The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2018

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2018 provides an overview of progress towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and is prepared by the Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs in cooperation with the United Nations system and based on current available data and information. This third edition of the annual report contains an in-depth review of the six Goals related to the 2018 theme of the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF): Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies as well as an overview with key findings for all 17 Goals of the SDGs.

The aim of this report is to present an overview of the 17 Goals using data currently available to highlight the most significant gaps and challenges.

Contains insights on current issues in research on sustainable development, featuring the SDG Index and Dashboards.

Disability-inclusive development is an essential condition for a sustainable future. In 2015, the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, pledging to leave no one behind in the global efforts to realize the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Without the world's one billion persons with disabilities - 15% of the world population - being included as both agents and beneficiaries of development, these Goals will never be achieved. Yet, persons with disabilities are still invisible and often left behind. This United Nations flagship report is the first publication to address, at the global level, the nexus between disability and the Sustainable Development Goals. It is also the first global analysis based on an unprecedented amount of data, legislation and policies from over 100 countries to understand the socio-economic circumstances of persons with disabilities and the challenges and barriers they face in their daily lives. This report examines new areas, like the role of access to energy to enable persons with disabilities to use assistive technology, for which no global research was previously available. And explores the linkages between the Sustainable Development Goals and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as well as other international relevant norms and standards relating to disability. Against the backdrop of all the available evidence, the report identifies good practices and recommends urgent actions to be taken for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by, for and with persons with disabilities. The e-book for this publication has been converted into an accessible format for the visually impaired and people with print reading disabilities. It is fully compatible with leading screen-reader technologies such as JAWS and NVDA.

This year marks the start of the Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. It is a critical period to advance a shared vision and accelerate responses to the world’s gravest challenges – from eliminating poverty and hunger to reversing climate change. Yet, in only a brief period of time, the precipitous spread of the novel coronavirus turned a public health emergency into one of the worst international crises of our lifetimes, changing the world as we know it. Now, due to COVID-19, an unprecedented health, economic and social crisis is threatening lives and livelihoods, making the achievement of Goals even more challenging. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020 presents an overview of progress towards the SDGs before the pandemic started, but it also looks at some of the devastating initial impacts of COVID-19 on specific Goals and targets. The report was prepared by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in collaboration with over 200 experts from more than 40 international agencies using the latest available data and estimates.

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2018 provides an overview of progress towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and is prepared by the Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs in cooperation with the United Nations system and based on current available data and information. This third edition of the annual report contains an in-depth review of the six Goals related to the 2018 theme of the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF): Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies as well as an overview with key findings for all 17 Goals of the SDGs.

The 2030 Agenda is a universal, collective responsibility that covers all levels: global, national and territorial. To address global policy challenges in a complex and interconnected world, policy coherence will be key. A more coherent multilateral system will be essential to reconcile and deliver the economic, social and environmental transformations needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2018 edition of Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development shows how integrated and coherent policies, supported by strong institutional mechanisms, can contribute to the “Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies” – the theme of the 2018 United Nations High-level Political Forum (HLPF). The report applies the institutional, analytical and monitoring elements of the “policy coherence for sustainable development” framework to identify challenges and opportunities facing governments as they move to implement the SDGs, both at the national level and collectively at the global level. The report suggests eight building blocks for enhancing policy coherence for sustainable development (SDG Target 17.14), and identifies emerging good institutional practices drawing on recent OECD work, country surveys and voluntary national reviews. It includes 19 country profiles and sets out options for tracking progress on policy coherence for sustainable development at the national level.