Is this the Goal that gives us the key to achieve the rest of them? Yes. In fact, it is the only way that all the others SDGs can be achieved.
The Millennium Goals did not envisage this, alliances, pacts, partnerships, clusters and reciprocal relationships, where everyone wins, where everyone offers the best of themselves and which generates a very important effect: the multiplier effect.
The pandemic has been a clear example of what not to do, of what means to forget others. Forgetting about each other means forgetting that we all depend on each other and if we are not all well, then we are not moving forward.
High-income countries have purchased enough doses of Covid-19 vaccine to vaccinate their populations several times over, leaving only 2% of the doses available for poor countries, according to the Duke Global Health Innovation Centre.
What has this meant? That while in many rich countries fourth doses have already been administered, in many poor countries there are still many unvaccinated people. In fact, according to the WHO, only 11% of the African population is vaccinated.
And there is no better fact than this to make us see the consequence of thinking only of a few. Many more strains appear, from every corner of the world. And of course, in the globalised world in which we live, they spread rapidly without any border closures or any measures taken by any government being able to do anything about it.
The only effective measure would have been equitable and equal vaccination worldwide, something that, more than a year after the first vaccine was released, is still not happening.
In fact, rich countries have been proposing several doses of vaccines to age groups where the disease does not usually develop in severe forms, when age groups that did need a vaccine did not even have a first dose in many countries around the world.
This inequality has meant that we have been neither effective nor fair in the fight against Covid.
This teaches us how not to act. This is the exact opposite of what we are aiming for with SDG 17. The motto of the 2030 Agenda is "leave no one behind". Why? Because this is the only way we will all meet the targets.
The planet is a sum of people, societies, natural resources, plants and animals, oceans, cities, forests, jungles, deserts, ecosystems, and all are affected by all. This is the great lesson of the pandemic. What happens to one, in more or less time, affects the rest. The disappearance of animals, the waste in the oceans, poverty, women who suffer from male violence, children who do not have access to education or health care that is unequally distributed, all of this makes the planet suffer and does not progress, it makes us all worse and worse, living in worse conditions. our future generations will face increasingly difficult situations, and we all become more and more disconnected from our essence.
Strong global partnerships and cooperation between them make SDG 17 meaningful, make it a reality. Successful delivery of a development agenda requires inclusive partnerships - at global, regional, national and local levels - on principles and values, and on a shared vision and goals that focus on people and planet first. On all people and all species. Not just people from a particular hemisphere or geographic area.
Because of the pandemic, the levels of compliance with the other SDGs have dropped, there has been a clear setback.
Therefore, now more than ever it is necessary to change our mentality, to leave behind individualism, which does not move us forward. Now, more than ever it is necessary a strong international cooperation in order to ensure that the countries that have more means establish relationships and alliances with those that have less means to recover.
We all need to succeed in replenishing our economies and societies in the face of the pandemic. This would mean making progress meeting the Goals. It would mean that we leave no one behind and that we are indeed on track to meet the 2030 Agenda.
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