A/HRC/43/33 30. Ms. Samar expressed her conviction that implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in any country contributed to the promotion, protection and fulfilment of human rights in all countries. Coming from a country that had experienced over 40 years of conflict and poverty, she noted that conflict increased poverty and insecurity and posed a big challenge to the implementation of the Goals. Discrimination, poverty, inequality and corruption contributed to the continuation of conflict. 31. Countries in conflict needed particular attention. The violation of human rights had caused conflict, and conflict in turn obstructed development. The Sustainable Development Goals would not be achieved where conflicts continued. The implementation of the Goals, with an inclusive human rights-based approach, would help countries to promote good governance and sustainable peace. 32. She concluded by noting that failure to eliminate all forms of violence against women would be an obstacle to promoting equality and to fully implementing the Sustainable Development Goals and the principles of human rights. 33. Mr. Muchena observed that while at the international level everybody believed that human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals were two sides of the same coin, there was no such agreement at the country level, judging from how some States reacted to human rights movements. Many countries spoke about embracing human rights but did not embrace human rights defenders. Rhetoric needed to be translated into action. 34. In order to move forward with the Sustainable Development Goals and human rights, inequality needed to be addressed. Six of the seven poorest sub-Saharan countries were in the Southern Africa region. Those countries were rich but unequal, and as economies grew, the benefits needed to be shared inclusively. While he saw no strong vision or imagination within the region to decisively tackle inequality, he hoped that the present moment of dialogue and cooperation on human rights and the 2030 Agenda would be the start of such change. 35. Ms. Fukuda-Parr asserted that human rights were essential for promoting the transformative agenda, which was a core aspiration of the 2030 Agenda. Business as usual would not achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Notwithstanding enormous progress, the latest Global Sustainable Development Report had highlighted enduring poverty and unprecedented levels of inequality, and indicated that the world was at a tipping point with respect to the global climate change and biodiversity loss. 7 Accelerating the pace of progress in poverty reduction and changing course on climate change and inequality were urgent challenges. Human rights principles and human rights activism, actors and processes were essential to accelerating the implementation of the transformative 2030 Agenda. 36. The 2030 Agenda highlighted the need for a heavy dose of social protection, macroeconomic policies that were pro-poor, and progressive taxation with institutional mechanisms for participation and the development of income-generating productive sectors. 37. In analysing the voluntary national reviews submitted in 2017 and 2018, the Committee for Development Policy had found that the objective of leaving no one behind had been mentioned largely rhetorically, as the strategy for how to actually go about achieving that objective was vague in most cases. Of the various strategies relevant to leaving no one behind, most countries had emphasized social protection, but had neglected the important role of macroeconomic policies in productive sectors for achieving the Goals. In most reviews, there was no mention of the commitment to reach the furthest behind first, or the need to avoid pushing anyone behind. 38. During the moderated exchange with the panel, the Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs observed that much more could be done using the high-level political forum to integrate efforts to realize human rights and implement the 2030 Agenda. As the forum moved into its second cycle (2020–2024), what really mattered was implementation and tangible delivery for the people. She commended 7 6 Independent Group of Scientists appointed by the Secretary-General, Global Sustainable Development Report 2019: The Future is Now – Science for Achieving Sustainable Development, (United Nations, New York, 2019).