According to the latest Goalkeepers Report issued by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the COVID-19 pandemic has seriously endangered further pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals, increasing poverty to levels that have not been seen for many years.
The Goalkeepers Report lists major setbacks that represent serious challenges to sustainable development. The main problem is the economic crisis that COVID-19 has triggered. As the publication states, for the first time since 1870 many countries have found themselves to be simultaneously in recession. In fact, the world is dealing with the deepest recession since the end of World War II, and global GDP will drop twice as much as it did during the 2008 crisis, according to the report.
This naturally affects the levels of poverty which have grown for the first time since 1998 representing another setback. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, statistics show that every year more people were becoming wealthier and healthier thanks to increasing access to healthcare and economic growth. Now, however, the number of people living below the international poverty benchmark of US$1.90 a day is increasing dramatically, and thus the Sustainable Development Goal to end poverty by 2030 may prove to be elusive.
The report also indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic has completely erased 25 years of progress on vaccination programs in just 25 weeks. According to the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, the number of vaccinations worldwide dropped dramatically to levels last seen in the 1990s. This means that we are now more vulnerable to diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, or DTP which the world had previously been able to curb effectively. This is a very worrying trend, particularly since vaccinations against DTP, for example, are crucial in preventing millions of deaths globally every year. Unfortunately, extremely overwhelmed health care systems have been unable to vaccinate at the same level achieved prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Another challenge to achieving Sustainable Development Goals is the temporary closure of schools. In numerous developing countries, many pupils will never return to classes following the pandemic and this particularly refers to girls as they are more vulnerable to sexual abuse resulting in pregnancy or they are simply used as unpaid workers within the household which leaves them no spare time for school activities. The Goalkeepers Report predicts a significant decrease in the number of children who will achieve the minimum proficiency in reading skills.
The authors of the BMGF report claim that to get the Sustainable Development Goals back on track, we first need to end the COVID-19 pandemic as soon as possible which they believe will not be possible without an effective vaccine that several pharmaceutic companies have now been successful in developing. However, as indicated in the report, the main problem humanity will face is equal access to the vaccine. While wealthy countries will be able to vaccinate their populations, for developing states this may still remain a challenge. This is why developed countries should actively take part in efforts to support poorer nations to gain broad access to vaccines as this is the only way for the world to finally defeat COVID-19.
