A new report from the United Nations finds that progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is seriously off track, with only 17% of targets on track to be met by the 2030 deadline.
The 2024 edition of The Sustainable Development Goals Report released today, Friday, June 28, provides the latest data on global progress on the 17 SDGs.
It finds that nearly half of SDG targets are showing merely “moderate progress” and requiring acceleration.
Even more concerning, over one third of targets are experiencing stagnation or regression.
"The situation of individual countries within a given region, and across population groups and geographical areas within a country, may vary significantly from regional averages,” notes the report.
“Presenting aggregate figures for all regions also obscures another reality: the lack, in many parts of the world, of adequate data to assess national trends and to inform and monitor the implementation of development policies,” it added.
In his foreword to the report, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sounds the alarm: “The achievement of the SDGs is in peril”.
He explained that progress has been reversed by the “scarring effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, escalating conflicts, geopolitical tensions, and growing climate chaos.”
UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Liu Zhenmin echoes this sense of urgency.
“With more than six years left, we must not let up on our 2030 promise to end poverty, protect the planet and leave no one behind. Changing course requires prioritizing the achievement of universal health coverage, strengthening health systems, investing in education and social protection measures, efforts to address inequality and climate resilience, and international cooperation and partnership for fair trade and financial systems,” the former Portuguese Prime Minister now UN chief stressed.
The findings underscore the need for decisive action from all nations and stakeholders to turn things around and get the world firmly back on track to achieving the SDGs within the current decade.
See Antonio Guterres’ X post below for the full report:
University degree not needed to create business; ideas needed – LEC Group
Many walk with Sharaf Mahama in Tamale
UGMC concludes first 6 kidney transplants
Forestry Commission arrests 30 illegal miners, excavators shut down in forest re...
Use peaceful negotiations in pursuit of better working conditions – unionists to...
Dampare not removed—Police
Ghana to roll out new standards-based curriculum next year
High consumption of salt exposes many to hypertension — Physician Assistant
'Stop it’ – Actors Guild cautions Nigerians over rumours of Olu Jacobs’ death ev...
Former opposition parties get 12 ministries in S.Africa's new govt
