Overview and key messages

Global sustainable development prospects continue to diverge. Two years ago, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Inter-agency Task Force warned of a global divergence that could lead to a lost decade for development. By 2022, these risks had materialized—a great finance divide was translating into a development divide. Over the past 12 months, the war in Ukraine, sharp increases in food and energy prices and rapidly tightening financial conditions further exacerbated challenges for many countries, increasing hunger and poverty and reversing progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite some positive signs, the global macroeconomic outlook remains highly uncertain and particularly bleak for many of the poorest and most vulnerable countries faced with growing debt service burdens and tight fiscal constraints. Recent banking failures in the United States and Switzerland have once again highlighted gaps in financial regulatory and supervisory systems. In today’s extremely challenging global macroeconomic context, financing and sustainable development prospects are diverging even more sharply.

Sustainable Development Goals:

ALL SDG Goals