This is the year to get the SDG goals back on track

• According to available reports progress towards fulfilling SDGs are off track

Key Highlights:

• The recent United Nations summit on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), that was held in New York assessed progress towards achieving the SDGs.
• The Agenda-2030, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015
  • Identified 17 SDGs with 169 specific targets to be achieved by 2030.
• The programme is internationally non-binding, but all countries have committed to work towards these goals.

Slow progress

• From 2015 to 2019, there were some improvements but they were grossly insufficient to achieve the goals.
• The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global crises have virtually halted progress.
• Apart from slow progress, there is little or no attention towards the goals related to the environment and biodiversity
• We are far from the overarching target of balancing human well-being and a healthy environment.
• The present trend, if continue, will lead to accelerated environmental degradation

UN SDG Report : Key Suggestion

• Given this emerging scenario, the UN SDG Report, 2023 identified five key areas for urgent action:
  • Commitment of governments to deliver on the promises of SDGs
  • Concrete, integrated and targeted government policies and actions to eradicate poverty
  • Reducing inequality and to end the war on nature with a focus on advancing the rights of women and girls and empowering the most vulnerable
  • Strengthening of national and subnational capacity, accountability, and public institutions to deliver accelerated progress
  • Recommitment of the international community to deliver and mobilise resources to assist developing nations.

Need for action:

• There is little evidence that goal setting at the global level leads directly to political impacts in national and local politics.
• The UN report, ‘Future is Now’, provided guidelines for action.
  • It emphasised that the true transformative potential of the 2030 Agenda can be realised through a systemic approach that helps identify, manage trade-offs while maximising co-benefits.
  • By co-benefit the stress is on the activities that will address multiple SDGs
• The report suggests adopting locally best suited entry points following regional and national priorities and applying four levers:
  • Governance, Economy & Finance
  • Individual & Collective action,
  • Science & Technology
• Actors from these levers must develop partnership, establish collaboration and rapidly implement integrated pathways to sustainable development.