End poverty in all its forms everywhere

• Progress against poverty continues but has slowed, jeopardizing achievement of the Goal
• More than one third of employed workers in sub-Saharan Africa still live on less than $1.90 a day
• Social protection systems fall short of reaching the world’s most vulnerable people, including children
• The toll of climate-related disasters is rising, with poorer countries most affected

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

• After extended progress, the number of people suffering from hunger is on the rise
• Chronic undernutrition (stunting) and acute undernutrition (wasting) in children are declining, but not fast enough
• The prevalence of overweight, another form of malnutrition, is increasing in all age groups
• Small-scale food producers are a big part of the solution to world hunger
• Steeply climbing food prices affect countries across several regions
• Support to the agriculture sector from domestic and foreign sources continues its downward trend

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

• Sustained investment in maternal health, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, is needed
• If the Goal target for under-5 mortality is met, the lives of an additional 10 million children will be saved by 2030
• The decrease in HIV incidence is falling short of the target, despite steady progress in sub-Saharan Africa
• With progress against malaria at a standstill, increased efforts are urgently needed in the most affected countries
• Gaps in detection and treatment of tuberculosis, along with drug-resistant strains, are pushing progress against the disease off course
• Health personnel are stretched beyond their limit in countries where they are needed most
• Countries have greater capacity to detect than to respond to public health emergencies

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

• Shockingly low proficiency rates in reading and mathematics signal a global learning crisis
• Early childhood education offers a head start in school, but one third of the world’s children are being left behind
• Too many schools in sub-Saharan Africa lack the basic elements of a good quality education: trained teachers and adequate facilities
• Despite progress, 750 million adults still cannot read and write a simple statement; two thirds of those adults are women

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

• Women and girls continue to be subjected to harmful practices that profoundly affect their lives
• Women and girls perform a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work
• At home, at work and in political life, women are too often denied decision-making power
• In too many countries, gaps in legal frameworks are failing to protect women’s rights
• Financing gaps limit implementation of laws and policies on gender equality

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

• Despite progress, accelerated action is needed to provide billions of people with safely managed drinking water and sanitation
• Water stress affects people on every continent, requiring immediate and collective action
• Countries are advancing the integrated management of their water resources, but more rapid progress is needed
• Commitments of donor aid to the water sector have increased, while disbursements have levelled off

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

• Nearly 9 out of 10 people now have access to electricity, but reaching the unserved will require increased efforts
• Three billion people still lack clean cooking fuels and technologies, posing a grave threat to human health and the environment
• Progress in the electricity sector must extend to transportation and heating to meet an ambitious renewable energy target
• Energy efficiency continues to improve, but more concerted action is needed
• International financing for renewable energy in developing countries is rising sharply

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

• Labor productivity is rising, although wide disparities can be found among regions
• Informal employment remains a major challenge to the goal of decent work for all
• The continuing pay gap between women and men is a glaring reminder of gender inequality
• The global unemployment rate is steadily dropping, but remains high in some regions and among youth
• The talents and energy of one fifth of the world’s youth are not being effectively harnessed

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

• Despite recent progress, industrialization in least developed countries is still too slow to meet the 2030 goal target
• Small-scale industries in the poorest countries lack the financial services they need to grow and innovate
• Higher-tech manufacturing is growing worldwide, except in sub-Saharan Africa
• Global spending on research and development has reached $2 trillion a year, with wide disparities among countries
• Almost everyone now lives within range of mobile-cellular networks, but not all can afford to use them

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Reduce inequality within and among countries

• Data show mixed progress on the sharing of prosperity within countries
• Rich and poor countries alike can benefit from policies promoting equality and inclusivity
• Countries with a high proportion of non-performing loans need to attend to the health of their banking systems
• Globally, the share of national output used to remunerate workers is declining
• Lower-income countries continue to benefit from preferential trade status
• Policies to facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration are widespread, but far from universal

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

• Rapid urbanization and population growth are outpacing the construction of adequate and affordable housing
• Access to public transport is increasing, but faster progress is needed in developing regions
• Municipal waste is mounting, highlighting the growing need for investment in urban infrastructure
• In too many cities, air pollution has become an unavoidable health hazard
• Open public spaces make cities more inclusive, but many residents are not within easy walking distance of them

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

• Shrinking our material footprint is a global imperative
• The lifestyles of people in the richest nations are heavily dependent on resources extracted from poorer countries
• Improvements in the efficiency of resource use are not proceeding fast enough

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

• Unprecedented changes in all aspects of society will be required to avoid the worst effects of climate change
• Countries are developing disaster risk reduction strategies in the face of growing climate threats
• Climate-related financial flows have increased, but are small in relation to the scale of the problem and still overshadowed by investments in fossil fuels
• More countries are making plans to boost their resilience and capacity to adapt to climate change

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, sea and marine resources for sustainable development

• Land-based pollutants and marine debris threaten coastal habitats, but improvements in water quality are achievable
• Increasing acidification is threatening marine life and hampering the ocean’s role in moderating climate change
• The extent of marine protected areas has doubled since 2010, but more must be done to safeguard key biodiversity areas
• The decline in fish stocks appears to have stabilized; now they need to be rebuilt, especially in severely depleted regions
• States have taken important steps to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
• Most countries have frameworks to address the needs of small-scale fisheries; the next critical stage is their implementation

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

• Accelerating levels of biodiversity loss demand an emergency response
• Land degradation is affecting one fifth of the Earth’s land area and the lives of one billion people
• Mountain ecosystems provide essential environmental services, but their health varies widely among regions
• Forest area is still declining, but at a slower rate
• International agreements are forging innovative approaches to biodiversity conservation

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

• Young men are at higher risk of murder overall, while most victims of intimate partner homicide are women
• The majority of trafficking victims are taken for sexual exploitation and forced labor
• Birth registration is a human right, yet less than three quarters of children under 5 years of age worldwide are registered
• Murder rates among human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists are rising
• More countries are establishing legal and institutional frameworks for the defense of human rights, but the pace of progress is slow

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

• Despite pledges to boost development financing, aid levels are falling
• Effective mobilization of domestic resources, including through taxation, is critical
• Personal remittances from migrant workers abroad are becoming the largest source of external financing in developing countries
• Trade tensions among the world’s largest economies are reverberating, affecting producers and consumers worldwide
• More than half the world’s population is online; attention must now be directed to the other half
• Financial support for statistics has increased, but is still not sufficient to meet demand

Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019, United Nations