UN praises Azerbaijan's "bold" steps to achieve 2030 Agenda
Caliber.Az review

ANALYTICS  23 September 2022 - 15:24

In the two and a half years that passed since the pandemic and the subsequent global energy and food crises, the war in Ukraine, and the sanctions confrontation, which generally led to unprecedented inflation, world markets have been qualitatively reformatted and there was a sharp decline in the industry. The economies of many countries are sliding into recession against this negative backdrop, dramatically worsening social indicators and lowering living standards.

Although Azerbaijan is experiencing certain problems throughout the world, our country has managed to weather the recession with comparatively lesser losses. Moreover, in the "Sustainable Development Report 2022" of the United Nations, Azerbaijan advanced five points, ranking 50th in the world.

In 2015, the UN adopted the Agenda and outlined the next Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) until 2030. The programme has 193 signatories, including Azerbaijan. The key objectives of the UN for this fifteen-year period were the achievement by the human civilisation of 17 goals, of which the most important were the eradication of poverty and hunger, negative climate change, universal access to health care and education, clean water, affordable green energy, addressing unemployment and food security, as well as sustainable urban development and responsible consumption and production.

Alas, as stated in the UN report of August, a significant part of developing countries have failed to achieve the SDG targets; moreover, the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent deep economic recession, followed by the energy, food and transport crises, the war in Ukraine and the civilisational rift have hit each of the 17 goals and reversed all progress in recent years. In this regard, the UN believes that, most likely, in the time remaining until 2030, the world will not be able to achieve the planned goals, and in a number of areas, for example, the climate agenda, the situation is close to critical. Also, by 2030, 1.6 billion people will not have access to clean drinking water, and water shortages threaten to lead to a series of bloody wars in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. The implementation of areas such as gender equality in political representations will take another 40 years or so.

In short, all the bright hopes of shared prosperity, when the UN first proclaimed the basic objectives of the SDGs on the eve of the millennium, turned out to be not so easily achievable. Against this very challenging backdrop, the United Nations targets have not been achieved in all of the countries that signed the latest set of policy documents seven years ago. Fortunately, Azerbaijan is among the countries that have successfully resisted the crisis and are advancing the objectives of the SDGs.

At Wednesday's event "Azerbaijan in the Index of Global Sustainable Development Goals" Deputy Economy Minister Sahib Mammadov said that in the UN's 2022 Sustainable Development Report our country moved up by five points over last year's figures and with 73.5 points out of 100 possible took the 50th place among 163 countries.

The event, held in Baku, was initiated by the local UN office together with the Ministry of Economy and the State Statistics Committee to assess the overall results related to the achievement of the SDG targets in Azerbaijan.

"Azerbaijan has more than 30 state programmes, strategies, action plans covering socio-economic, environmental areas. All of them are adapted to goals and objectives of UN SDGs. I'd like to specifically mention that by order of President Ilham Aliyev from February 2, 2021 the program "Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for Socio-Economic Development" was approved and five national priorities were determined," deputy minister Sahib Mammadov said and noted that integration of smooth implementation of the SDGs by the country will be an important tool for financing sustainable development. Azerbaijan plans to present the next Voluntary National Review on the implementation of the SDGs at the high-level political forum scheduled for 2024.

At present, the basic document bringing Azerbaijan closer to the goals formulated by the UN is the National Priorities - Azerbaijan 2030, the implementation of which at the first stage is carried out within the framework of the Strategy for Socio-Economic Development of Azerbaijan for 2022-2026. Increasing the competitiveness of the non-oil sector in the domestic market and expanding its export orientation are key to transforming the national economy to be more fully included in the international division of labour. The future development of the republic is associated with minimisation of dependence on the raw material factor by deepening diversification of the non-oil sector and continuous improvement of its international competitiveness, increasing the pace and sustainability of economic growth and transition to a higher income group. Thus, as a result of the implementation of the strategy, the country's economy is set to grow by 3-4 per cent annually on average, and non-oil GDP by 5 per cent per annum, on average, by 2026. Other critical objectives are outlined as creating a dynamic, inclusive society based on social justice; building competitive human capital and attracting modern innovation; a great return to the liberated territories and the implementing of large-scale infrastructure projects in the Karabakh region; and developing programmes that ensure a clean environment and green growth in the country, including support for the introduction of renewable energy sources (RES).

All the areas listed in the document are essential for Azerbaijan's sustainable development, and the prompt and full achievement of these goals is a mandatory task for the government. At the same time, the economic block of reforms should be emphasized: it is obvious that only consistent and competent economic development will strengthen the financial basis of the country, and relying on this basis, Azerbaijan will be able to confidently address infrastructure, social, cultural, humanitarian, environmental and other tasks.

In this regard, the efforts made by the republic to achieve the UN goals on the SDGs are extremely important, and it is not just a matter of image or a desire to present Azerbaijan in a better light to the international community. On the contrary, all the economic reforms and social transformations implemented in the country are a contribution to the country's future transition to the top league of post-industrial highly developed states, with a balanced social sphere, developed "green" energy, a high level of digitalization of the economy and elements of Industry 4.0, etc. Finally, all steps taken within the framework of the SDGs improve Azerbaijan's ranking and increase the country's attractiveness to international investors and donors.

The commitment expressed by the UN to support our country in its consistent reformist efforts also testifies to the correctness of this approach. "The UN is ready to fully support Azerbaijan to further strengthen its position in the Sustainable Development Report. The efforts of the Azerbaijani government and the tasks of the UN mission are interrelated and aimed at further improving the situation in the republic, and I would like to welcome the bold steps taken by Azerbaijan to achieve the 2030 Agenda and the work done in this direction," Vladanka Andreeva, head of the UN Mission in Azerbaijan, summed up the results of the event.

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