According to a UN report, with four years to go, only 36 per cent of the assessable targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are on track, with nearly half stalling and 15 per cent having regressed.
Since the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted in 2015, sustained investment, sound policies and international cooperation have improved the lives of billions of people worldwide with measurable gains across the SDGs, says The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026. Nearly 1 billion people gained access to safely managed drinking water and 1.2 billion people to safely managed sanitation. New HIV infections fell by 30 per cent between 2015 and 2024, and AIDS-related deaths by 35 per cent. Electricity now reaches 92 per cent of the world’s population.
Internet access has surged from 40 per cent to 74 per cent. Social protection covers more than half the global population for the first time in history, according to the report. Guided by the data in this report, vision of the 2030 Agenda remains within reach, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the report.
At the press conference during which the report was released, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said that the SDGs are sound. She called for three commitments: advancing gender equality as an enabler of every goal, accelerating the transition to renewable energy, and putting peace first by investing in the instruments of development rather than ever-rising military spending. UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Li Junhua said the 2030 Agenda recognises that sustainable development is a shared endeavour, not a zero-sum game.
