SDGs Progress Alarmingly Off Track, Despite Strong Commitment

Vast pools of world savings must flow in much larger amounts to where they are most needed—to the most vulnerable and poorest people within all countries.

Finland now ranks first in global Sustainable Development Goals progress. Barbados is ahead globally in its commitment to UN multilateralism, or cooperation among multiple nations.

Only 17 percent of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets are on track for 2030, according to the Sustainable Development Report 2025 (SDR) released today by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).

Ten years since the adoption of the SDGs, progress remains alarmingly off track. The five targets showing significant reversal in progress since 2015 include obesity rate (SDG 2), press freedom (SDG 16), sustainable nitrogen management (SDG 2), the red list index (SDG 15), which shows continuing deterioration in terms of species extinction risk around the world, and the corruption perception index (SDG 16).

Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, President of the SDSN and a lead author of the report, emphasized that “amid rising geopolitical tensions, widening global inequalities, and the escalating climate crisis, this year’s SDR underscores that the world overwhelmingly recognizes the Sustainable Development Goals as the vital pathway to peace, equity, and well-being.”

Sachs, a world-renowned economist, said that while many countries are making significant progress, “much more can be accomplished through stepped-up investments in education, green technologies, and digital solutions. Above all, we need peace and global cooperation to achieve the SDGs.”

The five targets most on track are mobile use (SDG 9), access to electricity (SDG 7), internet use (SDG 9), under-5 mortality rate (SDG 3), and neonatal mortality (SDG 3). Nevertheless, the report finds that global commitment to SDGs remains strong.

Guillaume Lafortune, Vice President of the SDSN and a lead author of the report, told IPS that this commitment is demonstrated in more ways than one: “Ten years after their adoption, 190 countries presented their action plan for sustainable development via Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs).”

“Several non-UN member states, such as the European Union and Palestine, also presented VNRs. Only three countries did not take part in this exercise: Haiti, Myanmar, and the United States of America. This year, an additional 39 countries lined up last October to present their VNRs and 37 countries are now effectively expected to do so by July.”

He further stated that states, provinces, and municipalities within countries increasingly take part in Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) to present their priorities for action on sustainable development and results. As of May 2025, there were almost 250 VLR reports available on the dedicated UN portal.

Lafortune said more specifically, as documented for many years by the SDSN, many countries now have national coordination units and monitoring systems for the SDGs. Some countries, such as the Republic of Benin and Uzbekistan (among others), have also used the SDGs to scale up their access to long-term and affordable capital to invest in the SDGs via so-called SDG bond frameworks.

“The SDSN is working with a growing number of countries and entities to define long-term investment and policy frameworks for the SDGs, notably to achieve sustainable land use and energy systems. Business and supply chains’ regulations are moving in many parts of the world toward stricter requirements to advance the triple bottom line of sustainable development: social and economic prosperity and environmental sustainability,” he observed.

Overall, the report includes the SDG index and dashboards, ranking all UN Member States annually on their progress across the 17 SDGs. New this year is the SDG Index, which uses 17 headline indicators to assess overall SDG progress since 2015, and a new web platform to track countries’ support for and engagement with the UN system.

The report is especially timely, as this year marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the SDGs, the 80th anniversary of the UN, and the upcoming UN 4th International Conference on Financing for Development will take place later this month. Importantly, the report outlines key global finance reforms that should be taken by countries to improve sustainable development.

Lafortune says the number one obstacle to SDG progress is “increasing conflicts around the world. In addition to their significant humanitarian and environmental impacts, they also distract attention and resources away from sustainable development. Also, for many developing countries, the lack of fiscal space is the major obstacle to SDG progress. Roughly half the world’s population lives in countries that cannot invest adequately in sustainable development due to debt burdens and a lack of access to affordable, long-term capital. Global public goods are vastly underfinanced.”

He emphasized that the “UN member states gathering at the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville, Spain (June 30 – July 3, 2025), have an enormous responsibility, not only to their own citizens but to all of humanity.”

Overall, rich countries outperform other country groupings on overall SDG performance and life satisfaction, but they have also outsourced numerous negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts abroad. European countries continue to top the Index as the top-performing countries are Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and France, respectively.

The fastest progress recorded since 2015 is in East and South Asian countries, with Nepal, Cambodia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Mongolia showing the most SDG improvement. On commitment to multilateralism, Barbados leads again in UN-based multilateralism commitment, while the United States ranks last for the second year in a row.

At the same time, the regional and income-group aggregates hide significant disparities in SDG progress across countries. Globally, Benin, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini, and Uzbekistan have progressed the fastest on the SDG Index since 2015. By contrast, Afghanistan, Algeria, the Syrian Arab Republic, Venezuela, and Yemen have stagnated or experienced reversals in progress.

Compared with their regional peers, Benin, Nepal, Peru, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan have shown the fastest progression. Costa Rica has progressed the fastest among OECD countries, whereas Saudi Arabia has progressed the fastest of the G20 countries. Asked what it will take to get progress on SDGs back on track and fast, Lafortune said peace, diplomacy, and full commitment to the UN Charter underpin the achievement of all the SDGs.

He further stressed that the most important “practical problem facing UN members at FfD4 is how to enable the vast USD 30 trillion pool of world savings to flow in much larger amounts to where they are most in need: to low-income and lower-middle-income countries and those most vulnerable to global environmental shocks, and to the poorest people within all countries.”

The report also calls on governments and policymakers to collaborate with scholars and civil society to establish legal, regulatory, and ethical frameworks to direct innovations and the benefits of cutting-edge technologies, including AI, towards the common good.