The Brazilian general director assistant, Silvana Vitorassi (AS.GB), and the head of the Brasília Office (EB.GB), Ligia Soares, represented Itaipu Binacional at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit, held on Monday (18) and Tuesday (19), at the United Nations (UN) headquarters, in New York (USA), during the UN General Assembly High Level Week.
The objective of the event was to bring together world leaders to share advancements and challenges in the SDGs implementation and the adoption of a political declaration that guides the future of the commitment in a more inclusive way, in addition to providing a high-level political guidance on transformative and accelerated actions until 2030.
The theme of this year’s summit is “Peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability” and it is directly related to the agenda of the federal government and the current management of Itaipu. The 17 SDG Goals are the result of extensive negotiations between UN member countries, which took place during and after the Rio+20 Conference.
Jointly, the SDGs compose the 2030 Agenda, a combined strategy of countries to face, until then, the main problems that affect humanity, such as climate change, hunger and poverty, the contamination of ecosystems and the depletion of clean water sources, among others.
At the event, the federal government announced the re-creation of the National SDG Commission and announced the resumption of popular participation in strengthening Brazilian democracy.
Itaipu’s Participation
Itaipu was part of the Brazilian delegation. In its participation, the company spoke about its actions to implement the SDGs. As an example, Itaipu shared the work of systematizing its programs made in line with the SDGs.
“Itaipu’s participation in Brazil’s mission at the SDG Summit, in New York, reinforces our commitment and recognition of actions that contribute to the territorialization of the 2030 Agenda”, says Silvana Vitorassi.
For Ligia Soares, “Itaipu is an example of success in implementing the SDGs in its actions and programs. “Our commitment to an integrated, systemic, cross-border and inclusive approach to sustainable development is one of the great hallmarks of this administration.”
This is because the binational works with structuring programs directly related to the 2030 Agenda objectives. Itaipu has been working on several fronts to foster sustainable development in its territory of influence.
Itaipu’s activities are developed to improve the environment, help reduce poverty, increase food security and improve nutrition and health, promote education and equality in relation to gender, age, disabilities, race, religion, ethnicity and economic status, among others.
“Itaipu’s presence along with the federal government is very important at this Summit in which world leaders share advancements and the main challenges in implementing the SDGs and seek to adopt a political declaration aimed at a more inclusive future”, says Ligia Soares.
Context
The event took place halfway through the deadline adopted for consolidating the global goals. There is great concern about the stagnation of the 2030 Agenda following the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to UN data, only 12% of goals are on track; almost half are moderately or seriously off track and around 30% have seen no movement or are below the 2015 starting line.
All of this, warns the non-governmental organization, has been occurring amid the worsening of the climate crisis, leaving aside objectives related to hunger, health, biodiversity, strong institutions, pollution and peaceful societies. The idea is to find solutions to change the current negative trajectory.
According to the UN, the event marks the beginning of a new phase of actions that seek to build a more fair and environmentally sustainable world. Also, according to the non-governmental organization’s website, the summit’s mission is to rekindle hope, optimism and enthusiasm for the 2030 Agenda.
