António Guterres, UN Secretary-General
A United Nations’ (UN) report on global development has revealed that the world is off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
The report, covering poverty, hunger, health, education, inequality, climate, and peace, uncovered that the COVID-19 pandemic, wars, and record-breaking heat have reversed years of hard work.
According to the report, extreme poverty has stalled, with one person in ten affected, adding that without a fast-tracking of efforts, 8.9 per cent of the global population, equivalent to 720 million people, will still be living below the updated international poverty line by the end of the decade.
It was also mentioned that food security has deteriorated every year since 2019, with one in eleven people experiencing hunger in 2023, while more than two billion endured moderate or severe food insecurity. Child wasting and stunting have also persisted, and women’s dietary diversity lags in many regions. The report says putting SDG 2 (Zero hunger) back on track will require strengthening food systems from the farm gate to the dining table.
Between 2000 and 2019, the world cut maternal and child deaths, curbed HIV transmission and gained over five years in healthy life expectancy, though COVID-19 erased part of that, taking 1.8 years off global life expectancy. Communicable diseases remain unstable, with malaria cases and tuberculosis deaths back on the rise. Non‑communicable diseases have also killed 18 million people under 70 in 2021, driven by tobacco use, air pollution and unhealthy diets. The health‑workforce pipeline has expanded, but clinics in the poorest and most fragile settings are chronically under‑resourced, the report asserted.
Education is also on a downward spiral even tough enrolment and completion rates have inched upward, particularly for girls, 272 million children and youth were still out of school in 2023. Learning outcomes are declining as hundreds of millions of adults remain illiterate. School closures, conflict and underfunded systems have compound this challenge, the report disclosed.
The report cited that three decades after the Beijing Declaration, gender equality remains distant as women are still under‑represented in parliaments and boardrooms, shoulder the bulk of unpaid care work, and often lack legal rights over land, assets and reproductive health. Child marriage and female genital mutilation have persisted. Only twenty‑six per cent of countries have comprehensive systems to track how much public money reaches gender programmes, signalling a financing gap.
Electricity reached 92 per cent of the global population in 2023, and renewable energy is now the fastest‑growing source of power, set to replace coal in 2025. 645 million people, however, may still lack lights, and 1.8 billion may still cook with dirty fuels in 2030 unless clean‑energy investment surges, especially in low‑income economies.
Global GDP‑per‑capita growth is forecast to slow to 1.5 per cent in 2025, and the Least Developed Countries remain far from the 7 per cent annual growth target. Informal work still accounts for 58 per cent of all jobs; youth and women bear the highest unemployment. Manufacturing value has risen 17 per cent since 2015, and 5G now covers half the world, yet systemic barriers keep many developing states locked out of high-value supply chains.
According to the report, cities are facing a housing affordability crisis, with up to three billion people struggling to secure decent shelter and 1.12 billion live in slums. Climate change has increased urban floods and heat risks as green space vanishes. Only one city in five, across 50 countries, demonstrates robust civil‑society participation in planning, threatening inclusive growth.
Environmental pressures have risen, with 2024 being the hottest year ever recorded, 1.55 °C above pre-industrial levels, it added.
Conflict and violence claimed nearly 50,000 lives last year and forced 123 million people from their homes. One in three prisoners worldwide is held without sentence, and journalist killings rose 11 per cent, underscoring crumbling trust in institutions. Meanwhile, low‑ and middle-income countries devoted a record 1.4 trillion dollars to servicing debt in 2023, even as official development assistance fell seven per cent, the report stated.
The UN cautions that only an unprecedented surge of political will, financing and innovation can realign the world with the SDG timetable. The next five years, it stresses, will determine whether 2030 becomes a milestone of collective success or a chronicle of missed opportunity.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, stated in the report that, with only five years remaining to achieve the goals, efforts must be intensified.
“With just five years to reach the Sustainable Development Goals, we need to shift into overdrive,” he said.
By Vera Owusu Sarpong