The United Nations has released its 2025 Sustainable Development Goals Report (“Report”), highlighting that the world is not making adequate progress towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Report finds that only about 35% of Sustainable Development Goal (“SDG”) targets are on track or demonstrating moderate progress, while nearly half are advancing too slowly, and 18% have regressed. These SDGs include critical objectives such as eradicating hunger, ensuring quality education, and providing access to clean water. With just five years left to meet the 2030 deadline, major goals—such as Zero Hunger (SDG 2), Quality Education (SDG 4), and Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6)—are among those most affected by slow or reversed progress. The report underscores the need for urgent action and heightened international cooperation to accelerate progress and overcome persistent global challenges.
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Key findings of the report include:
Global hunger has risen: In 2023, more people experienced hunger than in 2019, particularly in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.
Goals most notably off track include Zero Hunger, Quality Education, Clean Water and Sanitation, Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Reduced Inequalities, where more than half of their targets are not progressing adequately.
Challenges such as climate change, conflicts, and economic issues are impeding progress in many countries.
Nonetheless, some successes persist, including expanded electricity access, with 92% of the global population powered in 2023, significant declines in infectious diseases, and increased social protection coverage.
What are the SDGs?
The SDGs are a set of 17 global objectives adopted by the United Nations in 2015 to address the world’s most pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges. These goals represent a collective vision for a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future for all.
Key objectives include:
- Ending poverty and ensuring basic needs are met;
- Achieving zero hunger;
- Promoting good health and well-being;
- Ensuring quality education for all children;
- Achieving gender equality;
- Providing clean water and sanitation;
- Expanding affordable and clean energy sources like solar and wind;
- Creating decent work opportunities and boosting economic growth;
- Taking urgent action on climate change.
Other goals focus on building sustainable communities, reducing inequalities, protecting oceans and forests, promoting responsible consumption, and fostering international partnerships.
Why do the SDGs matter?
The SDGs offer countries and communities a blueprint to solve large-scale global problems by 2030. If governments, organizations, and individuals collaborate effectively, the aim is to create a world where:
- Everyone has sufficient food;
- People enjoy equal rights and opportunities;
- The environment is protected, and pollution diminished;
- Education and healthcare are accessible to all.
