The Impact of Covid-19 on SDG

The world is facing the most severe economic downturn since the great depression of 1920’s. The Covid-19 pandemic that instigated this, has been the worst public health crisis in the past hundred years. On the eve of Christmas 2020, the number of Covid‑19 cases in Malaysia passed the 100,000 mark. The global tally has crossed 80.5 Million with more than 1.76 Million deaths.

The United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been a remarkable milestone in the sense that it is a global commitment to a shared responsibility, to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development by 2030 world-wide, with no one is left behind.

Malaysia’s Progress on SDG

The lockdown and movement control order measures taken to respond to the health crisis have caused the slowing down of the economic activities and many cases, even a total shutdown impacting various public and private sectors. This has resulted in massive job losses, budget cuts and down-sizing, with a greater and immediate impact on the more vulnerable groups of the society who earned daily wages tied to these economic activities.

This economic and health crisis has put a significant setback to achieving the SDGs in particular for the low income and developing countries. At the same time Covid‑19 has also made these SDG’ s more relevant than ever. Malaysia’s overall SDG score of 71.76 on a scale of 100 indicates its progress towards achieving the 17 SDGs with an overall rank of 60 among 193 countries.