The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed the global awareness that we are truly
all in this together
- it did set back progress on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but it has also made it possible for the international community to see the pursuit of sustainable development in a new light, and to learn from both successes and challenges of the pandemic to reinvigorate efforts towards achieving the SDGs. This publication charts a way forward for the world community to achieve the SDGs, despite the setback caused by COVID-19. In doing so, it focuses on SDG 1 (poverty), SDG 2 (hunger), SDG 3 (health and well-being), SDG 8 (growth and employment), SDG 10 (inequality), and their interlinkages. In charting out the way forward, Sustainable Development Outlook 2021 focuses on policy efforts that are cross-cutting in nature and have positive effects on multiple SDGs. It thus calls for accelerating vaccination by making the COVID-19 vaccine a public good; strengthening access to quality and affordable universal health coverage and social protection; pursuing structural transformation aimed at growth, equity and environmental protection; strengthening international solidarity; sharing the Earth equitably with other species; and making use of the crisis to overcome political barriers to difficult policy changes.