“Policies that support and protect families, motherhood, and maternity, need to be implemented alongside the promotion of equality between women and men.” The Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, expressed this during the course of the High-Level Political Forum debates on the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages, on 14 July, and on Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5), on achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, on 15 July, at the UN in New York.
SDG 3: Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being
Archbishop Caccia reflected on the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 3, highlighting how important it is to underscore that health is not merely the absence of illness, but “a holistic state of physical, psychological, social, spiritual and emotional wellbeing,” and “a vital part of integral human development.” Yet, he lamented, that progress towards the achievement of SDG 3 remains uneven. “Persistent obstacles, including fragile health systems, inadequate funding, and an increasing burden of non-communicable diseases continue to exacerbate existing health disparities.”
To overcome these challenges and realise health and well-being for all, he noted, comprehensive and integrated policies that recognise the interdependence of SDG3 with other Goals should be adopted. The Permanent Observer also insisted that achieving health and wellbeing for all, also calls for special attention to be paid to the most vulnerable, including the unborn, children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, migrants and those living in conflict-affected areas. In this context, he exhorted, “Ideological or economic agendas must never shape healthcare; it must remain person-centred.”
For this reason, the Archbishop reiterated, faith-based organisations, including Catholic health institutions play “a vital role,” noting that strengthening partnerships with these institutions could help to keep healthcare person-centred. With regard to meaningfully contributing to healthcare, Archbishop Caccia recalled that the Catholic Church, which runs approximately a quarter of all health facilities worldwide, will continue to provide care to the poorest and those in the most remote areas.
SDG 5: Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls
The Permanent Observer also welcomed the discussion on Sustainable Development Goal 5, dedicated to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, which was held the following day. “Gender equality,” he stated, “is rooted in the equal God-given dignity of every man and woman, ‘inalienably grounded in his or her very being, which prevails in and beyond every circumstance […]. This principle, which is fully recognizable even by reason alone,’ he continued, ‘underlines the primacy of the human person and the protection of human rights.’” Archbishop Caccia said that recognizing this equal dignity is a critical starting point for achieving SDG5.
“However,” he warned, “recognition alone is not enough,” for “equality requires creating conditions that enable the integral development of women and girls, including access to quality education and healthcare, and decent work and participation in every sphere of life for women.” Archbishop Caccia said that any meaningful discussion of SDG5 must address the systemic obstacles to the integral development of millions of women and girls, including poverty, violence and exclusion. “Addressing these injustices,” he underscored, “is a moral imperative and a prerequisite for long-term development and progress.” In this token, the Permanent Observer insisted, “the roles that women and men play within families and communities must be protected.”
“Policies that support and protect families, motherhood, and maternity,” he reaffirmed, “need to be implemented alongside the promotion of equality between women and men,” as he stressed that the dignity of every woman and girl “must be always at the centre of development efforts and approaches that reduce women to mere instruments of economic or political agendas are to be avoided.” Finally, Archbishop Caccia said that in the final five years leading up to the realization of the 2030 Agenda, his Delegation “calls for a renewed commitment to the integral development of every woman and girl.”
