It is half-time for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Currently, ministers and secretaries of state are meeting at the High-Level Political Forum to take stock and prepare for the United Nations SDG Summit in September. The 2023 SDG Summit will take place in New York on September 18-19, 2023, and is expected to mark the beginning of a new phase of accelerated progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provide targeted policy guidance for transformative and accelerated action by 2030.
International solidarity is especially needed with regard to the pledged 0.7 percent of gross national income for official development assistance. There is currently a billion-dollar gap, and the planned cuts in the German budget send a devastating signal. The figures, which reflect the development status of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, show: Urgent countermeasures are needed. More than half of the world's population has no form of social security. The consequences of the Corona pandemic, the Ukraine war and climate change have further increased social and economic inequality worldwide. The member countries of the United Nations have agreed to overcome extreme poverty and hunger in the coming years. The bare numbers speak against it: since 2017, the number of undernourished people has increased year after year to now more than 800 million people, about 10 percent of the world's population.
Changing this trend will require a global effort in the coming years. If Germany, as one of the largest donors, cuts back here, it will send a dramatic signal that could encourage other countries to cut back as well.
The Internationaler Bund (IB) therefore supports the demands to the German government to increase the budget for development cooperation immediately.
