2021 SDG Report: the first-ever global decline in SDG progress

2021 SDG Report: the first-ever global decline in SDG progress

The Sustainable Development Report 2021 including the updated SDG Index and Dashboards, were released on 14 June. The yearly resources provide data to track and rank the performance of all UN Member States on the 17 SDGs. The interactive SDR 2021 Dashboards provide a visual representation of countries’ performance by SDG to identify priorities for action.

The 2021 SDG Report shows the first-ever global decline in SDG progress driven by increased poverty rates and unemployment related to COVID-19.

The authors stress that each country’s strategy to achieve the SDGs must avoid generating negative impacts on other countries; high-income countries and OECD countries tend to generate the largest negative spillovers.

Among the country-specific findings released:

• Finland, Sweden and Denmark are ranked first, second and third, but even they are not on track to achieve all for the SDGs by 2030, given major challenges on several SDGs (Luxembourg is ranked 42nd)
• The most progress is found in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Côte d’Ivoire
• The region with the most progress has been South and East Asia
• Countries with the sharpest delcines in SDGs scores sinces 2015 include Brazil, Venezuela and Tuvalu

The report highlights that for the poorest countries, SDG progress is being pushed back a full ten years because of the pandemic (SDG 10, reduced inequalities), and foreign direct investment is expected to drop by 40% (SDG 17, partnership for the Goals), adding to a shrinking ability for countries to make critical investments in recovery, climate change, and the SDGs.

Read the excecutive summary here.

(source: SDR Press release)