October 2022 newsletter
Last month leaders from around the world came together for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to debate the most important issues facing the world. On September 25th, the UN marked seven years since the world agreed the landmark and transformational set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), designed to eradicate poverty and hunger, protect the planet, foster peace and ensure gender equality.
In his UNGA opening address, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a stark warming that the “SDGs are issuing an SOS”, with the world losing hard-won gains in health, food security, equality, and education as a result of COVID-19, conflict, and climate change. Throughout the summit, countless leaders also highlighted the urgent need for faster progress toward achieving the SDGs. Almost half-way to 2030, these Global Goals are more important than ever as we seek to tackle an increasingly complex and interconnected set of global issues.
“A world without extreme poverty, want or hunger is not an impossible dream. It is within reach. That is the world envisaged by the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. But it is not the world we have chosen. Because of our decisions, sustainable development everywhere is at risk”
Guterres called for the launch of an SDG Stimulus – led by the G20 – to massively boost sustainable development for low- and middle-income countries.
Key topics of discussion at UNGA this year included the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, climate action, and ending the COVID-19 pandemic. There was also a special Transforming Education Summit, convened in response to a global crisis in education – one of equity and inclusion, quality and relevance. More than 130 countries committed to rebooting their education systems and accelerating action to end the learning crisis. The summit saw the UK in partnership with Sweden, the Netherlands and the Asian and African Development Bank establish the International Financing Facility for Education (IFFEd), the first-of-its-kind finance facility to provide an initial $2 billion in additional affordable funding for education programs around the word.
Alongside UNGA, millions of people mobilised around the world to raise awareness of the critical need for action on the SDGs. Through their actions, more pressure has been put on decision-makers in their countries to keep their commitments and deliver on this agenda.
Latest reports
Three reports have come out in recent months assessing the UK’s progress on the SDGs. There is concern among all that there has been a lack of action on the SDGs since the government last reviewed its progress in 2019.
A consistent theme among the reports is that the government needs to take urgent action to achieve the SDGs by 2030. These actions include:
Planning: Develop a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach to deliver the SDGs. This overarching plan should identify how the SDGs are driving policy domestically as well as abroad. Cabinet Office is best positioned to lead this work.
Leadership: Top-level political leadership and endorsement to guarantee that the cross-departmental action necessary to achieve the SDGs is implemented, to ensure policy coherence across Whitehall, and between our local, national and international actions. Responsibility for the Goals should ideally be in the Prime Minister’s Office, or with a senior minister in a role with a significant domestic policymaking remit.
Stakeholder engagement: Take immediate action to fulfil its commitment announced in the 2019 VNR to establish an effective mechanism to enhance stakeholder engagement and cooperation with departments, public bodies, and organisations on SDG implementation.
Reporting: Commit to undertaking a second VNR in 2024 and use this as an opportunity to engage stakeholders across the country and open a UK-wide dialogue with key actors on the SDGs.
Leave No One Behind. We must ensure that we deliver the SDGs for everyone, which means prioritising the most marginalised. The government must clearly outline a whole-of-government plan for how it will deliver on the promise it made in 2019 to Leave No One Behind in a way that is practical for decision-making.
National picture
On 28 September, the UN Global Compact Network UK published their report Measuring Up 2.0 looking at how the UK is performing on the SDGs. The report assesses the UK's performance against each of the 17 SDGs and their 169 targets to understand how and where the government and other organisations should focus efforts for the remainder of this decade of action.
The Measuring Up 2.0 report finds that the UK is only performing well on 17% of the SDG targets relevant to the domestic delivery of the Goals. There are gaps or inadequate performance on 64%, and 11% where there is little to no policy in place to address the Target and where performance is poor or even declining. There are gaps in available or appropriate data for the remaining 8% of Targets that were assessed.
You can read Measuring Up 2.0 here and a summary here.
Local picture
On September 23, during Global Goals Week, Bristol launched an update of progress on the SDGs. It offers a comprehensive review of progress through available local data and reflects on some of the constraints local governments and organisations face as they work to accelerate progress.
The report authors also interviewed council officers from a number of other local authorities active on the SDGs, to help understand the challenges faced by local authorities and cities in adopting and delivering the SDGs. It contains a number of recommendations as to how local authorities could be better supported to deliver on the SDGs.
You can read the report here.
International picture
On 19 July, Bond, the UK network for organisations working in international development, published a report looking at the UK’s global contribution to the SDGs through things like our aid budget, our trade relationships, and our foreign policy. It evaluates the UK’s progress in implementing all 17 of the SDGs and highlights critical gaps the government needs to address if we are to deliver the transformative potential of the SDGs by 2030.
The report looks at the impact Covid-19, cuts to the aid budget and other emerging threats are having on the UK’s ability to deliver the SDGs and leave no one behind. It contains concrete policy recommendations that should be followed to get us back on track to deliver on the SDGs.