Heads of states and governments will attend a series of high-level annual meetings of the 78th U.N. General Assembly session in September. The tasks facing them are enormous: massive floodings, wildfires, record high temperatures, the on-going wars in Ukraine and Sudan, inflation, widespread poverty and the 360 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.
The U.N. General Assembly session September 16 – 26 is under the theme “Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all.” A general debate will allow all leaders and representatives of the 193 U.N. member states to speak.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit September 18 -19. The summit is convened every four years to review progress on implementing the 17 goals, a major enterprise adopted by the U.N. in 2015 and branded as a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.” The U.N. said the summit is expected to work out a negotiated political declaration that will provide political guidance to speed up actions to meet the 2030 deadline.
Anticipation is high that those leaders would adopt strategies to scale up efforts to complete the goals by the deadline. The goals include calls for the elimination of poverty, hunger, good health and education for all. Observers said the current wars, high demands for humanitarian assistance as well as human rights violations are the hardest problems to solve in years, coming on the heels of the deadly, three-year Covid-19 pandemic.
During review meetings held in July this year, the U.N. said the SDGs are “in peril” because progress and efforts to achieve them have been eroded by climate disasters, the COVID pandemic, the Russian war in Ukraine and rising food prices.
It called on governments to redouble efforts to achieve the goals or else they should expect greater political instability, upended economics leading to irreversible damage and hundreds of millions of people hungry and poor.
The U.N. said if the current trends persist, by 2030, a staggering 575 million people will remain trapped in extreme poverty and an estimated 84 million children and young people will still be out of school.
Climate Ambition Summit September 20. The summit allows the opportunity to urge leaders of governments, business, local authorities, civil society and financial institutions to step up efforts for credible, new climate action and nature-based solutions to counter climate change, the U.N. said.
Preparatory Ministerial Meeting for the Summit of the Future September 21. The U.N. said government ministers will meet to prepare for the Summit of the Future to be held in September 2024, which will be “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enhance global cooperation to tackle critical challenges, address gaps in global governance, reaffirm existing commitments, including to the SDGs and the United Nations Charter, and make a multilateral system better positioned to positively impact people’s lives.”
High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development September 20. The High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development, taking place on the heels of the SDG Summit, will provide political leadership and guidance on the implementation of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda – a UN framework for mobilizing resources to achieve the SDGs – as well as identify progress and emerging challenges and mobilize further action.
Three high-level meetings will focus on health issues:
Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response September 20 – The U.N. said the President of the General Assembly, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, will convene Heads of State and Government for a one-day meeting to adopt a political declaration aimed at mobilizing political will at the national, regional and international levels for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Universal Health Coverage September 21 – The meeting presents an opportunity for countries and stakeholders to renew efforts and accelerate progress toward achieving health for all. This will serve as the foundation for executing policies and ensuring responsibility for strengthening health systems for the future, building on the 2019 Political Declaration, the U.N. said.
Fight against Tuberculosis September 22 – The high-level meeting on the Fight against Tuberculosis will be under the theme, “Advancing science, finance and innovation, and their benefits, to urgently end the global tuberculosis epidemic, in particular, by ensuring equitable access to prevention, testing, treatment and care.”