We have found our region in a world very different from the one envisioned when the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were formulated almost six years ago. Not only have negative trends in growth, investment, employment, inequality, and environmental sustainability increased, but the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) has had catastrophic effects on our societies. Unemployment, poverty and extreme poverty (with the consequent risk of hunger), and inequality have increased, while the emission reductions of the first months of the pandemic tend to be lost as growth recovers unchanged to the development model.

As long as uncertainty remains about the intensity and duration of the pandemic, economies and societies will continue with intermittent shutdowns and shutdowns. Vaccination advances are at an insufficient pace and reflect great inequalities between countries according to their level of economic and social development and, above all, their financial and negotiating capacity to access vaccines. Once again, the need to advance regional integration is on the table.

The difficulty of the situation in 2020 and 2021 should not hide the fact that a large part of the determinants that exacerbate the effects of the pandemic was already present in the global and regional context, as well as in national realities. For this reason, the response to the health crisis must be accompanied by determined actions to correct unsustainable courses of action such as those followed to date.

These issues are at the center of the reflections of this report, in which we analyze the major trends underway in economies and societies worldwide, study in detail the health effects of the pandemic and highlight its economic and social repercussions. and environmental in our region. On that basis, we propose a strategy for action: a big push for sustainability based on the core elements of the 2030 Agenda and its 17 SDGs.

The strategy for a decade of action must be realistic, and build on progress and recognize the problems in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, to which we dedicate a chapter of the document. We note with concern that the trends that indicated that the comprehensiveness of the Agenda was at risk, as highlighted in previous versions of this report, have been exacerbated by the pandemic, and almost two-thirds of the goals we highlight will be unattainable if we do not change substantially the development model. Faced with this reality, the countries of the region have increased their efforts aimed at strengthening the institutional framework for the implementation of the Agenda, as shown by the increasingly numerous voluntary national examinations (VNS). At the same time, the United Nations development system has undergone a profound reform process that enhances the work between agencies, funds, and programs to respond more effectively and flexibly to the demands of countries.

To carry out the difficult pending tasks, in which governments, civil society, the private sector, and other stakeholders must participate, we reiterate that action must be “accelerated to address systemic deficiencies in implementation, given that We are entering a decisive decade for the 2030 Agenda ”, as established in the political declaration of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development held under the auspices of the General Assembly in 2019.

The objective of prioritizing the poorest and most vulnerable so as not to leave anyone behind can only be realized through international solidarity in the distribution of vaccines to contain the pandemic, progress in regional integration, and mobilization of resources to finance the SDGs. , the best implementation at the national and local level of the 2030 Agenda, the strengthening of institutions, the resolution of problems through international cooperation, and the use of science and technology. Moreover, only in this way will we prevent our region from going back on the paths that have led it to suffer from the devastating effects of the pandemic, which have lasted for a year now and which hinder progress towards rapid recovery and sustainable development with equality at the center.

The ESD for 2030 roadmap outlines actions in five priority action areas on policy, learning environments, building capacities of educators, youth, and local level action, stressing further ESD’s key role for the successful achievement of the 17 SDGs and the great individual and societal transformation required to address the urgent sustainability challenges. We focused on Priority Action Area 5: Accelerating local-level actions.