SDG deadline looms, but no country is fully ready

PTI

No country is on track to achieving all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, which include ending poverty and achieving gender equality, a study has found.

However, when grouped based on geographical, cultural, and socioeconomic factors, different countries show progress on different goals, according to findings published in the journal PLOS One.

Researchers, including those from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, found that African and Asian countries—despite having the lowest Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—have made little progress on goals such as eradicating poverty, achieving gender equality, and ensuring good health and well-being. However, these countries have advanced the most in climate action and responsible consumption and production, the team noted.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aims to achieve human progress, economic prosperity, and planetary health. Member states of the United Nations adopted the framework in 2015

The researchers highlighted setbacks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and armed conflicts, which have slowed progress. More research is needed to identify the underlying obstacles so they can be effectively addressed, they added.

“Our findings show that progress toward the SDGs is heavily influenced by geographical, cultural, and socioeconomic factors, with no country on track to achieve all the goals by 2030,” the authors wrote.

For the analysis, researchers looked at 20 years of data from 107 countries, including GDP figures. They assessed progress using indicators designated by the UN.

The study revealed complex links between the SDGs, with some acting synergistically while others function as trade-offs. For example, ‘climate action’ and ‘responsible consumption and production’ appear to support each other but are negatively correlated with the other 15 goals.

“This finding raises a potential red flag, indicating that the current global economic system may be working against climate action goals,” the authors wrote.

In contrast, the goal of ‘no poverty’ showed positive synergy with most other goals.

The authors called for a ‘re-evaluation of the strategies being used to pursue the SDGs’ and emphasised the need for a region-specific approach that accounts for the complex relationships between the goals. They added that their findings could help inform such efforts.