2023 SDG Report Highlights Stalling Progress and the Need to Reform Finance

Here are some Key findings from the SDG report halfway through the 2030 Agenda

Author: Maria-Antoanela Ioniță – Sustainability Communications Specialist

Every year since their adoption in 2015 by the 193 UN Member States, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are reviewed and their progress is shared in the Sustainable Development Report (SDR). The SDR 2023 was released ahead of significant international summits, including the 2023 Paris Summit for a New Global Financial Pact, the September G20 Meeting under Indian Presidency, and the December COP28 in Dubai.

This edition delivers grim news: halfway through the 2030 Agenda, we have made insufficient progress on the SDGs. While navigating global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian war in Ukraine, and a recession, SDGs have stalled around the world. Yet they remain achievable, the report states, emphasising the need to scale up development finance and restructure the global financial architecture to support this goal.

Continue reading for takeaways on the state of SDG achievement worldwide, from setbacks to solutions, and a zoom-in on Romania.

Assessing global progress

On average, only around 18% of the SDG targets are on track to be achieved globally by 2030.

Global progress has been stalling since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020. High-income countries have managed to mitigate the social and economic effects of these crises via measures such as emergency expenditure and recovery plans. But for low-income and lower-middle-income countries, the crises have worsened fiscal-space issues, leading to setbacks in achieving several goals and indicators.

Even before 2020, progress on the SDGs was very slow. It rose only slightly, from 64% in 2015 to 66% in 2019, with highly uneven progress within and between countries. As of 2022, the global SDG Index is below 67%, posing a risk of losing a decade of progress towards convergence globally.

Environmental and biodiversity goals, particularly SDG 12, 13, 14, and 15, have been largely neglected, even in countries largely responsible for climate and biodiversity crises.

The world is off track to meet the Paris Agreement climate targets and SDG 13 goals related to climate change. Global warming. stands at 1.2°C in 2022 and, according to the UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2022, the world is currently on track to reach a disastrous 2.8°C warming by 2100. Even considering net-zero pledges, best-case scenarios would lead to around 1.8°C warming by 2100.

All dimensions of biodiversity (SDG 15) are threatened. The current loss of species rate is 1,000–10,000 times larger than the natural extinction rate. Reasons include land-use change (e.g. tropical deforestation), global warming, pollution, and the displacement of indigenous people.

Ocean goods and services (SDG 14) are also at severe risk – nearly 90% of global fish stocks are over-exploited. Oceans suffer from the deployment of destructive technologies, the destruction of coastal wetland ecosystems, the acidification of the oceans (accelerated by rising atmospheric concentrations of CO₂), pollution of the high seas (including plastic waste and microplastics), and rising sea levels, among others.

On the social front, providing quality education (SDG 4) for all children is one of the keys to achieving sustainable development in the long term. Yet, hundreds of millions of children are either out of school or receive such a poor education that they fail to develop basic literacy and numeracy.

The SDGs related to hunger, sustainable diets, and health are also particularly off-track, as are the goals concerning urban pollution, housing, strong institutions, and peaceful societies.

On the other hand, the world has made some progress in improving access to key infrastructure, covered under SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), yet this varies extensively across countries.

In the focus: Romania

There is significant variation in progress by country, region, and income group. The top five countries in the SDG index are Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Austria, while the largest number of achieved SDG targets come from Denmark, Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, and Slovakia. Meanwhile, underdeveloped countries in Africa and Asia have the lowest scores and a reversal in the achievement of certain SDG targets.

With a score of 77.5 out of 100, Romania stands in 35th place, behind Belarus, and in front of Serbia. The country is on track to reach only one SDG: reducing poverty (SDG 1). It has also registered progress on clean water and sanitation goals (SDG6), work and economic growth (SDG8), sustainable cities and communities (SDG11), and life below water (SDG14).

Particular challenges remain in gender equality (SDG5) and climate action (SDG13), but also life on land (SDG14) and peace, justice, and strong institutions (SDG16).

The way forward

According to the report, none of the SDGs is beyond reach. Yet to get there, it is crucial for UN Member States to double down on efforts. The report recommends five pillars of good governance:

1. Developing long-term SDG pathways that can guide public policy;

2. Providing SDG financing at the right time and scale;

3. Promoting global cooperation and minimizing geopolitical conflict;

4. Supporting innovation for social inclusion and environmental sustainability;

5. Reporting regularly on SDG progress and performance.

Going forward, particular emphasis is placed on SDG financing. Member States are encouraged to adopt and implement the SDG Stimulus and support comprehensive reforms of the global financial architecture – a complex system of public and private finance.

The SDG Stimulus aims to address the significant financing shortfall for SDGs in low-income and lower-middle-income countries and increase financing flows by at least US$500 billion by 2025. This should be done through increased SDG-linked funding from the multilateral development banks (MDBs) and public development banks (PDBs) to low and middle-income countries, expanded liquidity by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and major central banks, and expanded private philanthropy.

Meanwhile, reforming the global financial architecture should follow six priorities: increasing funding for SDG investments, revising credit rating systems and debt sustainability metrics, addressing liquidity structures, establishing sustainable finance criteria, aligning private business investments with the SDGs, and reforming institutional frameworks for international cooperation.

Another recommendation for closing the SDG gap is enhancing statistical capacity and data literacy. There is still much work to be done to improve the data and methods underlying the SDG indicator framework. Investment in statistical capacity, science, and data literacy should become a priority, particularly in the context of an information-rich and post-truth environment.

Overall, all countries, regardless of their wealth, are encouraged to use the midpoint momentum to critically review and revise their national SDG strategies and strengthen multilateralism. National governments need to ensure domestic and international implementation of the SDGs by building a global governance and financial architecture that supports their achievement.

The report was prepared by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). Its newly created SDG Transformation Center and SDSN’s global network of universities, think tanks, and laboratories are committed to doubling down on efforts to implement the SDGs by 2030 and beyond. The SDSN supports SDG implementation through scholarly research, educational innovation, convening power, and outreach to the public.

Photo credit: SDG

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