The movers and shakers who conceptualised, wrote, negotiated and achieved agreement on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), must have hoped that by now, six years away from the end date, there would have been significantly more progress made. Not so. When the United Nations recently crunched the numbers of the available statistics, the result was disheartening, but not altogether surprising; only 17 percent of the SDG targets are on track.
As a reminder, the 2030 SDG Agenda, adopted by UN member states in 2015 required that they achieve, globally, no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy and decent work and economic growth. In addition, member states agreed to prioritise industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduce inequalities; make cities and communities sustainable; ensure responsible consumption and production; take action on climate change; promote sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources; protect flora and fauna from depletion; promote peace, justice and strong institutions; and strengthen the global partnership for sustainable development.
The 2024 Sustainable Development Goals Report, released late last month, acknowledged what most of us had already surmised – that nearly half the 17 targets showed minimal or moderate progress, and more than a third were stalled or in reverse. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at the press launch of the report that the world was getting “a failing grade”, though he still attempted a positive push, urging states to “not let up on our 2030 promise to end poverty, protect the planet and leave no one behind.”
The report preceded the UN’s High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York, which ended just last week, on July 17, and reviewed global progress on five of the SDGs – Goal one, ending poverty; Goal two, zero hunger; Goal 13, climate action; Goal 16, peaceful and inclusive societies; and Goal 17, means of implementation. It is not difficult to imagine the results of that review leaving many attendees in the doldrums.
Each goal has a number of targets – 169 in total across all of the SDGs – devised to allow for a springboard approach to complete attainment. It would be true to say that this has not really helped. The fact is that the countries that have actually moved forward positively on these goals are the ones that already had policies in place mirroring some of the SDGs.
Finland, Sweden and Denmark are said to be the top three out of ten countries that have made progress on the SDGs. The others rounding out the top ten are Norway, Switzerland, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Japan and Australia. These placements should come as no surprise. Many of these countries already had concrete plans for clean energy, quality education, affordable healthcare among other goals, even before the SDG 2030 Agenda came into play and simply continued on their path or ramped up development where necessary.
The top ten list underscores the disparity between rich and poor, developed and developing countries. That they have continued to achieve despite the global ills that stagnated growth elsewhere, including but not limited to the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts, geopolitical tensions and climate chaos, speaks volumes.
Meanwhile, according to the UN, the countries that are middling, low or no achievers require some US$4 trillion a year to get up to scratch. Unfortunately, there are no pockets deep enough to provide that. Nearly every country in the world is indebted either to one of the multilateral organisations or to another country, though there are a few that have more assets than debt. The UN also lamented the growing trend of more loans and fewer grants being made available to developing countries, which currently have a total debt stock of some US$11.4 trillion, more than double what it was ten years ago.
Against this backdrop, recent data is even more demoralising. According to the World Bank, in 2022, a total of 712 million people globally were living in extreme poverty, an increase of 23 million people compared to 2019. Further, nearly 60 percent of countries faced moderately to abnormally high food prices in 2022, a trend that continued in 2023. There has not been a real breakthrough in action on climate change, mostly owing to the very powerful oil and gas industry global lobby. Wars abound all over the world and every day threats and rumours of new conflicts arise. Progress on both quality education and gender equality have been severely affected by the global woes referred to above. In the face of all this, to say that attaining the SDGs by 2030 is in dire jeopardy is to put it mildly. Admirably, the UN is pushing for a pivot that could possibly double the targets that are on track over the next six years. However, a lot will depend on the global political temperature. As we have seen all around us over the past few years, appeals to humanity only succeed where empathetic leadership exists. That is fast disappearing.
