The Sustainable Development Goals
The world's most ambitious development agenda: 17 goals, 169 targets, and the growing gap between aspiration and achievement.
The World's To-Do List
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015, represent humanity's most comprehensive attempt to define and pursue a shared development agenda. The 17 goals and 169 targets cover everything from ending poverty and hunger to achieving gender equality, clean energy, quality education, and climate action -- all by 2030. Unlike the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) they replaced, the SDGs apply to all countries, not just developing ones, and integrate economic, social, and environmental dimensions of development.
The SDGs emerged from the largest consultation process in UN history, involving governments, civil society, the private sector, and millions of citizens. Their ambition is both their strength and weakness: the goals inspire action and provide a common language for development cooperation, but their breadth makes prioritization difficult and their universal scope means that every country can claim to be contributing while avoiding the hardest trade-offs.
