United Nations to shape a strong recovery and scale up efforts for the global goals

Recovering from the devastating impacts of COVID-19 guided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be the focus at the upcoming inaugural ECOSOC Coordination Segment on 3-4 February 2022. Chairs of the subsidiary bodies of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and Heads of UN entities, including specialized agencies, will join the Council to assess lessons learned from the COVID response and chart the path to scale-up efforts to achieve the SDGs.

The two-day event takes place as the global death toll from COVID-19 to date has increased to more than 5.5 million people with more than 340 million confirmed cases. Countries are still struggling to cope with the latest wave of infections from the Omicron variant. As the situation rapidly evolves, the pandemic has upended the lives of people from every region, limiting movement, and severely impacting social and economic activity. This situation has an unprecedented impact on health, education systems, the labor market, among other sectors. It has impacted the SDGs, with progress being reversed or slowed down for some SDGs.

“We all hope that 2022 will be the year when we overcome the COVID-19 pandemic,” said ECOSOC President Collen Vixen Kelapile. “The year when we embark with renewed energy in realizing the world we outlined in the 2030 Agenda, building on the lessons from this terrible crisis and our responses”.

The meeting will provide forward-looking policy guidance for the work of the subsidiaries of ECOSOC and UN entities in the lead up to the high-level segment of ECOSOC and the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) in July. It will address the main annual theme of ECOSOC and HLPF for the 2022 session, “Building back better from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.

As ECOSOC Vice-President Suriya Chindawongse, chair of the Coordination Segment, underscored, this is an opportunity for the Council “to take stock of the lessons learned from the response to the crisis so far and make recommendations to redouble efforts for an inclusive and sustainable recovery guided by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.

To engage with the Coordination Segment, see the latest programme, concept note, the infographics on the latest sessions of the ECOSOC subsidiary bodies, the informal note by the Secretariat and its key messages now available on the Coordination Segment website.