The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021.

According to the 6th Edition of ‘Sustainable Development Report 2021 (SDR 2021)’ released by Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), Sri Lanka with a score of 68.1 has been placed at 87th rank out of 165 countries. 

Finland topped the Index followed by Sweden & Denmark.

For the 1st time since 2015, all countries have shown a reversal in progress in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. SDR 2021 has been written by a group of authors led by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, President of the SDSN and has been published by Cambridge University Press.

SDR Report

SDR is an annual report which ranks the 193 UN member countries based on their performance against the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Those SDGS are;

• 1. NO POVERTY
• 2. ZERO HUNGER
• 3. GOOD HEALTH & WELL-BEING
• 4. QUALITY EDUCATION
• 5. GENDER EQUALITY
• 6. CLEAN WATER & SANITATION
• 7. AFFORDABLE & CLEAN ENERGY
• 8. DECENT WORK & ECONOMIC GROWTH
• 9. INDUSTRY, INNOVATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
• 10. REDUCED INEQUALITIES
• 11. SUSTAINABLE CITIES & COMMUNITIES
• 12. RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION & PRODUCTION
• 13. CLIMATE ACTION
• 14. LIFE BELOW WATER
• 15. LIFE ON LAND
• 16. PEACE, JUSTICE & STRONG INSTITUTIONS
• 17. PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS

It has been released since 2015 and is based on official data sources (UN, World Bank, etc.) and non-official data sources (research institutions and non-governmental organizations).

Among the report’s key findings are the following:

• SDG 1: The global poverty rate is projected to be 7% in 2030, which would mean the target on eradicating poverty will be missed; 

• SDG 2: On child malnutrition, 22% of children under 5 are stunted, 6.7% suffer from wasting, and 5.7% are overweight;

• SDG 3: The pandemic has halted or reversed progress in health and shortened life expectancy;

• SDG 4: 9% of children in grades 1-8 fell below minimum reading proficiency levels in 2020; 

• SDG 5: On women’s equal participation in decision making, only 25.6% of national parliamentarians are women, 36.3% of local government representatives are women, and 28.2% of managerial positions are occupied by women;

• SDG 6: 2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water and 3.6 billion people lack safely managed sanitation;

• SDG 7: 2.6 billion people use dangerous and inefficient cooking systems;

• SDG 8: The pandemic led to the loss of the equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs;

• SDG 9: The manufacture of medium- and high-tech products fueled the economic recovery in late 2020;

• SDG 10: In 2020, for every 100,000 persons, 311 are refugees;

• SDG 11: Only half of the world’s urban population has convenient access to public transport (defined as residing within 500 M walking distance of a bus stop/low-capacity transport system and 1000 M of a railway or ferry terminal;

• SDG 12: The global “material footprint” increased by 70% between 2000 and 2017;

• SDG 13: In 202, the global average temperature was at 1.2o C above the pre-industrial baseline;

• SDG 14: Dead zones (areas of water that lack sufficient oxygen to support marine life) have risen from 400 in 2008 to 700 in 2019;

• SDG 15: The world has lost 100 million hectares of forest between 2000-2020); 

• SDG 16: Child labor rose to 160 million in 2020, which represents the first increase in two decades; and

• SDG 17: Nearly half of global population (3.7 billion people) are still not online. 

Source: https://unstats.un.org

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