Does Global Development have a Mental Health Crisis? Re-calibrating the SDGs after the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic, rising poverty, disruptions in global supply chains, climate angst, and inflation have led to a rise in hopelessness, significantly contributing to a global mental health crisis. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that individual and communal anxiety and depressive disorders have increased in the last three years. This has significantly impacted marginalized and unequal communities the most. Using existing global reports, the author explores the impact of this rising mental health crisis on the timely achievement of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the proposed timing of the year 2030. The conclusion is that this could result in missed targets and backsliding on important goals unless the global community acts in closer concert to address mental health needs as a foundational need. Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Mental Health, Literature review, Comparative, International, Qualitative.