Republic of Cyprus Second Voluntary National Report - Sustainable development goals

4 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION Cyprus’ 2 nd Voluntary National Review (VNR) provides an overview of the progress and the remaining challenges in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The challenges have been aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which halted socio- economic and environmental progress. GOVERNANCE / STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT Building on a lesson learned from the 2017 VNR, an Intergovernmental Commission has been established for the implementation of the SDGs under the coordination of the Ministry of Finance (Directorate General for European Programmes, Coordination and Development – DGEPCD), while the responsibility for each SDG target remaining with the competent Ministry. Under the adopted integrated policy framework, stakeholders from Civil Society, Active Citizenship, Volunteerism and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) play a pivotal role in the implementation of the SDGs. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC Cyprus, in the pre-covid period was experiencing for a period of 5 consecutive years a growing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, decreased unemployment, a significant decrease in non-performing loans, and a decline in the already high private and public sector debts. Inevitably, the prohibitive measures adopted due to the pandemic adversely affected economic activity in all sectors, including the vital sector of tourism with Real Output contracting by 5.1% in 2020. The Covid-19 reality brought unprecedented challenges and changes to everyday life. Cyprus’ Government top prioritywas the protection and health of its citizens as well as the support of the social and economic fallout of the pandemic. The prompt public health interventions, including non-pharmaceutical measures and active contact tracing, with extensive and targeted testing, proved to be a valuable combination of strategies to effectively control the COVID-19 outbreak. Furthermore, to mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic on the economy, the Government has adopted a support package for employees, the self- employed, vulnerable groups and businesses, which in 2020 amounted to €2.6 bln or 12.5% of GDP. Cyprus’ pioneering mobilisation of its volunteer network, under the coordination of the Office of the Commissioner for Volunteerism and NGOs, received EU-wide recognition for its prompt and effective support of vulnerable groups following prescribed security protocols. PROGRESS OVERVIEW In the period that elapsed since its first VNR in 2017, and given the five years of continuous high economic growth, Cyprus has shown progress in most SDG indicators, even though it continues to rank low among the EU countries. Cyprus performs very well with regard to reducing poverty (SDG1), securing good health (SDG3), in high tertiary educational attainment, but falls behind in quality education (SDG4) as well as in affordable energy even though challenges remain towards clean energy. It is ahead of many EU countries in terms of the gender pay gap and while showing some improvement in the number of women in leadership positions (SDG5), continues to rank very low among EU27. On the other hand, Cyprus has the highest number in asylum applications, experiencing the highest influx of migrants in the EU (SDG10.) Finally, regarding the environment, Cyprus’ performance is below the EU average in most SDGs. Severe challenges exist with respect to sustainable agriculture (SDG2), clean water and sanitation (SDG6) due to the extended drought periods caused by climate change. Cyprus continues to lack behind with respect to responsible consumption and production (SDG12) and climate action (SDG13). However, the data show a continuous improvement towards most environmental goals, with the overall implementation rate for all SDGs rising from 70.60% in 2017 to 75.21% in 2020, reflecting the fruition of targeted Government policies and initiatives.