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IAEA Director General Underscores Necessity of Partnerships for Achieving UN SDGs

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IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi joined a panel discussion on 'Partnership for the Goals' at the 2020 World Health Summit, which was held virtually

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi joined a panel discussion on 'Partnership for the Goals' at the 2020 World Health Summit, which was held virtually. (Photo: E. Perez-Alvan/IAEA)

International organizations must strive to overcome bureaucratic barriers and forge partnerships that maximise synergies in effectively addressing global development challenges, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today.

Participating in a virtual panel discussion on ‘Partnership for the Goals’ at the World Health Summit (WHS) in Berlin, Mr Grossi said there is a clear need for United Nations agencies, research organizations and civil society groups to organize more closely around common issues to take collective action toward achieving the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Partnerships are both a moral imperative, but also a practical necessity,” Mr Grossi said. “We have to do better in the forging and shaping of partnerships. We have to be more adaptive to partnerships that will look different,” he added. “It is about bringing all possible forces to the table and offering products or vehicles that will do the job.”

The panel brought together leaders representing Gavi - the Vaccine Alliance, Save the Children, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the IAEA, in a discussion that focused on ways of enhancing international cooperation toward the SDGs.

The IAEA contributes significantly to the achievement of the SDGs, by promoting the peaceful use of nuclear science and technology to improve the well-being and prosperity of the people in its 172 Member States. This includes using nuclear and nuclear derived techniques to help improve child nutrition, boost food production and manage water supplies, enhance the safety of food and water, mitigate climate change by producing clean and affordable energy, and improve access to radiation medicine and comprehensive cancer care. To effectively carry out this mandate, the Agency works with international partners through its technical cooperation programme.

Impact of COVID-19 on advancement of SDGs

The discussion addressed ongoing human health challenges and the toll that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on sustainable development efforts. Panelists shared concerns about the risk of the pandemic reversing advancements made toward achieving the SDGs. An IAEA survey carried out in April-May showed that the pandemic had disrupted key health services for diagnosing and treating conditions such as cancer and heart disease, particularly in low-income countries. Mr Grossi said that even in pandemic situations, supporting countries to effectively address non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, continued to be a very important area of the IAEA’s work.

“It is a scandal that as we speak half of the African continent does not have access to one radiotherapy unit,” he said. “It is a scandal that 300,000 women die every year from cervical cancer – something that is detectable, treatable and curable. We have the tech, we have the means, and we know what needs to be done. We are working with the WHO, civil society, UNAIDS and others to try to provide access to nuclear medicine to many more countries, and we are training oncologists, radiologists, medical physicists and specialists.”

Last year the IAEA joined the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and other partners to launch the Women’s Cancers Partnership Initiative, to improve access to cancer services for women in low- and middle-income countries. The Agency is also part of the UN Joint Global Programme on Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control, which aims to achieve a 30 per cent reduction in deaths from cervical cancer by 2030 in participating countries. The IAEA’s work to enlarge the access of many countries to nuclear medicine contributes to the WHO’s global strategy for cervical cancer elimination, which includes a target of providing 90 per cent of women identified with cervical cancer access to treatment by 2030.

In direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the IAEA launched ZODIAC (Zoonotic Disease Integrated Action) in June, a project that aims to strengthen global preparedness for future pandemics like COVID-19, by establishing a global network to help national laboratories in monitoring, surveillance, early detection and control of animal diseases and diseases that spread from animals to humans (zoonotic diseases), using nuclear or nuclear-derived techniques. For its implementation, close collaboration with international and United Nations organizations, such as the WHO, FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health, is foreseen.

“We have to work hand-in-hand, use the power of diversity and accept that no one size fits all,” Mr Grossi said. “The IAEA is ready to do it.”

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