Impact of COVID-19 Global Crisis on the Sustainable Development Goals

Dear Colleagues,

When world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, they committed to a shared vision to set the world on a sustainable path for the people, planet, peace, partnership and prosperity. Almost one third of the way into the journey, at the SDG Summit held in September 2019, Member States recognized that global efforts were coming up short to deliver that transformational shift by 2030 and a renewed international commitment was needed to fulfill this promise to present and future generations. The year 2020 kickstarted the Decade of Action—a reaffirmation of the global commitment through accelerated efforts and sustainable solutions to the world’s biggest challenges, ranging from eradicating poverty and reducing gender inequality to addressing climate change. However, in only a brief period of time, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The global community finds itself in an unprecedented situation where parallel health, economic and social crises left countries struggling to contain the epidemic and provide immediate financial relief for the many people affected by the associated macroeconomic downturns. The pandemic threatens to reverse years of progress on poverty, hunger, health care and education. While the virus has impacted everyone, it is affecting the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people the most. This Special Issue aims to analyze the impacts of the COVID-19 global crisis on the Sustainable Development Goals and highlights the consequences, implications, risks and opportunities of the COVID 19 pandemic for our current world order. The pandemic and its response, in the form of protracted nationwide lockdowns have had several short-term as well as long-term impacts on human health, society, the economy and the environment. This Special Issue welcomes papers that address the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 2030, from policy-makers, educators, researchers and practitioners in various disciplines in academia and industry. The manuscript should be designed based on quantitative or qualitative data analyzing the situation.

Dr. Roy Rillera Marzo
Dr. Yulan Lin
Dr. Edlaine Faria de Moura Villela
Dr. Sudip Bhattacharya
Prof. Dr. Kittisak Jermsittiparsert
Topic Editors