United we stand to achieve sustainable development

陈小将

The world today faces a future that is in peril. Our challenges have become more complex and interconnected, as we see the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, an uneven economic recovery, a climate emergency, growing inequalities, and an increase in conflicts globally. This year also marks a grim milestone, with over 100 million people forcibly displaced.
These events accompany increasing division in the community of nations which threatens to push the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals further out of reach for the Global South.
Adding to these crises, rising food and energy prices driven by the conflict in Ukraine, could push 71 million people into poverty, according to the United Nations Development Programme. The Global South, typically comprised of countries in South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania, was already grappling with economic issues now exacerbated by the triple planetary crisis.
With limited resources, high vulnerability, and low resilience, people in the Global South will bear the brunt of our inaction, on climate and elsewhere. Solely depending on external aid from the Global North or G7 countries cannot be the panacea. Here, countries of the Global South can empower themselves and combine efforts to achieve sustainable development.