A report issued by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) showed the difficulty of achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for many Arab countries, while the world is floundering to contain the pandemic of Covid-19 and overcome the new challenges it has caused.
ESCWA warned that the region will not achieve the sustainable development goals by 2030 and urged to end conflicts and strengthen governance structures to help build fair and peaceful societies, calling for commitment to human rights and the expansion of civil space. Indicating that there are structural and rooted obstacles that prevent the shift towards comprehensive sustainable development for all in the region, and that they are often interconnected and of an interactive and interrelated nature.
ESCWA Executive Secretary, Rola Dashti, stressed that the report is free of magic solutions and that "what urges us all to be modest, so we recognize that we are not on the path to achieving the sustainable development plan in the Arab region by 2030".
Before the situation was exacerbated by the Coronavirus, conflicts in the Arab region had led to the only increase in extreme poverty rates in the world compared to 2010.
Source (The New Arab Newspaper, Edited)
