Stakeholder Insights from the 78th United Nations General Assembly

The 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) convened over 150+ world leaders in New York from September 18 to 22 where they took stock of progress against a number of priority areas, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global health and climate change, and focused the agenda for global stakeholders. The importance of this year’s convening was underscored with 2023 marking the halfway point on a range of timebound commitments for 2030, including the SDGs, Paris Climate Accords and universal health coverage (UHC).

Setting the stage on the global state of affairs, the Secretary-General noted that “just 12 percent of the Sustainable Development Goal targets are on track” and on climate change asserted that “humanity has opened the gates of hell” due to a lack of action on climate change, but that “the future is not fixed” if government and business leaders take decisive action. On the imperative to achieve UHC, the Deputy-Secretary-General remarked that “covering every person in the world is possible but it requires urgent and focused action in two key areas…primary healthcare…and financing on a massive scale.”

Leaders met during a series of Summits and High-Level meetings, including the SDG Summit, Climate Ambition Summit, High-level Meeting on UHC, High-level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, and the High-level Meeting on Tuberculosis. The message resonating across discussions was that despite being midway toward the anticipated completion of these goals, progress is not happening fast enough, highlighting the need for multisectoral action to bring forward and implement innovative solutions to ensure no one is left behind.

As world leaders discussed the path forward on these priority areas throughout the week, five key messages rose to the top for stakeholders:

1. Shift from talking about plans and commitments to actions. Governments, youth and advocates all noted the need to move from words to action, especially when it comes to advancing and financing innovative solutions.
2. When addressing climate change, be specific and speak at the intersections of where other issues overlap with climate. With climate being such a broad reaching topic, touching nearly every priority issue, it’s imperative to be specific in how you are contributing to addressing the issue, whether it’s at the intersection of climate and energy, health, digitalization or financing.
3. Tangibly address the path to net-zero and decarbonization in the lead up to, and at, COP28. A heavy focus was placed on phasing out reliance on fossil fuels and it is imperative to demonstrate credibility behind net-zero plans.
4. Achieving the SDGs will take an all of society effort. Leaders outlined that achieving the SDGs will require innovation and deeper investment across the multistakeholder landscape. This means, many actors focusing efforts on individual goals rather than trying to help achieve them all at once.
5. Health equity needs to remain front and center. When it comes to advancing global health, a health equity lens should be applied to how solutions and plans are formed and communicated.

By Ryan Hom, VP, Social Impact & Sustainability