Global crises, including the after-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, an accelerating climate crisis, a weak global economy and multiple conflicts are putting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in ‘grave danger’, according to the United Nations (UN). Can we come up with a ‘rescue plan’ for the SDGs, and would this get us back on track? Fiona Zerbst investigates.
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a detrimental effect on development, threatening many of the fragile gains that have been made over the past couple of decades. In addition, the UN has highlighted ‘societal polarisation, populism and growing geopolitical conflict’ as hindrances to achieving the SDGs.
Progress towards the SDGs was slow from 2015 to 2020 – the SDG Index, which tracks global achievement of the goals, noted that by 2019 only 18% of the goals were on track to be achieved, with 67% showing limited or no progress and 15% in reversal.
The UN says progress against poverty has been erased by the pandemic, with rising inflation and the impact of the war in Ukraine increasing the number of people living in extreme poverty. It is expected that 575 million people will be living in extreme poverty by 2030, according to the UN.
Around 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021 – an increase of 150 million since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to the 2022 report The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, published by the UN and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The UN estimates that around 670 million people will face hunger in 2030, even if there is a global economic recovery. This is similar to 2015, when the global goal to end hunger was launched.
These are stark examples of how progress towards the SDGs has reversed, despite global progress on several goals and indicators between 2015 and 2019. The UN estimates that, based on the pace of progress since 2015, none of the goals is on track to be achieved globally by 2030, and only around 18% of the SDG targets are likely to be achieved.
A 2020 report by the Social Progress Imperative asserts that the world will not achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development until at least 2082. It is imperative that we accelerate our efforts, which includes closing the funding gap.
What are the SDGs and what are their key aims?
The Sustainable Development Solutions Network was created in 2012, shortly after the Rio+20 Summit, with the aim of mobilising action around the SDGs.
The SDGs were introduced in 2015, when member states of the UN adopted a sustainable development agenda to succeed the Millennium Development Goals.
The 17 SDGs are a blueprint for developmental progress and include specific targets for each goal as well as indicators by which progress can be measured.
The SDGs are:
1: No poverty
2: No hunger
3: Good health and well-being
4: Quality Education
5: Gender Equality
6: Clean water and sanitation
7: Affordable and clean energy
8: Decent work and economic growth
9: Industry innovation and infrastructure
10: Reduced inequalities
11: Sustainable cities and communities
12: Responsible consumption and production
13: Climate action
14: Life below water
15: Life on Land
16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
17: Partnerships for the goals
The challenges of measuring SDG progress
The challenge of meeting the SDGs is complicated by the fact that there is not enough data to measure progress, particularly in less developed countries. This makes it difficult to assess whether targets are being met or not and how one country compares to another in this regard.
The UN Environment Programme’s report Measuring Progress: Towards Achieving the Environmental Dimensions of the SDGs, has analysed 92 indicators relating to the environment.
It notes that 58% of the indicators don’t have enough data to measure global progress and only 23% of environment-related SDG indicators are on track to meet targets.
An opportunity for companies may be to partner with government to measure and report on impact, which can help to reduce the trust gap between the public and private sectors.
Progress towards the SDGs
Below is a snapshot of progress towards the SDGs, focusing on those goals and targets with the greatest developmental impact. While progress towards the SDGs has slowed in many areas, it has regressed in others, most notably food security, protecting biodiversity and taking action on climate.
The UN estimates that 575 million people (almost 7% of the world’s population) will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030, compared to 800 million in 2015 (11%). The Covid-19 pandemic has reversed three decades of progress regarding the number of people living in extreme poverty. Eradicating extreme poverty will remain difficult in sub-Saharan Africa and conflict-affected areas.
Targets
1.1 Eradicate extreme poverty
Since 2019, 70 million more people were pushed into extreme poverty (less than US$2.15 per person per day at 2017 purchasing power parity).
1.2 Reduce poverty by at least 50%
Only one-third of countries will halve their national poverty rates between 2015 and 2030.
1.3 Implement social protection systems
By 2020, only 47% of the global population was covered by one social protection cash benefit (a slight improvement from 45% in 2015).
Around 670 million people are expected to face hunger by 2030 – around 8% of the world’s population (the same as in 2015). The pandemic, geopolitical conflict, the climate emergency and growing inequality around the world are compounding the problem. The UN says achieving zero hunger will involve transforming food systems, bolstering food security and investing in sustainable agricultural practices.
Targets
2.1 Universal access to safe and nutritious food
Around 2.3 billion people (almost one in three) were moderately food insecure in 2021 – an increase of almost 350 million people since the start of the pandemic. Sub-Saharan Africa has been particularly hard hit.
2.2 End all forms of malnutrition
Some progress has been made against stunting, with 148 million (22%) children under five affected in 2022 – down from 24% in 2015. Wasting affected 45 million children (7%) in 2022.
The Covid-19 pandemic has hindered progress significantly, with health inequality growing and progress towards universal healthcare stalling. Around 68 million children are either unvaccinated or under-vaccinated against tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, as of 2022. Concerning issues include future pandemic readiness (see page 152) and how to strengthen health systems that have been battered by both the pandemic and underfunding.
Targets
3.1 Reduce maternal mortality
There has been a slight decrease in maternal mortality, with 223 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births in 2020, down from 227 in 2015. However, this is still three times higher than the total of 70 maternal deaths envisaged by 2030. Every day, around 800 women still die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth – almost 95% of these in low and lower-middle-income countries.
3.2 End all preventable deaths by five years of age
The global under-five mortality rate decreased by 12% from 43 deaths per 1 000 live births in 2015 to 38 deaths in 2021. The global neonatal mortality rate fell from 20 to 18 deaths.
In 2021, five million children died before their fifth birthday, down from 6.1 million in 2015. Of the 200 countries analysed, 54 are not on track to meet the target of less than 25 deaths per 1 000 live births, with 37 of these needing to more than double their current rate of progress, or reverse an increasing trend, to achieve the target by 2030.
Only one in six countries is on track to meet the goal of achieving universal access to quality education by 2030 if no further measures are taken, according to the UN.
Around 84 million children will still be out of school and 300 million will lack basic numeracy and literacy skills. The UN contends that education systems need to be reimagined and education financing has to become a priority investment for all countries.
Targets
4.1 Free primary and secondary education cess to safe and nutritious food
Between 2015 and 2021, the school completion rate increased from 85% to 87% in primary education. It increased from 74% to 77% in lower secondary education and from 53% in 2015 to 58% in upper secondary education.
Progress was slowing down prior to the pandemic, which led to severe learning losses in four out of five of the 104 countries conducting studies. Global learning levels, particularly reading levels, did not improve at all between 2015 and 2019.
4.2 Equal access to quality pre-primary education
Children enrolled in organised learning before official primary entry age has been stagnating at around 75% since 2015 – a long way from the target of ensuring all children have access to quality pre-primary education by 2030.
None of the 18 indicators for achieving gender equality by 2030 has been met thus far. The UN estimates it will take 286 years to close the gaps in legal protection and remove discriminatory laws against women and girls, and 140 years for women to be represented equality in positions of power and leadership in the workplace.
Targets
5.1 End discrimination against women and girls
Of the 119 countries tracking this target, 55% lacked laws prohibiting direct and indirect discrimination against women in 2022; 45% did not mandate equal remuneration for work of equal value; over a third failed to provide maternity leave to International Labour Organization (ILO) standards; a quarter did not grant women equal rights with men to enter into marriage and initiate divorce; and almost three-quarters failed to stipulate 18 years as the minimum age of marriage for women and men.
5.2 End all violence against and exploitation of women and girls
Although child marriage has declined from 21% of all marriages in 2016 to 19% in 2022, one in five girls was still married in childhood in 2022. The Covid-19 pandemic has placed a further 10 million girls at risk of child marriage over a decade from the onset of the pandemic.
Water scarcity affects more than 40% of the world’s population and billions rely on drinking water that is contaminated by human waste and chemical discharges.
The UN estimates that a sixfold increase in rates of progress will be necessary to achieve universal water coverage by 2030, with a fivefold increase necessary to achieve sanitation targets. Key focus areas include investing in infrastructure, coordinating efforts across sectors and responding to the climate emergency.
Targets
6.1 Safe and affordable drinking water
Although some progress has been made, 2.2 billion people lacked access to safe drinking water in 2022, most of them in rural areas.
6.2 End open defecation and provide access to sanitation and hygiene
As at 2022, 3.5 billion people around the world lacked safely managed sanitation services – again, largely in rural areas.
6.3 Improve water quality, waste water treatment and safe refuse
Around 58% of waste water generated by households was safely treated in 2022, based on data from 140 countries and territories, according to the UN.
The Covid-19 pandemic was a setback to the global economy, but this has since been compounded by the cost-of-living crisis, rising debt (especially in developing countries) and the war on Ukraine. Global growth has slowed, threatening employment and advances in equitable pay for women. Youth unemployment is particularly severe – in 2022, the ILO said there were 73 million unemployed youngsters in the world (slightly down from 75 million in 2021, but 6 million above the pre-pandemic level of 2019).
Targets
8.1 Sustainable economic growth
The target is to sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances, with at least 7% GDP growth in the least developed countries through 2030. However, global growth has been slowing due to high inflation, rising interest rates and geopolitical conflict.
The World Bank says the global economy is predicted to grow by 1.7% in 2023 and 2.7% in 2024. It estimates that per capita income growth in developing economies will average 2.8% over the next two years – lower than the 2010–19 average.
Water scarcity affects more than 40% of the world’s population and billions rely on drinking water that is contaminated by human waste and chemical discharges.
The UN estimates that a sixfold increase in rates of progress will be necessary to achieve universal water coverage by 2030, with a fivefold increase necessary to achieve sanitation targets. Key focus areas include investing in infrastructure, coordinating efforts across sectors and responding to the climate emergency.
Targets
10.1 Reduce income inequalities
The UN says four out of five people are living in countries in which the bottom 40% has experienced slower growth than the average. If this trend persists, income inequality will worsen. As the World Economic Forum (WEF) points out, this will threaten social cohesion – neighbourhoods with higher levels of income inequality experience greater levels of social disorganisation and violent crime. The WEF recommends efforts to combat spatial, economic and social inclusion, along with strengthening community engagement while improving access to work opportunities and imparting life skills.
SDG solutions – and how companies can contribute
As the private sector increasingly embeds the SDGs within corporate strategy, companies have a unique opportunity to advance the global goals.
Companies that are already working within an SDG framework should set targets and track their progress using the SDG indicator framework. Unilever has a Climate Transition Action Plan that sets out a pathway for achieving zero-carbon emissions by 2030, and across its entire value chain by 2039. In this way, it can monitor its performance and report on progress made.
Targets should be integrated into company strategy, with clear indications of how and when they may be met. For example, French company Schneider Electric has committed to achieving a less than 1% gender pay gap by 2025. It is one of 484 companies that has joined the 2022 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) – a tool to track progress in gender inclusion. Companies can thus draw from existing commitments to make a positive contribution towards the SDGs.
Companies can additionally identify opportunities for innovation and collaboration, identifying partners to help them scale their efforts. The Partnering Initiative has rolled out a tool to assess partnership value creation, which it presents in its report ‘Maximising the impact of partnerships for the SDGs – A practical guide to partnership value creation’.
The report cites a partnership between IHC Global and a coalition of non-profit, private sector and individual members committed to supporting women’s land and housing rights in Uganda. ‘Using Data to Support Women’s Rights’ measures women’s participation in property markets in Uganda and enables them to access their right to property through a campaign that is grounded in local knowledge and accurate data.
Companies should also be ready to communicate how they have linked their business activities to the SDGs, integrating these into the reporting process. The UN Global Compact’s Action Platform provides guidance on why and how to report on the SDGs.
CASE STUDY
Securing biodiversity assets
SDG 15’s aim is to “protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”.
Nedbank has partnered with the World Wide Fund for Nature (previously the World Wildlife Fund) (WWF) to protect this natural capital, focusing on safeguarding biodiversity hotspots, critical water source areas and rural livelihoods, specifically in the Eastern Cape.
The WWF Nedbank Green Trust is protecting South Africa’s Strategic Water Source Areas (SWSAs), which cover less than 10% of South Africa’s land surface but provide more than 50% of the country’s water.
At policy level, the WWF Nedbank Green Trust has seen SWSAs written into legislation, ensuring the security and improvement of critical water sources as well as the livelihoods of surrounding communities. A good example is the Matatiele region in rural Eastern Cape, where a catchment area at the source of one of South Africa’s largest river systems has been restored. This has been achieved by healing the grasslands through improved communal cattle grazing. WWF points out that healthy grasslands help to store water and control soil erosion.
The WWF Nedbank Green Trust has also partnered with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) to develop the country’s marine protected areas (MPAs). There are currently 42 MPAs in the country.
How CSI can advance the SDGs
A key strategy is for companies to map their CSI initiatives according to the SDGs, which will allow them to come up with SDG-linked goals. These goals should fall within the ambit of a company’s CSI programmes – for example, identify where they can align your education goals with SDG 4: Quality education, the aim of which is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Target 4.6: Universal literacy and numeracy, is of particular interest in South Africa – a report from the 2030 Reading Panel has found that basic literacy among children has declined, and 82% of grade 4 children cannot read for meaning. Target 4.6 urges countries to ensure that by 2030, all youth will achieve literacy and numeracy.
Trialogue’s 2023 primary research found that South African companies’ CSI was aligned with 5.6 SDGs on average. The SDG that CSI programmes aligned most closely to was SDG 4 (quality education), with 84% of companies reporting alignment. SDG 2 (zero hunger) is increasingly a priority, with 63% of companies aligned to it, up from 43% in 2020. SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing) and SDG 9 (industry) showed the biggest decreases in alignment.
NPOs aligned with fewer SDGs on average (3.9). Like companies, most NPOs (71%) were aligned with SDG 4, but unlike companies this was followed by SDG 3 (49%) and SDG 1 (no poverty) (36%).
CSI programmes can go some way towards closing the funding gap for the SDGs. This funding gap, which refers to the amount countries require to scale up spending to reach SDG targets, increased by 56% after the Covid-19 outbreak – but it is estimated that less than 1% of global finance could fill this gap.
However, because CSI has a somewhat narrow philanthropic scope, Dr Nilanjan Ghosh, Director at the Observer Research Foundation in India, recommends mechanisms by which companies can be incentivised to pursue a shared value approach. Ghosh believes such an approach can make achieving the SDGs financially sustainable and scalable.
CASE STUDY
Farmer-managed natural regeneration in Africa
World Vision Australia, together with the Global EverGreening Alliance, the World Agroforestry Centre, the World Resources Institute, local governments, other non-profit organisations, traditional leaders, farmers, herders and other members of communities, is implementing farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) in 19 African countries. The aim is to fight poverty (SDG 1) and hunger (SDG 2) by restoring land and vegetation, promoting greater ecosystem health.
The low-cost technique helps subsistence farmers by increasing food and timber production, and building resilience to climate change. Farmers protect and manage the growth of trees and shrubs, which regenerate naturally from seeds dispersed through animal manure. The project tackles land degradation, poor soil quality and erosion, food insecurity, the loss of biodiversity and extreme drought and flooding, among other factors.
FMNR farms double the productivity and economic performance of staple crops and are up to five times better off in drought years compared to non-FMNR farms. In Niger, for example, Nigerien farmers produce an additional 500 000 tons of cereal a year, resulting in food security for 2.5 million people.
Sources and further reading:
- Measuring Progress: Environment and the SDGs, UN Environment Programme, 22 May 2021.
- The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Statistics Division, 7 July 2022.
- The Global Sustainable Development Report 2023: Times of crisis, times of change: Science for accelerating transformations to sustainable development, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2023.
- The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022, FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2022.
- 2022 Social Progress Index, Social Progress Imperative, 2022.
- Sharp, Long-lasting Slowdown to Hit Developing Countries Hard, The World Bank, 10 January 2023.
- The Global Risks Report 2022, World Economic Forum, 2022.
- The Sustainable Development Goals Extended Report 2023, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Statistics Division, 30 April 2023.
- The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023: Special Edition, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Statistics Division, 10 July 2023.
- Niger formally adopts farmer-managed natural regeneration, World Agroforestry, 12 January 2021.
- Celebrating 33 years of conservation and foresight, WWF Nedbank Green Trust, Undated.
- Climate action, Unilever, Undated.
- Our Approach to Achieve Fair Pay for All, Schneider Electric Blog, 18 September 2022.
- 2022 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, Bloomberg, 2022.
- Maximising the impact of partnerships for the SDGs: A practical guide to partnership value creation, The Partnering Initiative, 2019.
- Action Platform: Reporting on the SDGs, UN Global Compact, Undated.
- How to Achieve the SDGs: The SDSN Framework, Part 1, Sustainable Development Report, Undated.
- Ideas, Innovation, Implementation: India’s Journey Towards the SDGs, Observer Research Foundation, Reliance Foundation and United Nations India, September 2023.
- Sustainable Development Report 2023: Implementing the SDG Stimulus, Sustainable Development Solutions Network, 21 June 2023.
- Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals: Towards a Rescue Plan for People and Planet, UN General Assembly Economic and Social Council, May 2023.
- SDG Good Practices – A compilation of success stories and lessons learned in SDG implementation (First Edition), UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, December 2020.
Source: The original version of this article was published in the Trialogue Business in Society Handbook 2023 (26th edition).
