Statement on U.S. Efforts to Reverse Global Commitments to Sustainable Development and Health Equity

The Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) Alliance urges governments to stand strong and condemn the United States’ uncompromising efforts to undermine international commitments to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including the negotiations ahead of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), from which the United States has now withdrawn.

The SDGs represent a global consensus on the urgent need to eradicate poverty, reduce inequality, advance climate justice, and promote the right to health for all. Attempts to weaken or eliminate references to these goals, such as substituting “sustainable development” with “responsible development,” rejecting recognition of the global financing gap, and opposing key provisions on climate, gender equality, and global economic reform, are unacceptable.

The FCGH Alliance reaffirms its commitment to the principles embodied in the SDGs, and particularly to the realization of the right to health. Fulfilling health and human rights obligations requires robust and equitable financing, participatory governance, and meaningful accountability at both national and international levels.

We urge all states to:

• Defend and strengthen existing global commitments to sustainable development and human rights, including the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the SDGs;
• Align domestic and international health financing strategies with human rights obligations, including through inclusive and participatory decision-making processes;
• Support reforms to the international financial architecture that elevate the voices of the people of low- and middle-income countries and address systemic inequities in access to resources, debt relief, and economic participation; 
• Invest in long-term capacity and public health systems that nurture self-sufficiency in domestic health development, maintain commitments to a global development tax, and promote an equitable tax system for all; 
• Promote the establishment of a new international legal instrument, such as the proposed Framework Convention on Global Health, grounded in the right to health and aimed at national and global health equity, that  institutionalize local, national, and global right to health accountability.

As negotiations continue for the final declaration of the FfD4, we call on all governments, international institutions, and stakeholders to reject efforts to erode the global consensus on sustainable development and instead recommit to the values of justice, solidarity, and universal human rights.