What is the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs?

The 2030 Agenda is a collection of objectives to ensure world peace and prosperity, now and into the future. There are 17 objectives, divided into 169 targets and 252 indicators to ensure their appropriate implementation until 2030. These Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) originated from a United Nations summit in New York City and they involve social, economic and environmental aspirations. However, they are mere recommendations: states are free to implement them as they wish. Thus, so far, few SDGs have been met and there remain challenges to put most of them into practice.

Origins of the 2030 Agenda

In 1987, the Brundtland Report defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This concept was meant to encompass social, economic and environmental aspirations for humanity. It inspired the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that guided the world from 2000 to 2015.

As 2015 approached, the United Nations engaged in discussions to find a new framework for peace and prosperity. The UN General Assembly created an Open Working Group to identify the shortcomings in the Millenium Development Goals and to consider key objectives for what was then called the post-2015 agenda.

In 2015, at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in New York City, the members of the UN approved a document titled “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by 2030”. It contained 17 Sustainable Development Goals, but they lacked specific targets and indicators of implementation. Both were later created, in 2017, by the UN General Assembly.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This is the list of all Sustainable Development Goals as they are listed in the UN General Assembly Resolution 70/1, preceded by their short titles:

1. No Poverty: End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
2. Zero Hunger: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
3. Good Health and Well-being: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
4. Quality Education: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
5. Gender Equality: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
6. Clean Water and Sanitation: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
7. Affordable and Clean Energy: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
8. Decent Work and Economic Growth: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.
10. Reduced Inequalities: Reduce inequality within and among countries.
11. Sustainable Cities and Communities: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
12. Responsible Consumption and Production: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
13. Climate Action: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
14. Life Below Water: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
15. Life on Land: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
17. Partnerships for the Goals: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.

How is the 2030 Agenda implemented?

The implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals requires a multi-layered approach involving all sectors of society. While governments have the primary responsibility for them, firms, civil society groups, and even individuals play a role in turning them into a reality.

According to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, people can carry out the SDGs in three main ways:

• Global action: securing greater leadership, more resources and smarter solutions for the goals.
• Local action: making the necessary changes to the policies, budgets, institutions and regulatory frameworks of governments, cities and local authorities, so that the goals are executed.
• People action: popular support to generate an unstoppable movement pushing for the required transformations. This should be made by the youth, civil society, the media, the private sector, unions, academia and others.

The SDGs are monitored by the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) — a UN body that meets annually. This forum receives information from all states on the status of the SDGs in their respective territories, and eventually produces its own compilated reports.

In addition, since 2018, the non-profit organization Our World In Data publishes and updates the SDG Tracker: it compilates data from official sources about each of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Criticism of the SDGs

While the 2030 Agenda is ambitious and transformative, it is not without its challenges. The main criticism that is levelled against it is that all 17 goals are non-binding — meaning that states may or may not implement them. Even if they choose to abide by the principles, they have significant leeway in deciding how to fulfill them. The language adopted by the UN General Assembly is vague and it lends itself to multiple interpretations, according to national interests. The approval of specific targets and indicators for the SDGs, in 2017, was a step ahead. Yet states still have much power in making them come true.

Moreover, the complexity and interconnectedness of the goals can sometimes make it difficult for individual countries to prioritize their efforts effectively. It seems the 2030 Agenda tries to do too much at once: preserve the environment, stimulate economic growth, and equalize social disparities. Countries may not have the budget or the institutions that are required for such transformations.

Finally, there are people who criticize the origins and purposes of the 2030 Agenda. Some believe that it lacks legitimacy because it has been created in a top-down approach — that is, by experts and elites, rather than by the common people. Such an approach might produce policies that are inconsistent with local needs and, hence, that are ineffective. Others question the UN’s ideological framework, because the SDGs are based on Western liberalism and disregard other countries’ cultures. A case in point is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who mistook the colors used in representing the SDGs for “LGBT colors”. In fact, there is no explicit mention of LGBT people in the 2030 Agenda.

According to the 2023 HLPF report, progress on more than 50% of targets of the SDGs is weak and insufficient. Much of the setbacks in implementing them stemmed from the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused an unseen-before decline in childhood vaccinations, an increase in tuberculosis and malaria mortality, and learning losses that affected students in 80% of the world’s countries. Also, the United Nations blames the “triple crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution” for the difficulties in executing the Sustainable Development Goals.

Conclusion

The Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals represent an ambitious global effort to address some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity today. These goals offer a comprehensive roadmap for achieving a more equitable, sustainable, and peaceful world by the year 2030. However, their implementation has been facing some difficulties and it is unclear whether all goals will have come to fruition until their deadline expires.