On Friday, world leaders adopted at the summit the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030.
Obama said the world suffers no illusions of the challenges ahead in achieving the goals, but "we understand this is something that we must commit ourselves to."
In his defense of the 15-year plan, Obama said some 800 million people are scraping by on less than 1.25 U.S. dollars a day and billions of people are at risk of dying from preventable diseases.
In his address, the U.S. President also warned against bad governance and inequality, among others, which threaten the achievement of the ambitious goals.
"Governments have to embrace transparency and open government and rule of law," Obama said, calling for combating corruption, illicit finance and promoting civil society groups.
Obama also urged some countries to abandon old attitudes, especially those that deny rights and opportunity to women.
"One of the best indicators of whether a country will succeed is how it treats its women," Obama said.
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