We cannot afford to go backwards

OpEd by H.E. Munir Akram, President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council and Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations

This year calls for global solidarity, collaborative leadership, and concrete actions to get us back on track. More people are living in poverty, millions have lost their jobs, and many more are going hungry everyday. Today, we need to do whatever it takes to prevent the current health and economic crisis from becoming a humanitarian crisis of global scale. 

The stakes are high as we recover. We cannot simply aim to return to where we were before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. We need to build back better and that means creating the conditions for a shift to a better, more sustainable, more resilient, and more equitable track so that we can recover ground and accelerate progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We need to work together to respond to these challenges.

The UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has an important contribution to give. Over the years, ECOSOC has been the central body for the discussion of international economic, social and development policies. It has the mandate to promote better living standards in larger freedoms through international economic cooperation. It is with this in mind that I have included among my priorities as President the need to invest in sustainable rural infrastructure to ensure market access for farmers especially; to make sustainable technologies available to all; to ensure financing for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and to reduce rural poverty.

These priorities are also critical when we look at food security and nutrition and food systems transformation, which will be high on the ECOSOC’s agenda, including at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, and are important dimensions of COVID-19 response and recovery. This year’s HLPF will review SDG 2 and, as in recent years, will include the launch of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) as a special event.

A busy year lies ahead of us, and I am looking forward to strengthening collaboration with FAO on critical issues such as transforming agri-food systems, scaling up the use of science, technology and innovation, improving rural infrastructure, and increasing focus on Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

We cannot afford to go backwards, we cannot afford to let natural resources run to waste, and we cannot afford to leave anyone behind. We need to work together to deepen our efforts during this Decade of Action and get back on track to achieving the SDGs.