Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin took part in the 30th Annual Conference of the Economic Research Forum in a plenary session discussing SDG Stimulus to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Dr. Mohieldin highlighted current global progress on achieving the SDGs, with only 15% of SDG targets currently on track and the remainder either stagnating or reversing in progress. Dr. Mohieldin further discussed regional comparisons in SDG progress, shedding light on current progress within the ERF region and how it compares to other developed and developing regions across the world. Dr. Mohieldin then presented recent deteriorations in SDG progress resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing gap in achieving the SDGs. Following that, Dr. Mohieldin compared currently existing gaps in SDG financing needs, and mentioned in that context the importance of more granular data collection methods to provide more accurate figures for financing needs to achieve the SDGs. Dr. Mohieldin then discussed the issue of debt and the risks posed by relying excessively on debt financing, highlighting the importance of solid debt management through liquidity management especially for developing economies facing debt distress. Finally, Dr. Mohieldin discussed the use of regionalization and localization as vehicles for catalyzing SDG and climate finance, and highlighted the importance of using country-level analysis to identify gaps using the Egyptian example in its financing for development report.
