Malala Yousafzai, an honorary Canadian citizen and a UN Messenger of Peace, speaks as she sits with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his workplace throughout her go to to Parliament Hill for her Honorary Canadian Citizenship ceremony in April 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the United Nations Normal Meeting this yr by the use of pre-recorded video.

The COVID-19 disaster has proven that “issues have to alter,” he declared within the worldwide highlight, months after Canada’s unsuccessful bid for a seat on the UN Safety Council. “Not simply on the world stage, however at dwelling, too.”

He’s proper.

On the identical day, Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, an honorary Canadian citizen and UN Messenger of Peace, reminded world leaders that the UN’s Sustainable Growth Targets (SDGs) are the long run.

Yousafzai, additionally a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, requested the leaders once they’re planning on doing the work in direction of a “new sustainable, wholesome, educated and equitable period.”

Canada’s international targets

Trudeau’s speech to the United Nations was daring in tone and content material. He highlighted a number of of the UN’s International Targets — tackling local weather change, inequality and well being and ladies’s rights.

In September 2015, Canada and all UN member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Growth, a common name for motion made up of 17 targets and 169 targets to be met by 2030. Canada’s dedication to the agenda, domestically and internationally, has been a prime precedence of Trudeau’s authorities.

However has it really been a precedence, or is it simply “enterprise as ordinary” in Canada?

Learn extra:

How can we forestall the UN’s Sustainable Growth Targets from failing?

Progress and actions

Progress in direction of the Sustainable Growth Targets has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the Sustainable Growth Report 2020 on the impression of COVID-19, Canada falls quick, rating 21st out of 193 nations on the planet on its general progress in direction of the UN’s International Targets.

The 2020 SDG Index tracks nations’ efficiency on the 17 SDGs. In Canada, solely high quality training was achieved. A number of targets like zero starvation, gender equality, trade, innovation and infrastructure, accountable consumption and manufacturing, local weather motion and life on land are nonetheless going through vital challenges.

Motion is required. Different SDG targets like clear water and sanitation, decreased inequalities and sustainable cities and communities stay daunting. The information is staggering. Canada should take motion on all the opposite targets.

In 2017, a report authored by international financial growth specialists John W. McArthur and Krista Rasmussen concluded that Canada “will not be but absolutely on observe for any of the SDGs.”

Learn extra:

Canada should use its ‘tender energy’ to champion international human rights

The British Columbia Council for Worldwide Cooperation (BCCIC) additionally presents an image of SDG progress in Canada by means of its “The place Canada Stands” sequence that gives a snapshot of Canadian efficiency. The reviews acknowledge that whereas Trudeau’s authorities is “already making an effort to combine the SDG framework right into a Canadian agenda in an effort to obtain the International Targets,” Canada continues to be lagging behind in assembly lots of the indicators.

The 2019 report states that a number of teams are nonetheless “left behind,” together with Indigenous communities, households residing in poverty, folks with disabilities, and ladies and ladies.

However the BCCIC additionally discovered that, domestically, Canada adopted its nationwide technique and took a number of actions to speed up progress on the SDGs by 2030.

Internationally, Canada adopted a brand new coverage imaginative and prescient in 2017 for worldwide help in assist of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Growth. With its Feminist Worldwide Help Coverage, Canada is taking part in a number one position serving to the poorest nations make progress in direction of the Sustainable Growth Targets.

Trudeau’s reaffirmation

In December 2019, Trudeau reaffirmed Canada’s commitments to ship worldwide growth help to cut back international poverty and inequality, present humanitarian help, assist the world’s poor adapt to local weather change and assist displaced folks, notably with entry to training. These efforts are geared toward assembly the SDGs by 2030.

However in 2020, the world is going through the worst public well being and financial disaster in a century.

Due to the impression of COVID-19, UN Secretary-Normal António Guterres launched a name for motion known as the SDG Second 2020. In his opening remarks, he mentioned:

“The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Growth is designed to deal with the very fragilities and shortcomings that the pandemic has uncovered.”

To have a good time its 75th anniversary, the UN launched the video Pressing Options for Pressing Instances that describes the world’s greatest points, from COVID-19 to poverty, inequality, gender discrimination, local weather change, justice and human rights.

Pressing Options for Pressing Instances (The United Nations)

Earlier this yr, the UN known as this decade an important Decade of Motion to realize the SDGs by 2030. Will 10 years be sufficient?

Answering the decision

Regardless of sluggish progress on the SDGs, Canada is starting to reply the decision. In Might 2020, Canada convened, together with Jamaica and the UN secretary-general, an occasion on growth financing within the COVID-19 period with 50 heads of state and authorities. The occasion mentioned methods to overcome challenges in six areas. Amongst them was “making certain a sustainable and inclusive restoration by aligning restoration insurance policies with the Sustainable Growth Targets.”

In late September 2020, Canada convened a second assembly on growth financing within the COVID-19 period.

Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada is pursuing its worldwide coverage on sustainable growth and scoring factors on the world stage by main the worldwide assist for restoration after COVID-19. It’s doing so by making certain that the UN’s SDGs will not be in danger in the course of the pandemic.

Filipe Duarte doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or group that will profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their tutorial appointment.