Reinforcing the 2030 Agenda and eradicating poverty in times of multiple crises: the effective delivery of sustainable, resilient and innovative solutions
Executive Summary
As 2024 begins, countries and populations across the globe are grappling with multiple and interlinked crises, pushing us even farther from realizing the Agenda 2030. Our rights, our bodies and our planet are in peril, and the most structurally marginalized are bearing the brunt as these crises exacerbate pre-existing inequalities.
The rise in militarism and warfare, fuelled by the interests of those holding the most power and their transnational allies, has led to widespread human rights violations and the dismantling of essential social services for basic human needs, creating new layers of vulnerability, especially for women, girls and gender-diverse people. We demand an urgent redirection of military expenditures towards social spending and accelerating efforts towards peace, disarmament, and feminist change. We call on governments to end imperialist occupation and uphold people’s right to justice, self-determination and sustainable development. Governments must do more to uphold international laws and commitments created to protect our human rights including sexual and reproductive health and rights, other species and the Planet.
The world can no longer afford to ignore the flawed systems of neoliberal capitalist development and unlimited growth that prioritize private profit over people and the Planet, exacerbating the catastrophic impact of the triple planetary crisis for Global South populations. As feminist activists and human rights defenders, we urge governments of the Global South to show bold ambition, reject false solutions and demand reparative and adequate climate finance for the ecological crisis wrought by capitalist greed.
As the world recovers from the COVID-19-created economic recession, we as members of WMG urge member states to rethink and reform the international financial architecture to ensure full and sustainable socio-economic recovery in fragile countries. We demand gender transformative and pro-poor policies, equitable state and civil society participation, gender-based tax justice and an end to debt and conditionalities. The 2030 Agenda cannot be achieved if half of the world’s population is not resourced to partner in creating, managing, and caring for our world.
We are living through an increasingly polarized world, with racism, gender discrimination, and xenophobia on the rise everywhere, undermining progress and holding our rights and equality hostage. Governments must recognize the vital work of feminist and human rights groups and make concerted efforts to shift power and decision-making to the people to lead the change they seek. We call on governments to boldly support feminist organizing by increasing social development budgets, implementing accessible, flexible, multi-year, core funding policies, and creating mechanisms to safeguard and protect activists and groups.
WMG’s 2024 submission to HLPF will review all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through an intersectional lens underscoring the importance of urgent and transformative action and the need to overhaul our systems and structures to create a more equal world and halt the damage to our planet. As we urge governments and global institutions to renew their commitment towards the 2030 Agenda, we will inspire hope through stories of change, bearing witness to how the most marginalized and impacted people persevere, innovate and organize in the face of unrelenting backlash.
Read the full WMG 2024 HLPF Position Paper at this link.
