Rethinking the 2030 Agenda in the pandemic crisis scenario: a look from *

Replanteamiento de la Agenda 2030 ante el escenario de crisis pandémica: mirada desde la sociología

Ruben Tamboleo Garcia ** Article of investigation Reception date: June 7, 2021 Acceptance date: July 22, 2021

To cite this article: Tamboleo García, R. (2021). Rethinking the 2030 Agenda in the face of a pan-demic: view from sociology. Journal of Legal-Political Analysis, 3 (6), 75-96. https: //doi.org/10.22490/26655489.4805

RESUMEN La pandemia de COVID-19 ha afectado de manera contundente tanto a países desarrollados como en vías de desarrollo. Las po- líticas públicas, planes de desarrollo y planes estratégicos, como

* Research article in the academic framework of the Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology of the Complutense University of Madrid. ** Master in Government and Public Administration and PhD candidate in Sociology (ABD phase) at the Complutense University of Madrid. Associate Professor of Applied Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid. Author of indexed articles, books and book chapters with different publishers. Director of several monographs on public administration. He has been a visiting professor at the Mahdia campus (Tunisia), and a visiting researcher at the universities of Liverpool and Vienna. Researcher of educational innovation projects, R&D projects with companies and international research projects such as COST IS1308 and Horizon2020 "REMINDER". Secretary of the scientific committee of the International Congress on "Governance and Public Affairs" in four editions and "Populist Challenges". Professor and director of courses in political communication and public administration of the FGUCM 7 editions. Academic secretary in the "XII Ortega y Gasset Summer Classroom" UIMP. Speaker at more than 40 international conferences. ACAP, ECREA, COST evaluator and indexed journals. Analyst for different media (laSexta, RT, Telemadrid, ABC). Consultant in training and public affairs. Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain. Email:[email protected] ; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1631- 0815

Legal-Political Analysis 3 (6) 2021 • pp. 75-96 75

la Agenda 2030, han quedado impactados considerablemente. La metodología de esta investigación consistió en examinar entre los países latinoamericanos, aquellos con mayor nivel de avance en la implementación de la Agenda 2030 y los que estaban con más re- traso. Esto se estableció determinando cuáles países contaban con un departamento gubernamental para el desarrollo de la agenda; a partir de ello, se establecieron cuatro niveles. Aquellos países que no realizaron ningún avance, difícilmente podrían lograr la conse- cución de los ODS de manera efectiva para el año 2030. Además, el texto invita a la reflexión profesional, académica y científica al preguntar de qué manera ⎯ y de forma crítica⎯ este escenario de crisis, en el que a la mayoría de países les va a costar despegar unos años, es compatible con el mantenimiento de la Agenda 2030 tal y como estaba prevista. Este planteamiento es igual de efectivo para países menos desarrollados o para aquellos con objetivos y priori- dades que requieran mayor atención por parte de los Gobiernos e instituciones sociales. Por ello, si desde las más altas instancias se promueve la Agenda 2030 y los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS), es importante abrir un espacio crítico para determinar si esto va a tener un efecto positivo en la sociedad latinoamericana o, por el contrario, tras el impacto de la crisis pandémica que no ha acabado, es necesario fijarse en otros objetivos. Como vemos, cabe un replan- teamiento o una actualización de la agenda. Palabras Clave: políticas públicas, gobernanza, sociología políti- ca, sostenibilidad, totalitarismo, COVID-19, evaluación.

ABSTRACT The pandemic crisis has strongly affected both developing and de- veloping countries, so that public policies, development plans and strategic plans such as the 2030 Agenda have been significantly impacted. As a methodology: examining the scope of Latin American countries, those that had been more involved, and those that were later, can be done by examining which ones had established a government department at the country level for the implementation of the agenda. Those who have not done so will be more difficult to join the achievement of the SDGs effectively by the year 2030. In addition, inviting professional, academic and scientific reflection, it is worth asking ourselves in what way, and critically, Legal-Political Analysis 3 (6) 2021 • pp. 75-96 77 in this scenario of a crisis that indicates that in most countries, it will cost us to take off a few years, maintenance is compatible of the Agenda as planned, if this approach is equally effective for less developed countries, or if there are objectives and priorities that should now receive greater attention from governments and social institutions. Therefore, if the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals are promoted from the highest levels, it is important to be able to open a critical space to whether this is going to have a positive impact on Latin American society, or nevertheless after the impact of the Pandemic crisis that has not ended, it is necessary to set other objectives. As we can see, there is room for a rethinking or an update of the agenda. Keywords: Public policies, governance, political sociology, sustainability, totalitarianism, COVID-19, evaluation.

1. INTRODUCTION

Faced with the different proposals of the 20301 Agenda, it is worth considering a critical and proactive look. So far the possible positive results have been emphasized - especially in the published opinion - ; However, its viability has not been questioned after the enormous crisis caused by the impact of the pandemic, which has put and changed the lives of millions of people around the world. Although there have been some criticisms from some ends of the political board, such as the possibility that it was an excessively neoliberal agenda (Medina, 2016), the general approach has been to highlight the opportunities and positive factors by different authors from different disciplines and origins (Manero Salvador, 2018; Mariosa et al., 2020; Rodríguez Valls, 2020). After the limited success of the Millennium Development Goals (SDG) (Aguilar, 2016; The Circular Economy news portal, 2019) and the exhaustion of its time frame, it was desired to propose a new

1 The 2030 Agenda defines the new 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and 169 targets, which replace the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established by the international community in 2000 and which ended in 2015 (Responsible Newspaper , 2015).

78

An improved approach to this issue: a global sustainability agenda. Thus, to interpret the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the MDGs must be taken into account as political, social and economic antecedents of the 2030 Agenda. This new sustainability framework is carried out in an optimistic way, in which A certain stability was assumed on the horizon, especially of an economic nature, but also of peace between countries and political settlement. Scenarios that would have a severe impact on it were not foreseen, such as the emergence of populism - with strength and political decision- making capacity in certain countries - and especially the pandemic derived from the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, or COVID-19, which has changed the world. The pandemic has produced a decline in economic, social and, in addition, in individual freedoms, such as had not been known on the planet since the end of the Second World War in 1945 for political reasons, and since the end of the 1918 flu pandemic, due to health causes of a similar magnitude. Although there were health threats, they did not develop. This scenario of profound change must be examined to determine if it is possible to maintain the 2030 Agenda, with that structure and original objectives. In addition to the limitation of the agenda, the problems, barriers and limitations of long-term agendas must also be taken into account as negative effects and elements of the agenda.

2. METHODOLOGY

For the preparation of this work, secondary sources were used. We limit the countries of our research to the Latin American sphere and examine a limited time frame, which has been given since the approval of the 2030 Agenda in 2015, and especially the last 14 months, until May 2021, within the framework of the crisis and the changes resulting from the pandemic that has hit the entire planet. In this way, we ask ourselves the following research questions: • Research question 1: can the priorities and the 17 SDGs be maintained in the context of pandemic crisis?

Legal-Political Analysis 3 (6) 2021 • pp. 75-96 79

• Research question 2 (subject secondarily to the first): Is the 2030 Agenda viable after COVID-19?

With this methodology, an initial research work was established, which left an open and reference framework for further studies on this issue, which will have an impact in areas such as political sociology, international relations and the evaluation of public policies. .

3. LTO TOGENDA 2030

In the first place, this agenda2 must be characterized as a prospective tool. This means that we have to predict a scenario, and try to anticipate it, according to some objectives and desired goals in that time frame, and then try to achieve them with certain proposed tools. Second, we must understand the 2030 Agenda as a general framework for public policies. This affects a large part ―To most or almost all― of the public policies of the countries that have adhered to the agenda, at all levels (national, regional and local). Similarly, it also encompasses different sectors of public policy, whose developments cannot be contrary to said goals of the Agenda; Or, at least, it should be set in some of its goals to try to implement it and that it can have a significant effect through the statistical monitoring agencies in charge of each of the countries to transmit the data to the UN. Third, it examines how its political and organizational framework has developed in Latin American countries, as can be seen in table 1. Here, four levels of organizational importance are established:

2 Detailed information on the approval of the 2030 Agenda and its characteristics can be found on the United Nations website. Some of these aspects are omitted here, because it is not the objective of this work to unravel the particularities of this, and for reasons of conciseness and to enable academic debate on the aspects that are collected (website:https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment / en / 2015/09 / the-general-assembly-adop- ta-the-2030-agenda-for-sustainable-development /)

80

1. Level 1: the 2030 Agenda is politically managed in the country at the highest level, presidency of the executive. 2. Level 2: the 2030 Agenda is politically managed at the ministerial or secretariat level, just below the presidency of the country. 3. Level 3: the 2030 Agenda is managed at least two levels below that of the presidency of the country's executive, such as vice- ministry, vice-secretary, vice-chancellor or State secretariat, or it has a special body and / or it also has a general technical secretariat. 4. Level 4: Agenda 2030 is managed at more than two levels below the presidency of the country's executive, or there is no institutional framework at the organizational level of the executive branch of the country's political system. There may be a monitoring of statistical indicators or a UN body in the country that does a specific monitoring.

Table 1. Organizational importance of the 2030 Agenda for countries latin americans

Cou Institutionality Secretary Level ntry technique Old and Level 4 Barbuda Argentina advice National Level 3 Coordination of Social Policies of Argentina Bahamas Planning Unit and Level 3 Economic development Barbados Level 4 Belize Development Ministry Level 2 Economic Plurinational Interinstitutional Level 3 State of Bolivia Committee of the PDES and Sustainable Development goals (CIMPDS) of Bolivia

Legal-Political Analysis 3 (6) 2021 • pp. 75-96 81

Table 1. Organizational importance of the 2030 Agenda for Latin American countries (continued)

Country Institutionality Secretary Level techniqu e Brazil Secretary of the Level 2 Government of the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil chili National Council for Ministry of Level 2 the implementation of Social the 2030 Agenda for Development the of Chile Sustainable development From Chile Colombia Interinstitutional Department Level 3 commission high level for National the enlistment and Planning effective implementation (DNP) of of the 2030 Agenda Colombia Costa Rica High-level Council of Ministry of Level 2 the Sustainable Planning and Development Goals Economic Policy (Mideplan) Cuba National Group (GN) for Level 3 the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Dominica Planning Ministry and Level 2 Economic Development Ecuador Plan Ecuador Level 3 The Savior National Council for Level 3 Sustainable Development of El Salvador grenade Level 4 Guatemala National Council for Secretariat of Level 3 Urban and Rural Planning and Development (Conadur) Programming of the Presidency (Segeplan)

82 Guyana Ministry of Finance Level 2

Legal-Political Analysis 3 (6) 2021 • pp. 75-96 83

Table 1. Organizational importance of the 2030 Agenda for Latin American countries (continued)

Cou Institutionality Secretary Level ntry technique Haiti Planning Ministry and Level 2 External Cooperation (MPCE) Honduras National comission of Coordination Level 1 the 2030 Agenda for Secretariat the Sustainable General of Development Goals Government (NC-ODS) Jamaica National Oversight Planning Level 3 Committee of the 2030 Institute of Agenda Jamaica (PIOJ) Spain Ministry of Social Level 2 Rights and Agenda 2030 state United National Council of the Presidency of Level 1 Mexicans 2030 Agenda for the United Sustainable Mexican Development of Mexico States Nicaragua Level 4 Panama Interinstitutional and Ministry of Level 2 Civil Society Social Commission Developmen t (MDS) Paraguay Inter-institutional Ministry of Level 2 Coordination External Commission for relationships implementation, follow-up and monitoring of international commitments within the framework of the SDGs Peru National Center for Level 3 Strategic Planning Dominican Republic High Political Level Ministry of Level 2 cane Interinstitutional Economy, Commission for Planning Sustainable and Development Developme nt (MEPyD)

84 San Cristobal Level 4 and Nieves

Legal-Political Analysis 3 (6) 2021 • pp. 75-96 85

Table 1. Organizational importance of the 2030 Agenda for Latin American countries (continued)

Cou Institutionality Secretary Level ntry techniqu e St. Vincent and Level 4 the Grenadines St. Lucia National coordination Level 3 mechanism for the implementation of the Agenda 2030 and the 17 SDGs Surinam Level 4 Trinidad and Ministerial Subcommittee Ministry of Level 2 Tobago on Cabinet High Level on Planning and Vision 2030 and the Developmen SDGs of Trinidad and t (MPD) Tobago Uruguay Planning Office and Level 3 Budget (OPP) Bolivarian Council of Vice Vice president Level 2 Republic of Presidents of Executive of Venezuela the Republic of Venezuela

Source: Own elaboration based on Agenda 2030 in Latin America and the Caribbean, Regional Knowledge Platform (2020)

The following were found: 2 countries at level 1, 13 countries at level 2, 12 countries at level 3 and 7 countries at level 4. Levels 1 and 2 stand out as the most important. low commitment and little action for the development of the 2030 Agenda. Taking into account that a total of 34 countries were examined, the 20.59% of these have not started to implement the 2030 Agenda with organizational and political support.

4. ORAFTER AGENDAS: ESPAÑA 2050

It can be seen how some countries have joined the dynamics of establishing prospective agendas, although these are not only for sustainability, but, in general, development agendas that make it possible to examine which model is desired in a given period of 86 time.

Legal-Political Analysis 3 (6) 2021 • pp. 75-96 87

Thus, Spain has proposed the 2050 Agenda, which seeks a collective project to decide “what country we want to be in 30 years” (Presidency of the Government of Spain, 2021). Faced with this type of approach, what a part of society asks, as the writer Ana Iris Simón has done, is:

[…] It is very good to help ecological companies and put wifis in the field. But there will be no Agenda 2030 or Plan 2050 if in 2021 there is no roof for solar panels, because we do not have houses, or children who connect to Wi-Fi because we do not have children. (El Mundo newspaper, 2021)

This constitutes a criticism of these types of agendas and a need for urgent plans for the most pressing problems that affect different generations in different ways.

5. LAS POSITIVE AMBITIONS OF THE TOGENDA 2030

A positive aspect is that, in light of the MDGs, an attempt is made to target at least 169 targets distributed among the 17 SDGs. With this, it is possible to make a diagnosis of the evolution of each of the goals and examine whether there have been improvements or worsening. A fashion with the capacity to influence society has been created, as we have seen with the 2050 Agenda in the case of Spain. Likewise, more countries are involved than in previous attempts, giving them the opportunity to access more types of resources, and for developing countries to converge with fully developed ones. In addition, it is proposed, with much greater ambition than in previous cases, that the SDGs (both in their quantity and in the attempt to deepen qualitatively) have a general transformation component and a potential for global change,

6. LTHE NEGATIVE FRAMES OF THE PROSPECTIVE AGENDAS, ESPECIALLY FROM THE TOGENDA 2030

Prospective agendas pose a series of negative elements for the political system of a country and for society itself. Of

88

Some of these stand out, taking into account the greater impact and depth: the political and electoral cycles, the capacity for liberation, the totalitarian or totalitarian threat, the generational factor, and the changes of scenery.

6.1. LPOLITICAL AND ELECTORAL CYCLES

The political and electoral cycles of each country pose two particularly important barriers. Namely: 1. If, after a few certain years, it is decided to make a whole series of plans, those plans would steal the decision-making capacity of the elected representatives for the following years. Therefore, it is worth asking: what legitimacy or capacity do the elected representatives have for 2, 3, 4 or 5 years to sign or commit to plans that will last 10, 15 or more years? If this decision-making capacity is limited, we would be talking about that decision- making level would have to be framed within the constitutional level of each country (introducing limiting reforms within each constitution). 2. If representatives are elected with a very different vision in the aspects covered by this agenda, they will not keep their commitments, and they will turn political action towards other types of different directions and objectives. Approaching such long time frames can also reduce its effectiveness and its implementation capacity in accordance with the results that can be contrasted. A clear example of this is the election of Jair Bolsonaro (Castro Vizentín, 2019).

6.2. LA DELIBERATION CAPACITY

Both what we understand as deliberative processes of advanced constitutional democracies with democratic innovation processes (Geissel and Gherghina, 2016), and governance processes (Bañón i Martínez and Tamboleo García, 2015) require networks of permeability, in which citizens can participate, especially in the design, implementation and evaluation of public policies. Restricting the frameworks for deliberation, innovation and governance networks, as the 17 SDGs do, is detrimental to

Legal-Political Analysis 3 (6) 2021 • pp. 75-96 89

all this type of processes and for the approach of the citizenship to the government and the general public administration. This gives an insight that all cards are already marked, and that there are other possible types of risks, such as confusion of what is allowed and what is not. For example, within the 17 SDGs an attempt is made to implement the use of electric cars, but certain groups of environmentalists proclaim that the extraction of lithium - the basic component of batteries (figure 1) - is dangerous and can be harmful For the enviroment. This was evident in the protests over a lithium mine in the Spanish region of Extremadura: on the one hand it was said that Spain has the second largest lithium mine in Europe,

Figure 1. Million tons of estimated lithium need

Knowledge driven by electric 2.20 Mt mobility LCD

2.5 Industrial applications Battery Applications 93% Mobility electronics

2.0

2018-2030 1.5 X Growth Electronics 8 + 18% / y LCE tons 1.0 Storage energetic 58%

Millions Millions 0.5 Industrial applications 0.0

Source: Canaccord Genuity (2019).

3 In addition, this lithium mine would be key to the industrial impulse of this depressed area, being able to attract battery factories to the area, which would carry out the entire process there, avoiding logistical and environmental costs (Semprún and Ferrari, 2019).

90

In addition to limiting deliberation and governance processes, which require much more open approaches, it can lead to distrust in citizens: where are the limits and how far should we go? In other words, how much will the common person have to sacrifice in their quality of life, in order to guarantee a sustainable future? Also, what capacity for criticism can one have in the face of this type of general policy framework? this sense, as possible falls in the relativism of democracy (Ruiz Miguel, 2019).

6.3. LA TOTALITARIAN OR TOTALITARIAN THREAT

Totalitarianism is understood as those forms of political action in which a State or several States intend to completely direct all aspects of a person's life, limiting their freedom and capacity for action. The above has as conceptual reference the work of Hannah Arendt (1951) “The origins of totalitarianism”. In this way, it is appreciated how, with the 2030 Agenda, the population is being asked, in a very notable way, for changes in the ways of life and in their consumption habits. This is intended to define that there are citizens with greater social awareness or who are better than others depending on how they travel, how they dress, their usual means of transport, their diet or other visions of life in society, how they behave. In this sense, we have several examples such as: “reducing meat consumption to save the planet” (Caja de Ingenieros, 2020), limiting air travel (they even suggest that we stop flying for a certain time to save the world) (Sader, 2018) or stop buying a certain type of clothing or do it in a much more limited way, because they say that “the fashion industry emits 10% of carbon, it is the second largest consumer of water in the world. world and pollutes the oceans with microplastics ”(Castañeda, 2020). If this path of limitation of individual freedom is followed, where is the limit?

Legal-Political Analysis 3 (6) 2021 • pp. 75-96 91

6.4. ANDL GENERATIONAL FACTOR

Prospective agendas do not affect the different generations equally, which in themselves do not even have the same characteristics. We can raise three basic questions: the demographic evolution itself, the progressive incorporation into citizenship of new citizens, and the problems that affect different generations in a non-uniform way. Regarding the first question, the right to freedom of reproduction of the human race arises, because according to the UN itself, “the strong population growth will be a challenge to achieve sustainable development” (United Nations [UN ], Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2019). In this way, the right to form families is being limited or the approach for this limitation is being opened. With the 2030 Agenda, objectives are set within a 15-year time frame, which would affect two new generations that are joining the citizenry throughout that period. Regarding the third question, we see that problems such as and employment affect the different etheric groups unequally. For example, unemployment in certain places and sectors is fiercely primed with some generations or others depending on the circumstances. An example of this is the pandemic crisis in Spain, which with Spaniards aged 35 to 44 has a more profound impact, with 210,528 jobs destroyed between March 2020 and May 2021, in which social security affiliations they collapsed in that age group, among other reasons, due to the lower cost of terminating contracts (Martín, 2021).

6.5. LOS CHANGES OF SCENARIO

On the issue of changes of scenery, in the next section we focus especially on the biggest change in conditions that we have had. But without having such a dramatic one, there may be medium or small changes of scenery, which limit the capacity of these agendas. This means that the particularities of local and national scenarios must also be taken into account in the face of this globalist approach.

92

In addition, other aspects must be considered, for example that the SDGs can introduce limiting factors to countries that are developing, or with thresholds that leave the majority of the population at the mercy of poverty. These factors are explained in the light of the fact that, for example, the countries that are now at their highest level of development have reached it without limiting themselves in how much and how they accessed natural resources; And now those who are in development, or in even more precarious conditions, are asked to limit themselves and to embrace certain sustainability policies, which can chronicle their poor economic and social development situation.

7. ANDTHE CHANGE IN THE LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES OF THE CRISIS Pandemic

The impact of the pandemic crisis has been very high and goes beyond the economic. It affects freedom, personal development and quality of life, or, the movement of people: the total volume of passengers in 2020 was reduced by 60% (International Civil Aviation Organization-ICAO-, 2021). In this context, we will analyze which Latin American countries have been most impacted, with the purpose of showing inequality with the figures of cases per million people. The eight countries with the highest number of cases were selected (table 2) and the existing inequality in terms of Gross Domestic Product (PPI) per capita in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) (table 3).

Table 2. The eight Latin American countries with the highest number of cases

Total of New cases (1 Cases per 1 Cou Deceased cases day) million people ntry

16 907 425 66 017 80 002 472 531

Brazil

3 697 981 0 78 513 80 196

Spain Legal-Political Analysis 3 (6) 2021 • pp. 75-96 93

Table 2. The eight Latin American countries with the highest number of cases (continuation)

Total of New cases (1 Cases per 1 Cou Deceased cases day) million people ntry

3 547 017 28 971 71 808 91 422

Colombia

2 431 702 2071 19 211 228 758

United States Mexicans

1 893 334 There is no 58 925 66 471 data Peru

1 420 266 8920 74 331 29 816

chili

381 949 827 90 535 6395

Panama

371 021 2838 51 871 9739

Paraguay

Source: Google news (2021).

Also critically and regardless of the changing scenario, it is necessary to understand that Latin American countries have well differentiated levels of political, social and economic development and quality of life. This is expressed through different indicators, and for the present work we look at GDP per capita in PPP terms.

94

Table 3. Position of Latin American countries by per capita income

Position in International Cou Year the world dollars ntry 32 Spain 30 600 2011

47 Old and bearded 22 100 2011

48 Trinidad and Tobago 20 300 2011

55 Argentina 17 700 2011

56 chili 17 400 2011

58 San Cristobal and Nieves 16 400 2011

64 Uruguay 15 400 2011

65 United States of Mexico 15 100 2011

70 Dominica 13 600 2011

71 Panama 13 600 2011

73 grenade 13 300 2011

75 St. Lucia 12 900 2011

76 Venezuela 12 400 2011 - World 11 800 2011

79 St. Vincent and the 11 700 2011 Grenadines 80 Brazil 11 600 2011

81 Costa Rica 11,500 2011

87 Colombia 10 100 2011

88 Peru 10,000 2011

89 Cuba 9900 2010

93 Dominican Republic 9300 2011

94 Jamaica 9000 2011

97 Belize 8300 2011

98 Ecuador 8300 2011

Legal-Political Analysis 3 (6) 2021 • pp. 75-96 95

Table 3. Position of Latin American countries by per capita income (continuation)

Position in International Cou Year the world dollars ntry 102 The Savior 7600 2011

117 Paraguay 5500 2011

123 Guatemala 5000 2011

126 Plurinational State of Bolivia 4800 2011

131 Honduras 4300 2011

141 Nicaragua 3200 2011

177 Haiti 1200 2011

Source: Central Agency Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States of North America (2017).

For the change of scenery, it is observed how the crisis has had a special harshness in Latin America. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an 8.1% drop in GDP in Latin America, overcoming the impact of the crisis in the European Union and other similar emerging economies. It is estimated that around three million companies in the region will close and the number of poor people will increase by almost 29 million people (Sánchez Díez and Manuel, 2021). In this sense, other authors indicate that the effects of the pandemic as a result of the spread of COVID-19 have revealed the suffering face of millions of human beings on the planet and in a cruel way in Latin America, where the States have seen themselves overwhelmed by the magnitude of infections and deaths, growing unemployment and the scarcity of resources (Liñan Cuello et al., 2021, p.

8. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION

The article examines the 2030 Agenda as a general tool, without delving into each of the 17 SDG targets. This allows us to answer the research questions that we have posed, through the questions that have been developed.

96

On whether the priorities and the 17 SDGs can be maintained in the context of a pandemic crisis, we have seen how the impact is uneven; For example, through the number of cases per million inhabitants, it is evident that each country needs different paths to reduce the negative impacts of the economic crisis. In addition, there are issues that are unrelated to the pandemic crisis and that can be applied to different types of forward-looking agendas, but that, however, are also related to the factors of the crisis created with COVID-19. Precisely the conjunction or convergence of these general negative factors with those of the pandemic crisis make, globally, it becomes even more difficult to maintain these priorities. It should also be taken into account that with the change of scenery, within the 17 SDGs and their respective goals, the weight of one and the other has changed; for example, some, such as goals 1 and 2, no poverty and zero hunger, respectively, become even more important. It was also evidenced that the organizational level at the political- administrative level in Latin American countries is asymmetric. This leads us to assume different results, since, in our four-level classification, the 34 countries have made very different organizational decisions. The impact of COVID-19 cases per million inhabitants has also been different in Latin American countries. It is found that, as a geographical and political area of the world, the economy has had a special negative impact. Thus, the viability and future of this agenda in the area becomes more difficult, being even more necessary a rethinking with other objectives and urgent actions. In this way, on whether the 2030 Agenda is viable after COVID-19, it is observed that its possibility has been seriously harmed, and that the 2030 time frame for the proposed objectives remains insufficient, in addition to the other barriers. here collected as negative effects, which must be taken into account. On the contrary, the viability of a majority of goals is possible, since their approach is carried out in a very general way, with few specificities and with a difficulty of evaluation and comparison according to the data that can be collected between the different countries. Therefore, it is necessary to delve into the reality of each country, where there are very notable differences in quality indicators of

Legal-Political Analysis 3 (6) 2021 • pp. 75-96 97

life, such as GDP per capita, as we have seen, apart from other structural data such as its size, population, development, among others. As a discussion, for the scientific, academic and professional community that has worked on the subject, what we propose based on the results of the research is whether the 2030 Agenda is a strategy and prospective tool that can generate real results and verifiable, or if, on the contrary, we find a tool that encourages a type of propaganda, to expiate negative effects of some of its political actors. However, we leave the discussion open for what would be the rethinking of the 2030 Agenda, having special importance the impact of the pandemic crisis, which can be developed with further research, even more so when the current health crisis has ended, allowing glimpse the end of the economic and social crisis.

REFFERENCES

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States of North America. (2017). Central Intelligence (CIA). https://bit.ly/3x0NJyP 2030 Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean, Regional Knowledge Platform. (2020). Countries: Voluntary national reports, national institutional mechanisms for coordination and follow-up for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. https://bit.ly/3hWH30q Aguilar, A. (2016, October 20). Why did the Millennium Goals fail? Expok Communication of Sustainability and CSR. https://bit.ly/3eRWF3f Arendt, H. (1951). The origins of totalitarianism (vol. 3). Taurus. Bañón i Martínez, R. and Tamboleo García, R. (2015). Ideas for Governance. Editorial Fragua. Engineers Box. (2020, April 9). Reduce meat consumption, key to saving the planet. What is the relationship between reducing meat consumption and protecting the environment? The Caja de Ingenieros blog. https://bit.ly/3eSb1Rn Canaccord Genuity. (2019). Canaccord Genuity - Lithium 2019 recharge. Obtained from Canaccord Genuity. Castañeda, J. (2020, September 30). The fashion industry emits 10 percent of carbon, is the second largest consumer of water in the world, and pollutes the oceans with microplastics. The finance journal. https: // bit. ly / 3x2lmQE Castro Vizentín, M. (2019, April 25). Bolsonaro's premiere threatens Brazil's commitment to the 2030 Agenda. Equal Times. https://bit.ly/3hYJIGL 98

Responsible Newspaper. (2015, September 26). Positive and negative aspects of the Agenda2030, according to Manos Unidas. https://bit.ly/3i0CaDF The world. (2021, May 22). Hard attack by the writer Ana Iris Simón on Sánchez: “There will be no Spain 2050 without families”. https://bit.ly/3x1Hwm8 The Circular Economy news portal. (2019, August 13). FROM THE MDGS (FAILURE) TO THE SDGS (SECOND FAILURE?). https://bit.ly/3ruNZ89 Geissel, B. and Gherghina, S. (2016). Constitutional deliberative democracy and democratic innovations. In M. Reuchamps (ed.), Constitutional Deliberative Democracy in Europe. Series: Studies in European political science (pp. 75-92.). ECPR Press. Google news. (2021, June 02). Coronavirus COVID 19 in the world. https: // bit. ly / 3kUjIyf Liñan Cuello, YI, Mejía González, LP and Ospino Jaraba, DE (2021). The 2030 Agenda: challenges to the State and democracy. Journal of / Center for Philosophical Studies / University of - Venezuela, 38 (97), 383-394. https: // doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4885116 López Redondo, N. (2020, January 14). Spain has the second largest lithium mine in Europe. Electric Mobility. https://bit.ly/2TCiHzO Manero Salvador, A. (2018). Arctic environmental protection and the 2030 Agenda. Environmental Legal News, 77, 4-34. https://bit.ly/3BKdI1h Mariosa, DF, Benedicto, SC, Georges, MR and Sugahara, CR (2020). A 2030 Agenda for sanitation as an indicator of sustainability. Cerrados Magazine, 18 (01), 278-299. https://doi.org/10.46551/rc24482692202002 Martín, J. (2021, June 06). The crisis is primed with Spaniards between 35 and 44 years old: 210,528 jobs destroyed. Populi voice. https://bit.ly/3eQMb4e Medina, J. (2016). Is the 2030 agenda a neoliberal agenda? Dossiers EsF, 22 (summer 2016), 7-9. Méndez, A. (2021, February 11). The Platform stages a protest against the lithium mine. HOY newspaper of Extremadura. https://bit.ly/3y12Qd2 International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). (2021, January 21). Total passenger volume in 2020 was down 60% and the COVID-19 assault on international mobility is not stopping. https://bit.ly/3eSm4Km United Nations Organization, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2019, April 1). Strong population growth will pose a challenge to achieve sustainable development. UN News. https://bit.ly/3i31bOB Presidency of the Government of Spain. (2021, May 20). Sánchez presents 'Spain 2050', a collective project to decide “what country we want to be in 30 years”. Moncloa Palace. https://bit.ly/3iGtYaP Rodríguez Valls, N. (2020). The 2030 Agenda: an opportunity to transform the school. Pedagogy Notebooks, 508, 64-69. Ruiz Miguel, A. (2019). Agenda 2030, democracy and relativism. In SA Margarita Alfaro (ed. Lit.), Agenda 2030: Keys for sustainable transformation (pp. 39- 57). The books of the cataract.

Legal-Political Analysis 3 (6) 2021 • pp. 75-96 99

Sader, M. (2018, December 20). Would you stop flying for a year to save the world? If you don't get on a plane in 2019, you can enjoy traveling for the rest of your life ... Traveler Magazine. https://bit.ly/2Ty8mF1 Sánchez Diez, TO. and Manuel, G. d. (2021, March 1). Coronavirus in Latin America: the figures that show the brutal impact of the pandemic on the economies of the region. BBC News. https://bbc.in/36TpMyW Semprún, Á. and Ferrari, J. (2019, December 30). Extremadura's lithium mine, the key to attracting battery factories. The Economist. https://bit.ly/3y2dsbw

100