UN SDG Summit and People’s Assemblies

Dear Colleagues,

Greetings of Solidarity for the International Day of the Eradication of Poverty!

This October our thoughts are with the victims of violence in Israel and Palestine. We are calling to end all violence and for serious efforts to achieve a peaceful and just solution for this longstanding conflict. Our thoughts are also with people in Ukraine, Sudan, Eastern Congo and many more countries affected by conflicts and wars. Without peace there will be no eradication of poverty.

September was the SDG Mid-Point: for that reason, GCAP National Coalitions and Constituency Groups had even stronger mobilisations this year. In 40 countries, National People’s Assemblies were organised with participation of discriminated groups. The national assemblies were often prepared by community and sub-regional assemblies. In at least 34 countries GCAP coalitions organised public actions during the Global Week to Act4SDGs.

We raised our voices at the national level and brought them to the UN in New York!

There were hopes that the SDG Summit would be a turning point to achieve the SDGs. This hope was not fulfilled. Instead of solutions and actions, there were many affirmations and verbal commitments to the SDGs. The summit showed – as at the BRICS and G20 summits in the weeks before –  that the Global South is no longer willing to discuss its interests confined to the sidelines.

Optimistically, the SDG Summit set the direction for UN summits in the coming years: the Summit of the Future in 2024, the Fourth Financing for Development Conference in 2025 and the World Social Summit in 2025 provide the platforms to make the necessary decisions for structural change. Pessimistically, the UN does not have the strength to find answers to the multiple, overlapping crises and the SDG agenda remains nice words without consequences.

It is therefore all the more important to have a clear voice of civil society. As there was hardly any space for this within the UN Summit, the Global People’s Assembly took place in parallel on 17 and 18 September opposite the UN building. It was organised by the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) together with 64 co-organisers such as Action For Sustainable Development, Amnesty International, CIVICUS, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Save the Children and different Major Groups. In addition, for the first time, there was the so-called SDG Action Weekend with the Civil Society Day on 16 September within the UN.

The Global People’s Assembly was the culmination of a bottom-up process, in the run-up to the Summit, representatives of marginalised groups met in local, national and regional People’s Assemblies to analyse the implementation of the SDGs and to formulate demands for their governments to take to New York.

The declaration of the Global People’s Assembly^[1] contains four central themes that build on the declarations of the national and regional processes:

1. Economic and financial justice
2. Climate and environmental justice
3. Social justice and gender equality
4. Civil society, human rights and the UN.

The declaration was introduced into the official summit. During the Global People’s Assembly, the following three points were discussed as central to SDG implementation in the coming years:

1. The SDG mid-term review is devastating

The SDG mid-term reports clearly show that the SDGs will not be achieved if the trend continues as before. Only 15 percent of the 169 goals are on track, progress is too slow for about half of the goals and development is stagnating or even regressing at 37 per cent compared to 2015.

The final declaration of the SDG Summit acknowledges the problems, but there is no consensus on the reasons for the slow implementation. The COVID-19 pandemic remains an important factor. The statements of the national People’s Assemblies make it clear that many people in the Global South are still affected by the impact of the pandemic. At the same time, COVID-19 is also used as an excuse; because even before Corona, the number of hungry people had increased. And it was already clear when the 2030 Agenda was adopted that there was no secure funding for the SDGs.

There were two main oppositions to the political declaration of the summit in the weeks before:

• The USA, the UK and some other rich countries (not from the EU) questioned the formulations on financing for development – in particular, they did not want reforms of the international financial architecture.
• Authoritarian governments such as Russia, Eritrea and North Korea threatened to block the declaration as long as it did not contain a condemnation of sanctions.

Both objections were rejected by a large majority and in the end the final declaration was adopted without any dissenting votes. Is this a success? The Summit Declaration contains a lot of positive words for the SDGs. Given the global political situation, it was good to see the vast majority clearly in favour of the SDGs and the associated development model. The declaration contains the clear message to the rich countries to give up the dominance of the financial architecture and to authoritarian states that their alternative is not wanted. On the other hand, it is frustrating to keep reading words like “reaffirm”, “recommit”, “pledge” without concrete resolutions on how this will be implemented.

2. The debt crisis kills the SDGs – more global justice needed

An important point of discussion was the reform of the international financial architecture and fresh funding. The debt crisis shows that the current system does not manage to solve the problem. 54 countries suffer from too much debt. They have problems servicing their debts, they pay more for debt repayment and therefore often cut social services including health and education – with often fatal consequences for the people. Adaptations to climate change cannot be financed either. A solution requires, on the one hand, short-term debt cancellation and, on the other hand, an international sovereign insolvency system that enables a fair and transparent procedure.

More global justice is needed not only in the debt crisis. Reforms of the international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including their governance, are also necessary. Tax justice was also a centrally discussed topic: governments in the Global South need funds to finance social expenditures and climate activities. Currently, international companies and many rich people pay no or hardly any taxes in countries of the Global South. Thus, these countries lose about $300 billion annually. The club of rich countries, the OECD, has unsuccessfully tried to solve this problem since 2015. Instead, a global control mechanism under the umbrella of the UN should be created with a framework convention. A process to this end is underway in the UN General Assembly, initiated by the group of African states.

The SDG Summit Declaration also positions itself positively in support of the $500 billion SDG Stimulus Plan proposed by the UN Secretary-General. It was agree that one means of financing it are Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and the “recycling” of unused SDRs. But no decisions were made.

3. There are affordable solutions – like Social Protection for All

The summit and the preparatory events such as the Global People’s Assembly have made it clear: there are solutions. They are also affordable. The introduction of social protection floors would be an effective instrument to achieve SDGs 1, 2 and 10 – the fight against poverty, hunger and inequality. For success, it is important that all people have a right to basic social security. The introduction of a social security system in the poorest countries would cost a total of $79 billion. But that is equivalent to 15% of their gross domestic product. At the beginning, the countries could not afford this on their own, but in the course of 10 to 15 years they would be able to finance it themselves. The prerequisite would be that plans were developed at the national level with the involvement of trade unions, employers and civil society. To support and finance this process, the Global Fund for Building Social Protection is needed.

As GCAP we decided on the new Strategic Plan 2023 – 2030, including social justice achieved through social protection, universal health coverage and gender equality;  financial  justice achieved through work on debt and tax as well as climate justice for the most affected people and areas. The Global People’s Assembly discussed these issues and the conclusion is clear: the SDGs  – including the eradication of poverty – can only be achieved through global justice.

In Solidarity,

Ingo Ritz

^[1] GCAP (2023): Declaration of the Global People’s Assembly. https://gcap.global/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/GPA-Declaration-2023.pdf