Why War-Affected Regions Such as Tigray Are Central to the 2030 Agenda and the 2026 High Level Political Forum

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is founded on the commitment to "leave no one behind." This pledge is both a moral imperative and a practical necessity. As the international community enters the final years before the 2030 deadline, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will depend largely on whether meaningful progress can be made in fragile and war-affected settings. War has become one of the most significant barriers to sustainable development, reversing decades of gains in health, education, gender equality, infrastructure, governance, and poverty reduction. Consequently, regions such as Tigray are not peripheral to the global development agenda—they are central to its success.

The SDGs particularly selected for in-depth review during the 2026 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) from July 7-15, 2026, illustrate the interconnected nature of recovery in postwar and fragile settings. Progress toward SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) reduces disease while restoring essential public services. SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) enables hospitals, schools, water systems, and local enterprises to function effectively. SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) rebuilds transportation networks, communications, and productive capacity. SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) supports inclusive reconstruction, safe housing, and the safe, dignified, voluntary return of displaced populations. Finally, SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) recognizes that sustainable recovery depends upon coordinated international cooperation, predictable financing, technology transfer, and locally led partnerships.

These priorities closely reflect the needs of Tigray. Investments in resilient infrastructure cannot succeed without functioning institutions; health system recovery depends upon reliable electricity and water supplies; livelihood restoration requires secure transportation networks and market access; and effective governance depends upon community participation, accountability, and social cohesion. Progress across one SDG therefore accelerates progress across many others.

War and Sustainable Development

 

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development explicitly recognizes the intrinsic relationship between peace, human rights, justice, and sustainable development. It affirms that there can be "no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development," emphasizing that peaceful and inclusive societies, effective institutions, and universal respect for human rights are prerequisites for achieving all seventeen SDGs. This integrated vision requires governments and development partners to address humanitarian crises and structural inequalities simultaneously rather than as separate policy domains.

 

This principle has become increasingly urgent. According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025, progress toward the SDGs remains significantly off track. Multiple global shocks—including wars, climate change, food insecurity, economic instability, and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic—have slowed or reversed development gains in many regions. The report identifies conflict and institutional fragility among the principal drivers of declining progress across numerous goals, particularly those relating to poverty, hunger, health, education, gender equality, and infrastructure.

 

War undermines sustainable development through interconnected pathways. Health facilities are damaged or destroyed, health workers flee or are displaced, supply chains collapse, and essential medicines become unavailable. Schools close, interrupting education and exposing children to increased risks of child labour, exploitation, and early marriage. Agricultural production declines as insecurity restricts access to farmland and markets. Water systems, electricity networks, transport infrastructure, and digital communications deteriorate, reducing economic productivity while limiting access to essential public services. Public institutions struggle to function effectively, weakening governance, accountability, and public confidence. These mutually reinforcing disruptions create cycles of vulnerability that often persist long after active hostilities have ended.

 

The World Bank notes that extreme poverty is becoming increasingly concentrated in countries affected by fragility, war, and violence. These settings now represent the greatest challenge to achieving global poverty reduction, as conflict destroys livelihoods, discourages investment, weakens institutions, and constrains economic recovery. Without targeted investments in peacebuilding, institutional resilience, and inclusive development, global progress toward the SDGs will remain insufficient. 

 

What about in Tigray?

 

Humanitarian Implications

The humanitarian situation in Tigray exemplifies these broader global challenges. Although the 2022 Cessation of Hostilities Agreement significantly reduced large-scale fighting, humanitarian needs remain severe. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), millions of Ethiopians continue to experience acute food insecurity, with war, displacement, drought, economic shocks, and funding shortfalls driving rising hunger and malnutrition. WFP has warned that reductions in humanitarian funding threaten food assistance and nutrition programmes for millions of vulnerable people, including women and children in Tigray. 

 

Similarly, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reports that hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons remain in Tigray, originating from forcefully, unconstitutionally occupied territories and continuing to face inadequate access to essential services. UNICEF notes that funding shortages and reduced humanitarian presence have significantly constrained support for displaced populations. 

 

Women and girls:

 

Women and girls often bear the greatest burden of war. Existing gender inequalities intensify as access to reproductive healthcare declines, unpaid care responsibilities increase, educational opportunities diminish, and conflict-related sexual violence and gender-based violence escalate. These has been severely felt across Tigray. Also see:- https://youtube.com/shorts/KqW_C2IK19c?si=FWX5Q6uGj99eY4xZ

 

Yet women are also among the most effective leaders of humanitarian response and recovery. The UN Women Humanitarian Action Programme emphasizes that women must participate fully and equally in humanitarian action, peacebuilding, governance, and reconstruction if sustainable recovery is to be achieved. Likewise, the Women's Rights in Review: 30 Years After Beijing demonstrates that countries investing in women's leadership and rights consistently achieve stronger and more inclusive development outcomes.

 

For Tigray, these findings are particularly relevant. Women-led organizations, movements, and groups have continued to provide psychosocial support, humanitarian assistance, livelihood recovery initiatives, and community mobilization despite operating under exceptionally constrained conditions. Strengthening these organizations represents an investment not only in SDG 5 (Gender Equality) but also in health, education, peacebuilding, institutional resilience, and economic recovery.

 

Women and Girls Living with Disabilities

 

Disability inclusion is equally indispensable. Persons with disabilities frequently encounter barriers to healthcare, education, humanitarian assistance, employment, information, and public participation during crises. War also generates new disabilities through injuries, interrupted medical care, and psychological trauma. War is generally described in reference to its direct consequences. But behind tangible losses exist less visible, longer-term effects that never quite reach the front pages of news reports. One such hidden effect in Tigray, Ethiopia, has been on girls and women with disabilities, who bear the brunt of war disproportionately. 

 

The UN DESA – Disability and the Sustainable Development Goals emphasizes that disability inclusion is fundamental to every SDG, requiring accessible infrastructure, inclusive education, rehabilitation services, social protection, accessible communications, and meaningful participation of organizations of persons with disabilities throughout recovery processes.

 

Local Leadership, Human Rights and Renewed Insecurities

 

Local leadership is central to this process. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) argues that resilient recovery requires locally owned solutions, inclusive governance, and meaningful community participation. Community-based organizations, women's associations, organizations of persons with disabilities, youth groups, and local civil society possess contextual knowledge and social trust that enable development programmes to reach vulnerable populations more effectively than externally designed interventions alone. 

 

The continued humanitarian challenges in Tigray also underscore the importance of sustained international engagement. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and humanitarian partners have repeatedly stressed that humanitarian needs remain substantial despite the cessation of large-scale hostilities. Funding shortfalls, continued displacement, damaged infrastructure, and limited access to basic services continue to constrain recovery efforts. Similarly, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that many internally displaced persons require continued protection, durable solutions, and improved access to housing, livelihoods, documentation, healthcare, and education before voluntary return can become sustainable. 

 

Human rights remain inseparable from sustainable development and local leadership. Human Rights, however, remain severly constrained in Tigray. The International Experts of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia  documented serious violations of international human rights, humanitarian, and refugee law committed by multiple parties during the war, highlighting the necessity of accountability, justice, reparations, and institutional reform as foundations for durable peace. The New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, in its report, “Genocide in Tigray: Serious breaches of international law in the Tigray conflict, Ethiopia, and paths to accountability” concluded that “there is at least a reasonable basis to believe that genocide and other related acts were committed in Ethiopia against Tigrayans, and that responsibility for these acts may be attributable to Ethiopia as a State.” More recently, Human Rights Watch concluded that “persecution of Tigrayans” was unrelenting in Western Tigray.

Renewed insecurities is another challenge in Tigray. Recent reporting highlights renewed instability and conflict risks, drone strikes targeting civilians, restrictions affecting civilian movement and safety, continued displacement of Tigrayans from areas occupied by Amhara and Eritrean forces. Additional credible analysis documents functional blockades by the Ethiopian government.

Conclusion:

As the international community gathers for the 2026 High-level Political Forum, there is a narrowing window to fulfill the promise of the 2030 Agenda. The principle of "leaving no one behind" cannot be achieved if millions of people living in war-affected regions remain excluded from development gains. Tigray demonstrates that war is not only a humanitarian catastrophe but also one of the greatest obstacles to sustainable development, undermining progress across nearly every Sustainable Development Goal. At the same time, it illustrates the resilience of local communities and the transformative potential of inclusive, locally led recovery when supported by sustained international commitment.

The Sustainable Development Goals under review at the 2026 HLPF—clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, resilient infrastructure, sustainable communities, and global partnerships—provide a practical roadmap for rebuilding societies affected by war. Yet infrastructure alone cannot secure lasting peace or development. Recovery must be grounded in respect for human rights, accountability for serious violations, the restoration of public institutions, and the meaningful participation of women, youth, persons with disabilities, civil society, and displaced communities in shaping their own future. Investments in these areas are not peripheral to sustainable development; they are essential conditions for achieving it.

For UN Member States, development partners, international financial institutions, and humanitarian agencies, the message is clear: supporting recovery in Tigray and other war-affected regions is not an act of charity but a strategic investment in the success of the 2030 Agenda. This requires predictable and flexible financing, strengthened partnerships with local actors, renewed humanitarian support, and sustained commitment to peacebuilding, protection, and inclusive development. It also requires ensuring that the voices and priorities of war-affected communities are reflected in global policy discussions, including at the High-level Political Forum.

The credibility of the Sustainable Development Goals will ultimately be measured not by progress achieved where development is easiest, but by whether the international community can deliver meaningful change for those who have endured war, displacement, and profound injustice. If the world is serious about leaving no one behind, then regions such as Tigray must move from the margins of global development discussions to the centre of international action. The decisions taken today will determine not only the future of Tigray but also whether the 2030 Agenda fulfills its promise of peace, dignity, and sustainable development for all.