UNIS/SGSM/1362
15 November 2023
Toilets transform lives.
They deliver dignity, boost school attendance – particularly for girls, and enhance health and nutrition by preventing the spread of disease.
Gradually, the world is making progress towards bringing sanitation to all – and fulfilling one of the ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. Over nine hundred million more people have access to safely managed sanitation services than in 2015. And almost three hundred million more people have been spared the indignity of open defecation over the same period.
But a massive sanitation shortfall still exists, with billions of people cut off from safe services. We’re racing the clock. To meet the 2030 deadline for the SDGs, we need to move five times faster.
This World Toilet Day focuses on accelerating action on sanitation to drive progress across the SDGs. The world must respond urgently to this call. We need a massive cash injection across the board to get the SDGs on track. My proposal for an SDG Stimulus of $500 billion a year is gaining traction, and I urge leaders to act now to make it a reality.
On this World Toilet Day, let’s recommit to realising every person’s human right to safe sanitation, to help to flush away poverty and indignity for good.
* *** *
We must transform how we produce and consume, and how we value nature, says the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, "Biodiversity is the bedrock of life and a cornerstone of sustainable development.... Biodiversity loss is a global challenge. No one country, however rich or powerful, can address it alone. Nor can they live without the rich biodiversity that defines our planet."
LGBTIQ+ people around the world face an onslaught of hate speech, attacks, and restrictions on their rights. The power of communities is the theme this year which reminds us that we are strongest together. "LGBTIQ+ people, and those working with them to secure their rights, have proved time and again the value of communities in providing support and driving change," says UN Secretary-General António Guterres
"From the telegraph to radio, from the Internet to Artificial Intelligence, technology has transformed how we live, work, and connect." — António Guterres
Barbados signed and deposited its instrument of ratification for the United Nations Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships (the “Beijing Convention on the Judicial Sale of Ships”) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 8 May 2025.
