United Nations Report on Sustainable Development Goals

25 September 2017

Commenting on the recently published UN report on the progress of achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UN Secretary-General António Guterres remarked that the “rate of progress in many areas is far slower than needed to meet the targets by 2030”. This is highlighted by the rising death rates attributable to lack of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services in sub-Saharan Africa that reached 46/100,000 from 12/100,000 in 2012. In 2015, only 39% of the global population were using a safely managed sanitation system.

While the current pace of progress is lagging behind the planned framework to meet objectives 13 years from now, significant improvements have been made in the 17 goal categories. Since 2000, the global poverty rate has been halved; now, fewer than 10% of workers are living with their families on less than $1.90/day in an 18% decrease from 2000. The population of undernourished people in the world was reduced by 137 million from the first two years of the new millennium to 2016. There has been a 46% reduction in the incidence in HIV from 2000 to 2015. Deforestation is also declining, the total loss of forest area per year now less than half that of the 1990s.

Overall, the report clearly indicates the areas in which the international community needs to improve in regards to sustainable development and showcases points of global progress. See the full report here.

To discuss sustainable development and ways to address humanitarian challenges, the Aid and International Development Forum will hold its 3rd Aid and Development Africa Summit on February 27-28 at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. The Summit will look into innovations and technology to improve humanitarian aid operations, financial inclusion, health and WASH and community resilience in Africa.

For more information, head to the Aid and Development Africa Summit website.

To request participation at the Aid and Development Africa Summit, email Alina O’Keeffe, Head of Marketing, at marketing@aidforum.org

Image sourced from: New Security Beat