What are the UN Sustainable Development Goals?
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals creating a framework for development that focus on eradicating poverty, hunger, violence, fear, and disease and promoting literacy, equality, human rights, sanitation and hygiene, education, and physical, mental, and social well-being. These programs recognize that ending poverty and deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
Why Angelmedia supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals?
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THE GOALS
NO POVERTY. The decline of global extreme poverty continues, but has slowed. The deceleration indicates that the world is not on track to achieve the target of less than 3 percent of the world living in extreme poverty by 2030. People who continue to live in extreme poverty face deep, entrenched deprivation often exacerbated by violent conflicts and vulnerability to disasters. Strong social protection systems and government spending on key services often help those left behind get back on their feet and escape poverty, but these services need to be brought to scale.
The share of the world population living in extreme poverty declined to 10 percent in 2015, down from 16 percent in 2010 and 36 percent in 1990. However, the pace of poverty reduction is decelerating, with a “nowcast” of 8.6 percent in 2018. Moreover, baseline projections suggest that 6 percent of the world population will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030, missing the target of ending poverty.
Despite having a job, 8 percent of the world’s workers and their families still lived in extreme poverty in 2018. The situation remains particularly alarming in sub-Saharan Africa, where the share of working poor stood at 38 percent in 2018.
Social protection systems help prevent and reduce poverty and provide a safety net for the vulnerable. However, social protection is not a reality for a large majority of the world’s population. In 2016, 55 percent – as many as 4 billion people – were not covered by any social protection cash benefits, with large variations across regions: from 87 percent without coverage in sub-Saharan Africa to 14 percent in Europe and Northern America.
Only 22 percent of unemployed persons receive unemployment cash benefits, only 28 percent of persons with severe disabilities receive disability cash benefits, only 35 percent of children worldwide enjoy effective access to social protection and only 41 percent of women giving birth receive maternity cash benefits.
Disasters often lead to a downturn in the trajectory of socioeconomic development and exacerbate poverty. From 1998 to 2017, direct economic losses from disasters were estimated at almost $3 trillion, of which climate – related disasters accounted for 77 percent of the total – a rise of 151 percent compared with the period from 1978 to 1997 – and climate-related and geophysical disasters claimed an estimated 1.3 million lives. More than 90 percent of deaths reported internationally were due to disaster events in low- and middle-income countries, and economic losses from disasters as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) were also much higher in these countries.
Only one third of all countries spend between 15 percent and 20 percent of total government expenditure on education, as recommended in the Education 2030 Framework for Action. Source: Report of the Secretary-General, Special edition: progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals
ZERO HUNGER. Hunger is on the rise again globally and under nutrition continues to affect millions of children. Public investment in agriculture globally is declining, small scale food producers and family farmers require much greater support and increased investment in infrastructure and technology for sustainable agriculture is urgently needed.
An estimated 821 million people – approximately 1 in 9 people in the world – were undernourished in 2017, up from 784 million in 2015. This represents a worrying rise in world hunger for a third consecutive year after a prolonged decline. Africa remains the continent with the highest prevalence of undernourishment, affecting one fifth of its population (more than 256 million people). Consistent with the continued growth in undernourishment, 770 million people faced severe food insecurity in 2017.
Stunting has been decreasing in nearly every region since 2000. Still, more than 1 in 5 children under 5 years of age (149 million) were stunted in 2018. Globally, 49 million children under 5 were affected by wasting and another 40 million were overweight in 2018.
Strengthening the resilience and adaptive capacity of small-scale and family farmers, whose productivity is systematically lower than all other food producers, is critical to reversing the trend of the rise in hunger. The share of small-scale food producers in terms of all food producers in countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America ranges from 40 to 85 percent, compared with fewer than 10 percent in Europe.
Government spending on agriculture compared to agriculture’s contribution to the total economy has declined by 37 percent; the ratio fell from 0.42 in 2001 to 0.26 worldwide in 2017. In addition, aid to agriculture in developing countries fell from nearly 25 percent of all donors’ sector-allocable aid in the mid-1980s to only 5 percent in 2017, representing a decrease of $12.6 billion.
A continuous downward trend has been observed in export subsidy outlays reported to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The total outlays fell from close to $500 million in 2010 to around $120 million in 2016. This reduction in export subsidies by governments is leading to lower distortions in agricultural markets.
GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING. Major progress has been made in improving the health of millions of people, increasing life expectancy, reducing maternal and child mortality and fighting against leading communicable diseases. However, progress has stalled or is not happening fast enough with regard to address major diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis, while at least half the global population does not have access to essential health services and many of those who do suffer undue financial hardship, potentially pushing them into extreme poverty. Concerted efforts are required to achieve universal health coverage and sustainable financing for health, to address the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, including mental health, and to tackle antimicrobial resistance and determinants of health such as air pollution and inadequate water and sanitation.
An estimated 303,000 women around the world died due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth in 2015. Almost all of these deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries, and almost two thirds of those were in sub-Saharan Africa. These deaths are preventable with appropriate management and care. Globally in 2018, 81 percent of births took place with the assistance of a skilled birth attendant, a significant improvement from 69 percent in 2012. Coverage of skilled birth attendants in 2018 was only 59 percent in sub-Saharan Africa.
The under-5 mortality rate fell to 39 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2017, a 6.7 percent reduction from 42 deaths in 2015, and an overall reduction of 49 percent from 77 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000. The total number of under-5 deaths dropped to 5.4 million in 2017 from 9.8 million in 2000. Still, most of these deaths were from preventable causes and almost half, or 2.5 million, occurred in the first month of life – the most crucial period for child survival. The global neonatal mortality rate has continued to decline after a long downward trend from 31 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 18 in 2017, a 41 percent reduction.
Immunization saves millions of lives and is widely recognized as one of the world’s most successful and cost-effective health interventions. Coverage of the required three doses of the vaccine that prevents diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis increased from 72 percent in 2000 to 85 percent in 2015 and has remained unchanged between 2015 and 2017. An estimated 19.9 million children did not receive the vaccines during the first year of life, putting them at serious risk of these potentially fatal diseases. The global coverage of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, which has the potential to significantly reduce deaths in children under age of 5, has yet to reach 50 percent. Two doses of the measles vaccine are required to prevent the disease and the illnesses, disabilities and deaths caused by complications associated with it. Coverage with the second dose of measles vaccine increased from 59 percent in 2015 to 67 percent in 2017, but that is still insufficient to prevent this highly contagious disease.
Expanding access to modern contraceptive methods is essential to ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services. Globally, the proportion of women of reproductive age (15 to 49 years old) who have their need for family planning satisfied with modern contraceptive methods has continued to increase slowly, from 74 percent in 2000 to 76 percent in 2019.
Adolescent fertility declined from 56 births per 1,000 adolescent women in 2000 to 45 births in 2015 and 44 births in 2019. The level of adolescent fertility has remained high in sub-Saharan Africa, at 101 births per 1,000 adolescent women.
Strong and steady domestic and international commitment and funding has fueled an acceleration of evidence-informed HIV prevention, testing and treatment programs. As a result, the incidence of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa (among adults aged 15 to 49) has declined by 37 percent, from 3.39 infections per 1,000 uninfected people in 2010 to 2.49 in 2015 and 2.14 in 2017. However, the rate of global HIV incidence among adults aged 15 to 49 declined from 0.44 to 0.40 between 2015 and 2017 and overall by 22 percent between 2010 and 2017, well short of the declines required to meet 2020 and 2030 targets.
Tuberculosis remains a leading cause of ill health and death. In 2017, an estimated 10 million people fell ill with tuberculosis. The burden is falling globally: incidence of tuberculosis has continued to decline from 170 new and relapse cases per 100,000 people in 2000 to 140 in 2015, and 134 in 2017; and the tuberculosis mortality rate among HIV-negative people fell by 42 percent between 2000 and 2017. However, large gaps in detection and treatment persist and the current pace of progress is not fast enough to meet the Sustainable Development Goal target, with drug-resistant tuberculosis remaining a continuing threat.
After more than a decade of steady advances in fighting malaria, progress has stalled. No significant gains were made in reducing the number of malaria cases worldwide in the period 2015–2017. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to carry the heaviest burden of disease, accounting for more than 90 percent of the global malaria burden. Worryingly, there were an estimated 3.5 million more malaria cases in the 10 highest-burden African countries in 2017 compared with the previous year.
In 2015, an estimated 325 million people worldwide were living with hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus infection. The widespread use of hepatitis B vaccine in infants has considerably reduced the incidence of new chronic HBV infections, as reflected by the decline in hepatitis B prevalence among children under 5 years of age, from 4.7 percent in the pre-vaccine era to 0.8 percent in 2017.
In 2017, 1.58 billion people were reported as requiring mass or individual treatment and care for neglected tropical diseases, down from 1.63 billion in 2015 and 2.03 billion in 2010. Improved surveillance meant that further populations requiring interventions against such diseases were identified in 2017. The 522 million people requiring treatment and care in least developed countries represented 52 percent of those countries’ populations, down from 584 million in 2015.
The probability of dying from any of the four main non-communicable diseases – cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes – between the ages of 30 and 70 was 18 percent in 2016. The risk remains markedly higher for men globally, at 21.6 percent, compared with 15 percent for women.
Progress has been made in reducing the global suicide rate (from 12.9 per 100,000 in 2000 to 10.6 per 100,000 in 2016). However, suicide remains the second-highest cause of death among people aged 15 to 29 globally, with 79 percent of suicides found in low- and middle-income countries in 2016.
The prevalence of tobacco use declined from 27 percent in 2000 to 20 percent in 2016. Prevalence fell faster for women, from 11 percent in 2000 to 6 percent in 2016, compared with men: prevalence in men only fell from 43 percent to 34 percent. Despite the positive trends, the number of people dying from a tobacco-related illness was estimated to be more than 8.1 million in 2017.
The number of road traffic deaths climbed from 1.31 million in 2013 to 1.35 million in 2016. Road traffic injury is the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5 to 29.
Air pollution, both ambient and household, increases the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory disease and, in 2016, led to some 7 million deaths worldwide. Sub-Saharan Africa and most of Asia and Oceania (excluding Australia/New Zealand) have the highest mortality rates associated with air pollution, as a large proportion of the population still rely on polluting fuels and technologies for cooking.
Inadequate and unsafe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene is linked to 60 percent of the disease burden from diarrhea, 100 percent of the burden from infections with soil-transmitted helminths and 16 percent of the burden from protein-energy malnutrition, leading to a total of 870,000 deaths in 2016 from the three conditions.
Official development assistance (ODA) for basic health from all donors increased by 61 percent in real terms since 2010 and reached $10.7 billion in 2017. In 2017, some $2.0 billion was spent on malaria control, $1.0 billion on tuberculosis control and $2.3 billion on other infectious diseases, excluding HIV/AIDS.
Available data from 2013 to 2018 indicate that close to 40 percent of all countries had fewer than 10 medical doctors per 10,000 people, and more than 55 percent had fewer than 40 nursing and midwifery personnel per 10,000 people. All least developed countries had fewer than 10 medical doctors and fewer than 5 dentists and 5 pharmacists per 10,000 people, and 98 percent had fewer than 40 nursing and midwifery personnel per 10,000 people.
QUALITY EDUCATION. Despite the considerable progress on education access and participation over the past years, 262 million children and youth aged 6 to 17 were still out of school in 2017, and more than half of children and adolescents are not meeting minimum proficiency standards in reading and mathematics. Rapid technological changes present opportunities and challenges, but the learning environment, the capacities of teachers and the quality of education have not kept pace. Refocused efforts are needed to improve learning outcomes for the full life cycle, especially for women, girls and marginalized people in vulnerable settings.
In 72 countries with recent data, approximately 7 in 10 children aged 3 and 4 were developmentally on track in at least three of the following domains: literacy-numeracy, physical development, social-emotional development and learning.
In 2015, an estimated 617 million children and adolescents of primary and lower secondary school age worldwide – more than 50 percent – were not achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics. Of these, about two thirds were attending school but were not learning in the classroom, or dropped out school.
Some 750 million adults – two thirds of them women – remained illiterate in 2016. Half of the global illiterate population lives in South Asia, and a quarter live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Many developing countries still lack basic infrastructure and facilities to provide effective learning environments. Sub-Saharan Africa faces the biggest challenges: at the primary and lower secondary levels, less than half of schools have access to electricity, the Internet, computers and basic drinking water.
Globally, there has been little progress in the percentage of primary school teachers who are trained: it has been stagnating at about 85 percent since 2015. The proportion is lowest in sub-Saharan Africa (64 percent).
GENDER EQUALITY. While some indicators of gender equality are progressing, such as a significant decline in the prevalence of female genital mutilation and early marriage, the overall numbers continue to be high. Moreover, insufficient progress on structural issues at the root of gender inequality, such as legal discrimination, unfair social norms and attitudes, decision-making on sexual and reproductive issues and low levels of political participation, are undermining the ability to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5.
Recent data from 106 countries show that 18 percent of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical and/or sexual partner violence in the previous 12 months. The prevalence is highest in least developed countries, at 24 percent.
The practice of child marriage has continued to decline around the world, largely driven by progress in South Asia, where a girl’s risk of marrying in childhood decreased by about one quarter between 2013 and 2018. In sub-Saharan Africa, levels of child marriage have declined at a more modest rate.
At least 200 million girls and women have been subjected to female genital mutilation, based on data from 30 countries where the practice is concentrated and where nationally representative prevalence data is available. In these countries, the prevalence of this harmful practice declined by one quarter between approximately 2000 and 2018.
According to recent data from some 90 countries, women devote on average roughly three times more hours a day to unpaid care and domestic work than men, limiting the time available for paid work, education and leisure and further reinforcing gender-based socioeconomic disadvantages.
Women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political leadership. As of 1 January 2019, women’s representation in national Parliaments ranged from 0 to 61.3 percent, with the average standing at 24.2 percent, an increase from 19 percent in 2010. At the local level, data from 99 countries and areas show that women’s representation in elected deliberative bodies varies from less than 1 percent to 48 percent, with the median of the distribution at 26 percent. When legislated gender quotas are adopted, significantly higher proportions of women are elected at both national and local levels.
While women represented 39 percent of world employment, only 27 percent of managerial positions in the world were occupied by women in 2018, up only marginally from 26 percent in 2015. The proportion of women in management has increased since 2000 in all regions except in least developed countries.
In 51 countries with data on the subject, only 57 percent of women aged 15 to 49, married or in union, make their own decisions about sexual relations and the use of contraceptives and health services.
Over the past 25 years, there has been progress in reforming laws towards improving gender equality, yet discriminatory laws and gaps in legal protection remain in many countries. On the basis of data collected across four areas of law in 2018 from 53 countries, almost a third have legal gaps in the area of overarching legal frameworks and public life (e.g., constitutions, anti-discrimination laws, quotas, legal aid); more than a quarter have legal gaps in the area of violence against women; and 29 percent and 24 percent have legal gaps in the employment and economic benefits area and in the marriage and family area, respectively.
Despite progress in implementing gender-responsive budgeting globally, gaps remain in country efforts to establish comprehensive and transparent tracking systems. Based on 2018 data from 69 countries, 13 countries fully met the criteria of having in place a tracking system that measures and makes publicly available gender budget data, and 41 countries approached the requirements.
CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION. Despite progress, billions of people still lack safe water, sanitation and hand washing facilities. Data suggests that achieving universal access to even basic sanitation service by 2030 would require doubling the current annual rate of progress. More efficient use and management of water are critical to addressing the growing demand for water, threats to water security and the increasing frequency and severity of droughts and floods resulting from climate change. As of the time of writing, most countries are unlikely to reach full implementation of integrated water resources management by 2030.
Globally, the proportion of population using safely managed drinking water services increased from 61 to 71 percent between 2000 and 2015 and remained unchanged in 2017. An additional 19 percent of the global population used basic drinking water services. This means that 785 million people still lacked even a basic drinking water service.
The global population using safely managed sanitation services increased from 28 percent in 2000 to 43 percent in 2015 and to 45 percent in 2017, with the greatest increases occurring in Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa and East and South-East Asia. Between 2000 and 2017, the proportion lacking even a basic sanitation service decreased from 44 to 27 percent, yet 701 million people still practiced open defecation in 2017.
In 2017, some 60 percent of people worldwide and only 38 percent in least developed countries had a basic hand washing facility with soap and water at home, leaving an estimated 3 billion people without basic hand washing facilities at home.
In 2016, one third of all primary schools lacked basic drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services, affecting the education of millions of schoolchildren, but particularly girls managing menstruation, and one in four health-care facilities worldwide lacked basic water services, affecting more than 2 billion people.
Approximately one third of countries have medium or high levels of water stress. Almost all countries that have registered high water stress are located in North Africa and West Asia or in Central and South Asia, and these levels indicate serious water difficulties in the supply of freshwater, at least during parts of the year.
Of 172 countries, 80 percent have medium-low implementation or better of integrated water resources management. However, 60 percent of countries are unlikely to reach the target of full implementation by 2030.
A significant effort is needed to ensure that cooperation is operational in all transboundary basins. According to data from 67 of 153 countries that share transboundary waters, the average percentage of national transboundary basins covered by an operational arrangement was 59 percent in the period 2017–2018, with only 17 countries reporting that all their transboundary basins were covered by such arrangements.
Following several years of steady increases and after reaching $9 billion in 2016, ODA disbursements to the water sector declined by 2 percent from 2016 to 2017. However, ODA commitments to the water sector jumped by 36 percent between 2016 and 2017, indicating a renewed focus by donors on the sector.
AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY. Access to electricity in the poorest countries has begun to accelerate, energy efficiency continues to improve and renewable energy is making gains in electricity sector. Despite this progress, some 800 million people remain without electricity while access to clean cooking fuels and technologies needs dedicated attention. In addition, if Sustainable Development Goals 7, 13 and related Goals are to be met, much higher levels of ambition are required with regard to renewable energy, including transportation and heating.
The global electrification rate rose from 83 percent in 2010 to 87 percent in 2015, with the increase accelerating to reach 89 percent in 2017. However, some 840 million people around the world are still without access to electricity.
The global share of the population with access to clean cooking fuels and technologies reached 61 percent in 2017, up from 57 percent in 2010. Despite this progress, close to 3 billion people still rely primarily on inefficient and polluting cooking systems.
The renewable energy share of total final energy consumption gradually increased from 16.6 percent in 2010 to 17.5 percent in 2016, though much faster change is required to meet climate goals. Even though the absolute level of renewable energy consumption has grown by more than 18 percent since 2010, only since 2012 has the growth of renewables outpaced the growth of total energy consumption.
Global primary energy intensity (ratio of energy used per unit of GDP) improved from 5.9 in 2010 to 5.1 in 2016, a rate of improvement of 2.3 percent, which is still short of the 2.7 percent annual rate needed to reach target 3 of Sustainable Development Goal 7.
International financial flows to developing countries in support of clean and renewable energy reached $18.6 billion in 2016, almost doubling from $9.9 billion in 2010.
DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH. Inclusive and sustainable economic growth can drive progress and generate the means to implement the Sustainable Development Goals. Globally, labor productivity has increased and unemployment is back to pre-crisis levels. However, the global economy is growing at a slower rate. More progress is needed to increase employment opportunities, particularly for young people, reduce informal employment and the gender pay gap and promote safe and secure working environments to create decent work for all.
In 2017, the global growth rate of real GDP per capita was 1.9 percent and is expected to remain at about 2 percent from 2018 to 2020. This is significantly less than the 3 percent rate attained in 2010 and slightly higher than the 2015 rate of 1.63 percent. Real GDP growth rate for least developed countries is expected to increase from 4.5 percent in 2017 to 5.7 percent in 2020, which is less than the 7 percent envisioned by the 2030 Agenda.
Since the global economic downturn of 2009, labor productivity (measured as GDP per employed person) has been increasing in the world, recording positive annual growth rates consistently since 2010. In 2018, the world’s labor productivity increased by 2.1 percent, its highest annual growth since 2010.
Informal employment, which has an impact on the adequacy of earnings, occupational safety and health and working conditions, remains pervasive: in three quarters of countries with data on the subject, more than half of all persons employed in non-agriculture sectors are in informal employment.
Based on data for 62 countries, the median hourly gender pay gap stood at 12 percent. The median gender pay gap exceeded 20 percent in managerial and professional occupations, among workers in crafts and related trades and among plant machine operators and assemblers.
The global unemployment rate has finally recovered from the global economic crisis. In 2018, the global unemployment rate stood at 5.0 percent – matching pre-crisis levels. Youth were three times more likely to be unemployed than adults.
In 2018, one fifth of the world’s youth were not in education, employment or training, meaning that they were neither gaining professional experience nor acquiring or developing skills through educational or vocational programs in their prime years. There is a stark gender difference. Young women were more than twice as likely as young men to be unemployed or outside the labor force and not in education or training.
Many workers around the world are exposed to undue risks in their workplaces. Based on recent data from some 55 countries, a median of 3 deaths occurred per 100,000 employees and a median of 889 non-fatal injuries occurred per 100,000 employees.
Access to finance is on the rise globally, but the mode of access seems to be changing with growing reliance on technology. From 2010 to 2017, the number of automated teller machines (ATMs) per 100,000 adults grew by close to 50 percent from 45 to 66 globally, and from 2.3 to 5.8 in the least developed countries. The number of commercial bank branches per 100,000 adults grew by only 2 percent between 2010 and 2017, with more customers using digital banking solutions.
In 2017, aid-for-trade commitments increased to $58 billion and more than doubled when compared to the 2002–2005 baseline, when they represented $23.1 billion. In absolute terms, the increase was highest in the agriculture sector ($1.7 billion), the industry sector ($1.0 billion) and in banking and financial services ($1.0 billion).
INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE. Aspects of the prevailing global economic environment have not been conducive to rapid progress on Sustainable Development Goal 9. While financing for economic infrastructure has increased in developing countries and impressive progress has been made in mobile connectivity, countries that are lagging behind, such as least developed countries, face serious challenges in doubling the manufacturing industry’s share of GDP by 2030, and investment in scientific research and innovation remains below the global average.
Efficient transportation services are key drivers of economic development, and more than 80 percent of world merchandise trade by volume is transported by sea, making maritime transport a critical enabler of trade and globalization. International maritime freight increased by an estimated 3.7 percent globally in 2017 and projected growth will test the capacity of existing maritime transport infrastructure to support increased freight volumes.
In 2018, global manufacturing slowed in both developing and developed regions. The slowdown was attributed mainly to emerging trade and tariff barriers that constrained investment and future growth. Despite this slowdown, the global share of GDP in terms of manufacturing value added increased marginally from 15.9 percent in 2008 to 16.5 percent in 2015, but stalled at the same level in 2018. The share of manufacturing in least developed countries remained low, posing a serious challenge to the target of doubling the industry’s share of GDP by 2030.
Meanwhile, the share of manufacturing employment in total employment declined from 15.3 percent in 2000 to 14.7 percent in 2015 and to 14.2 percent in 2018, as countries gradually reallocated production factors from agriculture and low-value added manufacturing towards high-value added manufacturing and services.
The intensity of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from manufacturing industries declined by more than 20 percent between 2000 and 2016, to 0.30 kg CO2 per United States dollar, showing a general decoupling of CO2 emissions and GDP growth.
The proportion of global GDP invested in research and development increased from 1.52 percent to 1.68 percent from 2000 to 2016, with Europe and Northern America standing at 2.21 percent of GDP spent on research and development and most developing regions falling short of the world average in 2016.
While there has been an increase in the number of researchers per million inhabitants from 804 in 2000 to 1,163 in 2016, that number reached only 91 in sub-Saharan Africa.
Total official flows for economic infrastructure in developing countries reached $59 billion in 2017, an increase of 32.5 percent in real terms since 2010. Within this total, the main sectors assisted were transport ($21.6 billion) and banking and financial services ($13.4 billion).
In 2016, medium-high and high-tech sectors accounted for 44.7 percent of the global manufacturing value added. Medium-high and high-tech products continued to dominate manufacturing production in Northern America and Europe, reaching 47.4 percent in 2016 compared with 10.4 percent in least developed countries.
Almost all people around the world now live within range of a mobile-cellular network signal, with 90 percent living within range of a 3G-quality or higher network. This evolution of the mobile network, however, is growing more rapidly than the percentage of the population using the Internet.
REDUCED INEQUALITIES. Inequality within and among nations continues to be a significant concern despite progress in and efforts at narrowing disparities of opportunity, income and power. Income inequality continues to rise in many parts of the world, even as the bottom 40 percent of the population in many countries has experienced positive growth rates. Greater emphasis will need to be placed on reducing inequalities in income as well as those based on other factors. Additional efforts are needed to increase zero-tariff access for exports from least developed countries and developing countries, and assistance to least developed countries and small island developing States.
In more than half of the 92 countries with comparable data during the period 2011–2016, the bottom 40 percent of the population experienced a growth rate that was higher than the overall national average. However, the bottom 40 percent received less than 25 percent of the overall income or consumption. In many places, the increasing share of income going to the top 1 percent of earners is of significant concern.
Robust and sound financial systems are essential for supporting equal access to financial services. High loan asset impairment, measured by the ratio of non-performing loans to total loans for deposit takers, is a potential risk to the soundness of the banking system. For almost half of the 138 reporting countries, the percentage of non-performing loans to total loans was less than 5, while the average median for the period 2010–2017 was 4.3 percent.
While countries in developing regions represent over 70 percent of the membership of the General Assembly and World Trade Organization, which utilize a one member, one vote system, their voting share in other international organizations remains far below these levels. Governance reforms are being negotiated at the International Monetary Fund, and changes were adopted at the World Bank in October 2018. However, full implementation will leave developing countries with just over 40 percent of the voting rights, still short of the 75 percent they represent in World Bank membership in terms of the number of countries.
Duty-free access continued to increase for least developed countries, small island developing States and developing regions at large. More than 50 percent of exports from developing countries are now eligible for duty-free treatment. The increase of duty-free access in world markets was the largest for least developed countries, namely in the industrial and agricultural sector.
In 2017, total receipts by developing countries from donors of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, multilateral agencies and other key providers were $414 billion, of which $163 billion were ODA. Total ODA to small island developing States from all donors was $4.3 billion in 2017, a decrease of 33 percent in real terms over 2016, due to exceptional debt relief operations for Cuba in 2016.
SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES. Substantial progress has been made in reducing the proportion of the global urban population living in slums, though more than 1 billion people continue to live in such situations. Urgent action is needed to reverse the current situation, which sees the vast majority of urban residents breathing poor-quality air and having limited access to transport and open public spaces. With the areas occupied by cities growing faster than their populations, there are profound repercussions for sustainability.
Between 1990 and 2016, the proportion of the global urban population living in slums fell from 46 to 23 percent. This progress was largely offset by internal population growth and rural-urban migration. In 2016, just over 1 billion people lived in slums or informal settlements, with over half (589 million) living in East, South-East, Central and South Asia.
The proportion of urban residents who have convenient access to public transport (defined as living within 500 m walking distance of a bus stop and within 1,000 m of a railway and/or ferry terminal) remains low, particularly in developing countries. Based on data from 227 cities from 78 countries in 2018, on average, 53 percent of urban residents in all regions had convenient access to public transport, from a low of 18 percent in sub-Saharan Africa to a high of 75 percent in Australia and New Zealand. In some regions that have low access to public transport, informal transport modes are highly prevalent and in many cases provide reliable transport for the majority of urban populations.
Globally, urban areas are expanding at a faster rate than their populations. Between 2000 and 2014, areas occupied by cities grew 1.28 times faster than their populations. Closely related to this trend is that the urban densities of cities have been declining, creating profound repercussions for environmental sustainability at the local, regional and global scale. Better management of urban growth will be crucial in order to guarantee sustainable urbanization.
Globally, 2 billion people do not have access to waste collection services and 3 billion people lack access to controlled waste disposal facilities. With increasing urban populations and the existence of consumer-oriented economies amid rising income levels and rapid urbanization, it is estimated that the total waste generated in the world will double from nearly 2 billion tons in 2016 to about 4 billion tons by 2050. While from 2010 to 2018 the proportion of solid waste collected was about 81 percent globally, in sub-Saharan Africa it was only 52 percent.
In 2016, 9 in 10 people living in urban areas still breathed air that did not meet the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines value for particulate matter – that particulate matter 2.5 microns or less in size (PM2.5) not exceed an annual mean of 10 micrograms per m3 or a daily mean of 25 micrograms per m3 – and more than half of the world population experienced an increase in PM2.5 from 2010 to 2016.
Most cities have struggled to ensure that their populations have convenient access to open public spaces (defined as spaces within 400 m walking distance of their residence). Based on data from 220 cities in 77 countries in 2018, only 21 percent of the population had convenient access to open public spaces. However, these results do not necessarily mean that there is an inadequate share of land dedicated to open public spaces in these cities, but rather that their distribution across urban areas is uneven.
National urban policies are policy strategies that specifically respond to the urbanization challenges of today. As of the beginning of 2019, 150 countries had developed such policies, and almost half are already implementing them.
RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION. Worldwide material consumption has expanded rapidly, as has material footprint per capita, seriously jeopardizing the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 12 and the Goals more broadly. Urgent action is needed to ensure that current material needs do not lead to the over-extraction of resources or to the degradation of environmental resources, and should include policies that improve resource efficiency, reduce waste and mainstream sustainability practices across all sectors of the economy.
In 2017, worldwide material consumption reached 92.1 billion tons, up from 87 billion in 2015 and a 254 percent increase from 27 billion in 1970, with the rate of extraction accelerating every year since 2000. This reflects the increased demand for natural resources that has defined the past decades, resulting in undue burden on environmental resources. Without urgent and concerted political action, it is projected that global resource extraction could grow to 190 billion tons by 2060.
Material footprint per capita has increased considerably as well: in 1990 some 8.1 tons of natural resources were used to satisfy a person’s need, while in 2015, almost 12 tons of resources were extracted per person. Well-designed national policy frameworks and instruments are necessary to enable the fundamental shift towards sustainable consumption and production patterns. In 2018, 71 countries and the European Union reported on a total of 303 policy instruments.
Parties to the Montreal Protocol and the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions are required to transmit information on the implementation of their obligations under those agreements. However, the rate of transmission varies, with the average compliance rate across these four agreements at approximately 70 percent.
CLIMATE ACTION. With rising greenhouse gas emissions, climate change is occurring at rates much faster than anticipated and its effects are clearly felt worldwide. While there are positive steps in terms of the climate finance flows and the development of nationally determined contributions, far more ambitious plans and accelerated action are needed on mitigation and adaptation. Access to finance and strengthened capacities need to be scaled up at a much faster rate, particularly for least developed countries and small island developing States.
Increasing greenhouse gas emissions are driving climate change. In 2017, greenhouse gas concentrations reached new highs, with globally averaged mole fractions of CO2 at 405.5 parts per million (ppm), up from 400.1 ppm in 2015, and at 146 percent of pre-industrial levels. Moving towards 2030 emission bjectives compatible with the 2°C and 1.5°C pathways requires a peak to be achieved as soon as possible, followed by rapid reductions.
As indicated under Sustainable Development Goal 1, during the period 1998–2017, direct economic losses from disasters were estimated at almost $3 trillion. Climate-related and geophysical disasters claimed an estimated 1.3 million lives.
As of April 2019, 185 parties had ratified the Paris Agreement. Parties to the Paris Agreement are expected to prepare, communicate and maintain successive nationally determined contributions, and 183 parties had communicated their first nationally determined contributions to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, while 1 party had communicated its second. Under the Agreement, all parties are required to submit new nationally determined contributions, containing revised and much more ambitious targets, by 2020.
Global climate finance flows increased by 17 percent in the period 2015–2016 compared with the period 2013–2014.
As at 20 May 2019, 28 countries had accessed Green Climate Fund grant financing for the formulation of national adaptation plans and other adaptation planning processes, with a value of $75 million. Of these, 67 percent were for least developed countries, small island developing States and African States. Proposals from an additional seven countries, with a value of $17 million, are in the final stage of approval. In total, 75 countries are seeking support from the Green Climate Fund for national adaptation plans and other adaptation planning processes, with a combined value of $191 million.
LIFE BELOW WATER. The expansion of protected areas for marine biodiversity and existing policies and treaties that encourage responsible use of ocean resources are still insufficient to combat the adverse effects of over-fishing, growing ocean acidification due to climate change and worsening coastal eutrophication. As billions of people depend on oceans for their livelihood and food source and on the transboundary nature of oceans, increased efforts and interventions are needed to conserve and sustainably use ocean resources at all levels.
Ocean acidification is caused by the uptake of atmospheric CO2 by the ocean, which changes the chemical composition of the seawater. Long-term observations of ocean acidification over the past 30 years have shown an average increase of acidity of 26 percent since pre-industrial times, and at this rate, an increase of 100 to 150 percent is predicted by the end of the century, with serious consequences for marine life.
To achieve sustainable development of fisheries, fish stocks must be maintained at a biologically sustainable level. Analyses reveal that the fraction of world marine fish stocks that are within biologically sustainable levels declined from 90 percent in 1974 to 66.9 percent in 2015.
As of December 2018, over 24 million km2 (17.2 percent) of waters under national jurisdiction (0–200 nautical miles from a national border) were covered by protected areas, a significant increase from 12 percent in 2015 and more than double the extent covered in 2010. The global mean percentage of each marine key biodiversity area covered by protected areas increased from 31.2 percent in 2000 to 44.7 percent in 2015 and to 45.7 percent in 2018.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing remains one of the greatest threats to sustainable fisheries, the livelihoods of those who depend upon them and marine ecosystems. A framework of international instruments has been developed that addresses different aspects of fisheries management. Most countries have taken measures to combat such fishing and have adopted an increasing number of fisheries management instruments in the past decade. For example, the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, the first international binding agreement to combat such fishing, entered into force in June 2016. The number of parties to the Agreement has rapidly increased and stood at 58 as of February 2019.
Small-scale fisheries are present in almost all countries, accounting for more than half of total production on average, in terms of both quantity and value. To promote small-scale fishers’ access to productive resources, services and markets, most countries have developed targeted regulatory and institutional frameworks. However, more than 20 percent of countries have a low to medium level of implementation of such frameworks, particularly in Oceania and Central and South Asia.
LIFE ON LAND. There are some encouraging global trends in protecting terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity. Forest loss is slowing down, more key biodiversity areas are protected and more financial assistance is flowing towards biodiversity protection. Yet, the 2020 targets of Sustainable Development Goal 15 are unlikely to be met, land degradation continues, biodiversity loss is occurring at an alarming rate, and invasive species and the illicit poaching and trafficking of wildlife continue to thwart efforts to protect and restore vital ecosystems and species.
Protecting important sites for terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity is vital for ensuring long-term and sustainable use of terrestrial and freshwater natural resources. The global mean percentage of each key biodiversity area covered by protected areas increased from 33.1 percent in 2000 to 46.1 percent in 2018 for terrestrial areas, from 30.5 percent in 2000 to 43.2 percent in 2018 for freshwater areas, and from 32.9 percent in 2000 to 44.7 percent in 2018 for mountain areas.
Healthy mountain ecosystems are fundamental to ensuring the provision of ecosystem services to upland communities as well as lowland peoples. As of 2017, 76 percent of the world’s mountain areas were covered by a form of green coverage: 41 percent by forests, 29 percent by grassland/shrubland and only 6 percent by cropland.
From 2000 to 2015, more than one fifth of the Earth’s total land area was degraded, largely due to human-induced processes, such as desertification, cropland expansion and urbanization. During the same period, there were significant productivity declines in land cover, with grasslands incurring some of the greatest losses.
The most fundamental and irreversible human impact on nature is species extinction. The Red List Index – which measures the risk of extinction, in which a value of 1 indicates no threat to any species, and a value of 0 indicates that all species are extinct – has deteriorated from 0.82 in 1993 to 0.73 globally in 2019.
The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity creates incentives to conserve and sustainably use genetic resources and biodiversity. As at 1 February 2019, 116 countries had ratified the Nagoya Protocol (an increase of 46 since 2016) and 61 countries had shared information on their access and benefit-sharing frameworks through the Access and Benefit-Sharing Clearing-House (representing an increase of 55 countries).
In 2017, bilateral ODA in support of biodiversity was $8.7 billion, an increase of 15 percent in real terms over 2016.
PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS. Advances in ending violence, promoting the rule of law, strengthening institutions and increasing access to justice are uneven and continue to deprive millions of their security, rights and opportunities and undermine the delivery of public services and broader economic development. Attacks on civil society are also holding back development progress. Renewed efforts are essential to move towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 16.
The number of intentional homicides per 100,000 people increased from 6.0 in 2015 to 6.1 in 2017. This slight uptick was largely the result of an increase in the homicide rates in Latin America and the Caribbean and in some countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Various forms of violence against children persist. In 83 countries (mostly from developing regions) with recent data on the subject, nearly 8 in 10 children from 1 to 14 years of age were subjected to some form of psychological aggression and/or physical punishment at home. In all but seven of these countries, at least half of children experienced violent disciplinary methods. Sexual violence is perhaps the most disturbing of children’s rights violations. Based on the limited data available, in 14 of 46 countries with comparable data, at least 5 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 29 experienced sexual intercourse or other sexual acts that were forced, physically or in other ways, for the first time before they were 18 years of age.
There has been an overall increase in the detection of victims of trafficking in persons, which could reflect either a positive (enhanced efforts by authorities to identify victims) or negative (larger trafficking problem) development. In a departure from prior findings, recent data show that most trafficking victims were detected domestically: 58 percent in 2016, up from 43 percent in 2014. The vast majority (70 percent) of detected victims of human trafficking were women and girls, most of whom were trafficked for sexual exploitation.
The share of not-sentenced detainees in the overall prison population has remained largely constant at 30 percent in recent years. This occurred in a context where the total prison population grew in absolute values while remaining constant as a share of the total population.
Killings of human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists are on the rise. From 2017 to 2018, the United Nations recorded and verified 431 killing across 41 countries. Every passing week saw at least eight people murdered at the front lines of efforts to build more inclusive and equal societies – a worrying increase from the previous average of one victim per day observed from 2015 to 2017. Ninety-nine journalists and bloggers were among the victims.
Birth registration plays a primary role in ensuring individual rights and access to justice and social services. Even if many regions have reached universal or near universal birth registration, globally the average is just 73 percent. Fewer than half (46 percent) of all children under the age of 5 in sub-Saharan Africa have had their births registered.
Binding laws and policies giving individuals a right to access information held by public authorities have been adopted by 125 countries, with at least 31 countries adopting such laws since 2013. Among the 123 countries for which data on the legal framework is available, 40 do not include the right to appeal to an independent administrative body, which has been assessed as key for the proper implementation of this right.
The pace of progress to put in place national human rights institutions compliant with the Paris Principles must be accelerated. In 2018, a total of 39 percent of all countries had in place an institution that was fully compliant with the internationally agreed standard, seven countries more than was the case in 2015. If growth continues at the same rate, by 2030 only a little over one half (54 percent) of all countries worldwide will have compliant national human rights institutions.
The difference between the approved and the implemented budget reflects a government’s ability to achieve development objectives, including delivering services to the public. Deviation between the approved and actual spending during the period 2006–2017 in 108 countries shows that actual spending was within plus or minus 5 percent of the approved budget in about half of the countries. One out of 10 countries had a deviation of more than plus or minus 15 percent. Almost half of low-income economies showed more than plus or minus 10 percent deviation in budget execution.
PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS. Progress on some means of implementation targets is moving rapidly: personal remittances are at an all-time high, an increasing proportion of the global population has access to the Internet and the Technology Bank for the Least Developed Countries has been established. Yet, significant challenges remain: ODA is declining, private investment flows are not well aligned with sustainable development, there continues to be a significant digital divide and there are ongoing trade tensions. Enhanced international cooperation is needed to ensure that sufficient means of implementation exist to provide countries the opportunity to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
In 2019, annual remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are projected to reach $550 billion. That would make remittance flows larger than foreign direct investment and ODA flows to low- and middle-income countries. In 2018, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $529 billion, an increase of 9.6 percent over 2017.
The average overall rate of taxation among the Group of 20 and other advanced economies was around 23 percent of GDP in 2018, compared with 18 percent among the developing and emerging market economies. Assessing an appropriate level of “tax burden” (revenue in the form of taxes) is a critical element of fiscal policy with implications for economic growth.
At the end of 2018, more than half the world’s population (3.9 billion people) had access to the Internet – a step towards a more inclusive global information society. Over 80 percent in developed countries were online in 2018, compared with 45 percent in developing countries and only 20 percent in least developed countries.
Decreasing tariffs applied worldwide provide wider access to goods and contribute to a more open trading system. In 2017, trade-weighted tariffs decreased to an average of 2.2 percent worldwide, but there still remain large differences at the regional level that reflect global economic imbalances. The highest average tariff rates in 2017 were applied across African regions. In 2018, doubt was cast over the future of a sound multilateral trading system under WTO, as there were significant trade tensions among large economies.
Despite a slight upturn in 2017, the share of least developed countries in world merchandise exports remains just below 1 percent. The slow growth could lead to missing the trade target set by the Istanbul Programme of Action – to double the least developed countries’ share of global exports by 2020. The exports from least developed countries will have to grow approximately four times faster than global exports to see their share doubled in two years.
Preferential tariffs applied to imports from the least developed countries and developing countries in the developed markets remained unchanged in 2017. While the clothing sector continued to be strongly protected in these markets, the exports from least developed countries benefited from the high preferential margins – 5.9 percentage points – in this sector.
Bilateral development partners’ respect for country policies declined from 64 percent in 2016 to 57 percent in 2018. Some 76 percent of new development projects and programs aligned their objectives to those defined in the country strategies and/or plans in 2018. However, only around half of result indicators – 52 percent – for these interventions were drawn from country-owned result frameworks and only 44 percent of result indicators were monitored using data and statistics from government monitoring systems.
In 2018, 51 of 114 countries reported overall progress towards strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships and the means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Improvements were reported with regard to the quality and use of public financial management and reporting systems for development cooperation activities and flows channeled through the public sector. There was a need to increase the space for civil society’s contribution to sustainable development and for a more inclusive and relevant dialogue between the public and private sectors.
In 2018, 111 countries had national statistical legislation that was compliant with the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, up from 71 countries in 2017. Entrusted with the production of official statistics, national statistical offices need to comply with strict international principles, including scientific methods, professional ethics and standard procedures for the collection, processing, storage and presentation of statistical data.
In 2016, countries received $623 million in support from multilateral and bilateral donors for all areas of statistics, up from $591 million in 2015. However, this amount accounts for only 0.33 percent of total ODA. Over the past four years, countries in sub-Saharan Africa benefited most ($932 million), followed by Central and South Asia ($180 million) and Latin America and the Caribbean ($177 million). For developing countries to meet the data needs of the Sustainable Development Goals, current donor support for data and statistics will need to increase by nearly $200 million per year.
Population and housing censuses are a primary source of the disagregated data needed to formulate, implement and monitor development policies and programs. During the 10-year period from 2008 to 2017, 89 percent of countries or areas around the world conducted at least one population and housing census.
The coverage of birth and death registration and the completeness of vital statistics remain a challenge, even among countries with functioning civil registration systems. During the period 2013-2017, 143 countries had birth registration data that were at least 90 percent complete and 149 countries had death registration data that were at least 75 percent complete. However, only 9 of 53 sub-Saharan African countries met these standards.
