42 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and a total of three countries across the rest of the world. Accelerating progress will require that countries address data gaps (especially in relation to transboundary aquifers), scale up capacity development and financing, capitalize on global water conventions and the draft articles on the law of transboundary aquifers, and mobilize political will.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Database is available at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/. </div>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-90292950587690987042022-09-23T05:07:00.001-04:002022-09-23T05:07:15.562-04:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #5 Gender Equality<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAnkaIhuSZeR6uF1Ef1h9lT9OHcNzz4rDhtMvnMe9AyVO-ZEcVuRdkNkp7U503CvWh-GcgWAylrlDR99YedA2tvwJdcyZtmk7hXSIUrFE14z84sxDMKbgxsHrfjBdoyIw_zUmJq_BGC2Dfjq68YztHMqO7JV7w80vzHa81K7Xquxyr0Th74umjc8IF/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-53.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAnkaIhuSZeR6uF1Ef1h9lT9OHcNzz4rDhtMvnMe9AyVO-ZEcVuRdkNkp7U503CvWh-GcgWAylrlDR99YedA2tvwJdcyZtmk7hXSIUrFE14z84sxDMKbgxsHrfjBdoyIw_zUmJq_BGC2Dfjq68YztHMqO7JV7w80vzHa81K7Xquxyr0Th74umjc8IF/w605-h341/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-53.jpg" width="605" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="316" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kirtWKKAPNs" width="380" youtube-src-id="kirtWKKAPNs"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The world is not on track to achieve gender equality by 2030, and the social and economic fallout from the pandemic has made the situation even bleaker. Progress in many areas, including time spent on unpaid care and domestic work, decision-making regarding sexual and reproductive health, and gender-responsive budgeting, is falling behind. Women’s health services, already poorly funded, have faced major disruptions. Violence against women remains endemic. And despite women’s leadership in responding to COVID-19, they still trail men in securing the decision-making positions they deserve. Commitment and bold action are needed to accelerate progress, including through the promotion of laws, policies, budgets and institutions that advance gender equality. Greater investment in gender statistics is vital, since less than half of the data required to monitor Goal 5 are currently available.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b>Awareness of violence against older women is growing, but data remain limited</b></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Violence against women and girls is found in all countries and affects women of all ages. Globally, 26 per cent of ever-partnered women aged 15 and older (641 million) have been subjected to physical and/ or sexual violence by a husband or intimate partner at least once in their lifetime. Limited evidence points to an intensification of violence against women during the pandemic. A 2021 rapid gender assessment survey in 13 countries, undertaken by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), found that 45 per cent of women reported that they or a woman they know has experienced some form of violence since COVID-19.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Global awareness of violence against older women specifically is growing, but data on the subject are limited, and the nature, scale, severity and complexity of such violence may be underestimated. Less than 10 per cent of eligible data on intimate partner violence capture the prevalence of such violence among women aged 50 and older. Limited evidence from 2000–2018 found that 4 per cent and 7 per cent of women in this age group experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner in the last 12 months. Older women, however, may be vulnerable to specific forms of violence not usually measured in surveys on violence against women, such as economic exploitation, or being ostracized or neglected.</div></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b>Child marriage and female genital mutilation are persistent human rights violations holding back progress for girls and women</b></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In 2021, nearly one in five young women were married before the age of 18. The highest rates of child marriage are found in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, where 35 per cent and 28 per cent of young women, respectively, were married in childhood. Globally, the prevalence of child marriage has declined by about 10 per cent in the past five years. However, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have put more girls at risk, owing to economic shocks, school closures and interruptions in social services. By 2030, up to 10 million more girls are likely to become child brides, in addition to the 100 million girls who were projected to be at risk before the pandemic.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Another persistent harmful practice and human rights violation is female genital mutilation (FGM). At least 200 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to FGM, mainly in the 31 countries where the practice is concentrated. In many countries, it remains as common today as it was three decades ago. Even in countries where the practice has become less prevalent, progress would need to be at least 10 times faster to meet the global target of eliminating FGM by 2030. Education is one key to its elimination. Opposition to FGM is highest among girls and women who are educated. Girls whose mothers have a primary education are 40 per cent less likely to be cut than those whose mothers have no education.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Progress in women’s access to leadership positions, in both political and economic spheres, remains sluggish</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">During the pandemic, women leaders have acted decisively and effectively to implement and manage response and recovery efforts, prioritizing measures that address the most vulnerable groups. Despite this widely acknowledged success, the pace of progress on women’s representation in decision-making positions is discouraging. As of 1 January 2022, the global share of women in lower and single houses of national parliaments reached 26.2 per cent, up from 22.4 per cent in 2015. Women’s share is slightly over one third in local governments. At this pace, it would take another 40 years for women and men to be represented equally in national parliaments.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Working women, including those in managerial positions, have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many have had their hours reduced or left the workforce altogether due to increased unpaid care work at home. In 2019, before the pandemic, women accounted for 39.4 per cent of total employment. In 2020, women represented nearly 45 per cent of global employment losses. The share of women in managerial positions worldwide saw only slight improvement from 2015 to 2019, increasing from 27.2 to 28.3 per cent. That share remained unchanged from 2019 to 2020, which is the first year without an increase since 2013.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>In many countries, women still lack the legal right to autonomy over their own bodies</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Only 57 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 who are married or in a union make their own informed decisions regarding sexual relations, contraceptive use and reproductive health care, according to data from 64 countries for the period 2007–2021. Critical to this decision-making ability is the extent to which laws prevent or enable access to relevant health care and information. Among 115 countries with data, countries had in place an average of 76 per cent of the laws and regulations needed to guarantee full and equal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely having a significant impact on women’s ability to exercise their bodily autonomy. In the first year of the pandemic, an estimated 1.4 million additional unintended pregnancies occurred in lower- and middle-income countries. This could be due to several factors. Women may have experienced financial hardships that prevented them from making their own decisions to seek health care and contraception. During lockdown periods, women may have found it harder to say no to sex due to increased tensions in the home related to health, finance and social isolation. Finally, disruption or suspension of sexual and reproductive health care may have made these essential services inaccessible to women.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Protection of women’s land and property rights still has a long way to go</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Owning rights to land, specifically agricultural land, reduces women’s reliance on male partners and relatives. Yet, in 30 countries, less than half of women had ownership and/or secure tenure rights over agricultural land, according to 2009–2020 data from 36 countries. In 18 of these countries, the share of men having ownership was twice that of women. Gender-responsive policy and legal frameworks are essential to advancing women’s rights to land. However, only 15 out of 52 reporting countries included sufficient provisions in their legal frameworks to offer women good protection in this regard. The most prominent areas in which positive results have been achieved are in succession rights and in protection from being disposed in land transactions.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Accelerated progress is needed to align public financing with gender equality objectives</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Building back better from COVID-19 means doing so in a way that advances gender equality and women’s empowerment. Fundamental to this goal is ensuring that the allocation and spending of public financing takes gender equality into account. According to data reported by 105 countries and areas for the period 2018–2021, only 26 per cent of countries have comprehensive systems in place to track public allocations for gender equality, 59 per cent have some features of such a system, and 15 per cent do not have the minimum elements of such a system. Accelerated action is needed to expand comprehensive implementation of gender-responsive budgeting and strengthen its monitoring and evaluation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Database is available at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/. </p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-30932818376808629482022-09-23T04:55:00.002-04:002022-09-23T04:55:15.015-04:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #4 Quality Education<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGy0Mf2qOV_Kwg1ahsNTLuxLmAY0nhUBIFf4xogndRH8-xoUpwtk0lRKTbRhge0wMsDJBMZiPDfNK71TaOOASm7d6wuySLJ6lMgMAVUffF3hVONYgIO-T0ii_Uv0FEt39d04qE1yeZ8KAPJ-gf6NCL6y3a5nIOJ88l4mGGUPP7uFEmeaMepiy_af1R/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGy0Mf2qOV_Kwg1ahsNTLuxLmAY0nhUBIFf4xogndRH8-xoUpwtk0lRKTbRhge0wMsDJBMZiPDfNK71TaOOASm7d6wuySLJ6lMgMAVUffF3hVONYgIO-T0ii_Uv0FEt39d04qE1yeZ8KAPJ-gf6NCL6y3a5nIOJ88l4mGGUPP7uFEmeaMepiy_af1R/w600-h337/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-05.jpg" width="600" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="335" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1agRuNIytSg" width="403" youtube-src-id="1agRuNIytSg"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened a crisis in education, with severe disruptions in education systems worldwide. School closures have had worrisome consequences for children's learning and well-being, particularly for girls and those who are disadvantaged, including children with disabilities, rural dwellers and ethnic minorities. An estimated 147 million children missed more than half of their in-person instruction over the past two years. As a result, this generation of children could lose a combined total of $17 trillion in lifetime earnings (in current value). Governments need to implement ambitious programmes to ensure that all children return to school, recover their learning losses, and have their psychosocial needs met.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b>Prolonged school closures have heightened the risk that children will not return to school</b></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">COVID-related school closures threaten to reverse years of progress aimed at keeping children in school. Before the pandemic, 17 per cent of children and youth globally were out of primary and secondary school, compared to 26 per cent in 2000. From March 2020 through February 2022, schools worldwide were fully or partially closed for 41 weeks, on average. Latin America and the Caribbean experienced the longest school closures - more than 60 weeks in the past two years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The longer children are out of school, the less likely they are to return. According to a 2020 report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 24 million learners from the pre-primary to university level are at risk of not returning to school. Students from more disadvantaged backgrounds are at higher risk due to socioeconomic factors such as the need to generate income, increased care responsibilities, and early and forced marriage. Those who were unable to access distance learning during confinement are also at higher risk of not returning to school.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>COVID-19 has cast a shadow on an already dire picture of learning outcomes</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The COVID-19 pandemic came at a time when the world was already struggling with a crisis in learning: too many children lacked the fundamentals of reading and numeracy. Based on pre-pandemic data from 2015 to 2019, the proportion of children meeting the minimum required proficiency in reading at the end of lower-secondary school was between 70 and 90 per cent in most high-income countries. That proportion fell below 60 per cent in almost all middle- and lowincome countries, dropping to less than 10 per cent in some countries.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Learning losses due to COVID-related school closures have been documented in 4 out of 5 of the 104 countries that have carried out such studies. School closures are also likely to deepen disparities in learning: many countries that had poor learning outcomes prior to the pandemic also tended to have longer school closures.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Entrenched inequities in education have only worsened during the pandemic</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Over the years, education has become much more widely accessible. That said, inequalities in access persist among various socioeconomic groups. In 2020, for example, 3 out of 4 children attended some form of organized learning one year before the official primary school age. Yet, participation was highly unequal: among countries with available data, disparities in attendance were found based on gender (39 per cent), urban or rural location (76 per cent) and household wealth (86 per cent). The data showed that girls tend to score higher than boys in reading proficiency at the end of primary school. They also showed that children living in rural areas and in the poorest households are consistently more disadvantaged in term of educational participation and outcomes than their urban, wealthier peers.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic have deepened inequality in education, with marginalized populations most affected. In the context of remote learning, for example, children from poorer backgrounds are less likely to have the devices and computer skills they need to get online, or a home environment conducive to learning. Ensuring a safe return to school and equity in education in the difficult transition period ahead needs to be a priority.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Countries are improving schools as they reopen, but psychosocial support for students is often overlooked</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">One key to encouraging school enrolment and retention is ensuring adequate facilities and services. Yet, even basic school infrastructure is far from universal. In 2019-2020, about one quarter of primary schools worldwide lacked access to electricity, drinking water and basic sanitation facilities. Only half of primary schools had computers and Internet access or facilities that were fully accessible, including for children with disabilities. In all of these areas, LDCs lag furthest behind.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Recovering from the pandemic - and building back better - will require a significant investment in school infrastructure and services. According to a recent survey by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), about half of countries with data reported taking "significant additional measures" (as opposed to a "small-scale increase in measures") in water, sanitation and hygiene services in schools after their reopening. This proportion remains similar across countries in various income groups. However, only 20 per cent of countries undertook significant measures to provide additional mental health and psychosocial support for students. This is disturbing considering the recent uptick in anxiety and depression among learners.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Database is available at </span><a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/" style="text-align: left;">https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-29532500264074538532022-09-10T00:19:00.004-04:002022-09-10T00:19:15.823-04:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal #3 Good Health and Well-Being<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAYKRr1s9U4o1jAyg6H5OnAuaVcD6SpYW4xr6bXxecmsqN7Am4ZF2DhXTzCrLcI7idfXhug1xWLdutIIyyRjJam6Xb8BMD0LilUxXiJcy35mzDxwp-5L67oM3_r8LU-dk7QqZDR7Bo-7jNP0XaPEEJnMvRs-LDj7Wrar_vfHr5IyB95VjUsUfEnJ4g/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAYKRr1s9U4o1jAyg6H5OnAuaVcD6SpYW4xr6bXxecmsqN7Am4ZF2DhXTzCrLcI7idfXhug1xWLdutIIyyRjJam6Xb8BMD0LilUxXiJcy35mzDxwp-5L67oM3_r8LU-dk7QqZDR7Bo-7jNP0XaPEEJnMvRs-LDj7Wrar_vfHr5IyB95VjUsUfEnJ4g/w593-h334/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-55.jpg" width="593" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='457' height='380' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzfJKeN8Qvi4x-uqGOIL_g-OqRfiu-P4eYhSnNSwQso_3oAUydtrciQvPhdRnf4THEtqgq7Xf-Z5TLbzh0IEw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span>COVID-19 continues to pose challenges to people’s health and well-being globally and is impeding progress in meeting Goal 3 targets. Before the pandemic, gains were evident in many areas of health, including reproductive, maternal and child health, immunization coverage and treatment of communicable diseases, though progress was marred by huge regional disparities. As of mid-2022, COVID-19 had infected more than 500 million people worldwide. The latest estimates show that global “excess deaths” directly and indirectly attributable to COVID-19 could have been as high as 15 million by the end of 2021. The pandemic has severely disrupted essential health services, triggered an increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression, lowered global life expectancy, derailed progress towards ending HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, and halted two decades of work towards making health coverage universal. As a result, immunization coverage dropped for the first time in 10 years, and deaths from TB and malaria increased. Urgent and concerted action is needed to set the world back on a trajectory towards achieving Goal 3.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><br /><b><span style="font-size: medium;">COVID-19 directly and indirectly led to the deaths of nearly 15 million people in the first two years of the pandemic</span></b><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"> COVID-19 is now a leading cause of death. The latest estimates suggest that 14.9 million people died as a direct result of COVID-19 or from the pandemic’s impact on health systems and society in 2020 and 2021. This estimate is nearly triple as the 5.4 million officially reported COVID-19 deaths in the same period. About 84 per cent of these “excess deaths” are concentrated in South-East Asia, Europe and the Americas (as defined by WHO), and 68 per cent are in just 10 countries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The pandemic has severely disrupted health systems and essential health services. Interruptions in essential health services were reported in 92 per cent of 129 countries surveyed at the end of 2021. These disruptions were found across all major areas of health, including maternal and child health, immunization, mental health programmes, and treatment of diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, TB and malaria. As a result, impressive strides in global life expectancy came to a sudden halt. In many parts of the world, life expectancy has fallen by one to two years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To effectively curb the spread of COVID-19 and prevent tens of thousands of additional deaths, it is critical to ensure equitable access to safe and effective vaccines. WHO has called for 70 per cent of people in all countries to receive vaccinations by mid-2022. That said, global vaccine distribution is far from equitable. As of May 2022, only around 17 per cent of people in low-income countries had received at least one dose of a vaccine, compared with more than 80 per cent in high-income countries. For everyone’s health, it is imperative that all countries and relevant manufacturers suspend patents, prioritize vaccine supply to COVAX, and create the conditions necessary for the local production of tests, vaccines and treatments.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The pandemic has triggered a significant rise in anxiety and depression, particularly among young people</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Available data do not indicate an increase in suicide rates during the first months of the COVID-19 crisis. However, the pandemic has had a severe impact on the mental health and well-being of people around the world. In 2020, the global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by an estimated 25 per cent, with young people and women most affected. At the same time, countries reported that services for mental, neurological and substance use conditions were the most disrupted among all essential health services, which widened gaps in mental health care. By the end of 2021, the situation had improved somewhat, but many people remain unable to get the care and support they need for both pre-existing and new mental health conditions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Even before the pandemic, depression, anxiety and other mental health challenges affected far too many children. It is estimated that, in 2019, more than 13 per cent of adolescents aged 10 to 19 had a diagnosed mental disorder as defined by the WHO; this translates into 86 million adolescents aged 15 to 19 and 80 million adolescents aged 10 to 14. The pandemic has added to the mental health issues facing children and young people, since many of them are still experiencing school closures, disruption of daily routines, stress over food insecurity and loss of family income, and uncertainty about the future. For the most vulnerable children, the impact of COVID-19 may also increase their exposure to multiple forms of violence and exploitation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>It is imperative that COVID-19 response plans include mental health and psychosocial support. Increased attention and investment are particularly needed to improve mental health care for children and young people and to protect the most vulnerable children.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Progress has been made in maternal and child health, but glaring regional disparities must be addressed</span></b></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Competent skilled birth attendance is key to reducing maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality. Globally, in 2015–2021, an estimated 84 per cent of births were assisted by skilled health professionals, including medical doctors, nurses and midwives. This was an increase from 77 per cent in 2008–2014. Still, coverage in sub-Saharan Africa was 20 percentage points lower than the global average.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Progress was also made in under-5 and neonatal mortality, though too many children are still dying. The global mortality rate of children under age 5 fell by 14 per cent from 2015 to 2020 – from 43 to 37 deaths per 1,000 live births. Similarly, the mortality rate of children in their first 28 days of life, the neonatal period, fell by 12 per cent over that same period – from 19 to 17 deaths per 1,000 live births. Even with this progress, 5 million children died before reaching their fifth birthday in 2020 alone – down from 5.9 million in 2015. Almost half of those deaths, 2.4 million, occurred in the first month of life. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the highest under-5 mortality rate in the world at 74 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2020. This is 14 times higher than the risk for children in Europe and Northern America.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>The adolescent birth rate also fell worldwide. From 2010 to 2020, the rate dropped from 47.9 births to 41.2 births per 1,000 adolescents aged 15 to 19. The largest declines occurred in Central and Southern Asia, from 43.6 births to 23.7 births over the same period.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Childbearing among girls aged 10 to 14 is much more common in countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean than in other parts of the world. Most countries with measurable levels of early childbearing have recorded a reduction since 2000.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Although data to assess the total impact of COVID-19 on maternal and child health and adolescent fertility are not yet available, concern is mounting that the pandemic has inadvertently undermined achievement in those areas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The health and economic impacts of COVID-19 have likely worsened uneven progress towards universal health coverage</span></b><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Universal health coverage (UHC) is achieved when all people can receive the good-quality health services they need without facing financial hardship from having to pay for them. Even before COVID-19, alarming trends in universal coverage were evident. The UHC service coverage index improved from a global average of 45 out of 100 in 2000 to 64 in 2015 and 67 in 2019. However, almost 1 billion people spent more than 10 per cent of their household budget on out-of-pocket health expenses in 2017, and more than half a billion were pushed into extreme poverty due to these out-of-pocket payments.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Data are not yet available to provide a detailed and comprehensive look at the impact of COVID-19 on progress towards UHC. However, since the pandemic has led to significant disruptions in essential health services, the continuous progress made over the last two decades has likely come to a halt. With the combined health and economic impacts of COVID-19, people may be facing greater financial constraints in accessing care. Among those paying out of pocket for health services, financial hardship is likely to worsen further, particularly for those already disadvantaged.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Widespread disruptions have derailed progress against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria</span></b><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>In 2020, an estimated 1.5 million people were newly diagnosed with HIV and 680,000 people died of AIDS-related causes. The incidence of HIV infections globally declined by 39 per cent between 2010 and 2020, far less than the 75 per cent target agreed to by the General Assembly in 2016. Measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, along with the added pressures on health systems, have disrupted HIV services.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>In 2020, an estimated 10 million people worldwide fell ill with TB. That year, the notification rate of new and relapse cases in TB incidence fell to 59 per cent, down from 72 per cent in 2019. Disruptions associated with the pandemic globally caused a noticeable rise in the number of TB deaths, from 1.2 million in 2019 to 1.3 million in 2020 (excluding TB deaths in people with HIV). This is the first year-on-year increase in TB deaths since 2005, and it took the world back to the 2017 level. Progress in reducing TB incidence also slowed in 2020 to less than 2 per cent per year. This is much lower than the 4 to 5 per cent annual decline required to achieve the End TB Strategy (i.e., an 80 per cent drop in new cases by 2030). Between 2018 and 2020, TB treatment reached 20 million people, only half of the global target. Due to the pandemic, TB incidence and mortality are expected to worsen, especially in 2021 and 2022.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> <span> </span></span>An estimated 241 million malaria cases and 627,000 deaths from malaria were reported worldwide in 2020. This means that 14 million more people contracted malaria and 69,000 more people died from it than in 2019. About two thirds of the additional deaths were linked to disruptions in the provision of malaria services during the pandemic. Even before COVID-19, global gains against the disease were levelling off, and the world was not on track to reach the targets set in WHO’s Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030. By 2020, the global malaria incidence rate was 59 cases per 1,000 people at risk against a target of 35. In other words, progress against malaria was off track by 40 per cent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Progress towards preventing, controlling and eradicating neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) continued in 2020, despite significant disruptions to health services. The number of people globally requiring NTD treatment and care declined from 2.19 billion in 2010 to 1.73 billion in 2020. Notably, in LDCs, 48 per cent of the total population required treatment and care for NTDs in 2020, down from 79 per cent in 2010. This progress was largely due to the elimination of a number of NTDs. By the end of 2020, at least one NTD had been eliminated in 42 countries. Important declines were observed in the number of reported cases of diseases targeted for elimination and eradication, including African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) in humans and dracunculiasis (Guinea-worm disease).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">More children are missing out on essential vaccines due to the pandemic</span></b><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>COVID-19 and associated disruptions have caused more children to miss out on essential vaccines. From 2019 to 2020, coverage of infant immunization slipped from 86 to 83 per cent. This means that 22.7 million children missed out on vaccinations in 2020, 3.7 million more than in 2019 and the highest number since 2005. In addition, 17.1 million older children did not receive vaccines through the routine immunization programme in 2020, an increase from 13.6 million in 2019.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>The consequences could be devastasting. Measles, for example, is a highly contagious disease, and the current coverage levels of 70 per cent with two doses are insufficient to prevent illness, disability and death from measles outbreaks or complications associated with the disease. What’s more, COVID-19 responses and vaccinations have diverted health system resources away from other essential services. It is therefore likely that in 2021 and beyond, too many children will continue to miss out on immunization as well as other health-care services. Recovering these to pre-pandemic levels must be an urgent global priority.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on health and care workers, who are already stretched thin in most regions</span></b><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Health and care workers remain on the front lines of the COVID-19 response. Between January 2020 and May 2021, the pandemic may have claimed the lives of 115,500 health and care workers worldwide. Greater efforts are needed for equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to ensure that they have access to vaccination and personal protective equipment personnel in Northern America remains the highest in the world, at over 152 per 10,000 people. This is almost 4 times the global average, 8 times that of Northern Africa and Southern Asia, and over 15 times that of sub-Saharan Africa. Despite a steady increase in the density of medical doctors per 10,000 people globally, the disparities among regions remain high – from an estimated 40 medical doctors per 10,000 people in Europe to only 2 in sub-Saharan Africa.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Database is available at <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/">https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.</a>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-61550064192066766622022-08-29T08:18:00.004-04:002022-08-29T09:43:53.799-04:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal # 2 Zero Hunger<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiImcIssY6XwykgKaKhbz9WUUd7qM_oBH9cetGgFlAn1MtYPHC6Ukpnk7j1Z6vocGBmjnnk5CLlw_6MZ8nAS4_Bx5Tlv6b-5pzbq08d_2JTJ8w6SvpnMZHZHweb_HspSytwyue_-R6xZcvfEqmr9oOLjzyJk3zL1ox8wJjr4QQf_0RWGJKrFXQCx9aT/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiImcIssY6XwykgKaKhbz9WUUd7qM_oBH9cetGgFlAn1MtYPHC6Ukpnk7j1Z6vocGBmjnnk5CLlw_6MZ8nAS4_Bx5Tlv6b-5pzbq08d_2JTJ8w6SvpnMZHZHweb_HspSytwyue_-R6xZcvfEqmr9oOLjzyJk3zL1ox8wJjr4QQf_0RWGJKrFXQCx9aT/w601-h338/photo_2022-08-17_01-49-48.jpg" width="601" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='465' height='387' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxKsSBQ2IU6hKj_hTeWBbDBt24jr5Ei91pgUkj1QhapvwMwBe39m9PsD3uN8nwLBoHrdfL5hu7CEINS5LWCuw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The world is on the verge of a global food crisis, with a rising number of people experiencing hunger and food insecurity even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Global food supply systems have been partially undermined by a cascading combination of growing conflicts, climate-related shocks and widening inequalities. As a result, as many as 828 million people may have suffered from hunger in 2021. The outbreak of war in Ukraine poses an additional threat to food insecurity, with the potential to provoke a surge in levels of hunger and malnutrition, especially among the poorest and most vulnerable. With this global crisis looming, it is more urgent than ever to address its root causes. The international community must act now to avert a crippling food emergency and the social, economic and political upheaval that could follow.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Conflict, COVID-19, climate change and growing inequalities are converging to undermine food security worldwide</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Climate variability and extremes, conflict, economic shocks and growing inequalities are keeping the world off track in achieving zero hunger by 2030. Since 2014, the number of people going hungry and suffering from food insecurity has been on the rise. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated an already deteriorating situation, with about 150 million more people facing hunger in 2021 than in 2019. In other words, an estimated 1 in 10 people worldwide are suffering from hunger. In addition, nearly 1 in 3 (a staggering 2.3 billion people) were moderately or severely food insecure in 2021, meaning they lacked regular access to adequate food. This represents an increase of almost 350 million people since the beginning of the pandemic. The most worrisome increases were seen in sub-Saharan Africa, followed by Central and Southern Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The unfolding crisis in Ukraine is yet another threat to food security. Ukraine and the Russian Federation are large producers and exporters of key food commodities, fertilizer, minerals and energy. Together they are considered the world’s breadbasket, supplying 30 per cent and 20 per cent of global wheat and maize exports, respectively, as well as 80 per cent of global exports of sunflower seed products. At least 50 countries import 30 per cent or more of their wheat from these two countries, with many African and LDCs importing more than 50 per cent. Ukraine and the Russian Federation are also leading exporters of fertilizers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The conflict has caused a steep and sudden reduction in exports of grain, sunflower seeds and fertilizers. As a result, import-dependent countries are vulnerable to rising food costs and supply chain disruptions. Joint, coordinated activities and policy solutions are urgently needed to avert food shortages for the world’s poorest people and to reduce the impact of the conflict, as well as lingering consequences of the pandemic, on global food insecurity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The low labour productivity of small-scale food producers remains troubling</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Small-scale farmers are the backbone of agriculture. Yet despite their importance in combating hunger, small-scale food producers are often among the most vulnerable groups in rural areas and within the agro-food system.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In low- and middle-income countries, the labour productivity of small farmers is less than $15 a day (constant 2011 purchasing power parity (PPP)), according to the latest available figures for 42 countries. The income of these small-scale producers continues to lag behind those of their larger-scale counterparts, with more pronounced differences in higher-income countries. In most countries with available data, the average annual income from agriculture of small-scale farmers is under $2,000 (constant 2011 PPP). This is less than half that of large-scale producers, in three quarters of countries for which data are available. Small-scale farmers who are women are further disadvantaged. Although the productivity of food production units headed by men and women is similar, the average annual income of units headed by women is between 50 per cent and 70 per cent that of men, in half the countries with available data.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Already slow progress on child malnutrition has likely been set back further by the pandemic and growing food insecurity</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Good nutrition sets children on a path to survive and thrive. The full impact of the pandemic on child nutrition may take years to manifest. However, a likely scenario is that COVID-19, together with soaring food prices, are exacerbating all forms of malnutrition due to a loss of household income, the lack of available and affordable nutritious food, reduced physical activity and disruptions in essential nutrition services.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2020, the latest year for which data are available, 22.0 per cent of children under age 5 worldwide (149.2 million) suffered from stunting (low height for age).<a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2022/goal-02/#fn1">1</a> This is a decline from 24.4 per cent in 2015. Subsequent years have seen continued constraints in accessing nutritious food and essential nutrition services due to the pandemic. To achieve the target of a 50 per cent reduction in the number of stunted children by 2030, the annual rate of decline must double (to 3.9 per cent per year) from its current annual reduction rate of 2.1 per cent per year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Childhood wasting and overweight are both forms of malnutrition and can coexist in a population. In 2020, wasting (low weight for height) and overweight were found in 6.7 per cent of children under 5 (45.4 million) and 5.7 per cent of children under 5 (38.9 million), respectively. Wasting is a condition that can be brought on rapidly as a result of conflict, pandemics and climate events. Related shocks in food, fuel and fertilizer prices stemming from the war in Ukraine could tip the balance even further, destroying access to healthy diets. Childhood overweight may also be on the rise in some countries where unhealthy food replaced fresh, nutritious food, and movement restrictions curtailed opportunities for physical activity for long periods of time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Such shocks, which have been occurring since 2020, will reverse progress made to date without additional interventions. An intensification of efforts is urgently required to reduce malnutrition and address the growing threats to nutrition security.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The proportion of countries affected by high food prices increased sharply in 2020</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The share of countries affected by high food prices, which had been relatively stable since 2016, has risen sharply, climbing from 16 per cent in 2019 to 47 per cent in 2020. This shift mainly reflects trends in international markets. International prices of food items soared in the second half of 2020, more than offsetting declines in the first five months of the year. The price rises were partly due to an increase in international demand for cereals, vegetable oils, sugar and dairy products as restrictive COVID-19-related measures eased. In domestic markets, increasing freight and agricultural input costs, as well as logistical bottlenecks and market uncertainties, put increased pressure on food prices.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prior to the Ukraine crisis, international food prices were already high, owing to market conditions, high energy and fertilizer prices, and other factors. In March 2022, global food prices were almost 30 per cent higher than at the same time last year, reaching an all-time high, though prices eased somewhat in the subsequent two months. Soaring food prices threaten to exacerbate global food insecurity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLknfV4-Uq-g-FgmGXepcduAWR5d4Y557UHR39VEA_658Kefrt_pDbBe-zjyRWL-Zjh6WpCN2mtPcFxEpZD0a_0ZzvmIhyAnTj8oqHPuPSEv7nVLSAgshM7gf7MwslCv4koMPyTLXwpqPI8AplIzDBhw3bvEedN8uj7k3pDHBQPBPAkvYBceTof5_m/s664/Goal-2-infographic.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="610" height="405" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLknfV4-Uq-g-FgmGXepcduAWR5d4Y557UHR39VEA_658Kefrt_pDbBe-zjyRWL-Zjh6WpCN2mtPcFxEpZD0a_0ZzvmIhyAnTj8oqHPuPSEv7nVLSAgshM7gf7MwslCv4koMPyTLXwpqPI8AplIzDBhw3bvEedN8uj7k3pDHBQPBPAkvYBceTof5_m/w372-h405/Goal-2-infographic.jpg" width="372" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Database is available at <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/">https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.</a>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-71001646781539397072022-08-29T08:00:00.005-04:002022-08-29T09:42:00.606-04:002022 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal # 1 No Poverty<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="separator"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiYi8TRO3OQ22cE9e_iUBrnYtFuXBMB-nYzl5tx18UTdwi7GcWYKkIN91mSIYZMveK0kd2AzYVAh0_0hk-yn5qpjDXOlfw6FswYoGiZosZ3_2IY00H5fOhdCCobeTm6PqPQFc6mA0Kz0u5HRA5cjTc_68ushSie0frmgiDiGUQAPPlV00Bl8NdEsGr/s1024/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-04.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiYi8TRO3OQ22cE9e_iUBrnYtFuXBMB-nYzl5tx18UTdwi7GcWYKkIN91mSIYZMveK0kd2AzYVAh0_0hk-yn5qpjDXOlfw6FswYoGiZosZ3_2IY00H5fOhdCCobeTm6PqPQFc6mA0Kz0u5HRA5cjTc_68ushSie0frmgiDiGUQAPPlV00Bl8NdEsGr/w595-h334/photo_2022-08-17_01-50-04.jpg" width="595" /></a></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='494' height='410' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxsq9gL7C8F147aJuqoy1MjqtjFJOdkueqNCT9LFdj-NN3W6pVYQeXlbwHPsdDWvxhQoAOeULLCthdVKgJ0VQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has put steady progress in poverty reduction over the past 25 years into reverse, with the number of people in extreme poverty increasing for the first time in a generation. Now, rising inflation and the impacts of the war in Ukraine may derail progress further. The combined crises could lead to an additional 75 million to 95 million people living in extreme poverty in 2022, compared with pre-pandemic projections. While almost all countries have introduced new social protection measures in response to the crisis, many were short-term in nature, and large numbers of vulnerable people have not yet benefited from them. As things stand, the world is not on track to end poverty by 2030, with poorer countries now needing unprecedented levels of pro-poor growth to achieve this goal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">First COVID-19, and now the Ukraine crisis, are derailing progress on ending extreme poverty</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Between 2015 and 2018, global poverty continued its historical decline, with the extreme poverty rate falling from 10.1 per cent to 8.6 per cent. This means that the number of people living on less than $1.90 a day dropped from 740 million to 656 million over this period. COVID-19 has made a severe dent in that progress. Nowcasts suggest that the global poverty rate increased sharply from 2019 to 2020, from 8.3 per cent to 9.2 per cent, the first rise in extreme poverty since 1998 and the largest since 1990. This erased more than four years of steady gains. It also means that an additional 93 million people worldwide were pushed into extreme poverty because of the pandemic.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Little progress has been made since then in catching up to the pre-COVID trend. Forecasts for 2022 estimate that 75 million more people than expected prior to the pandemic will be living in extreme poverty. Rising food prices and the broader impacts of the war in Ukraine could push that number even higher, to 95 million, leaving the world even further from meeting the target of ending extreme poverty by 2030.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Number of people living on less than $1.90 a day, 2015–2018, 2019–2022 projection before and after COVID-19 (millions)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">In 2020, the share of workers living in extreme poverty rose for the first time in two decades</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2020, for the first time in two decades, the share of the world’s workers living in extreme poverty increased, rising from 6.7 per cent in 2019 to 7.2 per cent, pushing an additional 8 million workers into poverty. This reflects lost working hours and reduced incomes for many during the COVID-19 crisis. Although the working poverty rate declined slightly in 2021, to 6.9 per cent, it remains higher than before the pandemic. Most regions have not yet recovered to their 2019 levels. The two regions with the highest working poverty rates – sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) – have also experienced the largest increases in the past two years. The pandemic has likely exacerbated existing disparities in working poverty rates for youth and women, who were already more likely than adults and men to be among the working poor. Youth and women were disproportionately affected by working-hour losses and pay cuts in 2020, meaning these gaps are likely to widen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Over half of the unemployed in high-income countries receive cash benefits compared with 1 per cent in low-income countries</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Strong social protection systems are essential for mitigating the immediate and long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and preventing people from falling into poverty. However, by 2020, only 46.9 per cent of the global population were effectively covered by at least one social protection cash benefit, leaving 4.1 billion people unprotected. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, almost 1,900 social protection measures were announced by 211 countries and territories, although these were mostly (92 per cent) short term in nature. Around 39 per cent of the measures introduced were directed towards vulnerable groups, while 26 per cent related to income security and unemployment protection, showing the high importance of social assistance and unemployment benefits in responding to the crisis. Still, only 96 countries have unemployment protection schemes in place and, even where such schemes exist, effective coverage is often limited, especially in countries with high levels of informal employment. Globally, in 2020, only 43.1 per cent of the labour force were legally covered by unemployment benefit schemes, and only 18.6 per cent of unemployed workers worldwide actually received unemployment benefits.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Similarly, only 28.9 per cent of people considered vulnerable – all children, along with older people and those of working age not covered by social insurance – had access to social assistance cash benefits in 2020, with coverage varying widely across regions. Sixty-three per cent of those considered vulnerable in high-income countries received cash benefits compared with just 7.8 per cent in low-income countries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Disaster-related deaths rose sixfold in 2020, largely as a result of the pandemic</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Biological hazards such as COVID-19, along with other disasters such as tropical cyclones and floods, can worsen poverty and slow hunger alleviation. In 2020, based on reporting from 80 countries under the Sendai Framework, the disaster-related mortality rate was 5.74 persons per 100,000 population. This estimation takes into account deaths resulting from disasters of all origins, including COVID-19. At least 80 per cent of disaster-related mortality that year was estimated to be due to the coronavirus. Even without considering significant underreporting (the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates global excess deaths of 4.5 million in 2020), this figure is already in stark contrast to the 2015-2019 period, when the disaster-related mortality rate averaged 0.93 persons per 100,000 population.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As countries were coping with the economic fallout of the pandemic, 33 countries reported $16.5 billion in direct economic losses in 2020, due to other disasters. Of this amount, 41 per cent ($6.8 billion) was in the agriculture sector and 38 per cent ($6.2 billion) related to losses resulting from damaged or destroyed critical infrastructure</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, significant progress has been made towards increasing the number of countries adopting national disaster risk reduction strategies. By the end of 2021, 123 countries reported having such strategies in place, up from just 55 in 2015.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD4fq6qhT55ewUHtVtoUNjyjYMASyDAgAU4inXA7idQE3HNnpI_q1WskpPK1MdyWUliLUE6oklYwi2F_l3m06zVV2fAWjBOibUs6jKDOL6f1YfxmduslP9r0_wsSAuefAzDA5aq0yA-pLTVVAJq2wdnEMWujkWPP0Uo0vak4Tu7VxGn2GMrSsFUeey/s626/Goal-1-infographic.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="594" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD4fq6qhT55ewUHtVtoUNjyjYMASyDAgAU4inXA7idQE3HNnpI_q1WskpPK1MdyWUliLUE6oklYwi2F_l3m06zVV2fAWjBOibUs6jKDOL6f1YfxmduslP9r0_wsSAuefAzDA5aq0yA-pLTVVAJq2wdnEMWujkWPP0Uo0vak4Tu7VxGn2GMrSsFUeey/w407-h428/Goal-1-infographic.jpg" width="407" /></a></div></div><br /><br /><br />Database is available at <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.">https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/.</a><br />Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-66172252836231491212022-08-29T07:35:00.004-04:002022-08-29T07:35:50.263-04:00Thinking Beyond Crisis: Using the Pandemic to Advance High-quality, Timely and Inclusive Data<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlr3avQVcsaeSNCa4C2BZN6M7PfyVu3he3sNX3IYCcKblZ_yelZmiDxfYVKsDBZ2Ag8ZxaQZr_VZ1jKabSdh4zYt5EHr1jBbOYFADn3wIvLlfx26Tu5INklSRNOgPc6sK0CPUUr5eE8_gwb6RKc4ouCZOvDrRPb_aOWPap7Pw2EOhtfBD11APMAgA/s1166/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(1).png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="1166" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlr3avQVcsaeSNCa4C2BZN6M7PfyVu3he3sNX3IYCcKblZ_yelZmiDxfYVKsDBZ2Ag8ZxaQZr_VZ1jKabSdh4zYt5EHr1jBbOYFADn3wIvLlfx26Tu5INklSRNOgPc6sK0CPUUr5eE8_gwb6RKc4ouCZOvDrRPb_aOWPap7Pw2EOhtfBD11APMAgA/w507-h300/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(1).png" width="507" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The COVID-19 pandemic has upended life as we know it. At the same time, it has forced new ways of thinking and opened up new opportunities. The global statistical community is exploring ways to seize these opportunities and learn from the pandemic. Its aim is to take that knowledge forward to provide better data for better lives – now and in what may be turbulent years ahead.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The impact of COVID-19 on national statistics offices (NSOs) around the world was dramatic. At the start of the pandemic, in-person data collection was abruptly halted in almost all countries. Meanwhile, data demand for policymaking and to inform the general public reached a new high. In seeking to understand the impact of the virus, for example, public health authorities needed timely and disaggregated death statistics. But monthly mortality data are still not available in a majority of countries. Moreover, many NSOs lack the information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure to carry out their daily work remotely. Compounding these problems was the fact that domestic and external funding for statistical activities has been cut back in many countries, particularly those that need it most.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite the challenges, many NSOs found new ways to get the job done. One of them was using non-traditional data sources, such as mobile phone data, satellite imagery and citizen-generated data, along with new modes of data collection, such as web- or telephone-based or mix-mode interviews. The offices encouraged collaborative efforts and played a stronger coordination role within national data ecosystems. Such initiatives have provided the data needed to better understand the course and effects of the crisis on health, jobs, migration, violence against women and a range of other issues. Yet the level of responses among national statistical systems differed widely. Those that already had a solid and well-established data system have been better equipped to react creatively to the crisis.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Moreover, the path to success was not always straightforward. Innovations and new approaches, without careful attention to design and assessment, can inadvertently reinforce inequality and exclusion. In addition, NSOs needed to develop effective communication strategies to address the “pandemic” of misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As the world slowly emerges from the crisis, timely, disaggregated and high-quality data are more important than ever. What are needed now are further investments in data and information infrastructure, drawing from lessons learned during the pandemic. The objective is to get ahead of the crisis so that we can trigger more timely responses, anticipate future needs, and design the urgent actions needed to realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The analysis that follows is based on four rounds of global surveys monitoring the effects of the pandemic on national statistical operations between May 2020 to May 2021, carried out jointly by the United Nations Statistics Division and the World Bank. It also draws on a survey on the implementation of the Cape Town Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development Data, carried out in August–September 2021.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Despite some progress, serious data gaps persist in SDG monitoring</span></b><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfWKX-hidPSf1pDTQi-BD-aXWngB6cRDFxlGh_6fH8OyTeLRXi_Xf7ZXOzkKfITZOeMzDQ-VEuV_lFYO8yUtpLChgC8NlHToqYzPEt6z8TUXwRvoyT7I4pSgOoOKl0wrcaMmB_XNiampuj7WbdfnzV9eseBx7L3f8TRausP8zGAPQsaIspOe8JviZc/s1166/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(3).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="1166" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfWKX-hidPSf1pDTQi-BD-aXWngB6cRDFxlGh_6fH8OyTeLRXi_Xf7ZXOzkKfITZOeMzDQ-VEuV_lFYO8yUtpLChgC8NlHToqYzPEt6z8TUXwRvoyT7I4pSgOoOKl0wrcaMmB_XNiampuj7WbdfnzV9eseBx7L3f8TRausP8zGAPQsaIspOe8JviZc/w396-h234/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(3).png" width="396" /></a></div></b><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Proportion of countries or areas with available data since 2015, by Goal (percentage)</span></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Considerable progress has been made in the availability of internationally comparable data for SDG monitoring: the number of indicators included in the global SDG database increased from 115 in 2016 to 217 in 2022. However, significant data gaps still exist in terms of geographic coverage, timeliness and the level of disaggregation, making it difficult to fully comprehend the pace of progress towards the realization of the 2030 Agenda, differences across regions and who is being left behind</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For 8 of the 17 SDGs, fewer than half of the 193 countries or areas have internationally comparable data from 2015 or later. While Goal 3 (health) and Goal 7 (energy) have the highest data availability (more than 80 per cent of countries have at least one data point since 2015), only around 20 per cent of countries have data for Goal 13 (climate action).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also insufficient are disaggregated data for monitoring the progress of vulnerable population groups. Among the 32 SDG indicators with a requirement on sex disaggregation, only 21 have the latest disaggregated data available in most countries (more than 80 per cent of countries have at least one data point since 2015); for 8 indicators, no sex disaggregated data are available at all. Data are available for</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">only 7 out of 21 indicators that require disaggregation by both sex and age. When considering other disaggregation dimensions such as disability status, the picture is even murkier. Out of 10 SDG indicators that require disaggregation by disability status, data are available for only 2 of them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>COVID-19 made clear the need for a strong statistical foundation</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeghMNi83FSyJyHEr18wG8rGWTyP-w1rO6-zxFu6jJhaZU6WgQXonTepxgJJMK3IfcSEcO7QMuiQtSuBv4GZVUbo8HdzV4mL0RIiqKBqQWThjoChbdgO9HyBw09NG3OskfEnENegH75oweq1AnKOY5h0lmt1_TezyFg2ouJP6Fxb66GwOfy3rh2sCb/s1166/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(4).png"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeghMNi83FSyJyHEr18wG8rGWTyP-w1rO6-zxFu6jJhaZU6WgQXonTepxgJJMK3IfcSEcO7QMuiQtSuBv4GZVUbo8HdzV4mL0RIiqKBqQWThjoChbdgO9HyBw09NG3OskfEnENegH75oweq1AnKOY5h0lmt1_TezyFg2ouJP6Fxb66GwOfy3rh2sCb/w369-h218/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(4).png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Proportion of countries that stopped face-to-face data collection, May 2020–May 2021 (percentage)</span></b></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">COVID-19 posed a serious threat to the already struggling national statistical system and was a wake-up call to the need for a stronger statistical and ICT foundation. In May 2020, 96 per cent of countries put a full or partial stop to face-to-face data collection due to national lockdown measures. One year later, in May 2021, disruptions in face-to-face data collection were still occurring in 57 per cent of countries. Countries that only relied on in-person data collection before the pandemic were heavily affected, while countries with experience in remote data collection, or that had experimented with it, were at a considerable advantage. For example, in the United Kingdom, the immediate roll-out of a time-use survey during the pandemic benefited from earlier experimentation with remote data collection. The survey, carried out through the Internet, enabled policymakers to understand how the pandemic changed the way people spent their time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One crack in the statistical foundation exposed during the pandemic was a lack of national mortality data for adults, which is needed to understand the true death toll of COVID-19. When a United Nations Technical Advisory Group was tasked with estimating national and global COVID-19-related excess mortality, they found that only 38 per cent of countries had the required monthly mortality data from January 2020 to December 2021. This lack of underlying data reflects a serious flaw in national vital statistics systems, which encompass death registration, household surveys and population censuses. Death registration in many countries is incomplete and delayed; data collection through censuses and surveys provides data with a time lag of only 5 to 10 years; and mortality data for older people are often not collected.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">ICT infrastructure has been crucial during the pandemic in helping countries carry out data collection and training remotely as well as in storing data and fostering collaboration. In July 2020, only 62 per cent of all responding countries reported having sufficient ICT capabilities for remote training, and only 55 per cent had sufficient cloud computing services for remote data storage and data exchange. There is a divide between countries at different income levels. High-income countries were more equipped in terms of ICT, while low- and lower-middle-income countries were much less prepared.</div><br /><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The crisis is helping shape the future of innovation</span></b></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Z5dxEuD2SEc2RUl1U07asHu0NxDHf9RGbJi9YguRQ66he8PErf3R7BuT7v7Eb2I9-fDHzyUukpwFxmDdC7ajOXzZVcjhmBuQtqHKsiOiF9aoJPjSuyjok_sqxtkCJgSqUqgJAPW-Oiw1BPv6BPE0YpXoDdlyaGdtJFwHnhtZnHvwrXj3gprnB_7H/s1166/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(5).png"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Z5dxEuD2SEc2RUl1U07asHu0NxDHf9RGbJi9YguRQ66he8PErf3R7BuT7v7Eb2I9-fDHzyUukpwFxmDdC7ajOXzZVcjhmBuQtqHKsiOiF9aoJPjSuyjok_sqxtkCJgSqUqgJAPW-Oiw1BPv6BPE0YpXoDdlyaGdtJFwHnhtZnHvwrXj3gprnB_7H/w398-h235/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(5).png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Proportion of countries that reported the use of innovative approaches to measure the impact of COVID-19, May 2020 (percentage)</span></b></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The COVID-19 crisis has been an extraordinary challenge for national statistical systems. It has also been an opportunity to experiment with innovative data collection methods, explore new data sources and modernize ICT infrastructures to meet the data demand for policymaking. Throughout that process, the importance of fully inclusive data was made evident. Moving forward, experiences during the pandemic can be used to inform the future of innovation in official statistics.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the beginning of the crisis, more than 80 per cent of countries indicated they would be using phone surveys to collect data to measure the impact of COVID-19, and 37 per cent said they would be using web surveys – a significant increase from the pre-pandemic level. Administrative data, model-based estimates and non-traditional data sources – including phone call detail records, scanner data, social media, remote sensing and citizen-generated data – were all considered by countries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition, many NSOs accelerated modernization of their ICT systems. In May 2021, 58 per cent of NSOs reported improvements in their overall ICT readiness over the previous six months. The main actions taken were deploying new collaboration software (85 per cent) and providing new equipment to staff (73 per cent). Another significant action for improving ICT readiness highlighted by NSOs was deploying new remote access tools such as VPN, Virtual Desktop and Mobile Office (61 per cent).</div><br /><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The pandemic was a reminder to leave no one behind</span></b></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6yNhV-5UNoZK4x3dQjNu-Rjx1XsmABhXl2oFowDRyNLCuIv7yoG7d2hDM2UyUod3ziMe-BoNGBBBObnZXv_k5YPBkmSR1tNqzldVtdNoGAxe3_tkq8aaXso5YKzbydU9iVqLeiL5iELCfEwHCwsqUe1tvA-eYrRK17A4k81lJZqNgLqOeRWiwp9vD/s1166/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(6).png"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6yNhV-5UNoZK4x3dQjNu-Rjx1XsmABhXl2oFowDRyNLCuIv7yoG7d2hDM2UyUod3ziMe-BoNGBBBObnZXv_k5YPBkmSR1tNqzldVtdNoGAxe3_tkq8aaXso5YKzbydU9iVqLeiL5iELCfEwHCwsqUe1tvA-eYrRK17A4k81lJZqNgLqOeRWiwp9vD/w400-h236/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(6).png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Proportion of countries having difficulty collecting data on specific population groups, by income group, May 2021 (percentage)</span></b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Collecting data on vulnerable population groups, such as migrants and persons with disabilities, is crucial in identifying the challenges they face and understanding who are being left behind. The use of innovative approaches, such as mobile phone surveys and artificial intelligence, should be accompanied by an assessment to ensure that innovations are not inadvertently excluding or harming the most vulnerable groups.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For example, the digital divide in mobile phone ownership and Internet access was cited as the main reason for not reaching certain population groups during the pandemic. Among countries surveyed, 39 per cent had difficulties adequately collecting data on migrants, 27 per cent had difficulties collecting data on older persons, and 27 per cent had difficulties with data on persons with disabilities. Moreover, traditional surveys that focus only on households leave out individuals living in institutions, such as nursing homes and other residential care facilities, homeless shelters and prisons, all of which have been heavily affected by the pandemic.</div><br /><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: medium;">NSOs need to strengthen coordination within national data ecosystems</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Ua6dx2mK8YzjvxzZyhg_WlB1mAiZT1y_8Pv5-ocJw1PwjCSrdyGFqbzBzZ7g9haaPASsf147pENUJh-DBo0ZPTgRs4LuBnQmJ2UpZVJPUeNcZhDeUUXO4OUKF21wDSIhtmSactDGRerLfS-UGcfXk6S2MUzA5kPlWh_yGXJCrRKKZsalUaszXPWu/s1166/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(7).png"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Ua6dx2mK8YzjvxzZyhg_WlB1mAiZT1y_8Pv5-ocJw1PwjCSrdyGFqbzBzZ7g9haaPASsf147pENUJh-DBo0ZPTgRs4LuBnQmJ2UpZVJPUeNcZhDeUUXO4OUKF21wDSIhtmSactDGRerLfS-UGcfXk6S2MUzA5kPlWh_yGXJCrRKKZsalUaszXPWu/w391-h231/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(7).png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Proportion of national statistics offices that felt their capacity to coordinate within the larger data ecosystem could be improved, by income group, August–September 2021 (percentage)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">During the pandemic, partnerships were formed among government agencies, academic institutions, local governments, private businesses and civil society organizations to collect urgently needed data for policymaking. Such collaboration fostered new ideas and resources; it also increased the resulting data’s inclusivity, timeliness and utilization. National statistics offices played a stronger coordination role in many countries. The Statistics Institute ofJamaica, for example, partnered with the Ministry of Health and other experts in leading a committee to match data demand with available data needed to guide policy during the crisis. To help fill data gaps on the SDGs, National Bureau of Statistics of Kenya initiated partnerships with civil society organizations and integrated a set of quality criteria for citizen-generated data in its newly released Kenya Statistical Quality Assurance Framework.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite all the effort, NSOs from many countries felt they coulddo better in coordinating work within the national data ecosystem. Globally, only 17 per cent of countries surveyed felt that their coordination within the data ecosystem was satisfactory. The satisfaction level varied by income level: it averaged 25 per cent in high-income countries but only 8 per cent in low- and lower-middleincome countries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Effective communication strategies helped combat misinformation and disinformation</span></b></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtUGRfb0huibZAZOH9a6R_qmNGol3jxot7RA8r2yYSbRO9hvk4j2Ry-Fuf_KJvfNjHhIOFOQfZvQ3lw68Bxue0flcbZPLBJ5lxetzV02O5lTpVUNMoxMkpM-rU7yrlQngemDur1rd4jgMRxNfkRdVUYN_JNBZaXu63F_5GGmZ5OrRfR-hBZuVQ3_28/s1166/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(8).png"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtUGRfb0huibZAZOH9a6R_qmNGol3jxot7RA8r2yYSbRO9hvk4j2Ry-Fuf_KJvfNjHhIOFOQfZvQ3lw68Bxue0flcbZPLBJ5lxetzV02O5lTpVUNMoxMkpM-rU7yrlQngemDur1rd4jgMRxNfkRdVUYN_JNBZaXu63F_5GGmZ5OrRfR-hBZuVQ3_28/w415-h245/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(8).png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Proportion of national statistics offices that carried out activities to educate and reach data users in the past three years, by income group, August–September 2021 (percentage)</span></b></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The pandemic placed unprecedented demands on NSOs around the world. In addition to setting the gold standard for data quality within a country, these offices were expected to take the lead in correcting the abundance of misinformation and disinformation circulating about the impact of COVID-19. To do so, NSOs needed to relay their findings to different data users through new and more traditional approaches to outreach. However, surveys indicated major gaps inthe approaches used depending on the income level of a country. The use of newer, more innovative approaches, such as social media, publication programmes targeted to specific user groups, seminars, eLearning platforms, live chat sessions and podcasts, was favoured by higher-income countries, while low- and lower-middle-income countries favoured more traditional approaches to user engagement. These included press conferences, traditional media appearances, general awareness campaigns, presentations, conferences and launch events. These findings signal an area for collective action by the statistical community. The opportunity is ripe to take advantage of modern communication channels and produce tailored support and data products to reach different user groups.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Increased investment in data and statistics is urgently needed</span></b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVqvSn-IiNZZ_gnYRjNRihyrIO2NI4W8y92k7_wNUvHePUHeljS4mNmgvkOW7abDDZlcr0SvXCuMOtsV3OfFFCeZ49fs_miu_SrgLDjoDA28WQ_aKnbUfpJ0WM20G8cnB4mjiUzgs9ODJcsbWNnF4rLP_9ggBE9tEFjAyPdAnrMRwdP2OccRTN649t/s1166/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(9).png"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVqvSn-IiNZZ_gnYRjNRihyrIO2NI4W8y92k7_wNUvHePUHeljS4mNmgvkOW7abDDZlcr0SvXCuMOtsV3OfFFCeZ49fs_miu_SrgLDjoDA28WQ_aKnbUfpJ0WM20G8cnB4mjiUzgs9ODJcsbWNnF4rLP_9ggBE9tEFjAyPdAnrMRwdP2OccRTN649t/w372-h220/Thinking%20beyond%20crisis%20(9).png" /></a></div><b><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Proportion of national statistics offices that experienced a reduction in funding from the government and donors/other sources since the beginning of the pandemic, May 2021 (percentage)</span></b></div></b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">During the pandemic, 40 per cent of NSOs saw data collection costs rise, while government funding for 48 per cent of NSOs was cut back. In sub-Saharan Africa, 61 per cent of countries saw these costs rise, while 71 per cent saw a drop in government funding and 59 per cent saw a drop in donor funding for NSOs. This trend was corroborated by an analysis of official development assistance for data and statistics, which showed that funding for many basic data activities were quickly deprioritized at the beginning of the pandemic. NSOs in two thirds of countries eligible for borrowing from the International Development Association (IDA) also experienced either moderate or severe delays in budget disbursement at the beginning of the 2021 fiscal year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over the next three years, NSOs in most IDA countries are expecting to face significant funding shortages for targeted programmes from development aid providers. Over two thirds (69 per cent) of surveyed countries identified business and agricultural censuses as the area that will face the most significant funding shortages, followed by population and housing censuses (56 per cent) and household surveys (52 per cent). In terms of policy sectors that will require additional support over this time period, health statistics was identified as a top priority by 76 per cent of IDA countries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The last two years have dealt a major blow to the world’s economy and people, and lower-income countries were hit particularly hard. Investing in data capacities and data partnerships to leave no one behind, build trust and fill data gaps to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals must be a priority for national governments and the international community if countries are to rely upon evidence-based policy responses to emerge stronger from the crisis and face the unknown challenges ahead.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This reaffirms the urgency of implementing important frameworks including the Cape Town Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development Data, the Dubai Declaration and the Bern Data Compact for the Decade of Action on the Sustainable Development Goals, all agreed by the data community during the United Nations World Data Forums, to build statistical capacity and adopt an innovative demand-driven funding mechanism that can respond quickly and efficiently to the priorities of national statistical systems, with the goal of mobilizing both domestic and international funds.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><b>Database is available at <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/">https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/</a>.</b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div><strong style="border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div><strong style="border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div><strong style="border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div><strong style="border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><strong style="border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><div><br /></div></strong></div><div style="text-align: left;"><strong style="border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #4a4a4a; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></strong></div></div><br /><div><br /></div></strong></div></div><br /><div><br /></div></strong></div></div><br /><div><br /></div></strong></div></div><br /><div><br /></div></strong></div></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div></div>Trizha Marie Macalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13112235027066936417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-62650911145318544552022-02-11T11:43:00.002-05:002022-02-11T11:43:52.821-05:00Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals 2021 Report of the UN Secretary-General António Guterres<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="1654" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgtC8jftjJDFeCwM4tFyV-2h31JNGOWPDfzTsYV7ikOjgIem1-J2IoWoFyIMCktCRNBwdrDA2HxPb1JGpgbN8DA6_hj2AW1eqLgNoHMiMw24TaH66BG6aLzAG1zq9H1Cc6jnEPCJYvmc5QGguBeKEPJBcff_sD7t9CR3OTcNwiiLlcUR6zluQ-3Zi6T=w640-h314" width="640" /></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #fcff01;">Secretary-General António Guterres briefs the UN General Assembly on his priorities for 2022</span></b></span></div></span><p></p><p>The year 2020 was an extraordinary time in human history. To date, the
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has cost over 3 million lives, devastated
the global economy and upended all spheres of human life. Against this backdrop, the
present report was prepared to provide an overview of progress towards the
Sustainable Development Goals using inputs from more than 50 international and
regional organizations. The data contained herein are derived from indicators in the
global indicator framework developed by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on
Sustainable Development Goal Indicators and adopted by the General Assembly on
6 July 2017 (see resolution 71/313).1 </p><p>Before the COVID-19 pandemic, progress was being made on implementing the
Goals in important areas such as reducing poverty, improving maternal and child
health, increasing access to electricity and advancing gender equality. In many
instances, however, those advances were not happening fast enough. Moreover, in
truly transformative areas such as reducing inequality, lowering carbon emissions and
tackling hunger, progress had either stalled or reversed. As a result, by early 2020,
the world was not on track to meet the Goals and targets by 2030.</p><p>With the pandemic still raging in many parts of the world, the extent to which
the achievement of the Goals has been further derailed is not yet fully known.
However, it is clear from the present report that the pandemic has already had a very
significant impact in a number of areas, undermining decades of development efforts. </p><p>The impact is particularly evident in relation to Goal 1. The pandemic-related
economic downturn has pushed between 119 and 124 million more people into
extreme poverty in 2020, further compounding challenges to poverty eradication such
as conflict, climate change and natural disasters. The crisis is also exacerbating
inequalities: in 2020, the equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs was lost, and an
additional 101 million children and young people fell below the minimum reading
proficiency level, wiping out the education gains achieved over the previous two
decades. It is also estimated that up to 10 million additional girls will be at risk of
child marriage in the next decade as a result of the pandemic. </p><p>The economic slowdown associated with the pandemic has done little to slow
the climate crisis. Preliminary data for 2020 indicate that atmospheric concentrations
of the major global greenhouse gases increased, while the global average temperature
was about 1.2°C above pre-industrial levels, dangerously close to the 1.5°C limits
established in the Paris Agreement. Furthermore, the world fell short on 2020 targets
aimed at halting biodiversity loss, with 10 million ha of forest lost each year in the
period 2015–2020. </p><p>As shown in the present report, some of the means of implementation required
to support sustainable transformation have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
Global flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) declined by 40 per cent compared to
2019. The value of global merchandise trade is predicted to have fallen by 5.6 per
cent in 2020 compared to 2019. The many fiscal impacts of the pandemic are leading
to debt distress in many countries and territories. While net official development
assistance (ODA) increased in 2020 to a total of $161 billion, that figure still falls
well short of the amount needed to respond to the pandemic and meet the long-established target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income.</p><p>In the present report, the Secretary-General paints a worrying picture of the state
of the Goals six years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. However, the collective response over the coming 18 months will
determine whether or not the COVID-19 crisis serves as a much-needed wake-up call
to spur a decade of truly transformative action that delivers for people and planet. </p><p>Over the past year, there have been rays of hope. There has been immense
community resilience, decisive action from governments, a rapid expansion of social
protection, the acceleration of digital transformation, and unique collaboration to
develop life-saving vaccines and treatments in record time. In addition, as documented
in the present report, there are solid foundations on which to build in some areas. </p><p>A concerted effort is now needed to ensure equitable access to COVID-19
vaccines and treatments, strengthen the financial position of developing countries and
embrace a recovery guided by the 2030 Agenda. To get back on track with the Goals,
governments, cities, businesses and industries must take advantage of the recovery to
adopt low-carbon, resilient and inclusive development pathways that will reduce
carbon emissions, conserve natural resources, create better jobs, advance gender
equality and tackle growing inequities. </p><p>The ability of governments to respond effectively and achieve a better recovery
will also depend on the availability of data. Over the past year, the data and statistical
community has faced unprecedented disruptions in statistical operations and a spike
in demand for data to use in monitoring and mitigating the effects of the global
pandemic. Many national statistical offices have adapted quickly to the challenges and
played a major role in the COVID-19 responses of Governments. New partnerships,
data innovations and novel measures have been introduced that have profoundly
changed the statistical production process in many countries. However, the pandemic
has exacerbated critical funding gaps in national, regional and global statistical
offices, increasing the urgency of the need to mobilize international and domestic
resources in support of data for decision-making. </p><p>The same is true of the availability of internationally comparable data on the
Goals. Considerable progress has been made in this area, with the number of
indicators included in the Global Sustainable Development Goal Indicators Database
increasing from 115 in 2016 to 166 in 2019 and 211 in 2021. However, significant
data gaps still exist in terms of geographical coverage, timeliness and disaggregation
level, making it difficult to fully comprehend the pace of progress, and differences
across regions and know who is being left behind. With the high-level political forum
on sustainable development and the United Nations World Data Forum to be held in
2021, it is essential that greater resources and innovation be deployed to further
enhance data for achieving the Goals.</p><p>#####</p><p>1 The indicator framework, a statistical annex to the report and the Global Sustainable
Development Goals Indicators Database is available at <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/">https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/</a>.</p>Lady B Blesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13943856896444374736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-73125857695667536542022-02-11T02:15:00.000-05:002022-02-11T02:15:02.669-05:002021 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal # 17 Partnership For The Goals <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="512" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiOlCxeMj2iwjJ_Rao_MQR3un8SMSIHBFTYvrvgdDahyJ9zsIK1QKYQdzLu9Y-zVWg1MN6H5Jnm8m0R5hUN5OFMg1BxpJbIgDaLYll3gyTuX7CgbK8NzqB6pxbM0tcVHFzd066xg7aq4RdfvXZNRNcv_kxXY6JXCZKEWfo5OARUTRXHTxnBAjsNhq7m=w640-h360" width="640" /></div><p>With multilateral and global partnerships already challenged by scarce financial resources, trade tensions, technological obstacles and a lack of data, the COVID-19 pandemic has administered an unprecedented shock to the global system. In addition, there is severe pressure on FDI, which is expected to fall by 40 per cent. The fiscal impacts of the pandemic are leading to debt distress in countries and territories and limiting their fiscal and policy space for critical investments in recovery (including accessing vaccines), climate change and the Goals, which threaten to prolong recovery periods. The pandemic has focused attention on the crucial role of global partnerships. The interconnected global economy requires a global response to ensure that all countries and territories, in particular developing countries, can address the compounding and parallel health, economic and environmental crises in order to recover better.</p><p><b>Finance</b></p><p>As of 2019, across approximately 130 economies, government revenue, including taxes, social contributions and grants, accounts for approximately 33 per cent of GDP on average. In addition, the average overall tax burden or revenue in the form of taxes is 25 per cent of GDP in advanced economies and 17 per cent of GDP in emerging market and developing economies. The average proportion of government expenditure funded by taxes is 67 per cent in advanced economies and 62 per cent in emerging market and developing economies.</p><p>Net ODA flows were $161 billion in 2020, an increase of 7 per cent in real terms compared to 2019 and the highest level ever recorded. This is equivalent to 0.32 per cent of the combined gross national income of Development Assistance Committee donors, up from 0.3 per cent in 2019 but below the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income for ODA. The increase in ODA is owing in part to the support of Committee members for an inclusive global recovery in the light of the pandemic and in part to an increase in bilateral sovereign lending by some lending members.</p><p>Global flows of FDI were under severe pressure in 2020. These vital resources are expected to have fallen by 40 per cent from $1.5 trillion in 2019 to less than $1 trillion for the first time since 2005, undoing the already lackluster growth in international investment over the past decade. International private sector investment flows to developing and transition economies in sectors relevant for the Goals were also on course to fall by about one third in 2020.</p><p>Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries and territories reached $540 billion in 2020, just 1.6 per cent below the total of $548 billion for 2019.</p><p>By the end of 2020, the cumulative number of countries and territories that have signed or adopted bilateral investment treaties with the least developed countries and developing economies reached 121 and 183, respectively. The number of countries and territories with bilateral investment treaties in force or implemented reached 102 and 173, respectively. The rate of new countries and territories signing such treaties has slowed in recent years, following a rapid increase in the 1990s.</p><p><b>Information and communications technology</b></p><p>As of 2019, just over half of the world’s population was online, with a large digital divide observed among regions. For example, while 85 per cent of the population in Europe and Northern America had Internet access, only 20 per cent were connected in the least developed countries.</p><p>While fixed-broadband subscriptions continue to increase, growth in subscriptions slowed to 2.7 per cent in 2020. In developed countries, there were more than 33 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, representing a high penetration rate, while the number in developing countries stood at 11.5 per 100 inhabitants. In the least developed countries, fixed networks are almost completely absent, with only 1.3 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.</p><p><b>Capacity-building</b></p><p>Total ODA for capacity-building and national planning amounted to $35.9 billion in 2019 and represented 14 per cent of total sector allocable aid, a figure that has been stable since 2010. The main sectors assisted were energy policy, public administration and the financial sector, which received a total of $13.8 billion.</p><p><b>Trade</b></p><p>For the period from 2017 to 2019, the worldwide weighted tariff average has remained steady at around 2 per cent. Agriculture and clothing still have the highest tariff averages at around 6 per cent, followed by textiles at around 4 per cent. In 2019, small but relatively more significant improvements were recorded for two important sectors, textiles and clothing, in the least developed countries and developing countries.</p><p>The share of least developed country exports in global merchandise trade remained constant at 1 per cent in 2019, has stagnated over the past decade after significant improvement from 2000 to 2010. The target of doubling the share of least developed country exports worldwide to 2 per cent by 2020 from their 2011 level is unlikely to be achieved. For developing countries, the share in world merchandise exports has remained constant at about 45 per cent since 2012. In 2019, the share of the least developed countries in world services exports stood at 0.8 per cent, while the share of developing countries in those exports has leveled off since 2012, reaching 30.2 per cent in 2019.</p><p>After reaching its lowest level of 1.1 per cent in 2011, the average tariff applied by developed countries to imports from developing and least developed countries in 2019 has remained unchanged owing to a lack of new commitments by developed countries. At the sectoral level, clothing and textiles have remained stable at their peak of 8 and 5 per cent, respectively, since 2011.</p><p><b>Data, monitoring and accountability</b></p><p>From 2016 to 2018, the extent to which development cooperation providers used country-owned results frameworks and planning tools in the design and monitoring of new development projects decreased from 64 per cent to 62 per cent on average. Multilateral providers use the frameworks and planning tools for those purposes to a larger extent than bilateral providers (66 per cent compared to 57 per cent).</p><p>Of 114 countries and territories providing or receiving development cooperation, fewer than half (56 countries and territories) reported overall progress in 2018 towards strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships for development with a view to achieving the Goals.</p><p>In 2020, 122 Member States reported having national statistical legislation that was compliant with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. The proportions of compliant Member States exceed 40 per cent for almost all regions and country groups, except for the least developed countries, which also experienced their fastest progress before 2020. Nevertheless, 2020 was the year in which the least progress was made since 2015.</p><p>Also in 2020, 132 countries and territories reported implementing a national statistical plan, with 84 having fully funded plans. Only 4 out of 46 (8 per cent) of the least developed countries reported having fully funded national statistical plans. Countries and territories could face more difficulties in implementing and funding national statistical plans owing to rescheduled and costly activities, such as census and household surveys, that was postponed until 2021 because of the pandemic.</p><p>ODA for data and statistics increased from $591 million in 2015 to $693 million in 2018. Almost every region received more support in 2017 and 2018 than from 2015 to 2016. Despite the progress made in the first four years, the trend of support for data and statistics may be reaching a bottleneck, as nowcasts indicated that there was no significant increase in 2019. While the need for reliable data continues to increase, including addressing and mitigating the impacts of the pandemic, many countries and territories still lack the resources to produce reliable data.</p><p>For the period 2015–2019, 146 countries and territories have birth registration data that are at least 90 per cent complete and 151 countries and territories have death registration data that are at least 75 per cent complete. Therefore, about 60 per cent of countries and territories worldwide meet both criteria. In sub-Saharan Africa, additional countries and territories have birth and death registration data compared to the previous reporting period, increasing from 28 to 29 countries and territories for birth registration and from 53 to 55 countries and territories for death registration.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="7201" data-original-width="5401" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgECQTvOhCjXuqMAQm1a6XzLpWcV_qsMkgu-AbHaGExO_AST901hIP_jb2-QEP78E9Jbt3rLYmvEmvvQq7DK0FBKlRc8SllTF_jEM_VsZZC2Cla5FMg8W1Ocyb2vVOFO8TQ2b_FcgQEI2SnEhAMuJlK13NX3rK8XiqFdMKoT0ggtGfQtIk-fp_EQAVV=w480-h640" width="480" /></div><p>Source: <a href="https://undocs.org/en/E/2021/58" target="_blank">Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals – E/2021/58</a></p>Lady B Blesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13943856896444374736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-13092537402276410672022-02-11T02:07:00.003-05:002022-02-11T02:07:57.866-05:002021 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal # 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="512" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhz-E4pv5SspK9XozhTopbWXHs_3KogxFVelqe2_CuA9ZIE952EPzQFMSGWCJ_jZWVyFF85sTYEtIML5Ihc9vQTbYbhzkVv9IfhB1nQalL9Rv8TUz8KMVUJ2yrIPp0VNnISg1Rronjk4st_2sJlED8l-DNtm72XREcaUKzuN3S8Tz-15ZZNfLWO8Ynl=w640-h360" width="640" /></div><p>The world is still a long way from achieving the goal of building peaceful, just and inclusive societies, with millions of people living in fragile and conflict-affected States. At the end of 2019, 79.5 million people had been forcibly displaced worldwide, equivalent to 1 per cent of the global population. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed inequalities and discrimination and has tested, weakened, and in some cases shattered rights and protection systems in countries and territories.</p><p>Globally, around 437,000 people were victims of homicide in 2019. However, lethal violence is slowly decreasing, and homicide rates declined from 6 v ictims per 100,000 population in 2015 to 5.7 per 100,000 in 2019. Two thirds of all homicide victims were in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, with no sign of numbers falling in sub-Saharan Africa.</p><p>The United Nations recorded 69,276 civilian deaths in 12 of the world’s deadliest armed conflicts between 2018 and 2020. In 2020, there were five civilians killed per 100,000 population, one in seven of which was a woman or child.</p><p>Even before the pandemic, violence against children was widespread, affecting victims regardless of wealth or social status. In 77 mostly low- and middle-income countries and territories with available data from 2012 to 2020, 8 in 10 children, ranging from 1 to 14 years of age, had been subjected to some form of psychological aggression or physical punishment at home in the previous month.</p><p>In 2018, some 5 in 10 victims of human trafficking detected globally were women and 2 in 10 were girls. Moreover, about one-third of all detected victims were children. About 50 per cent of the detected victims were trafficked for sexual exploitation and 38 per cent for forced labour. The sharp rise in unemployment brought about by the pandemic is likely to increase trafficking in persons.</p><p>Globally, the proportion of prisoners held in detention in 2019 without being sentenced for a crime remained high at 31 per cent of the total prison population, with no significant change since 2000.</p><p>Data from more than 120 countries and territories indicate that people living in low-income countries and territories are those most exposed to bribery. According to the latest data available for the period from 2011 to 2020, the average prevalence of bribery in low-income countries and territories is 37.6 per cent, compared to 7.2 per cent in high-income countries and territories.</p><p>Establishment-level data from 145 countries and territories surveyed between 2006 and 2020 indicate that almost one business in six around the world is subject to requests from public officials for bribe payments.</p><p>Globally as of January 2021, 31.1 per cent of parliamentarians are 45 years of age or less, up from 28.1 per cent in 2018. Male parliamentarians remain predominant in the leadership positions of speaker and committee chair.</p><p>According to data for the period from 2010 to 2020, the births of around one in four children under 5 years of age worldwide were not officially recorded. Only 45 per cent of all children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa had their births registered</p><p>In 2020, the United Nations tracked 331 killings of human rights defenders in 32 countries and territories, an 18 per cent increase in 2019, and 19 enforced disappearances in 14 countries and territories. Women comprised 13 per cent of victims killed and 22 per cent of those forcibly disappeared. A total of 62 journalists were killed in 2020 compared to 57 in 2019, with 65 per cent killed in non-conflict countries and territories.</p><p>As of February 2021, laws on access to information have been adopted by 127 countries and territories, although the implementation of the laws could be improved. The pandemic has slowed the pace of progress in this area, with no countries or territories passing such laws in 2020 and a number of countries and territories temporarily suspending existing legal guarantees. Nevertheless, many countries and territories attempted to make data available concerning COVID-19 infections, the contracting of emergency equipment and the allocation of rescue packages and relief financing.</p><p>In 2020, the number of independently functioning national human rights institutions in sub-Saharan Africa and Europe increased by three, raising the proportion of countries and territories that had successfully achieved compliance with the Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups to 42 per cent. However, progress has stalled in Latin America and the Caribbean, Oceania, Western Asia, and Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, where no new independent national human rights institutions have been recognized or established since 2018.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="7201" data-original-width="5401" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhSDDNQKR6G3n97DsP4rSKb5FWcvAmv7CVSfn9d_9omXFNWl2G01RGP9qoAGojaU-QUzqhpWE5csdcd9SR9J8TvCUfYhmlpSeG2SQKYeXfrnVxOdHdXc1WqVyFT75LPPAyzXD3WbL43WojQBa8kcoY1JjsfaL1iHrPrSE50F6N8yWiIJ-5L_sD5CglH=w480-h640" width="480" /></div><p>Source: <a href="https://undocs.org/en/E/2021/58" target="_blank">Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals – E/2021/58</a></p>Lady B Blesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13943856896444374736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-62696026455381475482022-02-11T01:58:00.001-05:002022-02-11T01:58:27.774-05:002021 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal # 15 Life on Land<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="512" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguXEeaFTielMcM7g1fRS029DALteDEVeU2-zH3JIsYE2_1AmgwE7e3FQhZwh82VWSfjAUxvBqK8DXq0l8JaArPkSQnoPZ3OAcLDROBYd3Jkiw8j09sIrGRlL0laaPSQfqqwocmXMokluRGbpinhPIgA2OToJNv0YaU5EF8KmE2xgUOkPRlxL_a0RXY=w640-h360" width="640" /></div><p>Deforestation and forest degradation, continued biodiversity loss and the ongoing degradation of ecosystems are having profound consequences for human well-being and survival. The world fell short on 2020 targets to halt biodiversity loss. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that, by threatening biodiversity, humanity threatens its own survival. While great efforts are being made to expand sustainable forest management, increase coverage of key biodiversity areas and sign up t o legislation and treaties for protecting biodiversity and ecosystems, much more needs to be done to put the health of the planet at the centre of all plans and policies.</p><p>While the rate of deforestation in tropical regions has slowed in the past decad e, vigilance and targeted efforts are required to maintain this trend. The proportion of forest area fell from 31.9 per cent of total land area in 2000 to 31.2 per cent in 2020, representing a net loss of almost 100 million hectares of the world’s forests. From 2000 to 2020, forest area increased in Asia, Europe and Northern America, but decreased significantly in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the losses in forest cover, above-ground forest biomass per hectare, the proportion of forest area in protected areas and under long-term management plans, and certified forest area all increased or remained stable at the global level and in most of the regions of the world, demonstrating global progress towards sustainable forest management.</p><p>In 2020, an average of 43 per cent of each terrestrial key biodiversity area, 42 per cent of each freshwater key biodiversity area, and 41 per cent of each mountain key biodiversity area were within protected areas, an increase of 13 to14 percentage points since 2000.</p><p>As of February 2021, 127 countries and territories had committed to setting voluntary targets for achieving land degradation neutrality, and 68 countries and territories had already officially endorsed their targets. Overall, commitments to la nd restoration are estimated to amount to 1 billion hectares, of which 450 million hectares are covered by commitments through land degradation neutrality targets.</p><p>Data based on satellite imagery reveal that green coverage (forests, grasslands, croplands and wetlands) of the world’s mountains remained steady at about 73 per cent between 2000 and 2018. Green cover tends to be greater in mountain areas that are less than 2,500 metres above sea level. However, mountain green cover varies considerably across geographical regions, ranging from 100 per cent in Oceania to 68 per cent in Northern Africa and Western Asia.</p><p>Globally, the risk of species extinction has increased by about 10 per cent over the past three decades. The Red List Index, which ranges from a value of 1 to indicate no risk of extinction to a value of 0 to indicate the extinction of all species, decreased from 0.81 in 1993 to 0.73 in 2021.</p><p>As of 1 February 2021, 128 countries, territories and the European Union had ratified the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which is an increase of 60 countries and territories since 2016, and 67 countries, territories and the European Union have shared information on their Nagoya Protocol frameworks. There are now 148 parties to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and so far, 57 countries and territories have provided information about the measures that they have taken to implement the Nagoya Protocol.</p><p>The pandemic and the vast subsequent harm to human and economic well-being have starkly illustrated the potential global impact of zoonotic diseases, for which wildlife trade – both legal and illegal – is a potential vector. While certain markets for illegal wildlife products are declining, such as the market for ivory, which has decreased 3.5-fold since 2013, other species are under increasing threat as offenders shift their focus to more lucrative products, such as pangolin scales. In 2018, for example, there was a tenfold increase in the number of whole pangolin equivalents seized since 2014.</p><p>Nearly all countries and territories (98 per cent) have adopted national legislation for the prevention or control of invasive alien species, although there is wide variation in its coverage across sectors. The proportion of countries and territories aligning their targets for invasive alien species with global targets has increased, from 74 per cent in 2016 to 84 per cent in 2020.</p><p>As of March 2021, 89 countries and territories have implemented the system of environmental economic accounting, an increase of 29 per cent since 2017. Of these, 62 countries and territories (70 per cent) have integrated the system of accounting into their regular statistical production methods, and compile and publish the accounts on a regular basis.</p><p>In 2019, ODA from Development Assistance Committee members provided in support of biodiversity amounted to $6.6 billion, a decrease of 14 per cent in real terms compared to 2018. In 2021, a total of 232 biodiversity-relevant taxes are in force across 62 countries and territories.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="7201" data-original-width="5401" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiC52sFJI2InV9OXunl1sUgKnDvkxqItQ-i1Amvqcuh_GHyWmmNzTmnWzvtMaV6NxsfTLgLHPqSrumta36GpP-wdGfrRrylTmzQ2dH3Lj9e8oHvyUtoX81j-idY8nysj5I1Mla1YiN0nJoBLd1u3-isfVt3V_OIGNQx6aygVfRzwLydgVPfo96MLgNm=w480-h640" width="480" /></div><p>Source: <a href="https://undocs.org/en/E/2021/58" target="_blank">Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals – E/2021/58</a></p>Lady B Blesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13943856896444374736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-52149843874901116572022-02-11T01:45:00.002-05:002022-02-11T01:45:59.774-05:002021 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal # 14 Life Below Water<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="512" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXi0rXjUuYFaRMmIo_GtTv_mCDd1vbO6xPIjn7bnZg6YR7Fm6tMma3HqwR3BMOvEHdtSnAirUrwLdTY_Trsx7jmRn9TjLaJ2DhX5Bf8wRybRLr6wsSjrcK3iJoYNm3tbPE2fH7YD8ISRweETk2Ha78LwkNem9QuwZLWzUteHD6dvUHSd-vx3F3C3yE=w640-h360" width="640" /></div><p></p><p>More than 3 billion people rely on the oceans for their livelihoods, and more than 80 per cent of world merchandise trade by volume is carried by sea. The oceans, seas and marine resources are under constant threat from pollution, warming and acidification that are disrupting marine ecosystems and the communities they support. These changes have long-term repercussions that require the world to urgently scale up the protection of marine environments, investment in ocean science, support for small-scale fishery communities, and the sustainable management of the oceans.</p><p>While efforts to reduce nutrient inputs into coastal zones are showing success in some regions, algal blooms indicate that coastal eutrophication continues to be a challenge. Globally, anomalies of chlorophyll-a (the pigment responsible for photosynthesis in all plants and algae) in national exclusive economic zones decreased by 20 per cent from 2018 to 2020.</p><p>Ocean acidification is caused by the absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide by the ocean, resulting in a decreasing pH and threatening marine organisms and ocean-based services. A limited set of long-term observation sites in the open ocean have observed a continuous decline in pH over the past 20 to 30 years.</p><p>Mean protected area coverage of marine key biodiversity areas increased globally from 28 per cent in 2000 to 44 per cent in 2020. However, there is considerable geographical variation in this progress, with coverage still less than one-quarter of key biodiversity areas in Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand).</p><p>Improved regulation, together with effective monitoring and surveillance, has proved successful in restoring overfished stocks to biologically sustainable levels. However, the adoption of such measures has generally been slow, in many developing countries in particular. In 13 countries and territories that have active assessment and management systems in place, the proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels is higher than the world average of 65.8 per cent, according to data collected in 2019.</p><p>Between 2018 and 2020, the average degree of implementation of international instruments to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing improved around the world, with the global score measuring the implementation of the five principal instruments rising from 3 to 4 out of 5. Almost 75 per cent of States scored highly in their degree of implementation in 2020, compared to 70 per cent percent of States in 2018.</p><p>Between 2018 and 2020, the world made progress in implementing regulatory and institutional frameworks that recognize and protect access rights for small-scale fisheries, with the global score rising from 3 to 4. At the regional level, Northern Africa and Western Asia made this progress, while the regional score for Central and Southern Asia fell from 3 to 2, highlighting the need for efforts there to be redoubled and demonstrating that there is no room for complacency.</p><p>Sustainable fisheries accounted for approximately 0.1 per cent of global GDP in 2017, while contributing more than 0.5 per cent of GDP in certain regions and the least developed countries. The sustainable management of fish stocks remains critical to ensuring that fisheries continue to generate economic growth and support equitable development. The long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on fisheries poses significant challenges that threaten to undermine sustainable stock management and profitability.</p><p>On average, only 1.2 per cent of national research budgets was allocated to ocean science between 2013 and 2017, with amounts ranging from 0.02 per cent to 9.5 per cent. This is a small proportion in view of the conservatively estimated $1.5 trillion contributions of the ocean to the global economy in 2010.</p><p>Many states have ratified or acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (168 parties) and its implementing agreements (150 parties for the Agreement relating to the implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and 91 parties for the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement). A number of states have implemented these instruments through legal, policy and institutional frameworks, but further progress is needed in some developing countries, in particular the least developed countries.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="7201" data-original-width="5401" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijjq_G16PDxnJs-5Iw-YJ_k_Hle-USJXVnqo9skDUP-28if9moeaj0xZRzJBh2r_el6jbcfVYJD4lTmFIfIalbIIoL3bLbys3fMgY_PaCrnJ0rpkiIalGIe5uPDXjkNmUSX8GyhXFQxUDx9PHLX0uB7boS2ohAdZ0s_Qon415T7ge0TMY86-6XSMi9=w480-h640" width="480" /></div><p>Source: <a href="https://undocs.org/en/E/2021/58" target="_blank">Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals – E/2021/58</a></p>Lady B Blesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13943856896444374736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-37388523556993968592022-02-11T01:37:00.001-05:002022-02-11T01:37:25.142-05:002021 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal # 13 Climate Action<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="512" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhevH_hlDXHFDTYBfJzsjONif-OAp2aC5bBEt2T1NgSMIvZDBBDaMiyVqoJTtfWQ0bpFMJuoB5ENQKw9070vJ8vd-xoOwLJJcTYWgU9ctuZECTG8zeuvttFDdxsSm622KLD2S17jPbbYsalQCWMOSowC3UydsoYnuj6Rh-fj1TNNVVDmR2cqRxqHXLZ=w640-h360" width="640" /></div><p>Atmospheric concentrations of the major greenhouse gases continued to increase despite the temporary reduction in emissions in 2020 related to measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The six years from 2015 to 2020 are likely to be the warmest on record. Climate change is making the achievement of many Goals less likely. To limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in accordance with the Paris Agreement, the world would need to achieve net zero carbon dioxide emissions by around 2050.</p><p>As of April 2020, 118 countries and territories had reported the development and adoption of national or local disaster risk reduction strategies, an increase from 48 countries and territories in the first year of the Sendai Framework.</p><p>As at 31 December 2020, 190 parties (189 countries and territories plus the European Union) had communicated their first nationally determined contribution to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, of which 44 were least developed countries and 40 were small island developing States. A further 48 countries and territories, of which one is a least developed country and five are small island developing States, have also communicated a second or updated nationally determined contribution. Of these 48 countries and territories, 39 included adaptation information in their new or updated contribution. The nationally determined contributions demonstrate that countries and territories are articulating more quantified targets and indicators for adaptation and identifying links between adaptation, the Goals and other frameworks.</p><p>As at 31 March 2021, 125 of 154 developing countries were carrying out measures for national adaptation plans and prioritizing the formulation and implementation of the plans in their adaptation efforts. Moreover, six least developed countries (including three small islands developing States) and another four small islands developing States have completed a national adaptation plan. Further, least developed countries have drafted national adaptation plans and are on track to complete and submit these with a view to ensuring that all least developed countries have national adaptation plans by 2021.</p><p>According to scientists, global emissions should be cut to 45 per cent below 2010 levels by 2030 in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Emissions from developed countries were approximately 6.2 per cent lower in 2019 than in 2010, while emissions from 70 developing countries rose by 14.4 per cent in 2014.</p><p>Total climate finance reported by States parties included in annex I to the Framework Convention on Climate Change continues to increase, reaching an annual average of $48.7 billion in the period 2017–2018. This represents an increase of 10 per cent compared to the 2015–2016 period. While more than half of all climate-specific financial support in 2017 and 2018 was targeted at mitigation action, the share of adaptation support is growing, and many countries and territories are prioritizing adaptation in their financial support provision.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="7201" data-original-width="5401" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjCYBVn1UKUDVw4T59cla32ru3D1qs_C3hJvEmheq2OfPHr3DUXeJNLndPvmFBSaYXwM770uLuK8_WwXhKpob5qlseOcqzE90ZbsVcqF4nHlm1YCK9lQAlnqdG3tmTKL2UPL2iDElHKmEgM4NOqj2hleN8QBAFSeerGXdG6-bWcLWrGqQ6NZX1vDofo=w480-h640" width="480" /></div><p>Source: <a href="https://undocs.org/en/E/2021/58" target="_blank">Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals – E/2021/58</a></p>Lady B Blesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13943856896444374736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034196796515612057.post-28225124316920775052022-02-11T01:01:00.000-05:002022-02-11T01:01:27.325-05:002021 Progress toward the SDGs, Goal # 12 Responsible Consumption and Production<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="512" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJMC-D5jgFUr4hl4aXdaL6MynZVpsiehoyamvcLRoyKEdb1aG5Ygbi824XcG6H40JbDP8w9AtR_E4Go3nFE_Yde45dxs3ebdTTPXLeO095O8w20nH0a2TK6WT3EHFDhHNOmDXK17yD-PK8GC5-N6X6rNfsUD91VT2OeLCHI3S43S4f4-3sp62ajiCD=w640-h360" width="640" /></div><p>For decades, scientists have been explaining the ways in which humanity is driving the three planetary crises of climate, biodiversity and pollution, all of which are linked to unsustainable production and consumption. Changes in consumption and production patterns can help to promote the decoupling of economic growth and human well-being from resource use and environmental impact. They can also trigger the transformations envisaged in global commitments on biodiversity, the climate, and sustainable development in general. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a window of opportunity for exploring more inclusive and equitable development models that are underpinned by sustainable consumption and production.</p><p>From 2017 to 2020, 83 countries, territories and the European Union shared information on their contribution to the implementation of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns. In 2020, 136 policies and 27 implementation activities were reported, bringing the total number to over 700. While specific actions have been taken to improve resource use efficiency in a specific industry or area, this has not resulted in their widespread adoption across sectors and industries.</p><p>Data indicate a rise of almost 40 per cent in the global material footprint per capita, from 8.8 metric tons in 2000 to 12.2 metric tons in 2017. Similarly, domestic material consumption per capita increased by more than 40 per cent, from 8.7 metric tons in 2000 to 12.2 metric tons in 2017.</p><p>Although limited data are available, as of 2016, almost 14 per cent of food produced globally was lost before reaching the retail sector. Estimates vary across regions, from 20.7 per cent in Central and Southern Asia to 5.8 per cent in Australia and New Zealand.</p><p>In 2019, the amount of e-waste generated was 7.3 kg per capita, with only 1.7 kg per capita documented to be managed in an environmentally sustainable manner. E-waste generation is expected to grow by 0.16 kg per capita annually to reach 9 kg per capita in 2030. The annual rate of growth in e-waste recycling over the past decade was 0.05 kg per capita, which will need to increase more than tenfold if all e-waste is to be recycled by 2030.</p><p>A pilot review conducted in 2020 on a random sample of about 4,000 companies in the United Nations Global Compact database and the Sustainability Disclosure database of the Global Reporting Initiative indicates that 85 per cent of companies reported on minimum requirements for sustainability issues and 40 per cent on advanced requirements for such issues.</p><p>As of December 2020, 40 countries and territories had reported on sustainable public procurement policies and action plans or equivalent legal dispositions aimed at encouraging the procurement of environmentally sound, energy-efficient products and promoting more socially responsible purchasing practices and sustainable supply chains.</p><p>Fossil fuel subsidies declined in 2019 to $431.6 billion as a result of lower fuel prices, reversing the upward trend from 2017 to 2018. Fossil fuel subsidies are expected to fall sharply owing to the collapse in demand caused by COVID-19 mitigation efforts and the oil price shock experienced in 2020.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="7201" data-original-width="5401" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJWWVseJQA2vBwu4Nh1x5J4y94GymP4V83Logyri1EIquDgDdrFAF25RPjt3wG6W199Uon8aZlghirBDeFLVkupgyUmMHGKfidXP_mE94o0o8Q42sJ743-7Hbj1xJYOCflSjuk_RuOH0xUElKArQc2qYNCAauvKaRZffWlJXPrCYPtusvBGq0H9sq6=w480-h640" width="480" /></div><p>Source: <a href="https://undocs.org/en/E/2021/58" target="_blank">Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals – E/2021/58</a></p>Lady B Blesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13943856896444374736noreply@blogger.com0